Rob Peall, Game Director, Domino Effect, said of the above video:
“The Interrogation video has been a real labour of love for Domino Effect and we feel that it perfectly captures the anarchic spirit of the game as well as a bloody nod to our slasher horror movie inspirations. So far the development of Red Awakening has been entirely self-funded, but we’re now turning to Kickstarter for the necessary support to help us complete the final stages of development.”
Red Awakening is being built using Unreal Engine 4, and it will be using a dark neon cell-shaded graphical style, coupled with an “unnerving ‘Carpenter-esque’ synth soundtrack” by composer Ryan Ike, who did the music for Gunpoint.
Central to Red Awakening’s gameplay will be stealth and utilizing the environment effectively to get the drop on your opponents. Run and gun will likely get you killed, and Domino Effect has even stated that melee will be utilized far more than firearms. This is reflected by the fact that they intend to have more melee weapons than guns, as well as limited ammo pickups for “resource-derived” tension. It is for this same reason that Domino Effect made the choice to do away with a reload button, and instead, replace it with an “ammo check” which allows the player to hold up their weapon and pull back the chamber. This will be the only way players can see how many bullets they have left as there will be no HUD.
To emphasize that stealth and agile movement are important, Domino Effect have made parkour king, allowing players to wall run, mount ledges, slide to cover, and wall hang. If you are detected by an enemy, the colors of your screen will turn pink and tense music will play. If you are under attack, the screen will turn red to illustrate combat. Blue is the default/undetected color.
Each player has three lives, and teams will be five versus five as they explore a story campaign. My guess is that the narrative will be affected by who wins each match. There won’t be regenerating health, but players can use syringes to give temporary boosts to their character. Too much chems, however, will have serious drawbacks, including psychosis. When players begin a round, they will start with a knife only. Searching the map, they can find other weapons to use, and these will be color-coded by their specific category. Pink is primary, blue is secondary, white is stealthiest, purple is explosives, and green is chemical. Every weapon in the game will be throwable, and every weapon will also have a specific melee attack. For instance, with the Serpent revolver, a blade is attached to the barrel allowing you to slash. In addition it appears that some guns will have a laser sight, though I assume a player would be able to turn it on or off as it could potentially give away your position.
So far only one map has been revealed, and that is the Asylum map. In the second showcase video, Domino Effect had made some progress in developing the map further, showing the cell block area and its potential for being a central fighting point given its number of hiding spots.
Red Awakening is a horror stealth FPS inspired by 80s slasher films and early FPS games that has already been greenlit on Steam. At Insomnia52, Domino Effect stated their tentative release date for an Alpha or Beta build will be October of this year. Be sure to check back for more news on this surreal title, and also take a look at our previous coverage!
