Sunless Sea and Masks of the Rose developer Failbetter Video games has unveiled Mandrake, its very first mission away from the Fallen London universe. It is a rural life sim set in a “world of previous, wild powers” the place horticulture is forbidden, and it will finally be making its method to PC.
Taking inspiration from British historical past and folklore, Mandrake casts gamers because the final in a line of horticultural sorcerers – one who lastly returns to their household’s deserted residence within the ‘small, sophisticated’ village of Chandley after a very long time away.
Initially at the least, Mandrake seems like fairly acquainted stuff. You will are likely to your backyard, fish, forage, prepare dinner, and craft furnishings to brighten your house; you may enterprise into the woods, to the seaside, to the mine searching for minerals, and into the neighborhood to befriend the locals, studying their tales and turning into intertwined with their lives.
However Failbetter’s announcement hints at one thing a bit of darker and extra mysterious round Mandrake’s periphery, and it is right here the studio’s knack for the peculiar begins to peek by. Quickly, as an example, you may be buying and selling turnips and runner beans for stranger, extra intriguing seeds; you may befriend a river, snoop on the useless, drink with a god who lives in your chimney, and spend a haunted night time on the Butcher’s Oak.
The eccentric locals, in the meantime, embody a hunter who makes pacts with the woods, and a lady saved from the ocean, who nonetheless hears voices calling to her from beneath the waves. Chandley is residence to spirits and different unfamiliar beings too, together with the long-armed Granny Jakes who lives in a hidden orchard, and Hroame, “typically stone and typically not”. However not all the things is pleasant. “Do not exit after darkish,” Failbetter warns, “the night time is just not for you.”
Mandrake would not have a launch date but, however Failbetter says that as a result of its complexity and “some very uncommon options” it’s going to be in search of participant suggestions as the sport continues its journey towards launch. To that finish, it expects to run numerous playtests previous to Mandrake’s launch, so curious types ought to contemplating wishlisting it on Steam.
