ONTOS is the sort of sport you don’t cease occupied with, even after you’ve turned it off. And never simply as a result of it gives you the horrifying actuality of the query: “What if a person’s consciousness was saved in a server rack made from rats?”
I’ve performed its first demo – proven to press and creators at gamescom 2026 – a number of instances already. The sport itself is centered on Aditi, drawn to a seemingly deserted moon resort-turned-science lab, Samsara by her estranged father. This demo is constructed round a single puzzle – get a key from one of many base’s scientists, Crombie. Sounds easy sufficient…
The issue is that Crombie’s copied his thoughts into the aforementioned rat contraption and change into incapacitated. The secret’s hung round his neck, trapped beneath a large number of probes and wires inserted immediately into his mind. I’ve replayed that single situation a number of instances as a result of it’s not a lot about discovering the ‘appropriate’ resolution as it’s discovering which resolution you wish to strive.
Like Frictional Video games’ religious predecessor, SOMA, this sport turns philosophical inquiry into bizarre science. Its characters are asking the massive questions (‘What’s the self? Are physique and thoughts essentially linked? What occurs after I plug myself into The Rat-puter?’) and making an attempt to reply them in more and more grotesque methods.
However not like SOMA, this isn’t constructed into the material of a conventional horror sport. So far as I’ve seen, there aren’t any stalking threats, no stealth – as a substitute it is a sport all in regards to the puzzles you’re introduced with, and the exploration in between. It virtually skews nearer to parts of immersive sims than it does a survival-horror, not least in the way it permits you to work out not simply what you’re being requested to do, however the way you wish to do it.
Within the case of Crombie, I’ve labored out the right way to flip off the server (R.I.P. rats) and produce his corporeal kind again from the brink. I’ve additionally labored out the right way to take the copied consciousness and successfully overwrite Crombie’s unique thoughts with its copy. And – only for science you perceive – I’ve reduce the server with out doing both of these issues and by accident killed them each, letting me simply slip the important thing from round his neck. That final one leaves me to marvel – can I successfully play ONTOS because the horror sport villain?
The sport lets me take any of those paths, with little or no overt course, and reacts to it seamlessly. I’m left to agonize over whether or not I’ve made the “proper” alternative – and it will likely be fascinating to see how different characters on this world will react when confronted with them.
There’s extra past the puzzle setpieces themselves; I’m additionally discovering issues in between all of those makes an attempt. As I journey to the rat server, there’s much more to search out – scattered terminals and audio logs give me a way of the broader story, and clue me into precisely what’s taking place within the experiment. I’ve discovered locked cupboards containing additional clues, and even a check rat-server that helped me discover how the machine’s varied probes and equipment labored, giving me perception into the full-scale puzzle later.
There’s additionally a specific amount of useful resource administration right here – you want a blowtorch to chop server wires, however it’s restricted by the variety of oxygen canisters you will discover. In a single run, I out of the blue realised that I’d gotten to the primary puzzle understanding how to get to the answer I wished, however with out the ammunition to truly do it, forcing me to improvise. It’s a neat technique to encourage you to look off the crushed path, and perceive the world across the puzzles.
Samsara is a marvellously tactile place – doorways should be manually unlatched and heaved open, supplying you with simply sufficient time to fret what you’re going to see on the opposite aspect. Drawers are bodily pulled open, and virtually each merchandise might be picked up and inspected, permitting you to make an actual mess as you heave and throw away potential clues when you ransack rooms. All of it provides to the vibe that something may very well be a clue to a later puzzle – you’re compelled to grasp the place simply in case it leads you to new theories.
It additionally signifies that, regardless of having performed the identical sequence a number of instances, I’m constructive there’s extra to be found right here. There might be clues I haven’t seen, and there are undoubtedly options I haven’t intuited. Even throughout the options I’ve discovered, there are nuances in the way you clear up them, variations that may unlock totally different voice traces or reactions.
The rationale I can’t cease occupied with ONTOS isn’t actually due to the horrors and wonders it presents – it’s as a result of I can’t cease my mind ticking over about how I might have engaged with them in a different way. There appear to be so some ways to resolve a single puzzle. When unfold out over the course of a whole sport, that’s a massively intriguing prospect.
ONTOS arrives in 2027 for XBOX Collection X|S and XBOX on PC. Play it on each console and PC at no extra price with XBOX Play Anyplace.
ONTOS
Kepler Interactive
STORY
From the creators of SOMA comes ONTOS, a sci-fi journey that takes you to the sting of actuality. You’re Aditi Amani, invited to the repurposed moon resort Samsara by the cryptic legacy of your estranged father, a superb mind-turned-prophet. What begins as a seek for solutions rapidly spirals into one thing far stranger. Samsara isn’t any strange outpost, however a spot the place actuality fractures, the place truths are buried beneath layers of deception and obscurity. As you delve deeper, guided by fragments of your father’s previous, you should confront disturbing revelations in regards to the nature of existence – and your house in it.
EXPERIMENTS
ONTOS presents a gauntlet of chilling experiments and disturbing encounters that push the boundaries of each science and morality. Every check invitations you to peel again one other layer of a world that takes you one step nearer to the final word reality. Confront existential questions that can make you query the character of the soul, struggling, and the very material of actuality itself. These trials usually are not simply puzzles—they’re provocations. Your decisions echo ahead, and also you should be ready to face the results. Foresight is paramount, however even what you choose to be one of the best ethical actions can result in devastating outcomes.
GAMEPLAY
At its core, ONTOS is an immersive narrative with a tactile, systems-driven gameplay expertise. Ingenuity and analysis are your best weapons. You’ll scavenge supplies, manipulate intricate equipment, and interact with analog methods requiring cautious calibration and hands-on interplay. Planning is vital, select correctly or undergo the results. There’s no ‘one resolution’; as a substitute, the objective is what you may make of a scenario.
EXPLORATION
The moon base Samsara is an enormous, interconnected labyrinth constructed atop the ruins of a failed mining colony and an opulent resort misplaced to time. Now, it’s a website carved up by philosophical factions, the place science bleeds into religion. Enterprise by means of repurposed areas the place the surreal turns into fascinating; labs in-built lavish casinos and dramatic theatre levels; experiments arrange in emptied swimming pools; unusual machines in-built historic moon caves, and way more. Each nook of Samsara tells a narrative, and each story has one thing hiding beneath the floor, ready to be discovered…
