Gaming

SOMA studio's ARG to tease new game is underway


There is currently a very spooky pulsating object on Frictional Games’ website – and judging by the page name, I think it’s safe to say this is about a new game. But what is that thing? An eyeball, frogspawn? Who knows.

The studio, known for its utterly terrifying horror games Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA, apparently began the ARG at the end of December – and fans are in the midst of unravelling the mystery.

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For those unfamiliar, ARG means alternate reality game, normally taking the form of a treasure hunt across the internet to hop between clues and solve a puzzle. Transmedia storytelling, if you want to be fancy – and one famous example includes the I Love Bees ARG used to market Halo 2.

The main discussion seems to be taking place on the Frictional Games Discord, and within that, someone’s created a Google doc to list all possible ideas. The main findings so far, as explained by Foxnull on ResetEra, are two YouTube videos – the first of which was found by hovering over an eyeball hieroglyph on the website. Fans have so far spotted some weird symbols on a rock, theories for which currently range from mitosis to alien symbols. The video’s description, meanwhile, says the video is from Shetpe in Kazakhstan, suggesting the game could take place during the time of the KSSR (1936-91). A possible location, perhaps?

The second YouTube video, meanwhile, was found via the website’s code – and leads to a black-screen video with some nasty screams. ARG-ers are currently focusing on the “triple crown” hint in the description, which some believe could be linked to the Egyption Triple Atef or “Hemhem” crown. That would link in nicely with the Egyptian-style eye on the website, but it’s still anyone’s guess.

This isn’t the first time Frictional Games has used an ARG to tease a new game: one was used to market SOMA, the reward for which was a 12-minute gameplay trailer. This one’s a little different, as we don’t yet know the new game’s title – which could make the reward even sweeter. Or more horrifying, perhaps.





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