ONTOS is the form of recreation you don’t cease eager about, even after you’ve turned it off. And never simply as a result of it presents you the horrifying actuality of the query: “What if a person’s consciousness was saved in a server rack fabricated from rats?”
I’ve performed its first demo – proven to press and creators at gamescom 2026 – a number of occasions 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 develop into incapacitated. The secret is hung round his neck, trapped beneath a large number of probes and wires inserted immediately into his mind. I’ve replayed that single state of affairs a number of occasions as a result of it’s not a lot about discovering the ‘appropriate’ resolution as it’s discovering which resolution you need to attempt.
Like Frictional Video games’ religious predecessor, SOMA, this recreation 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 once I plug myself into The Rat-puter?’) and making an attempt to reply them in more and more grotesque methods.
However in contrast to SOMA, this isn’t constructed into the material of a standard horror recreation. So far as I’ve seen, there are not any stalking threats, no stealth – as an alternative it is a recreation all in regards to the puzzles you’re offered with, and the exploration in between. It nearly skews nearer to parts of immersive sims than it does a survival-horror, not least in the way it enables you to work out not simply what you’re being requested to do, however the way you need to do it.
Within the case of Crombie, I’ve labored out the best 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 best way to take the copied consciousness and successfully overwrite Crombie’s authentic thoughts with its copy. And – simply for science you perceive – I’ve minimize 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 surprise – can I successfully play ONTOS because the horror recreation 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 take a look at 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 all of the sudden realised that I’d gotten to the principle puzzle realizing how to get to the answer I wished, however with out the ammunition to really do it, forcing me to improvise. It’s a neat technique to encourage you to look off the overwhelmed path, and perceive the world across the puzzles.
Samsara is a marvellously tactile place – doorways must be manually unlatched and heaved open, supplying you with simply sufficient time to fret what you’re going to see on the opposite facet. Drawers are bodily pulled open, and nearly each merchandise might be picked up and inspected, permitting you to make an actual mess as you heave and throw away potential clues whilst 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 occasions, 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 inside the options I’ve discovered, there are nuances in the way you remedy them, variations that may unlock totally different voice traces or reactions.
The explanation I can’t cease eager about 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 may 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 an complete recreation, 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 Wherever.
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 lodge Samsara by the cryptic legacy of your estranged father, a superb mind-turned-prophet. What begins as a search for solutions rapidly spirals into one thing far stranger. Samsara is not 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 will need to confront disturbing revelations in regards to the nature of existence – and your home in it.
EXPERIMENTS
ONTOS presents a gauntlet of chilling experiments and disturbing encounters that push the boundaries of each science and morality. Every take a look at invitations you to peel again one other layer of a world that takes you one step nearer to the final word fact. Confront existential questions that can make you query the character of the soul, struggling, and the very cloth of actuality itself. These trials are usually not simply puzzles—they’re provocations. Your selections echo ahead, and also you should be ready to face the results. Foresight is paramount, however even what you decide to be the very 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 an alternative, the aim is what you may make of a state of affairs.
EXPLORATION
The moon base Samsara is an unlimited, interconnected labyrinth constructed atop the ruins of a failed mining colony and an opulent lodge misplaced to time. Now, it’s a site carved up by philosophical factions, the place science bleeds into religion. Enterprise via repurposed areas the place the surreal turns into charming; labs inbuilt lavish casinos and dramatic theatre levels; experiments arrange in emptied swimming pools; unusual machines inbuilt historical moon caves, and rather more. Each nook of Samsara tells a narrative, and each story has one thing hiding beneath the floor, ready to be discovered…