The air crackles with anticipation. A new challenger has emerged from the shadows, promising to drag us into a world of unholy alliances, desperate battles, and untold power. Get ready, adventurers, because Dark Atlas: Infernum is poised to redefine the dark fantasy RPG genre.
From the moment the first whispers of Infernum reached our ears, we knew this wasn’t just another dungeon crawler. The developers have teased a narrative steeped in grim lore, where the lines between hero and monster blur, and every decision carries the weight of damnation. Forget your pristine, high-fantasy landscapes; Infernum promises a world scarred by ancient evils, a desolate realm where survival is a daily struggle and hope is a forgotten luxury.
What truly sets Infernum apart, even in its early stages, is its commitment to atmosphere. The art direction is a masterclass in gothic horror, with environments that drip with despair and character designs that are both terrifying and mesmerizing. Imagine traversing a forgotten cathedral, its stained glass shattered, revealing glimpses of a perpetually burning sky. Or perhaps navigating a labyrinthine crypt, where the very stones seem to whisper forgotten horrors. This isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a character in itself, actively working to immerse you in its chilling embrace.
Dark Atlas: Infernum – https://nightcouncilstudio.com/
The line between reality and dream is often thin, but few games manage to blur it quite like Dreamcore. Developed by Montraluz, this “body-cam styled psychological exploration game” is less about traditional horror and more about the profound, unsettling discomfort of being lost in a world designed to make you lose your mind.
If you’re a fan of the liminal space aesthetic, the Backrooms lore, or just the creeping dread of abandoned places, you need to step into the bizarre, beautiful labyrinth that is Dreamcore.
A Walk on the Uncanny Side
Dreamcore is not your typical game. It’s best described as a walking simulator with a focus on psychological exploration and environmental puzzle-solving. Forget jump scares and monster closets—the real terror here is the atmosphere and the sheer scale of the non-linear environments.
The game plunges you into massive, intricate maps known as “liminal worlds,” each a standalone experience:
Dreampools: An endless, sterile indoor swimming complex. Tiled walls, clear pools, and artificial light stretch into baffling, repeating hallways. Your goal is to find your way out, a task that becomes an exercise in observation and patience.
Eternal Suburbia: An infinite, repeating neighbourhood of identical, pastel-colored houses. It’s a peaceful, yet unsettling, American idyll where time flows in cycles, but the only sound is your own footsteps and the faint hum of vintage jazz.
Playrooms: (Added via expansion) A silent, artificial maze of padded rooms, ball pits, and oversized blocks, like a child’s play area stripped of all joy or presence.
The aesthetic is heavily inspired by VHS “Found Footage,” giving everything a grainy, dreamlike quality that only deepens the sense of unease.
Intuition Over Instruction
One of the most defining and divisive features of Dreamcore is its commitment to the experience. There are no guides, no maps, and no waypoints. The key to progression is entirely reliant on your intuition and keen observation.
The “puzzles” aren’t traditional riddles; they’re about recognising subtle changes in the environment, following faint audio cues, or simply finding the single, seemingly illogical path that breaks the loop. This can lead to hours of aimless wandering, which for some is the point—it perfectly replicates the feeling of a confusing, inescapable dream. For others, this lack of direction can quickly turn tantalising exploration into frustrating tedium.
The Beauty of the Backrooms
What makes Dreamcore a standout in the increasingly popular liminal space genre is its phenomenal presentation. Built in Unreal Engine 5, the visual fidelity is staggering, especially the ray-traced reflections on the water in Dreampools. The developers have managed to take these sterile, empty spaces and make them feel both photorealistic and deeply surreal. The masterful sound design, from the echo of your steps on tile to the unsettling silence in the suburb, is the final touch that keeps you constantly on edge.
Ultimately, Dreamcore is more of an interactive art piece and psychological experiment than a conventional video game. If you’re looking for a challenging survival horror game, this might not be it. But if you crave a uniquely unsettling, atmospheric experience that taps into the primal fear of being lost in the mundane, Dreamcore offers a profound and memorable descent into the architectural uncanny.
Have you already braved the Dreampools or Eternal Suburbia? Share your most unsettling moment from Dreamcore in the comments below!
Anyone who is looking for a bit of a scare might want to check out the Prop Haunt game, where players take on the role of an investigator looking into a series of hauntings. Naturally, there will be ghosts to look for and you will have all of the tools that you need to help in this quest. Prop Haunt is now available via Steam Early Access.
To find out more about Prop Haunt, go to the developer’s website here https://silentforestgames.net or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/slphe
It is just like a scene from a Hollywood movie, you are looking for a long lost friend within a classic Hollywood mansion, but this is not a movie, it is Dead Take the game. This is a game that is dark, psychological and a horror to say the very least. It is basically an escape room-style game that pushes the players to the limit. Dead Take is available now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
To find out more about Dead Take, go to the official game website here https://www.surgentstudios.com/ or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/PiUPu
Who would have thought that a game about a strange and macabre circus would be so good that it needed a sequel to finish it off? Well, this is the Vlad Circus and the second part of the game is called Curse of Asmodeus. In this game, players are faced with parallel timelines and the twisted mind of the demon Asmodeus. It’s not all doom and gloom, there is a bit of fun to be had along the way, too. Vlad Circus: Curse of Asmodeus will be released on PC and consoles on the 25th of August.
To find out more about Vlad Circus: Curse of Asmodeus, go to the official website here https://www.blowfishstudios.com/vlad-circus-coa or the games page on Steam https://shorturl.at/dyeen
If you are looking for a brilliant psychological horror game, then Dreamcore could just be the game that you are looking for and now it is getting a new Playroom expansion just to add to the creepy feel of this game, falling asleep may never be the same again. The Playrooms expansion will be coming to Dreamcore on the 17th of June.
To find out more about the Dreamcore game, go to the official game website here https://tlon.vg/ or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/U7dad
Coming next month is the BrokenLore: Don’t Watch game which is an immersive psychological horror game that will come with two different endings which is going to mix things up a bit. The game explores the mind of someone who is facing some serious issues as the mind begins to play tricks to the point that the player will need to face their demons and confronts a malevolent entity, which all adds to the games horror value. The BrokenLore: Don’t Watch game will be launching on PC via Steam on the 25th of April.
To find out more about the BrokenLore: Don’t Watch game go to the official game website here https://shorturl.at/XHZHo or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/nkJaZ
With a name like Total Chaos you might think that this is one of those games that totally frustrates players, but no, this is one of those games that will totally creep players out. You survive a shipwreck, being adrift in a raft and end on dry land, only to find that you are in an abandoned mining community or at least you thought it was abandoned. Now you are in a battle for survival against the odds and some dangerous mutant-like creatures. Total Chaos will be launching on PC via Steam on the 24th of July.
To find out more about the Total Chaos game go to the official game website here http://www.totalchaosgame.com/ or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/rWm4K
This is the next instalment of the Brokenlore psychological horror series, BrokenLore: Don’t Watch is one of those games that will really push your fears to the limit and probably beyond. Players take on the role of somebody who has cut themselves off from the world due to mounting debts and bills the only outlet is video games and so the PC becomes the only link to the outside. There is a BrokenLore: Don’t Watch demo available on Steam and the game will be released in March.
To find out more about the BrokenLore: Don’t Watch game go to the official game website here https://shorturl.at/teYSb or go to the games page on Steam here https://shorturl.at/oET8c
