Kordgorn’s Phantaruk has basically everything a survival horror needs to be successful. A loose storyline just to help the player feel the connection with the protagonist, a terrifying creature whose only goal is to devour anything that lives, and an apocalyptic scenario where screaming will only get you killed. There’s a demo available, and even though many things can definitely be improved it’s nice to see how the developers are trying to differentiate it from the mass.



You play as a test subject infected with a deadly virus, but after the horrible failure of an experiment, you learn upon awakening that you’ve been left behind in the crumbling spaceship “Colonial-02”. The illness makes your heart rate raise exponentially if you don’t keep it under control, so on top of finding a way to escape, you’re also required to take the antidote every once in a while. Your skill at resource-management will be greatly challenged because of that, in fact, said antidote together with the batteries for your flashlight and other helpful medications are limited and scattered around the entire ship.

A series of text-logs can be found too, and those are used to solve puzzles (often regarding the password to open a door) as well as retrieving general directions to navigate efficiently the dark corridors.

In regards to Phantaruk’s monster, though, it’s a bit unclear from where did it come. Every survival horror needs its vicious creature to be effective, that’s quite certain, and although its origin is unknown its implementation in the demo is already pretty scary. Perhaps the model is a placeholder, I sure hope it is. However, when you consider its heavy steps echoing through the metal tunnels alongside the terrifying moaning it emits, you realize that its appearance doesn’t really matter in the end.

The demo shows just a little portion of what Phantaruk has in store, but if you think you might like it you can download the Windows installer from IndieDB or through this other mirror. The final release should come out for Linux too in case you’re into that. Moreover, a Greenlight campaign is also welcoming any positive votes you’re willing to cast.