Uncanny Valley is an unsettling, story-driven survival horror game containing a unique consequence mechanic. You’ll have to play through it multiple times to reveal all of its darkest secrets when it launches February 7 on PS4 and PS Vita, with cross buy support and a 15% PS Plus discount!

Play Video

Now to go into a little more detail about Uncanny Valley. We’ve always loved open sandbox games with a lot of possibilities. Playing only one way can be a chore though, so we want to present choices not only in the story but also the gameplay.

To that end we decided to invest time into making the game feel more natural. Let’s say you’re locked in a room. You see a sturdy cart there, which you can push and break down the door with. There’s also a vent, so you can climb through it and you’re free. Maybe you found an axe earlier and you can destroy the doors, meaning you don’t have to find a key. This was our first concern –making the game logical.

As much as we love Silent Hill games, we don’t want to create key hunting fetch quests if you can simply destroy the door. For the most part there still needs to be some sort of logical progression through the game. That’s our advantage over 3D games — we can make things like that happen more easily.

What you do also has an impact on the story. Let’s go back to the previously mentioned situation where you break down the doors with a cart. When you do that, it’s going to be loud and that might attract hostile attention. If you go through a vent they might also hear you, or it could be a trap — you don’t want to be in a tight space with no escape when they find you.

So the gameplay creates dilemmas. When we back that with the consequence system, you will actually have to think things through before you do something you’ll regret. There will be only one save game file per playthrough, meaning you can’t go back and change what happened to your character to achieve the best result.

As for the consequence system, we are keeping it balanced. There will never be a situation where you will be too damaged to escape or progress through the story — you won’t be put in a wheelchair for the rest of the game! It’s a thin line between creating something that will be punishing and still fun, but through testing we will manage to find that perfect middle. And, as we offer a lot of options through playing, you will still be able to advance. Some consequences might affect the world, side characters, and how the story progresses, so it’s not always your personal health on the line.

Now you know our goal. Create an atmospheric, scary horror game with logical progression and consequences that shape your character — and the world. We want to keep the gameplay fresh and interesting throughout the experience and tell an atypical story for a horror title. Combining all that, we aim to create a great game: Uncanny Valley.