Small town life looks like it’s about to get a dam sight scarier as developer Santa Ragione has confirmed it is working with The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild to publish horror a brand new horror, titled Saturnalia.
Due to arrive on PCs later in 2020, this more Mediterranean take on the genre comes from the minds of an Italian micro game design studio founded by Pietro Righi Riva and Nicolo Tedeschi. The latest title from the team takes a local look at the supernatural, plunging players into a survival horror where an ancient ritual hangs heavy over a small village. Carried out for generations, the rituals and this set of circumstances influence multiple playable characters as they try to uncover the mysteries surrounding the locals and their town. While this all sounds perfectly unsurprising for horror, you might want to watch your step, because once a character dies, they are dead for good.
Not Your Usual Horror
Mashing together this roguelike mechanic to more established horror trope is a team of writers with credits from the Half-Life franchise to The Walking Dead, and the despite a range of global influences, like Chris Remo (Firewatch and Half-life: Alyx), Nick Breckon (The Walking Dead), and Jake Elliot (Kentucky Route Zero), Santa Ragione still expect this to feel unlike Dead by Daylight or the recent remakes of Resident Evil. That might also be partly down to the very distinctive art style it uses when sketching the wider world.
With a procedural open world, a whole range of characters to play with,m and a permadeath survival system, Saturnalia doesn’t sound like a typical horror experience. It’s already picked up a PAX East award, no small feat in 2020, and should arrive on PC later this year. You can check out more by heading to the Epic Games store now to take a glimpse at the Saturnalia trailer we’ve placed at the top of this news post.
