Survival-horror title Follia: Dear Father will be released this Fall, an announcement trailer promising a terrifying journey through a blood-soaked, creature-riddled institution. Between the trailer and newly-released details, we can get a sense of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqiRf1TK9PQ&feature=youtu.be
Follia is the Italian word for madness - the eerie, gory trailer certainly creating that vibe. As a voiceover explains, protagonist Marcus is searching for his parents, who worked at what used to be a university, and is now a slaughterhouse.
An immersive horror experience is promised, an abundance of darkness in the trailer suggesting that the unseen will comprise much of the game’s challenge and scares. Follia: Dear Father emphasizes stealth, bringing to mind horror titles such as Outlast and Alien: Isolation, wherein the player’s best chance of survival is to remain undetected.
Reportedly, each creature the player encounters will be different, requiring different tactics - tentacled abominations, grotesque, blood-soaked women crawling on all-fours, and more can be seen in the trailer. Exploration is also a key focus, with items, resources, and collectibles to find. The maze-like university is filled with enemies and dead-ends, requiring the player to backtrack and find alternate paths.
A mysterious narrative is also at play. Each creature has its own reason for its bloodlust, the nature of the university and the reason for its infestation remain mysterious. Between this, the evocative subtitle Dear Father, and the black-and-white medical footage spliced into the trailer, there is clearly a dark secret at the heart of the game.
Italian-based developer Real Game Machine was founded in 2015 to develop Follia: Dear Father by the young team after the game was approved on Steam Greenlight. Publisher Destructive Creations, an emerging European indie publisher as well as a developer, are currently publishing two games from indie Italian developer's - Follia and Daymare: 1998. Destructive Creations are best known for their controversial title, Hatred. Putting players in control of a genocidal mass-shooter, the game was criticized pre-release for its depiction of violence, and post-release for its monotonous gameplay. On Steam, however, Hatred has earned ‘mostly positive’ reviews.
Destructive Creation’s most recent title, Ancestors: Legacy, is a solid RTS devoid of controversy - though Follia certainly contains a degree of the darkness of the studio’s earlier titles, there is no reason to assume it will court controversy as Hatred did.
Follia: Dear Father will be coming to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Fall, along with a VR version, playable on HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.
Are you interested in Follia: Dear Father? Will you be picking up this title in Fall? Let us know in the comments below!
