Bad things happen when boats and primordial dark forces get together. It’s just science. The Titanic? After all, we can’t rule out that Cthulhu wasn’t involved. If further testing on this hypothesis is needed then look no further than the survival horror rogue-lite Dread Nautical, releasing tomorrow on PSN from the folks at Zen Studios. Yes, the pinball people. Even it admits that a game about horror on the high seas is a bit out of their comfort zone. In a post to the PlayStation Blog by Zen Studios Community Manager Jeno Lustyik, he says, “When I posted the first Dread Nautical trailer, one of the initial comments was, ‘that’s not pinball.’ And they couldn’t have been more on point there. Over the past few years, new teams have formed at Zen, focused on making games entirely different from pinball.”
Not pinball, indeed. Dread Nautical looks to be something else altogether.
Set on a cruise ship trapped in another reality, Dread Nautical looks to combine aspects of other indie darlings like Darkest Dungeon and The Banner Saga to create a rogue-like, turn-based tactics experience. Taking control of four characters with their own suite of abilities and foibles, players will investigate the confines of this evil boat and combat the evil force known as The Dread. Each of the characters is fully voiced with their own unique abilities meant to help fight the enthralled inhabitants of the ship.
Dread Nautical looks to play in the dichotomy of cute, cartoon aesthetic and subliminal horror in ways that is definitely My Kind Of Thing. Lustyik says on behalf of Zen Studios “We aimed to create an atmosphere where monsters could be lurking behind any door and yet have goofy characters with colorful personalities.”
Dread Nautical releases tomorrow on PSN, and we’ll have a review of Zen Studio’s seafaring excursion for you. Feel free to have I’m On A Boat playing during the entirety of your time with the game.
