Fans of psychological horror are in for a paranoia-inducing treat this year. Karma: The Dark World seems to be a gripping, deeply unsettling first-person cinematic horror game set to release for PC sometime in 2025. I played a demo of the game that lasted about three hours, and found the gameplay to be refreshingly dread-inducing.
Set in an alternate version of East Germany in 1984, Karma: The Dark world combines Orwellian dystopia with some of the best bits of popular psychological thrillers. The game sees players step into the shoes of one Daniel McGovern, a Roam Agent working for the Leviathan Organization–specifically the company’s Thought Bureau. The Leviathan Organization appears to have effectively replaced the government of the entire Soviet Union.
It immediately becomes clear that regardless of which branch one works for, Leviathan fosters a paranoid, hostile, extremely strange work environment. For example, when visiting the Thought Bureau offices, players will notice that Daniel’s colleagues all have television sets in place of a head, with their face appearing on the screen. Although Daniel’s own organic skull seems to be intact, he also has no reaction whatsoever to encountering his TV-headed coworkers. There are lots of odd little details like this, many pointing to this version of East Germany’s recent progress in tech development. Leviathan itself is run by Mother: an artificial intelligence built by Soviet scientists for the purpose of enforcing social order. Given the public executions Daniel stumbles across early on in the game, the whole social order thing seems like it might not be going so well.
This news first appeared on Gamespot Video Game News. Read the original article.
