Steam provides outlet for Old Gods Rising

Written by Jack Allin — May 21, 2020 at 10:22

What would you get if you blended a satirical exploration of Lovecraft-style Eldritch Horror lore with a Firewatch-style adventure? Well, the result would probably be a lot like the newly released first-person mystery, Old Gods Rising.

The game stars Thomas Winston, a British professor of ancient history who was recently fired from a popular TV show when it was revealed that "his latest book was largely based on fraudulent evidence." After several weeks hiding from the public out of embarrassment, the disgraced academic gets what seems to be a second chance when he receives "an invitation from maverick film director, Maz Kayfer, to act as a consultant on his new film: 'Old Gods Rising.'" When he arrives at the venerable Ashgate University, however, where filming is supposed to take place, Tom finds the campus deserted and "things get very strange, very quickly." The question is, "has he become the unwitting star of Kayfer's latest film?  Or, has he stumbled into something far more sinister?"

The debut title of Bad Blood Studios, an indie studio founded by former BioWare art director Hayden Duvall, Old Gods Rising is unsurprisingly presented in beautiful free-roaming 3D. The game tasks players with exploring the school and its grounds in an attempt to "uncover the truth behind the strange events that seem to be unfolding." To do so you will need to solve a variety of puzzles and discover secret areas that "could help you decide what is real and what is not." Along the way, you must "examine architecture and artifacts to find clues about the university's ancient origins and use your expertise to decipher long-forgotten languages and cryptic carvings." You'll do your exploring solo but you're not entirely alone, as you can "use the phone numbers you have collected and navigate conversations to build a more complete picture of what is actually happening and why."

If you think you're up for a little esoteric investigating, there's no need to wait, as Old Gods Rising is available now on Steam for Windows PC.