First details draw attention to Help Me!

Written by Jack Allin — February 19, 2022 at 11:00

If one of your new year's resolutions is to scare yourself senseless more often, there's a good chance you can fulfill that one this year – or at least help make it happen – with the upcoming Help Me!, a new psychological horror game by Black Rat Studio.

In present-day Moscow, the father of a man named Maxim has gone missing and Maxim is determined to find out what happened to him. However, "the only connection to his [father's] disappearance are the mysterious nightmares that have haunted Maxim for a long time." As Maxim begins to unravel "family secrets that have been hidden for years," the deeper he digs, the more "the line between dreams and reality becomes blurred." 

Described as a "story-driven first-person horror game with stealth elements and puzzles," Help Me! is a free-roaming 3D adventure that sees players navigate between two related but very different dimensions: the normal physical reality of Maxim's own world, and the surreal distortions of his nightmares. Both planes will be created "using technologies such as photogrammetry," featuring highly interactive environments that allow players to pick up and examine a variety of objects, notes, drawings and other documents. It appears from the game's debut trailer that you'll also be able to pull out your in-game phone to take photos and help navigate as you explore. 

There is no target release date just yet, as Help Me! will be getting a Kickstarter campaign sometime in the middle of this year, with backers being granted access to an "extensive demo" at that time. If successful, we'll ultimately see the game launched on Steam for Windows PC.