{"id":1153915,"date":"2026-02-08T20:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qwRCP8yhkQbb3mhmTz9AkE"},"modified":"2026-02-08T20:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:32:14","slug":"animal-use-protocols-dysfunctional-chimp-rat-alliance-drags-the-stasis-series-into-a-horrible-new-first-person-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/animal-use-protocols-dysfunctional-chimp-rat-alliance-drags-the-stasis-series-into-a-horrible-new-first-person-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Use Protocol’s dysfunctional chimp-rat alliance drags the Stasis series into a horrible new first-person era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When chimp-and-rat buddy horror adventure Animal Use Protocol was first announced late last year<\/a>, I felt fear. Not the good kind that tiny South African indie outfit The Brotherhood had so well cultivated with their Stasis point-and-click adventure series, but worries that shifting to a real-time, first-person perspective would ruin the perfectly unpleasant vibes the pre-rendered art of the series was so well known for.<\/p>\n

Judging by yesterday\u2019s new gameplay trailer (rolled out during the Future Games Show Spring showcase<\/a>), I\u2019m no longer worried. About the art, that is. I am however absolutely creeped out by the gameplay that they\u2019ve shown.<\/p>\n

The wet, sticky, rusty environments of the Stasis series (a universe where corporations seem insistent on playing god in the most cartoonishly evil fashion possible) seem wonderfully replicated in Unreal Engine 5. Decayed human corpses practically melting into sludge while plant and fungal growths overtake abandoned super-science facilities. This is not a pleasant environment to be, and just looking at it makes me imagine how it must feel to touch<\/em>. Not somewhere I\u2019d go without a thick hazmat suit, let alone walking around naked like protagonists Penn, a bio-engineered chimpanzee, and his snippy rat companion Trip, a dynamic duo that feel like a nod to short but influential comic series We3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This new trailer is the first time we\u2019ve heard them talk. Penn sounds mostly human, with only the occasional missing word belying his simian brain. Trip, on the other hand, communicates through what looks to be some crude cybernetics built around a Tamagotchi-like toy. The rat is able to speak but with limited intonation, leaving the machinery to spit out tonal prefaces like [WITH GROWING IMPATIENCE] before each sentence. A well-worn trope, perhaps, but one that feels like it\u2019s working well here.<\/p>\n

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