{"id":1685135,"date":"2026-09-06T14:24:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/SaAoGHqkJCWjyijef4ot67"},"modified":"2026-09-06T14:24:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:24:31","slug":"heres-10-more-minutes-of-the-most-interesting-game-shown-at-this-years-opening-night-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/heres-10-more-minutes-of-the-most-interesting-game-shown-at-this-years-opening-night-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s 10 more minutes of the most interesting game shown at this year’s Opening Night Live"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was largely nonplussed by Gamescom’s Opening Night Live<\/a>, particularly its relentless barrage of identikit fantasy action games that I struggled to tell apart. But one game stood out like a rat-powered computer in an elven glade, and that was Ontos<\/a>, Frictional Games’ latest horror adventure\/existential crisis generator.<\/p>\n

The Gamescom trailer was a barrage of unsettling, distinctive imagery, from rodent server-racks to slack-jawed dudes with electrodes protruding from their heads. I was instantly intrigued and keen to learn more, so I was delighted to discover that Frictional graced us with a longer look at Ontos in action.<\/p>\n

The 10-minute showcase focuses on the same part of the game as the shorter trailer. But it adds significant context to how Ontos plays and the kinds of challenges you’ll be dealing with. It starts with the player character\u2014a woman named Aditi\u2014arriving at the hospital wing of Ontos’ repurposed ‘Moon Hotel’ Samsara via an internal railway system, before exploring the wing and unpicking an experiment run by a scientist called Crombie.<\/p>\n

In moment-to-moment play, Ontos shares a lot in common with most of Frictional’s other games (the exception being Amnesia: The Bunker<\/a>, which is more of a proto immersive sim). There’s a lot of tactile environment interaction, poking around computers for text logs, and a grisly sequence where Aditi plucks some electrodes out of a live rat’s exposed brain. On top of this is a sprinkling of stealth, as Aditi evades a security camera by throwing a box across the room. Interestingly, the camera tracks the box’s movement as it arcs through the air, which I’m sure must have featured in another game up to now. But I cannot recall an example of it.<\/p>\n

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