GRAFT – Dark Sci-Fi Action Game TBA Soon!
The year is not over yet, and in the middle of the commotion left behind by all the announcements from The Game Awards 2025, we keep discovering little gems that will be well worth keeping an eye on. And from my humble point of view, this is exactly one of those cases. I’m talking about the first game from the newly formed Harebrained Studio, which in reality is not indie at all, not even close, as I will explain later. This is a dark sci-fi and horror RPG whose release will be announced soon, and which already looks extremely promising.
At times, this RPG looks like a visceral third-person shooter, and at other moments like an isometric-view ARPG, packed with dark sci-fi elements in the style of Alien, reminding me a bit of adventures such as STASIS or CAYNE. A formula that combines gore and horror in equal measure, strongly supported by its narrative, and which aims to tell us a deep and original story, where the protagonist will graft parts of fallen enemies onto himself, slowly changing and turning into something completely different. This is what the official GRAFT trailer looks like, shared by GameTrailers on YouTube:
Evolve and Adapt Without Losing Your Identity
GRAFT, TRANSFORM, SURVIVE. In this story we will embody the last remnant of humanity within a dark and decaying space station the size of a continent. GRAFT combines tense survival horror and dark RPG narrative into an exciting new sci-fi adventure loaded with gore, viscera, and dramatic twists. We will have to explore the immense and dying Arc station, now dominated by nightmarish creatures and deadly danger in every dark corner. As we progress, we will have the option to tear pieces from our enemies in order to slowly transform ourselves into something new, capable of surviving the horrors that await us.
“There’s an old story, so old it was old when the Arc was first built. The hero Theseus’s decaying ship is replaced, piece by piece, until none of the original parts remain. Is it still the same ship?”
In essence, we will be the Ship of Theseus. The million-dollar question is… who or what will we be when the journey ends? The Arc, once hanging in the sky like a majestic moon of technology and biomechanically enhanced citizens working toward a greater and better purpose, is now a decadent and corrupted place, going through a postmortem process of decomposition on its way to its final destiny. Our character awakens here with no idea who he is, or how he got there. Before him stands a colossus filled with powerful and unsettling wonders, and some of them hold the key to surviving long enough to escape. He simply must exterminate them, and keep the useful parts.
In GRAFT we will have to master forgotten technologies and unearth chilling secrets while traversing deep abysses, self-replicating labyrinths, and techno-catacombs in search of a way out. And we will not be alone on this journey: we will have to decide whether to forge possible alliances, or whether or not to trust other inhabitants of this place. Our decisions will carry weight and shape our journey, defining the fate of those we meet along the way. Ancient experiments, strange abominations, and ruthless agents of a deranged AI will be just some of the elements we will have to deal with on our path.
It is clear that we will have to transform our body so it becomes our best weapon, but we will have to pay a price. With each new graft we will acquire new memories, and even instincts, cravings, or tastes. This “noise” will flood us and follow us, whether we like it or not, so we will have to live with it and take responsibility for the consequences of every decision… Will it be worth escaping if it is not really us who reaches the exit?
The Studio Behind GRAFT
Harebrained was officially founded in Seattle in 2011 by Jordan Weisman and Mitch Gitelman, two industry veterans with prior experience in well-known franchises such as MechCommander and Crimson Skies. Originally named Harebrained Schemes, LLC, the studio earned a relevant place in the industry with franchises that successfully blended deep narrative with tactical strategy, such as Shadowrun Returns (2013) and its expansions Dragonfall and Hong Kong, as well as BATTLETECH (2018). Later that same year, in 2018, the studio was acquired by Paradox Interactive, so despite maintaining its own creative team, for several years it became part of the Paradox structure, being credited as Paradox HBS.
After the release of The Lamplighters League (2023), which did not meet commercial expectations, Paradox and Harebrained agreed to part ways as of January 1st, 2024, which restored the studio’s creative independence, although Paradox retained the rights to the jointly developed titles. From this point on, Harebrained once again emerged as an independent studio, although it is still made up of experienced industry developers. GRAFT is precisely its first title after this separation, so it is worth clarifying that, even though it appears as a studio without previous works, this is not an amateur project, not even close.
So…
GRAFT caught my attention the moment I saw the protagonist “grafting” the upper half of a girl’s torso onto his chest, and then running through the hallways shooting everything in sight. That was more than enough to make me want to know more XD. That said, even though the title does not yet have an official release date, we can expect it to be announced very soon, so it would be smart to visit its Steam or Epic page and add it to our Wishlist right now. Obviously, you will find the corresponding link right below. And once you do that, how about stopping by the comments and telling me what you think about this new RPG? You know gamer, we’ll be reading you! 😉
Images Source: GameTrailers Official YouTube Channel, GRAFT on Steam
