Dark Mass: Underwater Horror TBA This Year!

In January 2022, the Spanish indie studio Path Games launched its first game on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. Its name was Insomnis, a title brimming with good, old-fashioned urgent horror, with a healthy dose of puzzles and uncomfortable moments. It was widely praised and still enjoys mostly positive reviews to this day. Insomnis undoubtedly made one thing very clear to the community: the guys at Path Games were really good at making first-person horror games.

Well, now it seems they’re about to make full use of that talent, as they’ll soon announce the release of their second title, diving even deeper into the first-person horror genre and taking it to a new dimension by adding verticality! Yes, Dark Mass is going to be a first-person horror survival game set entirely underwater, letting players explore both horizontally and vertically, with this being a key mechanic in more than one of the situations that arise. That’s how Dark Mass is introduced, through its Announcement Trailer, courtesy of PlayStation:

Horror in a Whole New Dimension

Dark Mass is a fully underwater horror game, in which we have to explore the remains of a sunken mansion and survive a curse that has remained buried there for centuries. In this story, we step into the shoes of Alice, an underwater explorer who, along with her brother Reed, discovers a shipwreck revealed by an earthquake. But beneath the rubble lies something even more disturbing: a submerged mansion, intact despite the passing of centuries. Once inside, Alice soon discovers she’s not alone. A relentless presence, imprisoned by a dark curse, lurks in the shadows. Alice must unravel its past, solve ritual puzzles inspired by real historical torture, and make deadly decisions that will eventually determine her fate.

Needless to say, even though it can obviously be beautiful, the underwater environment can be many other things too, without much effort. Things like, for example, stressful, claustrophobic, tense, or terrifying. Path Games explores these features and takes advantage of them by pushing the player to the limit, while also offering support, whether moral or psychological. I’m referring to the fluid communication Alice maintains at all times through her walkie-talkie with her brother Reed, who supports her, provides information, and even advises her on more than one occasion. This way, our protagonist deals with her anxiety, her fear, and also makes crucial decisions on which the development of the plot depends.

So…

Dark Mass aims to exploit that latent thalassophobia we’re all capable of having, even if we ignore it, making us live an adventure full of tension, fear, and insecurity, through a rich and well-executed narrative, and impeccable voice acting in several languages, as we would expect from a Spanish studio making horror games in English 😉

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to know its official release date, though we hope it’s this year. A recent rumor claimed that even if it gets announced this year, its release could arrive early next fall. Still, nothing is official, and taking into account its diffusion, plus how good the Announcement video looks, and other details like the fact that its technical requirements are already available on its Steam page, which you’ll obviously find at the bottom of this article, objectively speaking it wouldn’t be too crazy to think we might get release news much sooner than next year… right? I choose to believe XD

Dark Mass will arrive on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam, we hope very soon, but anyway, now’s the part where we remind you that we have to wait and blah blah blah… and check out the comments and all that stuff we always say, but… it’s true! We really want to know what you think of this awesome concept!! You know gamer, we’ll be reading you! 🙂

Images Source: PlayStation Official YouTube Channel, Dark Mass on Steam