After Agony, I find it a little difficult to get excited about horror games taking the Kickstarter route. I just can’t help myself when it comes to Infliction, however.
Developed by Caustic Reality, I’ve tried a very short demo of Infliction, and not only did it leave me wanting more, it also felt very polished. And you know what? Caustic Reality is simply one man based in Sydney, Australia. His name? Clinton McCleary.
Dread-full
Infliction is a horror game grounded in reality. It’s set to deal with issues such as betrayed trust, grief and loss. From the demo, it’s clear that while the full game will make use of jump scares, its main aim is to play with your mind. It unsettles you with whispers, strange happenings, unusual shadows and a general feeling of dread. It achieves that via some impressive audio and visual design.
As with most horror games post-P.T., you get the sense that the unduly cancelled title is a major inspiration. In fact, in the short demo there are a couple of other cues that make me think of Silent Hill. A chained-up door with multiple padlocks reminded me of Silent Hill 4, while walking through a mirror into an alternate realm brought back memories of Silent Hill‘s theme of duality. In the absence of any new Silent Hill games, I was happy about this.
Spit and polish
The real good news about Infliction is that its release doesn’t depend on the Kickstarter. McCleary insists that the game will release this Halloween even if the Kickstarter isn’t successful. The money raised will be used to make the game really shine, and also possibly bring the title to consoles. Currently, the animations aren’t bad, for example, but McCleary would like to hire a professional animator to make movement look more natural. He’d also like to work on the game full time for the last few months to add more polish.
The Kickstarter goal lies just short of £7,000 which sounds reasonable. There are numerous stretch goals too. Reaching around £19,000 will get the game localised in six other languages, giving it more worldwide appeal. And if £35,000 is raised, Infliction will be brought to Xbox One and PS4. There’s also scope for more stretch goals to be added.
If Infliction sounds interesting to you, you can head on over to Steam and download the demo for it right now. I’d recommend you do so. You can also check out the new trailer below. And if you want more information on the game, why not head on over to its Kickstarter page? It has got everything you need to know to help you decide whether to make a pledge or not.
