When Frictional Games called Ontos a spiritual successor to Soma, we didn’t think it had actually been in development for about as long as the latter has been available. Creative director Thomas Grip revealed the decade-plus cycle to PlayStation Blog and presented extensive new gameplay, delving further into what the team called “ratspsychological gameplay.”
It starts innocently enough, as Aditi explores Samsara, throwing a crate to avoid detection and discovering an experiment with a rat. Small-scale though it may be, it’s still incredibly disturbing as you remove and insert probes into a rat’s head. Another character, Zike, chimes in, and he’s apparently someone who’s “obsessed with finding the soul.”
“Understanding stuff like this is not just fun lore, but a critical part of the game,” says Grip. “The better you understand how a character works, the more informed decisions you can make. Sometimes it is best to avoid certain questions or give answers contrary to your own feelings to achieve the intended results.”
This is made abundantly clear when she reaches the Rat Server – a server rack with 60 rats connected to it. It’s here that we learn about Crombie and how he transferred his consciousness into the server. Much like the rat earlier, you can remove probes from his actual body’s head.
However, there are multiple approaches, and as the gameplay reveals, terrible consequences. By seemingly ignoring his instructions, Crombie ends up trapped in the Rat Server while his real body dies, and there doesn’t seem to be a solution. Was this the right move? It’s not immediately clear, and that’s the point.
“Experiments can end in many ways, and it is never clear what your options even are. This also makes the game very replayable. The more you play, the more you understand, and the clearer the approaches will be.”
Ontos launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, and thus far, we’re suitably creeped out. Stay tuned for more updates en route to its release.
