The thrill of being hunted in the adventure game Miasmata
Sean Cargle November 7, 2012 - 11:50 pmNews: Miasmata is an adventure that brings you to a deserted tropical island as a plague-stricken scientist, a scientist who is being hunted by something non-human.
Earlier today I was watching that new Sir, You Are Being Hunted alpha gameplay trailer and thinking about how interesting it would be if you couldn’t fight back against the robots, and now I’ve bumped into intriguing indie adventure PC game called Miasmata that offers an experience where you shouldn’t engage in combat if you even can. In Miasmata you are being stalked by a mysterious creature as you roam the deserted island and it is something that you do not want to get caught by, so you must sneak away from it whenever you hear or see it. The main focus of the game, beyond evading this creature, is too cure yourself of a mysterious plague.
As you wander the fully open island you can find dozens of plants and you must test each of those plants to try to find a cure. There are remnants of other researchers on the island and an indigenous culture, but you quickly find that you are alone and that something terrible has happened to everyone, likely involving the creature that is trying to devour you. You do have a map, but it is handled in an interesting way using a cartography system. You have to use landmarks from the island to triangulate your position in order to fill in the map. It is all very interesting, at least to someone like me who loves exploring and it enticed by non confrontational situations.
Miasmata is being developed by two brothers, Joe and Bob Johnson, who have made their own rather gorgeous engine called Milo for this game and they have also made a robust AI for the mysterious creature that hunts you. It will use sight, hearing and smell to track the player and it will use advantageous positions to trap the player. I’m not sure just how good, or poorly, that all works, but they do show it off a little bit in the trailer below. Miasmata will be coming out on November 28th on Steam and it is a successful Steam Greenlight project. Take a look at that newest trailer and let me know what you think of it.
