Shadow Over Isolation is an impressive Unreal Engine 4-powered first person horror adventure inspired by the works of Stanley Kubrick and HP Lovecraft, that forgoes jump scares and closet hiding for a much more refined, slow building approach and a large focus on narrative.
Set in a small farming town in 1984, you play Ryan Kappel, a young man who returns to his childhood home at the bequest of his aunt – the last remaining member of the family estate. But while you explore your once idyllic childhood home, you discover some very strange things have been going on since you left, as you unravel sinister secrets and a macabre Lovecraftian mystery.
The current build of Shadow Over Isolation takes around 15 minutes to playthough, offering a nice taster of things to come. It blends aesthetics inspired by Stanley Kubrick with an intriguing, slow building story and a constant feeling of unease. The attention to detail as you explore the family home is particularly impressive, feeling like a place rich in history and full of old stories.
It’s still early in development, but the developers approach to the design of Shadow Over Isolation is to be applauded. It’s a more thoughtful and narrative based approach to horror than we’ve seen in recent years, where jump scares and running away from monsters has become prevalent. This slow building approach certainly pays off – by the end of the Alpha Demo you’ll be begging to unravel more of this well crafted Lovecraftian mystery.
UPDATE: This Alpha Is No Longer Available
Man, dat intro. Make it skippable pls.