Hack memories in first-person cyberpunk survival horror Observer, out on PS4 this summer

Greetings from Krakow! We at Bloober Team are excited to share with you that our new cyberpunk horror game, Observer, will be officially launching on PS4 this summer. Before we tell you why our game is so scary, we recommend you set the mood — plug in your headphones, play this heartwarming song from the soundtrack, and turn off the lights. Now that’s more like it.

When you read the news today, there is always a story about hacking – terrorists hacking governments, governments hacking terrorists, governments hacking each other. Everything is being hacked, nothing is off limits. Right now, they can hack your car, your pacemaker, and even your friendly neighborhood nuclear power plant.

The original idea for Observer stemmed from a simple question: What would you do if your fears were hacked?

With that very unsettling thought, the universe of Observer began to take shape: a retro cyberpunk world, with a heavy dose of Eastern European flavor. Low life, high tech, with an all-powerful corporation up to no good, because cyberpunk.

What would law enforcement look like in this oppressive dystopia? That’s when we imagined the Observers, an elite neural police unit with the authority to hack into suspects brains via their neural implants, which everyone totally has now because it’s 2084.

A tool of convenience for the user, a way to communicate with friends and family and catch up on old VR movies — a tool of surveillance and oppression for government. We hope this idea scares you as much as it scares us.

We’ve learned a lot since our first game, Layers of Fear. Our goal has always been to create a different kind of horror game, something deeper, more cerebral and psychological.

This is the exact opposite of run-and-gun zombie shoot-em-ups. We call it “hidden horror.” Our hope is that as you experience the nightmarish scenarios in the game, you’ll be forced to confront your own fears. Seriously.

Ask yourself, as your palms are sweaty and your heart is pounding, why exactly does this scare me? Think about it. The answers may surprise you. To us, this is what horror is all about.