At PAX Prime 2015, I got a chance to play the latest build of Through The Woods, which just migrated to Unity 5 and now features an amazing assortment of photo-realistic textures for its vegetation. After the demo, I spoke with Dan Wakefield, who works on sound design and marketing for Antagonist, the independent Norwegian studio currently working on Through The Woods. And it sounds like the studio has quite the unique vision for its upcoming psychological thriller.
Through The Woods puts players in the shoes of Karen Dahl, a young mother whose son has apparently been kidnapped by a man known as Old Erik. The game opens with Karen being interrogated, off-screen, at which point she begins to lead the unidentified male voice through a series of increasingly fantastical events, all of which take place in a mysterious forest. In the demo, players guide Karen through the opening moments of your journey and explore what appears to be some sort of dilapidated camp site.
From the opening moments, when you realize Karen’s flashlight will be the only consistent light source throughout the game, it’s clear that Antagonist is going for a much more sustained level of psychological terrors. Jump scares present themselves on a rare occasion, though I’d say the handful of attempts in the current build weren’t particularly effective, but the game keeps players on edge with events that become increasingly difficult to rationalize.
“It degrades, from being very realistic and having creatures that are from this world,” Wakefield told iDigitalTimes. “As you go deeper and deeper into the woods you find more and more things from both mythology and Norwegian folk tales.”
Some of those mythological and folk tale influences elements were pretty easy to identify. The demo includes at least one large, rune-covered stone featuring actual Norse runes. Wakefield says those who manage to identify/translate the runes will find themselves in possession of information that provides much needed story context. Journals spread throughout the map will serve a similar purpose, offering more information about the Karen’s journey through the woods and (presumably) her life before Old Erik took her son, Fillip.
There’s a giant troll in the demo. I didn’t see the creature during my own hands-on time with Through The Woods but I did see several others get killed by the creature both before sitting down with the game and during my interview. Other mythological/fairy tales creatures will apparently be included in the final game, too; however, Antagonist isn’t ready to start discussing specifics just yet.
“The mythological element, it’s sort of linked to the old Norse gods. Which is separated from the folk tales,” Wakefield said. “We’ve combined all that stuff and put them into this forest. But as you go deeper, it gets more mythological and more unrealistic.”
Wakefield says some dangers can be temporarily stunned, via Karen’s flashlight, but discovering these sorts of creatures will pretty much always require Karen to run and find cover. There won’t be any fighting back in Through The Woods. Antagonist believes the game is scarier that way. It’s a lesson they picked up from Alien: Isolation – one which certainly served Creative Assembly well – and I’ll admit that knowing I couldn’t fight back gave me plenty of incentive to avoid an encounter with the troll.
Before wrapping things up, I asked Wakefield whether or not Through The Woods would delve into any serious conversations about mental health. After all, without any information about Dahl’s interrogator, it was just as easy to assume she was on a therapist’s couch as anywhere. And wouldn’t modern society assume the worst, regarding a person’s mental state, if they went around claiming the subjects of folk tales had kidnapped their children?
Raising the subject made Wakefield noticeably uncomfortable. He confirmed Through The Woods would deal with those issues to some degree; however, Wakefield says mental health was neither the primary focus nor anything he’d been given rules about discussing. Apparently, I’m one of the first people to even ask how the game would tackle the subject. But Wakefield says Through The Woods will address its protagonist’s mental health to some degree.
“There is something like that,” Wakefield said, “But [Through The Woods isn’t] really dealing with it in a way that other games deal with; very overtly and very obviously. It’s sort of implied.”
According to Wakefield, players will probably be able to run through the entirety of Through The Woods in about three hours; however, the game will include the aforementioned collectables to extend its life by a few hours. It’s taken seven developers more than a year and a half to get this point, along with monetary support from the Norwegian government and $43,000 Kickstarter that concluded in June.
It’ll be a few more months before Through The Woods is ready for distribution. Antagonist is currently eyeing an early 2016 release and planning to launch on Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux. The studio also hopes to release Through The Woods on PlayStation 4; however, a deal has yet to be reached with Sony. While a three-hour, combat-free psychological thriller won’t appeal to everyone, those who do enjoy horror games can look forward to one of the most unique stories we’ve encountered in recent memory.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more coverage from PAX Prime 2015, including more hands-on coverage of the games shown to PAX Prime attendees.
