Frictional Games' Ontos Stands Out at Gamescom Opening Night Live

Frictional Games' upcoming horror title Ontos emerged as a standout from this year's Gamescom Opening Night Live, distinguished by its unsettling imagery and conceptual premise. The 10-minute gameplay showcase provided substantial context for how the game functions, building on the shorter trailer revealed at the event.

The footage focuses on protagonist Aditi arriving at the hospital wing of Ontos' repurposed 'Moon Hotel' Samsara via an internal railway system. Players explore the wing while unpicking an experiment conducted by a scientist named Crombie. The gameplay shares common elements with Frictional's existing titles, emphasizing tactile environment interaction, computer exploration for text logs, and stealth sequences. One sequence shows Aditi removing electrodes from a live rat's exposed brain, while another demonstrates her evading a security camera by throwing a box—which the camera tracks as it arcs through the air.

The showcase culminates in Crombie's central experiment: a rat server-rack designed to store his personality. Crombie reveals through the rat server that he accidentally uploaded his consciousness from his own body, which remains slumped in a vegetative state nearby. He requests Aditi's help returning his consciousness to his body, contingent on whether the voice truly belongs to the original Crombie. This premise echoes the philosophical dilemmas that defined Frictional's SOMA, suggesting Ontos will pursue intellectual scares alongside conventional horror elements.

Ontos is scheduled for release in 2027. The showcase also highlighted other notable announcements, including Alien Isolation 2 and The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past.