New Screens For Surreal Oculus Rift Horror Title "The Forest"

Developer SKS Games has released a batch of atmospheric new screens for their upcoming Oculus Rift horror game The Forest, and when envisioned in the context of virtual reality they certainly seem that much more unsettling.

While little is known about The Forest at this point, SKS has previously revealed the game is an open-world survival horror with a real emphasis on survival – not only do you have to defend yourself against the game's creepy enemies, you must gather supplies and materials to build and maintain a shelter in said forest, involving everything from chopping wood to growing and maintaining your own food.

The screens certainly invoke this kind of sensibility, with a number of naturalistic scenes of varying degrees of danger. Of course, again, the game is being designed with the Oculus Rift in mind.

As SKS puts it, "you enter a living, breathing forest with changing weather patterns, plants that grow and die. Tides that roll in and out with the day/night cycle. Below ground, explore a vast network of caves and underground lakes." You can also set up traps, but it's unclear how integral this is to the gameplay.

At a glance the game sort of resembles a combination of Dear Esther (or Everybody's Gone To The Rapture), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter with combat, or maybe Epic's who-knows-if-it's-still-in-development Fortnite, but more surreal, realistic and meant to be taken seriously. At any rate, a pre-alpha build is due out early this year with a full release sometime before 2015. Hit the link below for the full screen set.

Via CVG