The last couple years have offered a small wealth of PlayStation 1-inspired horror games, complete with crunchy polygonal graphics and lo-fi vibes: Everything from medieval horror RPGs to laundromat murder. The latest in the PS1 horror frontier is Chasing Static, which throws you into the haunted land of rural north Wales to suss out a strange government experiment, and it's out on PC on October 14.
Check out the new release date trailer above for a look at how the Welsh landscape looks in beautiful PS1 style.
There's some strong Silent Hill vibes thanks to all the wet, rainy forestry, small town diners, and fungal growth blighting the insides of homes. You play as an everyman named Chris Selwood, who unfortunately witnesses a diner waitress pinned against the ceiling Freddy Kreuger-style, and later awakens in the same diner, but a version that's been abandoned for years.
Using a "Frequency Displacement Monitoring Device," you'll search through a nonlinear rural Wales for strange invisible "anomalies," eventually coming to a mysterious government facility that I'm sure was 100% up to OSHA standards. If short horror experiences are your thing, developer Headware Games says you can complete it in two hours.
Chasing Static is inspired by '80's horror contemporary surrealist cinema, so I'd imagine that'll translate into David Lynchian thrills of the Twin Peaks or Lost Highway variety. Despite the lo-fi graphics, the audio design and dialogue also sounds fairly modern and crisp, which I'm sure will only add to the tension.
Now if only someone would make a full-length version of that pants-ruining Rugrats PS1 game.
