Prague, Czech Republic – September 18, 2024 - Prepare to step deeper into insanity, as Fulqrum Publishing and Incantation Games have shared new details about their upcoming Lovecraftian horror FPS title Decadent - including an in-depth look into the game’s Madness system.
Decadent is a story-driven first-person shooter that combines atmospheric exploration, Lovecraftian horror and expansive gameplay mechanics into an immersive experience - making the player feel a unique sense of loneliness in a dangerous land where time stands still.
You are John Lorn, a royal explorer and a veteran of the Great War, turned decadent occultist. As a result of a traumatic experience during one of your occult experiments, you become a host for a mysterious parasite. Travelling to the Arctic one last time, you follow the traces of a lost Miskatonic University expedition. As your courage and sanity are pushed to the limit, you must learn to walk the line between good and evil and discover just how much grief and suffering you are ready to cause to save someone you hold dear.
And in the latest Madness trailer, developers Incantation Games have shared details on how the quest to save your lost son will challenge not only your skills, but your mind itself.
The horrors John encounters on his quest will slowly drain his sanity - from exploring the Weirds, anomalous locations where laws of nature as he knows them may not apply and encountering eldritch, otherworldly monstrosities to more mundane, high-stress situations, such as running out of ammo in the middle of a tough fight. Each of these events will increase the player’s madness, which will begin to make an impact on the game itself.
The effects of Madness may vary depending on the current situation, but in general, there are several states of mind, each with progressively more severe effects. However, the player always has a choice - to play it safe and try to control their mind, or give in to the insanity of the world around them. Indeed, embracing the Madness can offer useful boons as well as penalties - While the full nature of Decadent’s madness will have to wait for a later date, here’s just a brief taster of how the system works:
Moderate Madness
Negative Effects: Mild Visual Distortion: At this stage, the player will begin to notice slight distortions in the perception of the world around them. Interface elements may float or blur slightly, and textures in the game may appear fuzzy. All this gradually increases the feeling of discomfort, but does not yet critically interfere with gameplay or put the player in danger.
Positive Effects:
Enemy Anticipation: This level of Madness has caused an increase in the player's intuition. In a state between reality and hallucination, you begin to sense the presence of enemies in advance. This is shown in-game in the form of a slight illumination, or seeing the outlines of enemies that would be otherwise still out of sight - thus allowing you to prepare for the fight ahead, and avoid ambushes. This mechanic balances risk and reward: the more you plunge into madness, the stronger your prescient abilities, but the less control you have, and the more dangerous the world around you becomes.
Total Madness
As John Lorn fully succumbs to insanity, controlling the character becomes much more difficult, as the hero's mind is plunged into chaos. Moving and even turning around become inert, less responsive, as if the character is losing control of his own body. You will need to put much more effort into executing precise actions, which creates a feeling of losing touch with reality.
Negative Effects:
Severe visual distortion: The world around you turns into a nightmare. The contours of objects and enemies become distorted, as if looking through broken glass, colours become either overly bright or dim and muted. It is difficult to determine where reality ends and hallucination begins.
Appearance of non-existent enemies: Enemies can suddenly appear before your eyes, and disappear just as quickly. You can no longer be sure if the threat in front of you is real or just a symptom of your diseased mind.
Shaking Hands: In a state of extreme insanity, you start losing control over your body, and your hands begin to shake. This makes it difficult to act with any precision - the cursor may “wander," making shooting and inventory management much more chaotic and less reliable. Errors may occur during weapon reloading - you can accidentally drop ammo, or even lose your grip on the weapon altogether.
Decadent is still early in development, and we’ll be able to share more information on the upcoming Lovecraftian FPS further down the line. In the meantime, Decadent is available to wishlist on Steam, where you can follow along with development updates. The game is set to launch in 2025 on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GoG and other digital stores), Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
About Fulqrum Publishing
Fulqrum Publishing is a global games publisher with a diverse portfolio of titles, including in-house and independent productions. Fulqrum Publishing released over a hundred games, including the critically acclaimed titles like Men of War, King’s Bounty, Space Rangers, Fell Seal, Forgive Me Father and many others.
About Incantation Games
Our team was formed in 2021 by professionals from various walks of the industry, united by the passion for deep narratives and meaningful worlds that allow us to escape reality for some time. As huge fans of H.P. Lovecraft novels and first-person games that provide an immersive experience, we aim to combine all of these elements in our debut title and thus Decadent is born.
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