There must be something in the water

Any aquaphobes may want to look away now. Variable State, known thus far for interactive stories Virginia and Last Stop, is heading into survival-horror territory with Deepest Fear, and the primary source for its scares is H 2 O, courtesy of both its naturally lethal qualities and more disturbing imagined ones. Staying out of the water isn’t an option, either – stuck in a navy base on the ocean bed, you’re surrounded by the stuff.

Lyndon Holland, game director and one of Variable State’s founding trio, takes the controls to guide us through an early demo. Playing in firstperson, you are Danni, a character who’s just arrived at the facility not entirely sure what job she’s required to do, only to find the place in a state of disarray. As we join her, she’s in radio communication with a member of staff called Mike, who’s holed up somewhere but running out of oxygen. Danni needs to switch the supply back on before it’s too late.

Pulling up a map of the facility, on which dozens of rooms sprout from linking corridors, Holland describes the game as a Metroidvania: “You’ll be going back and forth, opening up areas, finding new items or new equipment.” At this point, though, he’s funnelled along a particular route, where we soon see another surviving crewman, but not for long – something yanks him out of sight to a screaming, bloody end. “As you can guess, not everybody on the base is doing as well as Mike,” co-founder and animator Terry Kenny chimes in. “You’ve arrived just after something pretty terrible has happened.” That’s putting it mildly. We see more bodies, apparently dead for some time, caked in a mould-like matter that seems to be growing from their insides.