Astray is the Horror ‘Night at the Museum’ Could Have Been

There’s never a shortage of intense horror experiences, and the two-person team at Aegon Games is aiming at the core gamer audience with their second production, Astray .

Developed in Unreal Engine 4 (which shows), Astray puts you in a first-person perspective on a mission to uncover secrets at a mysterious museum. You play as the nephew of Rupert Walker, a professor known in your family for peculiar behavior and a penchant for supernatural occurrences. The year is 1909, and the museum is set for its grand opening relatively soon, but it’s been a while since anyone has heard from Walker. To make matters worse, you arrive at the museum to find it’s in a sorry state.

The game features a variety of environments, ranging from museum outdoors and a forest enshrouded in darkness to dark corridors, museum rooms, creepy cells, and mysterious underground caverns. Forget the typical abandoned hospital or haunted house: There are exhibits that simulate Ancient Egypt and something like a futuristic Atlantis. Along the way there are objects and puzzles to solve. Armed with a flashlight that offers limited battery life, the player must pick up and examine objects along the way.

The gameplay seems to revolve more around a dark atmosphere and puzzle-solving rather than danger or action, though it seems a few creatures may stand in the player’s way. The developers have also stated they intend to use longer, tension-building set pieces over frequent jumpscares. Similarly to Amnesia: The Dark Descent , there is no way to combat foes. Evasion and the shadows are the player’s best friends.

Astray launches today on Steamwith a price tag of $9.99 for PC and Mac. Aegon Games also wants to look into porting the game to consoles, and making it compatible with Linux.