Frictional Games, the developer behind terrifying games like Soma and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, is teasing its next game. And now the studio kicked off an ARG to begin creeping players out before an official game reveal. An ARG, or Alternate Reality Game, can be considered a treasure hunt of sorts where internet detectives can follow clues that might lead to some kind of bigger reveal or secret. Fans have already discovered two mysterious YouTube videos that may reveal some things about Frictional Games’ next project. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=25-scariest-games-of-this-generation&captions=true"] As previously reported, Frictional Games recently updated its website to host an animated image of some kind of pulsating white circle. But also on the website is a mysterious eyeball icon under Frictional’s “Follow us” panel which includes links to the company’s social media accounts.
The eyeball icon doesn’t lead anywhere, but hovering over it reveals a partial URL that can be copy and pasted to YouTube. The result is this mysterious video titled “Box 52, Tape 16.” The video only shows some rocks recorded on an old video recorder. But the video has a close up on one rock with a mysterious eye symbol drawn on it. The video description says the footage is from a video cassette “marked Shetpe, KSSR.” The KSSR is short for the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, the former name of the country of Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union. Shetpe is the name of a city in that region. Frictional fans are on the company’s Discord server trying to figure out if there are any other clues. A second video was uncovered after investigating the Frictional website’s CSS which hid another YouTube video link. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/24/frictional-games-next-title-arg-teaser"] This video, titled “Box 7 Reel 2, Partial Success” doesn’t have any footage. Instead, it’s an audio-only video where you can hear some pretty nasty noises including what sounds like the screams of a monster. The description for the second video says the audio is from a video marked “Triple Crown.” On a Google Doc compiling the ARG clues, there’s speculation that the Triple Crown is a reference to the Egyptian Hemhem Crown worn by Pharos. Hemhem also apparently means “scream” and there are three screams heard in the video. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/09/21/soma-video-review"] Frictional Games previously hosted an ARG to tease its last horror game, Soma. So this is par for the course for the developers. The last time Frictional’s ARG was solved, it revealed a gameplay trailer, so perhaps there’s a big reveal hidden under all these clues. Check out IGN’s review of Soma here and our list of top 25 scariest games for more on Frictional Games.
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The eyeball icon doesn’t lead anywhere, but hovering over it reveals a partial URL that can be copy and pasted to YouTube. The result is this mysterious video titled “Box 52, Tape 16.” The video only shows some rocks recorded on an old video recorder. But the video has a close up on one rock with a mysterious eye symbol drawn on it. The video description says the footage is from a video cassette “marked Shetpe, KSSR.” The KSSR is short for the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, the former name of the country of Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union. Shetpe is the name of a city in that region. Frictional fans are on the company’s Discord server trying to figure out if there are any other clues. A second video was uncovered after investigating the Frictional website’s CSS which hid another YouTube video link. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/24/frictional-games-next-title-arg-teaser"] This video, titled “Box 7 Reel 2, Partial Success” doesn’t have any footage. Instead, it’s an audio-only video where you can hear some pretty nasty noises including what sounds like the screams of a monster. The description for the second video says the audio is from a video marked “Triple Crown.” On a Google Doc compiling the ARG clues, there’s speculation that the Triple Crown is a reference to the Egyptian Hemhem Crown worn by Pharos. Hemhem also apparently means “scream” and there are three screams heard in the video. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/09/21/soma-video-review"] Frictional Games previously hosted an ARG to tease its last horror game, Soma. So this is par for the course for the developers. The last time Frictional’s ARG was solved, it revealed a gameplay trailer, so perhaps there’s a big reveal hidden under all these clues. Check out IGN’s review of Soma here and our list of top 25 scariest games for more on Frictional Games.Continue reading...