Horror games often struggle between too much exploration and too much action. As a result, the ones that succeed to find a balance with these features often finds their success after its release. We've seen it in the classic ones like the Resident Evil series and Silent Hill, and Summerford is going to replicate the same success.
Summerford is a third-person horror game from the developer Noisy Valley , featuring the town turned into a whole terrifying mess after a massive nuclear disaster. It's actually a fictional location taking the inspiration from Isle of Wight and the Cotswolds, and from the trailer, I must say Noisy Valley has done a great job bringing the town very close to real life.
Below is the trailer of the game, and you can have a look at to feel the thrilling deep inside the woods:
About Summerford
Summerford takes the settings of a fictional town in the UK namely Summerford, the location that was chosen in 1963 to build the United Kingdom's first nuclear plant as well as a laboratory for research in nuclear energy. However, after 26 years of functioning, the facility has encountered a devastating failure in the reactor.
The incident has spread radioactive out of the plant and spilled out all over Summerford and its surrounding area. Of course, the government has to remove thousands of people living in the village to another safe place and prohibit anyone from getting inside 10km around the danger zone.
37 years after the catastrophic events, in 2023, a group of explorers has made their travel near the radioactive region. Unfortunately, one of them - Sam - has lost her connection with her friends, and has gone astray inside the dangerous area of Summerford.
Bewildered in the middle of the nuclear disaster, she'll encounter a lot of abnormal things inside the zone. The only way out for her is to get deeper and learn what has happened to the nuclear plants and the people living nearby.
Gameplay features
As I've mentioned, Summerford is a third-person horror game that takes inspiration from the classic titles from the "golden era", such as Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. And the developer is very handy with what they've learned, balancing the horror-adventuring experience with some actions to make the journey feels more lively.
To be more specific, you'll not only have to gradually explore the Summerford village more than 60 years after the disastrous incident but will also have to stay away from the dangers of the infected creatures by carefully planning. The exploration requires some environmental puzzling, so you won't feel like you are just sliding away with the story.
Speaking about the environment, the small town of Summerford is the brainchild of the three developers from their past growing up in "middle of nowhere rural location". It will give you a quick but realistic look at the traditional English village, but with some nasty infected stuff from the disaster.
The developer also revealed that the story will last for around 4 hours with more of the classic horror elements that the obsession we're seeing in the deep psychological modern games. Summerford also consists of two distinctive routes for you to choose, and each leads to several endings.
Release date
Summerford doesn't have a specific release date yet, but it will come out at some times around Q4 2020. If you're interested, don't forget to add it to your Wishlist to gets the notifications on future updates.
Enjoy!