Imagine the upgrade system from BioShock, the stealth mechanics of Amnesia, and the horrors from the deep taken right out of Lovecraftian lore and slathered over a richly rendered 3D world steeped in a dieselpunk motif. What you end up with is Bottom Feeders’ highly anticipated indie-horror game, Bitter Tides.

The game aims to combine a lot of the traditional horror elements from the genre – such as skulking AI fiends that will pounce and murder you at a moment’s notice – with stealth and carefully curated level designs to encourage exploration and unbridled tension.

Players will traverse through a dream-like world set alongside the sea. The level designers and environment artists put a lot of heart and dedication into bringing the world to life through the art itself. You can see the decay creeping through the rickety old wooden planks half hanging off the side of an ocean-facing pathway that is ripe and willing to engulf anyone who dare step wrong on their way through. You can spot the smog that emits from soot-encrusted pipes that power the long-forgotten city, which lives on like a decrepit husk trawling through the viscous remains of a dying world.

There’s a lot of story to be told through the atmosphere itself, and it’s quite evident in the trailer for the game, which you can check out below.

The developers did a phenomenal job giving every object, every building, every room, and every street corner a sense of character in order to help tell the story through the environment. It gives the game a lot of world-building without any kind of long-winded exposition or lengthy text screens to help flesh out the plot. It reminds me a lot of Myst or Return to Zork in that regard.

Of course, it’s not just about exploration. As mentioned up top, you can utilize skills through the Heart – yes, a Heart.

You’ll be able to upgrade your abilities and your traps, which you can use to misdirect or redirect the creatures in order to progress through a level. You don’t have outright weapons that can kill the monsters, but you can subdue them or incapacitate them long enough to slip by them.

It appears as if Bottom Feeders want to disrupt the traditional horror game trope where you’re an unarmed victim waiting to be victimized, but at the same time they don’t want people going all Chris Redfield on the baddies either.

You can learn more about Bitter Tides by visiting the Steam store page or by checking out the game’s official website.

(Thanks for the news tip Richard)