Over the past few months, co-op horror games have been massively popular online. Games like Lethal Company and Content Warning are among the more successful games to convince friends to get together and scare themselves silly. Now a new challenger steps up to the mark in the form of ZTEK Studio with their new game PANICORE which will surely excite any horror game fans.
What to expect
You and up to four friends travel to different locations to evade and escape the monsters skulking around these old abandoned places. To do this you will need a set of tools, a flashlight and a surefire plan to ensure you all get out alive.
It’s not as simple as just walking out of the door, as you will need to find keys, find code combinations and complete tasks all the while avoiding monsters in the dark. Once spotted you can either run for your life or hide in one of the many cupboards or bathroom stalls. While some may argue this new wave of co-op horror games is starting to get stale, PANICORE spices up its gameplay with terrifying AI that reacts to sounds.
Keep Quiet
Developers using sound to enhance gameplay is not a new concept, in fact, some of the scariest and most popular survival horror games (Alien: Isolation, Amnesia, etc.) encourage the players to remain as quiet as possible to avoid luring their enemies to their location, and PANICORE is very similar in this regard. The amount of noise the player makes is shown with a gauge on the bottom right of the screen. Crouching makes no noise, walking makes a little bit of noise, running as expected makes a lot of noise and while the player can jump I wouldn’t recommend it as you are as good as dead if you do.
This makes navigating levels dangerous enough but the game also detects sound coming from your microphone. Talking with teammates becomes a double-edged sword as you need to keep quiet but at the same time, communication is key to getting you and your team out alive. This feature can actually be turned off before the start of a game, but where’s the fun in that?
Give it a try
The game is set to release on the 31st of May, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the sound and AI mechanics for yourself as there is a free demo available that gives a closer look into the school map and one of the terrifying monsters you will encounter on your travels. Grab a few friends and check out this new indie horror gem. If you want to find out more then check out PANICORE’s community hub on Steam or the official TikTok and Youtube Channel.
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