Beware's new trailer shows a long, slow drive into Hell
Road worrier
If you took your driving test in Silent Hill, then Beware would be an accurate representation of how you failed. The sur-drive-al horror game is a three-point turn of dread. A lone driver drifts through a foggy night while cars and trucks try to force you off the road. It's been in development since 2014, but if you’re a one-man development team building a map that’s 144km², it’s going to be a long and lonely drive. Happily, there's now a new trailer for it, so let’s see how it’s coming along, shall we?
The dirt roads that formed my memory of the game are a lot less prevalent in this footage. There’s a more industrial, urban feeling to the shadowy buildings that you never quite see, and the harsh, fluorescent lighting that forces its way through the smog. It shows a lot of driving and a lot of dying to large trucks that prowl the roads looking for you.
And, like all good horror, the music is synthy and just as willing as the rest of the game to go off the beaten track. That section, where the rest of the instruments drop out and leave a single tone burning for what seems like forever, well, it made me glad I don’t have a driver’s licence.
There’s a lot more to Beware than meets the eye (and given how much you squint, that’s saying something). Driving and dodging is just part of it. When former RPS vid bud Matthew played the demo a couple of years back, he found himself stalking an old lady through the woods. I have watched a creepy rescue mission. I’ve no idea how it all comes together, but it certainly intrigues me.
The new footage shows the final section of the map he’s working on, so there might be an end in sight for Beware. But not today. For now, developer Ondrej Svadlena continues to plug away on Patreon.