At the beginning of the week, a new project hit Kickstarter. I’ve been following it for a few months on Twitter and have been engrossed with how the game looks. Now that it’s finally live on Kickstarter I wanted to spread the word as it looks amazing. That game is Hibernaculum.
What is Hibernaculum?
Hibernaculum is a first-person sci-fi horror with its roots firmly set in the survival horror genre. It is a retro-inspired dungeon crawler where you will create a unique character to explore the depths of the Hibernaculum. A massive generation ship whose name has long been forgotten and whose purpose is now a mystery.
Featuring non-linear gameplay the game sets out to recreate the engrossing labyrinthine experiences of the classics of days gone by, whilst also building a modern, deeply unique & explorable world of survival, mystery, and macabre intrigue.
Hibernaculum has a focus on atmosphere and exploration with an appetite for letting players discover, salvage, uncover, and piece together the mysteries of the ship. Whilst providing mechanics that bring emergent gameplay amidst survival, combat, and character progression.
Creating your character
Before entering the Hibernaculum you will create your own unique character choosing between three primary classes that lean into either Technical, Medical, or Combative. Additionally, you can combine these professions to make up the 4 remaining classes. Making a total of 7 classes to choose from. Furthermore, you will have the option to choose from some premade class templates should you wish to.
As you progress your way through the labyrinth of the ship you will find useful items and precious loot. Everything from various armour types to provide protection to different parts of your body. Radiation suits will protect you from dangerous chemicals. Whilst purely defensive armour with provide much better protection from explosives.
A wide array of weapons and ammo can be looted as well as bombs and traps. To help with your looting you will have access to the R.I.O a companion that will help carry items for you. However, it won’t be able to follow you around everywhere you go. Meaning you will still have to manage what you can and cannot carry.
Additionally, you will have medical items to help with wounds and bleeds. Mechanics for healing (and many other systems) are handled in a similar way to D&D with “rolls” helping decide outcomes. Some of these items and consumables can be crafted during rests as well as found scattered around the ship.
Exploration
Most of your exploration and traveling around the ship will be done in first person as you ‘dungeon crawl’ around the place. With parts of the ship separated into ‘levels’ which you can travel to via fast travel ‘points-of-interest’.
The ship is split between three major areas, The Forge, The Foundry, and The Fall. Each area is a cornucopia of maze-like structures, unique biomes filled with catacombs and oubliettes. There will be colonies and nests with factions to explore and exploit.
With such a huge ship to explore you can be sure to find all sorts of wonderous and weird sights.
Hibernaculum sounds fascinating. An adventure of epic proportions in a truly sci-fi world. I love the style of the game and whilst I didn’t really ever play retro RPG games like this when I was younger I can’t help but feel a weird sense of nostalgia just looking at the game. As if it harkens back to a time when video games were a mystery and you couldn’t just google anything you wanted to know. I can’t wait to see more of this game. You can read a lot more about the game over on the Kickstarter page.
-Will
