Macabre is Co-op Horror with Serious Scare Potential

ign.com:

Australia is already notoriously riddled with creatures that can kill you, from the snakes and spiders that can surprise you in the shower to the sharks and stingrays that circle our shores. Still, that hasn’t stopped developer Weforge Studio from drafting in a malevolent monster from another dimension and inserting it at the very top of the Aussie food chain in Macabre, a co-op ‘stealth extraction horror’ adventure that aims to fuse the bowel-loosening cat and mouse thrills of Alien: Isolation with the gadget-based teamwork of Phasmophobia. After a brief hands-on with a very early build of the game, I can attest to the prowling predator’s stalking prowess since I didn’t actually get a good look at the beast until it was suddenly dragging me through the snow-capped forest setting and knitting a sickening scarf out of my entrails.

“To start with you are very helpless, and this thing’s going to terrorise you and tear you apart,” says creative director Jay Topping. “It's not like this dumb meandering thing, the way that it interacts with the player is that at first it's cautious, then it gets closer and [once] you're out on your own it's gonna start [picking you off].”

The core gameplay loop of Macabre, which in its current pre-Alpha form takes place in and around an alpine lodge setting inspired by Australia’s Snowy Mountains region, sees up to four players investigating a mysterious rift in time and completing objectives provided by an exceedingly Australian guide named Banjo. In order to survive, players must scavenge for materials like batteries, electrical tape and old mobile phones to craft makeshift gadgets that both detect and distract the interdimensional assailant that hunts them from the shadows.

The map itself is marked with ominous trails of blood and shadows that appear to be either cast by the branches of the surrounding snowgum trees or the spindly limbs of a quadrupedal murder beast depending on how much you trust your fluctuating paranoia levels.