I am an avid fan of survival horror video games, and many of my colleagues here at Digitally Downloaded also enjoy the kinds of (gaming) experiences that will give them nightmares. So when an announcement surfaced that The Coma has been greenlit on Steam, we just had to share the news.
Related reading: Matt’s review of White Night, another horror game by a new developer.
The Coma is the first release from Devespresso Games (they must like their coffee), an indie company based in Seoul, South Korea. They describe the coma as a “school horror 2d platforming game,” set in a cursed Korean high school. It actually has a hidden political message outside of the immediate story: it is meant to shed light on the life of Korea’s overworked high school students.
In The Coma, you become one such high school student named Youngho. He’s been up all night cramming but ends up crashing during the exam itself, waking up alone in the school after nightfall. Youngho is about as average as he could be physically, and doesn’t have a lot of health or stamina. To make things more difficult for the poor kid, the best way to avoid the dangers around him is to run from them – which he can’t do for very long due to low stamina, so he has to hide quickly. It seems like everything in the school is out to get poor Youngho, but he still has to escape somehow. He (and you, the player, of course) uses naps, notes, and tips from NPCs to navigate the school’s connected buildings and learn how he became trapped to begin with.
Devespresso Games promises to infuse The Coma with Korean culture. It also promises a relentless killer. That combination sounds pretty good, no? The developer is aiming for The Coma to be released during October 2015 on PC via Steam.
– Lindsay M.
News Editor
