Murder mysteries and stylish combat - Omensight is coming!
Spearhead Games, the Montreal-based studio behind the fantastic but underplayed Stories: The Path of Destinies is preparing to release their new title, Omensight, and it looks as though they have taken the storytelling chops they gained while creating Stories and cranked things up to the next level.
Stories, which I randomly booted up about six months ago from my PlayStation queue, is a unique (and greatly entertaining) adventure/RPG title in which the story varies wildly depending on what choices the player makes. In a genre that claims to have responsive story-telling, but rarely pulls it off (mostly masking a critical path behind minor diversions), Stories could really throw you for a loop when choices you made would burn your game to the ground around you. What I'm trying to say is that these guys make cool and interesting games, so if Omensight was not on your radar, it should be.
Omensight is a murder mystery, but one unlike any I have ever heard of in gaming. How's this for unique: Players play as "The Harbinger", a kind of time-traveling warrior/detective, tasked with solving the murder of a priestess, which started a chain of events that led to the apocalypse. The Harbinger is capable of living the same day over and over again, and sets about identifying characters that played a part in the murder, and then following them through that final, fateful day. Along the way, The Harbinger battles enemies and gathers clues in an attempt to piece things together, prevent the murder, and save the world.
Omensight looks gloriously beautiful, with the world of Urralia populated by anthropomorphic animals, all bathed in brilliant colors and stylized lighting. The visuals reminded me of another recent game, and after racking my brain for a few minutes, it came to me. Omensight is reminiscent of Pyre, one of the most gorgeous games of 2017. Just take a look at the video at the top to get a feel for the visuals, and stick around to see the dynamic battle system, which combines time-magic with hack-and-slash sword action. It is also worth a moment to click through to the official Omensight site to check out some of the other visuals from the game.
Omensight is one of those games that I just stumbled across, without seeing any press releases or news articles. I hope that it manages to make a bit of a splash, because Stories was fantastic, and it seems like Spearhead put a lot of work into this title. After playing Stories, Spearhead Games struck me as a studio to watch, so I am delighted that Omensight will release on Tuesday, May 15 on Steam and PlayStation 4. PlayStation Plus members can pre-order Omensight for $15.99, which seems like the bargain of the month. If I get a chance to play Omensight, I will report back with impressions, but the videos I've seen have already impressed me enough that I might just seek it out.
