SEEKING SOLIS

How an indie studio fulfilled its plan to deliver a TV-quality sci-fi thriller - with the help of two of videogames' brightest stars

- CHRIS SCHILLING

INSPIRED BY THE STORYTELLING OF THE BEST SHOWS HE SAW, TINSDALE IMAGINED TAKING A TV-QUALITY STORY IN THE OTHER DIRECTION

Maintenance engineer Jack Leary is working the graveyard shift at Prospect One, a remote mining outpost on Mars, when he receives a red alert from the nearby station of Fort Solis. Suspicious that it was manually activated rather than automated, he calls in to request a response; when that isn’t forthcoming, he tells colleague Jessica Appleton that he’s heading over to investigate. With storm warnings incoming, he hops inside a bulky rover to drive the short distance to the other base, the audio score as the vehicle trundles toward its destination making it clear he’s unlikely to receive a warm welcome. The signs, then, are already ominous when, shortly after his arrival, he delivers a dire warning over the radio to his co-worker: “Jess… Solis… we are not alone!” But then he immediately breaks into laughter. He’s only kidding. Everything’s fine. For now.

It’s not the only time we’re wrongfooted during our hands-on time with a game that’s pitched, tellingly, as a ‘single player third person thriller’. Despite initial appearances to the contrary – and subsequent discoveries that heighten the sense of apprehension, well before we discover bloodied bandages on an office desk and a red handprint smeared on a pair of surgical curtains in the medbay – this is not that kind of science-fiction horror. We might naturally stiffen slightly in anticipation as we advance down a narrow passageway, illuminated only by the flashlight on our spacesuit, but we soon realise we’re not going to see alien tentacles bursting out of a vent, or stumble across a corpse that suddenly sprouts arachnid legs and scuttles towards us. Sure,