First details call attention to When Sirens Fall Silent 

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Dark new investigative thriller unveiled by the creators of The Town of Light and Martha Is Dead

Some of the best mysteries involve an element of cat-and-mouse between investigator and criminal mastermind, where it can sometimes be difficult to tell who is the cat and who is the mouse. That certainly looks to be the case in When Sirens Fall Silent, the upcoming new psychological thriller from LKA, creators of The Town of Light and Martha Is Dead.

While telling a standalone story, When Sirens Fall Silent promises to "reveal deep links and crossovers to previous LKA games," continuing what the developer refers to as their "Storie Senza Voce series." Like its predecessors, this game is set in a real Italian location, this time the city of Rome in the early 1990s. A series of high-profile kidnappings and homicides have gripped the populace, and the perpetrator has targeted a lone officer named Mila to follow their instructions so that an untold story can be told and hidden "truths" revealed. Mila is a "determined policewoman" but is "haunted by a past she's desperate to escape," and as the "investigation unravels, you must not only save her from herself, but also [from] being swallowed up by a vortex of violence, mystery and confusion."

Created using the Unreal Engine 5, When Sirens Fall Silent is a sharp-looking first-person 3D adventure promising a "cinematic look and feel." Rather than a "face-peeling" sort of horror, the chills here come from its focus on murder, human trafficking, misogyny and other horrifying real-world themes that will "pull no punches." Gameplay will involve traditional detective work, as players must "explore and re-explore" crime scenes and corpses for hidden clues that "aren’t obvious on first examination," solve environmental puzzles ranging from "the logical to the mind bending," and interrogate key persons of interest along the way. In a first for LKA, the narrative here includes a "branching, multi-layered dialogue system" where both the "verbal and emotional interaction" are important, so players will want to pay particular attention to body language, as "sometimes there are answers in the unspoken words."

The game is "coming soon" for Windows PC, though no firm target release date has yet been announced. In the meantime, you can wishlist When Sirens Fall Silent on Steam, GOG and Epic, and sign up for ongoing updates from the game's official website.