Curse of the Crimson Stag racing toward PC and console release later this year

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Rebranded first-person folk-horror adventure unveiled by the creator of The Suicide of Rachel Foster

As the old saying goes, if at first you succeed, do it again. (Or something to that effect.) After stranding one young woman in a desolate remote environment in 2020's The Suicide of Rachel Foster, Italian developer One-O-One Games is right back at it with an unsuspecting new protagonist in the upcoming Curse of the Crimson Stag.

This time around it's a teenager named Brit, who leaves behind her "backwater hometown" to "assist in the making of a documentary about the derelict Whiteroot Hotel." Once an impressive destination in the American Northwest, the luxurious hotel became "the stage for a series of mysterious deaths and the complete downfall of its owners," resulting in the building being "abandoned and left to rot" for the past 18 years. But that was not the end of Whiteroot's story, only the beginning of local folklore "spinning tales of ghostly hauntings and of angry spirits," as well as an "entity known as the Crimson Stag – a protective spirit of sorts – which supposedly inhabits the dark woods of the area." It's all great background for a documentary, but "once Brit starts her exploration of the hotel, as instructed by professional ghost hunter Emily, it quickly becomes clear that she is in over her head." It seems the grand old hotel "does not surrender its secrets easily and, whether it is supernatural forces or dark machinations, the Curse of the Crimson Stag soon threatens to claim her as well."

If that all sounds vaguely familiar, it's because the premise was initially introduced under the title The Fading of Nicole Wilson. As with its predecessor (and the developer's other supernatural thriller in production), the newly rebranded Curse of the Crimson Stag is a free-roaming, first-person 3D "story-driven mystery thriller" that emphasizes "exploration, puzzle-solving, and investigation, set within a thick folk-horror atmosphere" that is bolstered by the use of binaural audio. Rather than dealing with more figurative ghosts like the protagonist of the previous game, however, here the hotel's "unsettling surroundings" will confront players with a "blurred reality between deadly conspiracies and the supernatural." As you progress, the game promises a "mature story blending mystery and horror" to unravel, complete with "relatable, yet flawed characters [who] become entangled in a web of schemes and lies."

There is no firm target release date just yet, but Curse of the Crimson Stag will be published by Daedalic Entertainment on Steam for Windows PC sometime later this year, along with console versions for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. 

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