Call of the Forgotten to be heard from in 2028

• Announcements by Sam Amiotte-Beaulieu
• Published:

Cyberpunk-meets-cosmic horror in point-and-click adventure from the creators of The Journey of AutUmn

Cyberpunk is already a genre notorious for its bleak outlook on humanity’s horizons, but mixing that with a large dose of Lovecraft-inspired eldritch madness sounds like a recipe for an all new kind of dystopian future. We find out for ourselves in Call of the Forgotten, the new project from indie German developer Artfactory Jalokivi, creator of The Journey of AutUmn.

Gideon Langley, an employee of Stellar Solutions, has been deeply troubled and “haunted by terrifying nightmares” since a mysterious incident two years ago. When Gideon vanishes after a particularly harrowing bout of unsettling visions, the company sends hunter leader August Becker to hire former hunter-turned-freelancer Nyra van Dyke to track down their missing man. Nyra reluctantly agrees, as she has a history of bad blood with August but she is struggling to make ends meet and must take any jobs she can get. Little does she know this assignment will lead her down a trail of corporate conspiracies and entwine her fate with Gideon’s as they unearth an “ancient threat lurking in the shadows.”

Like its predecessor, Call of the Forgotten features a simple point-and-click interface and beautiful hand-painted graphics “created with acrylic paint on paper, wood, and cardboard.” Otherwise, however, the game represents a completely different direction from the developer’s previous release. Instead of The Journey of AutUmn’s cute and colorful sci-fi, this game aims for a grimy, neon-drenched detective noir thriller on city streets where shadows of otherworldly monstrosities press against the thin veil upholding reality.

Loosely described as “Blade Runner meets Lovecraft,” this game sends Gideon and Nyra to 70 or so unique scenes throughout the cyber-noir streets of New Dunwich via a detailed city map that fills out as you unlock new lines of inquiry. Gameplay largely consists of standard adventure gaming fare: moving from place to place while talking with characters and solving inventory-based puzzles. However, your inventory isn’t just filled up with items; certain information can also be combined with other objects and pieces of information in order to form new conclusions needed to progress. Players also have the option to pursue alternative puzzle solutions thanks to Nyra’s augmentations, such as using her “mechanical arm” to brute force her way into a cabinet instead of searching for the key. Augmentations consume a “limited resource called 'Purple,'" however, so you will need to choose carefully when to use these abilities, while also monitoring the jittery, medicated Gideon for rising stress levels.

Call of the Forgotten is still early in development, with its current release window scheduled for the third quarter of 2028. If you want to stay up to date on the cosmic cybernetic mystery as it unfolds, the game is ready for wishlisting on Steam. A demo is also planned before launch to support a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, the primary goal being to “support additional localization efforts and voice acting production.”