VGTimes interview with the game director of the horror Regeneration: about the game's atmosphere and intersections with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Regeneration is a horror game set in a Soviet research facility. Strange things happen at this facility, which are related to experiments on an alien life form. The main character arrives at the facility as part of an expedition, but soon finds himself completely alone. To survive, you will have to use various devices and actively study new knowledge. At Tokyo Game Show, our editor-in-chief Rodion Ilin spoke with Sergey Korolev, founder of the Misterial Games studio, which is developing Regeneration.

VGTimes: Tell us everything you need to know about Regeneration.

Sergey Korolev: We are currently working on two projects in parallel, Stygian: Outer Gods and Regeneration, which is set in a post-Soviet setting. The team learned their lesson on the second game and gained the necessary experience in developing in the survival horror genre. Regeneration will be released immediately next fall, we are not planning early access. However, this is the current state of the project. It still needs to be polished, but there is already something to look at. We are currently negotiating with various publishers. In fact, third-person games are hard to make. Due to realistic graphics, the requirements for animations are much higher, so they took a lot of time.

The key feature of the project is different ways of interacting with the environment. This is not just a horror game where the main character kills everyone in his path. There are few weapons here, so you have to rely on various scientific instruments. Thanks to them, we interact with the world. We are talking about an analyzer, a scanner and an ultraviolet flashlight that changes the environment. In addition, there is crafting, resource collection, file decryption and working with scientific installations.

Regeneration also has serious psychology. We hope that we will be able to create a deep, adult story. The project recently appeared on Steam, you can add it to the «Wishlist».

VGTimes: Where does the game take place? Tell us about the setting.

Sergey Korolev: There are organizations that study areas where unusual phenomena have occurred. According to the plot of Regeneration, one of these expeditions arrives at a Soviet scientific station in the late 2000s. There, nature was contaminated with an extraterrestrial life form. We study the consequences of this cataclysm. Our protagonist, whose name we will not know until the end of the game, wakes up several days after some kind of jump. His colleagues are either missing or dead, so we need to figure out what happened. Later, the task will change.

VGTimes: The atmosphere of Regeneration is reminiscent of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., isn't it?

Sergey Korolev: To some extent, yes, there are some overlaps. In general, if you make a game in a post-Soviet setting, then similarities with «Stalker» cannot be avoided. Plus, we can remember that the game from GSC Game World was based on the book by the Strugatsky brothers (we are talking about «Roadside Picnic» — VGTimes note), so our sources of inspiration are close.

VGTimes: Good luck with your project!

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At this stage, Regeneration is of genuine interest. The setting of Soviet scientific complexes is an interesting topic, which was recently revealed in Atomic Heart. However, here it will be combined with an alien theme, which leads to associations with the universe of SCP Foundation. But the question comes down to implementation. The game is promised to be released in 2025.

Are you waiting for Regeneration? Or do you not like horrors about aliens? Share your opinions in the comments!

Interview conducted by Rodion Ilin.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has visited dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have collected many exclusive materials. For example, in 2019 we got to a closed screening of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia CAGS, and also visited IgroMir several times, where we saw Hideo Kojima and other famous developers.