Frictional Games: ONTOS — the studio's deepest and most complex game.

Frictional Games: ONTOS — The Studio's Deepest and Most Complex Game

Frictional Games is preparing ONTOS — the spiritual successor to SOMA, which significantly departs from the studio's familiar formula. According to comments from creative director Thomas Grip, the new game is in some ways similar to Shadow of the Colossus. It focuses on large-scale experiments, around which the entire adventure is built.

In more traditional horror games, like the first Amnesia, the main emphasis is on surviving in a frightening environment. The goal is to evoke a very primal sense of fear. In ONTOS, the emphasis shifts towards contemplation. The player encounters strange, often extremely disturbing situations and must figure out for themselves how best to proceed. If in a typical Amnesia-style game you are hunted by a monster, in ONTOS you come face to face with a person trapped inside a computer made of rats.

Thomas Grip

This computer made of living rats assures you: it can explain what is happening at all — and that in itself sounds audacious and unsettling. But that is precisely the effect Frictional Games is aiming for. The studio wants not just to scare the player with chases and jump scares, but to present situations that are bewildering, confusing, and force you to think, rather than instinctively hide in the dark.

According to Grip, hide-and-seek elements will still remain in ONTOS, but there will be few of them. Moreover, the player will almost always have the opportunity to deal with danger in other ways — through observation, analysis, or unconventional solutions.

The developer emphasizes that Frictional Games does not intend to make tense horror in the traditional sense. ONTOS is not about survival at any cost or constant fear for the character's life. The project is conceived as an active, engaging experience where the player has to confront heavy philosophical themes and seek answers independently. The main goal is to evoke a deep existential horror that doesn't disappear after turning off the game, but stays with the person for a long time, forcing them to replay what they saw in their head and reinterpret the events.

The action of ONTOS unfolds in "Samsara" — a luxurious hotel on the Moon, built right on top of the ruins of a failed mining colony. Outwardly, this place looks like a symbol of prosperity and progress, but inside, everything has long gone wrong. According to the developer, the complex's inhabitants did not learn the lessons from BioShock, and as a result, "Samsara's" society split into philosophical factions. In these groups, science gradually mixed with faith, and rational ideas intertwined with almost religious beliefs.

The setting itself has become noticeably larger than anything Frictional Games has done before.

ONTOS is undoubtedly the deepest and most complex game we've made in terms of storytelling. It has many layers to uncover, and every room is literally saturated with discoveries. Exploration is an integral part of this experience. SOMA was quite linear, and the story largely relied on that. ONTOS is much more open.

Thomas Grip

Freedom manifests not only in the world but also in how the user interacts with the story. Events can be experienced in different orders, and tasks can be solved in several ways. Because of this, the plot feels less like a pre-scripted performance and depends more on the player's own actions. This approach is directly related to the project's central theme — the search for truth and the gradual realization of the true nature of events.

The same applies to gameplay. The developers want the process to feel more alive, immersive, and driven by the player themselves. ONTOS will feature a set of tools and different ways to overcome obstacles, not one "correct" solution. The studio is betting on an open-ended style of play that rewards attentiveness, thoughtful planning, and a creative approach.

Those who played SOMA probably still remember moments with bloodied doors and devices that needed to be urgently activated while another deep-sea monster approached from behind. The game often interrupted escape attempts by forcing you to frantically figure out incomprehensible mechanisms. This technique worked and heightened tension, but over time it became predictable.

In ONTOS, the craftsmen at Frictional Games are consciously moving away from classic puzzles. Thomas Grip explains that familiar puzzles will still appear in the game, but there will be few of them, and they will not be the central element. The developers call key situations not puzzles, but "interactive story scenes." In such episodes, the player is not offered predefined solutions. They face a specific problem and must find ways to deal with it themselves. There can be many approaches, but none are directly highlighted — they need to be found through observation, experimentation, and reflection.

At the same time, the game does not protect from mistakes: acting carelessly can easily ruin a situation. Often, the lives of other characters will be at stake, and the responsibility for their fate will fall on the player. The most unsettling aspect of these moments is the lack of an obvious correct choice. ONTOS won't tell you what's better: to save someone's life or let them die, because the consequences of both decisions can be unexpected.

Numerous horrific experiments are taking place in "Samsara." Frictional Games promises that these investigations will force players to confront deep existential questions: reflections on the nature of the soul, suffering, and the very fabric of reality.

For Thomas Grip, experiments are the central part of ONTOS. He compares them to bosses in Shadow of the Colossus: the main gameplay experience is built around these key episodes. Many scenes and areas in the project serve as preparation for the experiments. The player will have to study tools, find ways to interact with the environment, accumulate resources, and carefully gather information to handle these complex, multi-layered tasks. Much of the game is designed to constantly maintain a sense of anticipation and anxiety.

Frictional Games wants to fully explore the possibilities of storytelling in games. When the developers talk about exploring the nature of reality, they mean precisely this — for them, it's not just a narrative device or a decorative idea, but the central goal of the entire game. Grip notes that System Shock 2, which had a strong influence on