Sunless Sea and Masks of the Rose developer Failbetter Video games has unveiled Mandrake, its very first challenge away from the Fallen London universe. It is a rural life sim set in a “world of outdated, wild powers” the place horticulture is forbidden, and it will finally be making its option to PC.
Taking inspiration from British historical past and folklore, Mandrake casts gamers because the final in a line of horticultural sorcerers – one who lastly returns to their household’s deserted dwelling within the ‘small, sophisticated’ village of Chandley after a very long time away.
Initially a minimum of, Mandrake seems like fairly acquainted stuff. You will are likely to your backyard, fish, forage, cook dinner, and craft furnishings to brighten your own home; you may enterprise into the woods, to the seashore, to the mine looking for minerals, and into the group to befriend the locals, studying their tales and turning into intertwined with their lives.
However Failbetter’s announcement hints at one thing slightly darker and extra mysterious round Mandrake’s periphery, and it is right here the studio’s knack for the peculiar begins to peek via. Quickly, as an illustration, you may be buying and selling turnips and runner beans for stranger, extra intriguing seeds; you may befriend a river, listen in on the lifeless, drink with a god who lives in your chimney, and spend a haunted night time on the Butcher’s Oak.
The eccentric locals, in the meantime, embrace a hunter who makes pacts with the woods, and a lady saved from the ocean, who nonetheless hears voices calling to her from beneath the waves. Chandley is dwelling to spirits and different unknown creatures too, together with the long-armed Granny Jakes who lives in a hidden orchard, and Hroame, “typically stone and typically not”. However not all the pieces is pleasant. “Do not exit after darkish,” Failbetter warns, “the night time just isn’t for you.”
Mandrake does not have a launch date but, however Failbetter says that as a consequence of its complexity and “some very uncommon options” it’s going to be searching for participant suggestions as the sport continues its journey towards launch. To that finish, it expects to run a variety of playtests previous to Mandrake’s launch, so curious kinds ought to contemplating wishlisting it on Steam.
