🐀 ONTOS — FRictional GAMES RETURNS WITH A NEW SCI-FI HORROR EXPERIENCE AT GAMESCOM 2026

One of the most intriguing games shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 is Ontos, the new psychological sci-fi horror game from Frictional Games, the studio behind SOMA and Amnesia.

The Gamescom presentation finally showed gameplay, revealing a disturbing world where human consciousness, artificial intelligence and biological experiments collide.

🧠 A TERRIFYING EXPERIMENT

Players take control of Aditi, who becomes involved in a horrifying experiment involving the transfer of human consciousness.

The Gamescom footage showed an especially disturbing concept:

🧠 A human consciousness transferred to a server made up of rats.

This immediately establishes the game’s central themes:

• 🧠 Human consciousness

• 🤖 Artificial intelligence

• 🧬 Biological experimentation

• 🐀 Rats

• 💾 Digital existence

• 👁️ Psychological horror

• 🔬 Scientific experimentation

🐀 THE RATS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU THINK

The game’s most disturbing idea is that consciousness can exist outside the human body.

Aditi encounters an experiment in which a person’s consciousness has been transferred into a network of rats connected to a server.

This raises a much bigger question:

What actually makes someone human?

If your consciousness survives but your body doesn’t, are you still the same person?

Ontos appears to use that question as one of the foundations of its story.

🔬 NO SIMPLE RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER

One particularly interesting aspect revealed at Gamescom is the game’s approach to player choices.

The developers aren’t presenting every situation as:

GOOD CHOICE vs BAD CHOICE

Instead, decisions can have different consequences, with no universally correct solution.

That means players may have to make decisions without knowing exactly what the consequences will be.

🌑 PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

Frictional Games is known for creating horror based on atmosphere and psychological tension, rather than relying purely on combat.

Ontos appears to continue that philosophy.

Expect:

🔦 Dark environments

🔬 Abandoned laboratories

🧠 Psychological tension

🐀 Disturbing experiments

🤖 Unexplained technology

🚪 Exploration

🧩 Environmental puzzles

The fear comes from understanding what happened and discovering what the experiments have created.

🎮 GAMEPLAY

The Gamescom footage provided the first substantial gameplay look at Ontos.

Players will:

• 🔍 Investigate mysterious locations

• 🧩 Solve environmental problems

• 🧠 Make difficult decisions

• 🔬 Examine experiments

• 🚪 Explore dangerous facilities

• 👁️ Discover the truth behind the technology

There is no simple “shoot everything” solution.

Instead, exploration and decision-making are central to the experience.

🎬 FROM THE CREATORS OF SOMA

Frictional Games previously created SOMA, one of the most respected science-fiction horror games of the last decade.

That makes Ontos particularly interesting.

SOMA asked players to question:

What does it mean to be human?

Ontos appears to be exploring similar philosophical territory — but through a completely new story and technology.

🔥 WHY ONTOS COULD BE ONE OF THE BEST HORROR GAMES OF GAMESCOM 2026

The combination is extremely promising:

🧠 Consciousness transfer

🐀 Rat-based artificial intelligence

🔬 Human experimentation

🤖 Advanced technology

👁️ Psychological horror

🧩 Meaningful choices

This isn’t simply another monster-horror game.

It’s a game that appears to want the player to think about what they’re seeing.

📅 RELEASE

Ontos is currently scheduled for 2027.

More information about the exact release date is expected later.

🧠 WHAT IF YOU COULD SURVIVE WITHOUT YOUR BODY?

That’s the question at the heart of Ontos.

A consciousness.

A machine.

Thousands of rats.

And an experiment that perhaps should never have existed.

🐀 Ontos could be one of the darkest and most psychologically disturbing games coming out of Gamescom 2026.

🎮 Follow NewFormat for more Gamescom 2026 news, trailers, gameplay reveals and the biggest announcements from Cologne.