SCP: Secret Files lets you experience paranormal cases from the SCP Foundation

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-06-13 17:37 JST)

Chinese indie game developer GameZoo Studio has released a demo for SCP: Secret Files on Steam. The demo provides around 40 minutes of play time.

In SCP: Secret Files, players can experience a variety of paranormal phenomena by taking on the role of a researcher for the SCP Foundation. The game is set in a world where items that cause supernatural events and mysterious creatures actually exist. The SCP Foundation is an organization that has maintained the peace and order of humankind by secretly securing, containing, and protecting these anomalies.

The protagonist of the game is a new researcher for the SCP Foundation named Carl, who is assigned to organize the Foundation’s top-secret files. One day, while Carl is looking through some files, something inexplicable occurs. Carl’s perception of the world becomes distorted, and it begins to severely affect his psyche.

The newly released demo takes place at Site-74, an abandoned hydroelectric power plant that is used by the foundation as an asylum. Over many years, the facility was used to house a number of safe-level anomalies. However, recently it has taken over the highly dangerous SCP-701 of the Euclid object class. During an experiment related to SCP-701, all contact from the outside world was lost. In other words, there is the possibility that something related to SCP-701 may have breached containment. SCP Foundation agent Bella heads to Site-74 in order to retrieve the black box.

Just as SCP itself consists of a wide range of styles, this game also offers a number of diverse experiences, including an interactive picture book featuring an uplifting fable and a bizarre retro style adventure. The story of Site-74 and SCP-701 that can be experienced in the demo is just one of the stories that are “contained” within the game.

Gameplay in the demo is mostly based around exploring Site-74 and doing some light puzzle solving, although there are some scenes where you are pursued by a mysterious enemy. According to the store page, the experience that awaits players in the full game looks like it will be one that places greater importance on the atmosphere and story than it does on action and puzzles.

The game is being developed by GameZoo Studio, an independent studio based in Beijing, China. An explanation seen during the game states that the development team is made up of six members who come from a variety of different backgrounds, including animation, education, film, and mobile games. Their goal is to create a new and innovative approach to storytelling.

The SCP Foundation, which the game is based on, is a fictitious organization that is documented by stories set in a shared universe that have been created by people and published on the internet as part of a collaborative writing project. The website for the SCP Foundation features a number of objects and stories, known as Tales, created by community members that are published in the form of written reports. SCP-701, which is featured in the demo of SCP: Secret Files, is one such story.

The Steam page for SCP: Secret Files can be found here.