With a megaphone speech that drips with faux-religious propaganda, The Church in the Darkness is an isometric rogue-lite stealth shooter. It's inspired by real-life events centered on 1970's radical Christianity. You're a former law enforcement officer, and you're headed into the jungles of South America to find your sister's son. He went on a church mission to build homes, but things may have gotten out of hand. The place you're going is called Freedom Town. But take that as you will as you watch these images.
As a Christian myself, the premise of this game scares the holy living crap out of me. I'm not talking P.T. scary or Five Nights at Freddy's scary. I'm talking religious extremists scary. All the more so because The Church in the Darkness operates this way:
"No one is forced to join a cult. It welcomes you. It understands you. It envelops you until the words become more than truth—they make you whole."
In Freedom Town, each playthrough is different. Personalities swap, the town itself is different, the narrative shifts, friends become enemies and enemies become friends. You can play stealthily using non-leathal takedowns, or you can kill anyone who gets in your way. There will be consequences, however. But it looks like you're going to have to save these people from themselves. If this church truly is dangerous, that is. Perhaps the word "cult" is building up a prejudice inside of you right now. Who knows: You might be the bad guy here.
The voices you hear are those of Ellen McLain (GLaDOS from Portal) and John Patrick Lowrie (the Sniper in Team Fortress 2).
The Church in the Darkness aims for an early 2017 launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Good luck to Paranoid Productions in making it onto all these platforms. It's got an unsettling premise on its hands.