Welsh games studio launches pub-based horror game worldwide

Nation.Cymru staff

A new horror game that sends players into other dimensions to find ingredients for a secret brewery beneath a pub will launch worldwide on Thursday.

Hazard Levels was developed and published by Penarth-based Wales Interactive, the independent studio behind Maid of Sker, Sker Ritual and Five Dates.

The game makes its console debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on 12 November, alongside its full PC release on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Wales Interactive said: “Both the development and publishing are led from Wales, making this a homegrown creative export with an international audience.”

The game starts at the Fox Hole Arms, a traditional pub that conceals a research facility run by a group known as the Family. Players use a scanner to find anomalies and open portals into unstable worlds. The terrain, routes and hazards change between expeditions, so a route that worked on one trip may be gone by the next.

Players can go alone or team up with up to three others. Crossplay lets people on different platforms join the same game, while proximity voice chat means teammates can hear each other when their characters are nearby. The game can be played from a first- or third-person perspective.

A device called the Gravity Gauntlet lets players pick up, carry and throw several objects at once. They can sell what they find at stations inside the rifts or take ingredients back to the pub to brew experimental cocktails. Some drinks give players abilities that help on later missions, and completing orders unlocks more potent brews.

“The deeper the rift, the stranger it gets. Just make it back before last orders,” the studio said in its launch release.

The launch follows more than six months in Steam Early Access, which began on 30 April.

Feedback

Wales Interactive said feedback from players helped shape updates that added an aquarium-inspired expansion, new enemies and challenges with outfits and other cosmetic rewards. The team also developed the brewing system during that period.

The full release adds a guide to the creatures players encounter and events called Rift Surges that make expeditions less predictable. Four downloadable packs due at launch add cosmetic items inspired by myths and legends, including dragons, kelpies, the Minotaur and the Japanese kitsune.

Wales Interactive says its games have been played by millions worldwide. The Penarth studio also publishes work by other developers, including Ant Workshop’s Into the Restless Ruins, and has released interactive films such as Dead Reset and Late Shift.

A free Hazard Levels demo is available on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.