Frictional Games Unveils Ontos: A Haunting Spiritual Successor to Soma
The visionary minds behind psychological nightmares like Soma and Amnesia have returned to the spotlight. During The Game Awards 2025, Frictional Games pulled back the curtain on Ontos, a cerebral sci-fi thriller designed to challenge your psyche and redefine atmospheric dread when it arrives in 2026.
The debut trailer for Ontos evokes the same chilling, claustrophobic energy that made 2015’s Soma a cult classic. Viewers were treated to a glimpse of visceral body horror and unsettling futuristic environments that suggest a deeply disturbing narrative journey ahead.
Players will step into the boots of Aditi Amani, a determined engineer who travels to a lunar resort known as Samsara. Her mission is deeply personal: uncovering the dark secrets surrounding her father’s disappearance. Survival in this lunar facility won’t be straightforward. Frictional Games emphasizes a philosophy of player agency, stating that obstacles in Ontos rarely have a single intended solution. Instead, players must navigate the environment using their own intuition, though every choice carries heavy, potentially permanent consequences.
Adding a layer of prestige to the production, the legendary Stellan Skarsgård has been confirmed for a role in the project, though his specific character remains shrouded in mystery. Technically, the game marks a significant leap for the studio, as it is being developed on the brand-new, proprietary HPL4 engine, promising a fidelity that matches its ambitious scope.
Ontos is scheduled to haunt PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in 2026.
