Frictional's Ontos Won’t Terrify You—But It’ll Haunt You Anyway

Frictional Games announced Ontos at The Game Awards 2025 as a successor to SOMA, but the studio isn’t relying on jump scares this time. Creative director Thomas Grip said:

"The goal is to evoke this deep existential terror that stays long after you finish playing."

Ontos shifts from survival mechanics to "interactive story scenes" with unmarked choices, reducing puzzles in favor of narrative complexity. Grip clarified:

"Our intention is not to make a stressful or scary game in the traditional sense. In your more standard horror game... the intent is to evoke a very primal sense of fear."

The teaser features a "man trapped inside a computer made out of rats," and Grip called it "easily the deepest and most complex game we have done from a narrative perspective."