Illbleed Preview

The creator of Blue Stinger, Climax Studio's next project, is providing another entry into the survival horror genre. Illbleed, for the Dreamcast, is a Resident Evil-styled game that pits a single individual against a horde of monsters and traps. The game takes place in a large horror theme park where visitors are invited to join the attraction. Whoever successfully escapes will be rewarded a million dollars. The only catch to this attraction is that there have been no survivors so far. Inside the attraction, players encounter "shock events," which affect their heartbeat. Shock events could range from a monster suddenly appearing from a closet to knives darting out from the kitchen.

Each character in the game has a heartbeat meter with normal value set at 60. Whenever the character experiences a shock event, the heartbeat meter goes higher. When the meter goes too high, the character will have a heart attack and die. What players must do is encounter as few shock events as possible. This can be done by using four senses. In the game, characters will be using three of five basic senses - sight, hearing, smell - and the sixth sense. When the players use the horror monitor, one of the four senses will be responsive to a certain area in the game. By carefully looking for something in the area with the horror monitor, players will catch these horror events and prevent their heartbeats from rising. Players will consume adrenaline using the horror sensor, so its usage will be quite limited. There will also be times when the players panic and start crawling about the floor.

Illbleed for the Sega Dreamcast is slated for a fall release in Japan. Sega of America is planning to bring the game over to the North American market as well.