DaRmaZat ONTOS, a new science-fiction mystery thriller from Kepler Interactive and Frictional Games—the studio behind SOMA and the Amnesia series—will launch in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. The project has been in development for more than a decade and represents one of the studio’s most ambitious narrative explorations to date.
Set within the repurposed moon hotel Samsara, the game positions players as Aditi Amani, who travels to the outpost in pursuit of answers tied to the enigmatic legacy of her estranged father. What begins as a personal search escalates into a confrontation with forces capable of fracturing perception, rewriting truth, and obscuring the boundaries between science and metaphysics.
The narrative unfolds through a series of experiments that challenge both moral judgment and philosophical conviction. Each test pushes deeper into existential territory, forcing players to evaluate the implications of their actions as consequences reverberate through Samsara’s interconnected systems. These encounters serve not merely as puzzles but as thematic provocations designed to unsettle and compel introspection.
ONTOS‘ gameplay emphasizes tactile, systems-driven interaction. Players will gather materials, calibrate analog machinery, and manipulate complex mechanisms in scenarios that encourage experimentation over prescriptive solutions. Ingenuity and methodical planning are central to progression, and outcomes can shift dramatically depending on how situations are approached.
Samsara itself functions as a sprawling labyrinth built atop a defunct mining colony and a long-abandoned luxury hotel. The environment has since been reclaimed by competing philosophical factions, resulting in a landscape where scientific rigor blends with ritual, and surreal juxtapositions define the space. Laboratories built inside casinos, theatres used as testing grounds, experiments staged in empty pools, and machinery embedded in ancient lunar caverns contribute to a setting layered with hidden stories and buried motives.
