Alpha Polaris: A Horror Adventure Game

About Alpha Polaris: A Horror Adventure Game

Alpha Polaris is a horror adventure by Turmoil Games, a small studio in Finnish Lapland. It was first released in retail and came to Steam in October 2015 with wider resolution support, achievements and tweaked dialogue; it is now free to play there. The makers made it over two long, dark Finnish winters and call it an authentic Arctic production.

In the snowfields of Greenland lies Alpha Polaris, an American oil research station. High above, the ion storm of the century is gathering, and with it comes a strange mixing of reality and night terrors. You play one of the small crew, talking to the others, exploring the station and the ice around it, and working out what is happening as the storm builds.

It plays as a classic third-person point-and-click adventure, with an inventory of items to collect and use, professional English voice acting, hand-drawn dialogue portraits and an original soundtrack. The screenshots show the station's labs and bunks under the northern lights, a crevasse in the ice, a polar bear lying on the snow, and bones laid out beside a cracked, rune-scrawled hide.

The horror is slow and character-driven rather than full of shocks, built from Inuit legend, the Cthulhu mythos and, the makers say, the very real plight of polar bears. It suits players who like the isolation of The Thing or Conarium and the pace of old adventure games.

How to play Alpha Polaris: A Horror Adventure Game

1. Download it free from Steam (Windows).
2. Start the story at the Alpha Polaris station.
3. Click to walk around the station and the ice, and talk to the crew.
4. Pick up items, combine them in your inventory and use them to solve problems.
5. Follow the story as the storm builds and the night terrors grow.

Tips

• Talk to everyone after each event; the story moves through the crew.
• Check your inventory often for items that can be combined.
• The minimum resolution is 1280x768.
• Take it slowly: the horror builds over the whole game.

Questions