Proximate

Proximate is a dread-driven narrative game in which you investigate a deep-sea laboratory and piece together what led to the research team’s demise. You work as a contractor for the country’s largest investment firm, sent to recover its intellectual property after the Melbourne-based tech startup Neuras cuts contact with its investors.

The laboratory

After labor rights movements sweep across large parts of India and Southeast Asia, companies lose their supply of cheap, exploitable workers. Neuras attempts to create a cheap, endless workforce by installing AI drives in the freshly dead. Following a year of disappointing results, the lab suddenly goes silent. As you investigate, the firm’s other investment project—the SONA visor—may become a greater problem than recovering the lab’s IP. You also keep hearing breathing behind a door.

Investigate with the visor

You must wear an image-recognition visor that provides only the minimum information needed to succeed, and sometimes less. You use text, proximity data and audio clues to form a mental map of your surroundings, while relying on technology that may fail when you need it. The visor can misidentify a red stain on a wall as ketchup.

You have 90 minutes to complete the assignment. Collect chat logs from the research team and receive calls from your manager, voiced by Luke Austin. The story includes a cast of queer characters. There is no monster—or at least, you have not seen one. If you hear it, turn away.