That Which Remains

That Which Remains is a sci-fi ghost-hunting extraction game for 1–4 players, with proximity voice chat. Around 2250 CE, humanity has supposedly eliminated war, scarcity and death, but fusion was a lie: Utopia runs on Enticine, liquefied trauma harvested from ghosts called Neurospatial Parasitic Entities. You play as a Relic, taken from a long-dead age of suffering and conscripted by Entitech to survive as many days as possible while extracting Enticine across time and space. Failure and death are only the beginning.

Hunt in contamination zones

You explore five contamination zones, haunted by the trauma that created them, and uncover their stories. You search for signs of entities using EMF signals, anomalous temperature changes, voices on the spirit box, ghost orbs visible through a camera lens, telekinesis, illusions and other clues. Weather and time of day affect both difficulty and rewards.

Entities can resist your tools, possess you, slam doors, throw objects, disrupt lights, shatter windows and furniture, wield fire and electricity, and manifest in frightening ways that erode your sanity. The game has a continuous world with no loading screens after launch, a 24-hour day/night cycle and dynamic weather.

Identify the entities

You identify an entity by mapping key signature evidence or taking notes on secondary evidence and personality traits. There are 12 entity types, each with distinct traits, moods and reactions to your actions and words. You record your findings in a log and learn to recognize their personalities.

The V.O.I.C.E. technology lets you speak into the Spirit Box and receive responses from the entity and its captured victims. You can say hundreds of different things; the responses have unique personalities. The Spirit Box can also let you speak with other Relics who have died.

Extract Enticine

You locate and extract trauma-laced materials. Once you identify the manifested entity, you can use traps or the Capture tool to extract Enticine directly from it. At the end of each day, you must meet your Enticine Quota. Any surplus powers your base; if the base runs out of power, you face the consequences.

Recover and upgrade

Sanity combines exhaustion, fear and cognitive strain into one persistent value. You can recover by sleeping in your cabin, drinking coffee, playing basketball or chess, or upgrading your base with a serenity chamber. Your cabin and any unique decorations you give it travel with you from game to game.

You use rewarded Energy Credits to craft tools for yourself and other Relics. Base Power upgrades your base and unlocks new equipment and personal upgrades as you level up. The experience and level system leads to equipment and personal upgrades, and there are 10 base upgrades.

Work together

Use the walkie-talkie to speak with the whole team or proximity chat to talk with nearby players. The chat uses per-room acoustics, and the entity is always listening. Other players see your full-body actions reflected in how your character looks.

The game includes around 18 tools and five contamination zones, as well as 12 fully realized entities with varied abilities, personalities and difficulty.