I’m an absolute sucker for old school survival horror, and based on my time with the Steam Next Fest demo for Senara: The Sacrament, that’s exactly what developer Influsion Inc. is going for. But instead of relying on retro aesthetics, they want to up the scares with "hyper-realistic" graphics that do their best to mimic real life.
This isn’t the first look we’ve gotten at the Senara world. There’s a standalone prologue that was released way back in 2024 called Before the Dawn. If you’ve played that, you’ll be familiar with what Influsion is showcasing here. That means lots of “this door is locked from the other side” and key hunting. The Steam store page promises puzzle-solving and exploration-based design—and I’ve definitely done a lot of exploring on the titular cargo ship.
See, the Senara isn’t just a normal vessel—it’s a floating ritual site used by a fanatical cult to summon their dark magics. Or something along those lines. It’s really just an excuse to make a scary game set on a massive cargo ship that is surprisingly detailed. I mean, there must be some real maritime enthusiasts at Influsion, because their attempt at “hyper-realism” translates to a hyper-detailed environment. (It turns out, the studio actually used LiDAR scanning and their background in industrial "digital twins" to map a real 1:1 replica of a 6,000-ton ship into the game).
And while I hate to criticize a game based on a demo—and an in-development demo at that—I have to assume it's meant to showcase some of the best of what the final product will have to offer. I doubt that’s what this demo does; instead, it puts you at the slow beginnings of a game.
Yes, everything looks “real,” but it all ends up feeling very office-casual and modern, which turns out isn’t very scary. Even when I finally came across evidence of a disturbance and some gore, I just wasn’t feeling the tension.
I can see Senara: The Sacrament as a potentially very scary game. Throw in some great sound design, a bit more suspense, and you have a stew going. But the demo just didn’t convince me this is a game I want to play anymore. Even when a monster was finally revealed, it was underwhelming, with little to no audio to really sell the effect.I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how Senara: The Sacrament eventually turns out, but right now, the demo has me feeling like this one might be dead in the water.
