The doors of the fated Blackthorne Asylum are set to creak open once more. Later this year, Dead Boss Games and Evolution Publishing will invite players to step into the remnants of their upcoming psychological survival horror title, “Affected: The Asylum.”
Set within a sanatorium where the line between healing and horror was intentionally erased, the game explores a dark history fueled by a secretive cult. Years ago, the institution was used as a laboratory for “The Preparation”—a series of harrowing procedures designed to merge biology with fanatical belief. The goal? To create a collective hive mind powered by a parasitic entity known as the “Holy Gift.”
Players must navigate the decaying ruins to uncover the truth behind the cult’s greatest failure: SUBJECT 357. Formerly an employee who fell out of favor with the leadership, they were forcibly twisted into the “Apex Experiment.” Now, they roam the asylum as a warped, ever-present predator—a living manifestation of the cult’s shattered ambitions.
“With ‘Affected: The Asylum,’ we wanted to move beyond the tropes of the ‘haunted house’ and explore the horror of a place that was systematically corrupted,” says Kevin Joyce, CEO of Evolution Publishing. “It’s a story about what happens when absolute belief meets an unstoppable biological force. In VR, that sense of being hunted in a space with so much dark history is incredibly visceral.”
Unlike the franchise’s previous walking tour-style scares, “The Asylum” promises a cinematic, narrative-driven experience in which survival is earned. Players will need to master resource management, stealth, and critical thinking to survive encounters with SUBJECT 357, using scarce ammunition and environmental storytelling to piece together the sanatorium’s disturbing past.
“Affected: The Asylum” is coming soon to Meta Quest and SteamVR.
