Dream Wire Games, the Russian studio formed by sole developer Daniil Ponomarev, has announced the release date of the drama horror film ASPIS. The game will be released on PC and available on October 23, 2026 steam and Play VK. For now, you can check out the new gameplay trailer below.
The author also reports that ASPIS won first place as an independent project at the IGROPROM Online 2026 event and received the Best Independent Developer award.
ASPIS is a story-driven adventure game with psychological horror and exploration elements that begins in 1987 in the Soviet Union. In the story, six volunteers are connected to an experimental system designed to predict historical events, but after a year, none of them have regained consciousness. One of the participants is engineer Andrei, who agrees to conduct the experiment in the hope of meeting his late wife Anna and daughter Lisa again. His journey begins at the Cybernetics Institute but gradually transcends the familiar boundaries of reality, leading to twisted versions of familiar locations, ancient buildings, and worlds that existed long before ASPI was created. The story unfolds through environmental exploration, documents, recordings, OGAS terminals, character encounters and movie scenes, allowing people to gradually reconstruct the experimental events and understand their true nature.
Exploration alternates with pursuit and combat. One of the enemies, the Guardian, is invincible to conventional weapons, so encounters with him require the use of environmental features, doors, and escape routes. Other enemies can be fought using the Makarov pistol, melee combat, and environmental objects, while ammunition and necessary resources must be found in the passage.
PEP-01 became an important tool for Andre, allowing him to interact with X-energy, activate mechanisms, and create astral windows between different layers of reality. Therefore, certain objects can only be seen or obtained in a certain state of the world, which is used to solve spatial problems. As Andrei progresses, he meets other participants in the experiment, the director of the institute, the scientist cat and the devil, whose knowledge and explanations help to reveal different aspects of what is going on. In the ending, the player must make a choice that determines the fate of the hero and one of two endings.
