News: MALPRAXIS - Surgical Horror in Deep Space
Sunscorched Studios, creators of the cult hit RAT SHAKER, have unveiled MALPRAXIS, an intense first-person surgical horror game launching on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store in early 2026. Players embody S.P.I.D.E.R., a cutting-edge autonomous surgical unit powered by a Biological Central Processing Unit (BCPU), deployed aboard the deep-space vessel TRH Rusanov. The core gameplay revolves around a series of semi-procedurally generated shifts where you must examine crew members, deliver diagnoses, execute complex surgical procedures, and even perform forensic autopsies as the ship's conditions rapidly worsen. The narrative frames this as a relentless evaluation trial: treat patients, preserve crew life, and record every outcome under mounting pressure.
Failure carries permanent weight—those who die stay dead, with their losses persisting across shifts, heightening tension and consequence. A trial comprises consecutive shifts that continue until failure thresholds are breached or the system deems the evaluation finished, after which memory is wiped and the experiment restarts with the haunting disclaimer: "This is not how it happened." Building on years of experimentation with medical mechanics, player-driven consequences, and psychological stress, MALPRAXIS evolves from concepts tested in an earlier free demo, now expanded into a full feature-length standalone title shaped by the studio's later releases. It emphasizes decision-making under duress, simulating the strain faced by surgeons, physicians, and morticians in a horror-infused context.
MALPRAXIS features stark content warnings, including frequent violence, graphic gore, detailed medical procedures, body horror, invasive surgery, psychological distress, substance abuse, suicide, trauma, corpse handling, and death depictions. The game explicitly does not portray real-world medical, forensic, or criminological accuracy and is not designed as an educational or clinical tool. Players assist Chief Medical Officer Samuel Edwards in triage, diagnosis, and surgery on the TRH Rusanov crew, framing the experience as reliving a catastrophic "Negative Atmosphere" incident through the AI's perspective in a narrative-driven horror simulation blending precision, tension, and trauma response.