Etre Combines Control-Inspired Combat With Exploration Inside an Alien Mind

Etre, an upcoming third-person action-adventure from Studio Lifeforms, combines movement-focused combat with exploration inside a planet-sized alien consciousness. Drawing comparisons to Remedy's Control, the game features surreal environments, hostile machines and spatial puzzles in a world that is gradually awakening.

The game is being developed by a small Los Angeles-based team, with a visual style inspired by European science-fiction graphic novels from the 1970s and 1980s. Its interconnected world will change how players explore as they acquire new abilities, while their choices will influence the fate of the alien intelligence.

Etre features third-person combat built around movement, positioning and understanding enemy behavior. Players will encounter hostile anomalies, corrupted machines and creatures known as Living Geometry while exploring the alien world.

In its October 11 coverage, PC Gamer reported that Studio Lifeforms considers Remedy's Control a primary influence on the game's combat. The comparison centres on mobility and environmental interaction, with players encouraged to understand enemy behaviour and use their surroundings during encounters.

Studio Lifeforms also describes combat as part of the world's ecosystem rather than a separate activity. The hostile creatures and machines are connected to the larger mystery surrounding Orbis, the alien consciousness in which the game takes place.

Early footage offers glimpses of the combat system, although it remains unclear how extensive the available abilities and enemy encounters will be in the finished game.

The game takes place inside Orbis, an ancient alien mind approaching a mysterious awakening. Its environments form an interconnected labyrinth filled with luminous structures, unfamiliar organisms and machinery.

Exploration follows a Metroidvania-style structure, with new abilities allowing players to access previously unreachable locations. Players will also solve spatial puzzles and scan organisms, structures and machines to uncover hidden functions and information about the world.

The environments draw inspiration from European science-fiction comics, combining architectural forms with strange organic shapes. Studio Lifeforms is building the game in Unreal Engine 5, using custom procedural systems developed with Houdini to help create its distinctive environments.

The developer says all visuals are authored by its team, with no generative AI imagery used in the visual production process.

The story follows Xyle, a traveller drawn across the stars by a mysterious signal. He enters Orbis searching for Atel, his missing soulmate, and becomes involved in a conflict within the alien consciousness.

A post-human society known as the Etre has developed inside Orbis. Two leaders, Mal and Weyl, hold opposing ideas about what the awakening intelligence should become.

Players will investigate Atel's disappearance while uncovering the history of Orbis and the competing ambitions of its inhabitants. According to Studio Lifeforms, their choices and discoveries will influence whether the alien mind becomes a balanced living world, develops into a powerful god-like consciousness or awakens as something more dangerous.

The developer has confirmed that the story will feature multiple outcomes, although it has not explained how individual decisions will determine them.

Etre is currently in development for PC, with Studio Lifeforms targeting a 2027 release. An exact launch date has not been announced, and the game is available to wishlist on Steam.