2026 might just be the packed year survival horror fans have been waiting for. There are three projects I have my eyes on, and they all have something in common: they're based on legacy IPs from the '80s and '90s.
Last October, the developers of Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly, announced on their 10th anniversary of their sci-fi horror masterpiece that a sequel was officially being worked on. This summer, Hellraiser: Revival, a single-player survival horror game developed by Saber Interactive, was announced with a teaser trailer.
Keep Jurassic Park: Survival on your radar
But I also want to spread the word of one of Saber's other upcoming projects: Jurassic Park: Survival.
Between Warhammer Space Marines 2 and Hellraiser: Revival, Saber Interactive has been a busy studio, but all of its future titles show a lot of promise. Jurassic Park: Survival was announced a year ago, showing us our lead protagonist, Maya Joshi.
The details we got were that this game's story takes place a day after the first film in the franchise, and poor Maya was unfortunately left behind on the stormy, giant-bird-lizard-infested island. The cinematic trailer exudes the wild, creepy atmosphere of the movie, making you feel like you're being demoted on the food chain by the InGen company's untamed creatures.
The developers of Saber Interactive worked closely with Universal executives to examine the original set design and props of Jurassic Park. They spared no expense on every painstaking detail, making Isla Nublar feel believable and just as you remembered it. However, with this being the interactive medium of video games, they go further.
Shayne Mifsud, SVP Franchise Management at Universal Pictures, said on the behind-the-scenes featurette, "For the first time, we're giving you this opportunity to travel back to Isla Nublar. To explore Jurassic Park." I like how this implies there will be exploration elements in the game.
Not only that, but it also gives the player some free roam to see locales not previously explored in the movie. It's also mentioned that we'll see sets and buildings conceptualized for the original film, but never made it to filming.
The developers felt like Payal Mistry, the actress playing Maya Joshi, was a perfect fit for the character they had in mind.
Maya was personally recruited by Dr. Henry Wu, one of the most prominent scientists at InGen. She does seem young for a scientist, which makes me believe this was a big break in her scientific career until crap hit the fan. Perhaps she had an internship at InGen, and was so excited to be involved with the Jurassic Park project.
How many of her skills will be useful during gameplay or the story? We don't know much about that yet, but short glimpses of gameplay footage show Maya getting eaten alive. Just another Jurassic Park experience you can't leave out.
Jurassic Park: Survival is available to wishlist now on all game storefronts, but no concrete release date has been announced yet. It's likely to be released in mid-to-late 2026.