The Blackout Club is a co-op whodunit where teens take on a suburban terror

The teens in The Blackout Club aren’t sneaking out of their houses for the sake of mischief. Instead, they’re acting like a gang of Scoobies, trying to uncover the dark secret that dwells beneath their hometown. Question Games’s co-op whodunit features suburban — and subterranean — horror as up to four players attempt to investigate mysterious disappearances and survive to see another night. It will debut in first quarter of 2019 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

The Blackout Club’s heroes suspect something’s wrong when they begin waking up in places with no recollection of how they got there. One of their friends goes missing, and because the adults won’t help, they decide to take matters into their own hands. Players will be able to choose what abilities and equipment their characters have, and they’ll have to evade enemies in a town with procedurally generated obstacles and loot drops all while searching for clues.

Some of the enemies will be sleepwalking friends and family, who unconsciously attack the players. Question Games has also teased that another, more sinister evil is out there as well — one that will only reveal itself when only one player is left alive. And another mysterious piece to the puzzle is a maze of underground tunnels under the town.

Question previous work includes The Magic Circle, a meta fantasy adventure where you star as the hero in an unfinished video game. The studio includes industry vets, such as cofounder Jordan Thomas, who was BioShock 2’s creative director and lead writer. Others on the team include the Dishonored’s senior gameplay programmer and BioShock Infinite’s lead effects artist.

“Our story is about vulnerable heroes — for whom co-op gameplay is a matter of survival — who unite to save their friends,” said Thomas in a statement. “We love expressive systems, where you shape the game experience as you see fit, often versus a whole ecosystem of intelligent threats. And now, they’re right next door — in a familiar, modern town, where the monster wears a human face.”