Comedy stick-figure game ‘Shadows Over Loathing’ surprise released

Comedy stick-figure adventure game Shadows Over Loathing has been surprise released today (November 11) after five years of secret development.

The follow-up to 2017’s West Of Loathing and the long-running massively multiplayer role-playing game The Kingdom Of Loathing, Shadows Over Loathing has been developed by Asymmetric and is available now on PC and Mac, via Steam.

Promising “monsters, mobsters and mystery” Shadows Over Loathing will have players exploring “the shady side of an already black-and-white world”.

The Steam listing for the game reads: “Your Uncle Murray has requested your aid at his antique shop in Ocean City, but upon your arrival the old man is nowhere to be found. Your investigation into his disappearance and the artifacts he’s been collecting takes a turn when you stumble across some shadowy plots (and a bunch of squirming eldritch tentacles) that threaten to bring about the end of the world.”

“Explore a sprawling open world chock full of danger, quests, puzzles, and stick figures in this single-player comedy adventure/RPG set in the prohibition era of the Loathing universe. See how many enemies you can stuff into a phone booth as the athletic Pig Skinner, control the curds and whey of the cosmos as the cunning Cheese Wizard, or march to the beat of your own inscrutable purposes as the hip Jazz Agent.”

Developers also promise “thousands of jokes, a corrupt government for you to overthrow at your leisure” as well as “authentically baffling 1920s slang”.

Taking to Twitter, Asymmetric confirmed that there are plans for a Nintendo Switch version but “probably not for a few months. We are very tired,” while Shadows Over Loathing should work fine on the Steam Deck, with the title currently in the Valve queue for verification.

In other news, Remedy Entertainment has announced that it is working on Control 2, which will be co-developed and published alongside 505 Games.