Blank Slate: The Second Coming

Blank Slate — The Second Coming is a 2022 stealth-based survival horror video game developed by Tabula Rasa Studio (A division of Trinity) and published by Trinity Studios for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. A Stadia port was released in 2023. The game is an installment of the Blank Slate series; due to the series's anthology nature (Often compared to The Twilight Zone), the game is completely unrelated to all other installments in the series.
The Second Coming follows Erika Fraser, an Irish schoolgirl who finds herself kidnapped by a satanic cult called The Forgiven, who operate in a ghost town somewhere in County Donegal, Ireland, in order to be sacrificed for their Messiah, whom they refer to as The Harbinger. As Erika attempts to escape the town, she starts to figure out her dark past of which she had no prior memories, including the relevation that is she is more related to The Harbinger than she thought.
== Story ==
The game focuses mainly on Erika Fraser, a teenage girl from the Republic of Ireland who is kidnapped on the way home from a party. She wakes up in a ghost town in the northwestern top of Ireland, which serves as a hideout of a secret society and sect referred to as The Forgiven. The Forgiven worship an entity that they refer to as The Harbinger, and they tell Erika that she is "the Chosen One" needed to enact the ritual that will allow The Harbinger's "Second Coming" to Earth. Before the cultists can sacrifice Erika, she is rescued by a boy called Joseph O'Connor, a staunch enemy of The Forgiven, who attempts to inform her of what's going on and reveals that the "Second Coming" of The Harbinger has its roots in a conspiracy that took place in Gaelic Ireland during the Middle Ages. Before they can escape the city together, they are seperated by the cultists, forcing Erika off on her own.
As she tries to escape the city and locate Joseph, Erika realizes that her parents are not truly her family, and while she slowly uncovers her dark past, it becomes clear that she is more related to The Harbinger itself than she thought.
== Gameplay ==
Gameplay-wise, The Second Coming is significantly more action-oriented than your average horror game, even having firearms; but calling it a first-person shooter is gravely wrong. The game's main focus is on pure stealth and occassionally melee combat. TSC's gameplay is heavily inspired by Manhunt, Condemned: Criminal Origins and the latter's sequel. The player plays as Erika Fraser, who must navigate around several abandoned, urban areas at the dead of night. Most enemies are far stronger and better-equipped than Erika, making direct confrontations undesirable. She must instead hide in the shadows and wait for enemies to pass by, then strike them down when their back is turned. 
In order to achieve this, Erika has to use one of several weapons that can be found lying about in the environment. Most of these are melee weapons, like baseball bats, clubs, hammers, knives and swords. Firearms are also available, but they are significantly rarer and make a lot of noise. The general rule is that the stronger the weapon is, the more noise is produced. Example: The handgun makes a medium amount of noise, the revolver (eg. Colt Python) makes large amounts of noise, and the shotgun makes tremendous levels of noise, guaranteed to alert many enemies close by around the map. Erika herself can also produce noise that can alert hostiles. If the player walks or sneaks carefully, their footsteps will only make noise on certain types of floor, like metal and wood. Sprinting always produces noise. Other ways to produce noise are knocking over objects, opening doors, falling from a height, picking up or placing items, using stairs, and walking through cornstalks.
Direct melee combat is possible, but as aforementioned, often undesirable, although several scripted scenes force Erika to do it anyway. Similar to Condemned 2: Bloodshot, it is possible (And recommended) to line up combos, and to block incoming attacks with your melee weapon. Melee weapons are ranked by the game based on their strength, range, weight and attack speed (With heavier weapons like the sledgehammer slowing the player down); Erika's limited inventory space of eight slots (Some of which need to be reserved for keys, other necessary story items, the flashlight etc) forces the player to make decisions, as items will need to be frequently swapped out. The game offers four types of firearms:
*Handguns: Semi-common, average strength, fast firing rate
*Revolvers: Semi-uncommon, above average strength, average firing rate
*Shotguns: Uncommon, great strength, slow firing rate
*Machine guns: Rare, above average strength, very fast firing rate
Machine guns are rarer than shotguns on the grounds that they can fire / "spray" far more bullets at once; as such, quickly taking out groups of enemies is technically easier with machine guns than with the slow-firing shotguns. Ammo reserves in The Second Coming are not very common, and hence guns must be used sparingly. Ammo can be acquired from armed cultists, but in far smaller quantities than the ammo reserves. Furthermore, enemies use the same ammo pool as Erika; for example, if a cultist has six bullets in his gun and shoots twice, the gun will only have four bullets left when taken. If a cultist is killed while reloading, the gun will be void of ammo and hence useless. If Erika is completely unarmed or out of ammo, she can still kick enemies, and enact a quick takedown in stealth.
Due to Erika having a part of The Harbinger in her, she can draw into a bit of its power to use abilities, but none of these are powerful enough that it does away with the stealth theme. The following abilities can be unlocked and run on a cooldown:
* Temporary Invisibility
* Creating a dark haze that blinds enemies; it disappears after a few seconds
* An arcane, short-range shock of electricity that can be used to quickly incapacitate enemies
* An illusion-casting ability that makes enemies hallucinate; they will see a fake Erika in a location of the player's choosing (It must be within their FOV)
* A telekinetic ability that can be used to move objects from a distance. Used both for puzzle-solving and to distract or impede enemies.
* Temporary Pain Resilience, which allows Erika to take much more damage than normal.
The Harbinger's presence within Erika also allows it to plant hallucinations onto her and mess with her senses. This is where a large part of the game's scare factor comes from, as The Second Coming does not rely on traditional "screamer" type jumpscares.
An additional gameplay mechanic is the Fear meter. Standing around enemies (Even if undetected), being chased by one, observing gruesome scenes or objects (eg. mutilated corpses, disturbing paintings), or getting jumpscared by Anguish monsters or the sudden activation of certain machines or mechanisms will add to the Fear meter. The higher the player’s Fear meter, the louder and faster Erika will breathe, and eventually she will start quietly sobbing. Both of this may alert enemies and give away hiding spots. Erika can be calmed down by standing completely still in a safe zone and holding down a button on the keyboard / controller for long enough. Having a low Fear meter is pivotal; if it is too high and Erika gets jumpscared, she will pass out from shock, causing a Game Over.
Unlike other horror games, being attacked by most enemies will rarely result in an instant death. The game has two types of enemies: Anguish and Assault. Anguish monsters will jumpscare Erika and the player, raising their Fear meter before vanishing. They are only deadly if the player’s Fear meter was high enough. Assault monsters, far more common and arguably the main threat (Cultists fall under this banner), will repeatedly attack Erika and bring down her health. Erika can also lose health from environmental hazards and fall damage; drowning leads to instant death.
== Characters ==
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