MALPRAXIS: A State-of-the-Art Medical Robot Studing Body Horror
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to perform surgery in space? Well, Sunscorched Studios watched too many medical dramas and decided to make a med horror game with more existential dread and deep-space isolation. Thus came the birth of MALPRAXIS, an out-of-this-world first-person POV where you help Dr. Sameul Edwards… as a surgical robot!
MALPRAXIS: Resident Surgeon HAL 9000 on Duty
At its core, MALPRAXIS is a first-person surgical horror space odyssey. You are installed as a high-tech, autonomous surgical system called S.P.I.D.E.R. (Surgical Procedure Intervention Diagnostic Emergency Response). And the name fits, as you possess multiple medical arm devices and lower yourself from the ceiling when you’re ready to see the patient.
Your job is to assist Chief Medical Officer Samuel Edwards aboard the TRH Rusanov. This is a deep-space vessel, and things are—predictably—going to hell in a handbasket. As the ship’s condition deteriorates, you’re fighting the clock, resource scarcity, and potentially your own programming.
MALPRAXIS’s gameplay revolves around a series of semi-procedurally assembled shifts, ranging from first aid to cracking rib cages. You have to triage incoming patients, diagnose mysterious space illnesses, perform invasive surgeries, and, eventually, conduct forensic autopsies. With you as the “cold,” calculating machine, dealing with the human drama unfolding, the tension is palpitating. The developers promise that you’ll need to “calibrate your algorithms quickly,” or in other words, learn as you go.
A Moral Dilemma in a Tin Can
Dr. Edwards has sworn the Hippocratic Oath of “Do NO HARM,” while you…well, you’re programmed to treat the patient. You have what the devs call “leeway.” As an instrument used for medical purposes, your pledge is to your programming and self-learning algorithm. Every decision you make in the operating room ripples out to affect Dr. Edwards and the rest of the crew.
Do you save the essential engineer with a low chance of survival, or the junior ensign with a simple fracture? Your patients live or die based on your choices, and the narrative branches accordingly. It adds a layer of psychological horror that goes beyond jump scares, and the lingering aftershock of failure by making your decisions. The realization that by saving resources, someone loses their life, and you have to watch Dr. Edwards deal with the grief.
There Are No Do-Overs Here
Perhaps the most punishing mechanic is the permadeath-adjacent system. “There is no do-over in life,” the game description, generously, reminds us. If you lose a patient, you can’t just quick-load your last save and try again. You have to carry that failure and move on to the next patient, hopefully learning from your mistakes.
If you fail too many times, your memory is wiped, the trial is terminated, and the experiment begins again. It’s a roguelite twist on the genre that contextually makes sense within the game’s lore. You are software, after all. Software can be rebooted and upgraded; however, once the crew member dies, they stay dead. This ain’t Dead Space, folks!… Now that I think about it, that is a good thing.
Are You Prepped For Some MALPRAXIS-like Surgery?
Usually in sci-fi horror games, you’re the guy with the plasma cutter or trying to escape the mad doctor with a bone saw. In MALPRAXIS, you’re the guy trying to cut and sew those limbs back on. Based on the wishlist trailer, the grimy and industrial visuals scream (literally) operating room in session. It’s as if the ship from “Event Horizon” got its surgical license. MALPRAXIS is slated for release in Q1 2026 on Steam and Epic Games, so brush up on your anatomy and scrub in.
