Unholy Catholic Inquisition and  zombie nazis!  As concepts go, it is as B-movie as you can get but Dreampainter‘s new RPG of ‘mature and deep thematics’ could be something special.

What leads me to go out on a limb so early, before any in-game images or details of gameplay and mechanics? Sine Requie Anno XIII (Latin for ‘Without Rest – Year 13’) is based upon an Italian pen-and-paper roleplaying game of the same name. Its English language Wiki page tells us it won Best RPG 2007 and 2008 at the Lucca Comics & Games convention. the PC game is being developed in collaboration with its authors/designers, Matteo Cortini and Leonardo Moretti.

To get an idea of Cortini and Moretti’s style, they gave this message: “Despite the advice of our psychiatrist, we’re brutally ready for this new adventure! Our worm-filled eye sockets crave to behold the first images from the game! Let’s go, then! No Hope. No breath, Just blind atrociousness!”

The setting is delightfully bizarre: in an alternate timeline of the Second World War, the dead rose up on what we consider D-Day and global war became global zombie apocalypse. In the ensuing chaos, Germany came out on top and formed the Fourth Reich, while Italy became a theocratic regime run by the Catholic Church, the Sanctum Imperium, where most of the game will take place. In case you were wondering, Western Europe, including Blighty, is a zombie-infested wasteland.

Dreampainters promise a game where ‘ the living are constantly pressed between moral ambiguities and hard choices’, which sounds right up my street. I am already envisioning some wild Italian mash-up of Fallout, Metro 2033, Vampire – Bloodlines and Black Ops’ zombies mode.

Sine Requie is due for release on PC at the end of 2013.