We are exactly D-15 before Halloween , and I decided to talk to you about PT , an introduction to a potential masterpiece dead in the bud, or a masterpiece in its own right.
Of course this article is personal and it is only about my opinion.
For those unfamiliar, PT catapults players into a pretty creepy suburban house, where you wander down an endless hallway to find clues and solve puzzles, all from a first-person perspective. You will meet at the bend of the corridor a ghost named Lisa. If she catches you, you are returned to the beginning of the "loop" you are in, the loops being different incarnations of the same house, but with various changes and new puzzles to solve.
A horror game more than a horror game
When we talk about a horror game, we first imagine a game , in which there are objectives and victory and defeat conditions , with mechanics : combat, as in Resident Evil , for example, puzzles, like in Amnesia , or even car chases, like in Outlast , to name but one. In short, a horror game strictly speaking, at least as we are used to, it is a game with an atmosphere and horrific elements. In PT, it would be quite the opposite.
Indeed, we are immediately propelled into an unpredictable and impenetrable context without any consideration. No explanation, no tutorial, just you, your flashlight and your bloody lump in your throat. You play as someone you don't know, and explore an unknown place, with the sole objective of understanding a little more about the rules of the game, what's going on, who you are, etc... In fact, PT doesn't is almost not a game, it's a nightmare.
Here, you cannot run away or fight . You are sinking further and further into the loop, or rather the descent into hell, and the only solution to get out of it is to face, to assume your fears and your demons. Because the fear, the traumas, they will not leave you. This is, at first, that PT sees correctly: the real terror is psychological, and it is not temporary.
The only way out is to soak up the extremely immersive storytelling, listen, look around, all while keeping Lisa at a distance. Easier said than done, especially considering Kojima-san's twisted mind. The puzzles are obscure, complicated and frankly not instinctive for some . It is after all a playable trailer: once the secrets have been unlocked by the first players and shared on the internet, looking for the solutions to the puzzles alone does not really make sense, except of course if you love to have very , very scared repeatedly and for a long time.
Because you'll be scared with every game experience , and for such a short game, that's just amazing.
I have always loved horror. For me, it's more than loving being scared, even if it never stops being fun, it's an aesthetic in its own right, it's a very powerful medium for conveying ideas, and which allows , in addition, to use the power of symbolism like no other genre in my eyes. I'm also quite a good public, even downright freaky: Amnesia? Terrified. DeadSpace ? Terrified. Outlast? You understood the principle. No matter the style of play, mood, or gameplay, I'm scared. But PT stayed with me many years after its release, 8 years ago already.
And even when I found myself at the end of my tether (yes it happened quite quickly, I'm not going to lie to you), and I chose to watch my favorite Youtubers solve the game's puzzles for me, I was afraid . An insidious fear, which remains, and which cannot be forgotten. In short: a worthy successor to the Silent Hill license.
But, apart from this unpredictability, since the loops change every time, even if it's about details, and the psychological horror that takes you by the throat, why is PT so scary?
Eye for detail
Kojima , love him or hate him, but he deserves respect for his creations. I see you coming, since I love PT, I must be a fan of the first hour. Well no ! Hate me the internet, but I don't like the works of Hideo Kojima. It's not so much about the gameplay, or the level design, but rather its stories and its narrative. I won't go into details, because I can already feel the blood boiling in many of you, but for me, the stories of repeat clones and Norman Reedus waving his greasy hair in the wind delivering post- apocalyptic, very little for me.
If there is one thing that we can recognize in Hideo Kojima, however, it is his love of detail . It may be the only thing we have in common, but it is very important, above all, I give it to you in thousand, in PT
PT is a sound design masterclass , to begin with. The atmosphere, the story of murder that loops on the radio, the crackling of it, the noises of Lisa, the baby's crying. All the sounds are made to make you uncomfortable, every creaking of the door will make you jump, and it's terribly effective.
The game is of course not devoid of jumpscare (or screamers if you prefer), but it's really the sound and visual atmosphere that wears you to the marrow.
And then there is THE detail that kills . You know how you can feel observed and followed throughout the experience – and the corridor? Like we can hear noises behind us, and when we turn around, there's no one in sight? Australian hacker and modder Lance McDonald had taken a look at what's going on behind the player before he turned to look behind him, and guess what:
THE GHOST IS ALWAYS BEHIND US THROUGHOUT THE GAME!
The myth around PT
I still remember the immense hype I felt when Kojima announced that he was developing a game with two horror geniuses, Guillermo del Toro , and above all the immense Junji Ito , and what was my disappointment when I learned of the cancellation of Silent Hills .
But if you think about it a bit more, the cancellation of the title that PT served as a trailer for may have helped PT reach the status of a classic horror game. Let me explain: already, it is obviously easier to create a successful experience when it is very short and centered on a single very small place, like PT and its famous corridor. Then, a question of logic: difficult to spoil PT with a game that will never be released.
And then there's the whole myth around disagreements between Kojima and Konami . PT was initially available for free on PlayStation , much to the chagrin of PC and Xbox gamers, for that matter, but Konami quickly pulled the content from the Sony console once the divorce from Kojima was formalized. Result: the machine was "hacked" many times to regain access to PT , the consoles with the game still installed were even selling at exorbitant prices, and the efforts continue every year. Recently, a player even found a way to get PT on his PS5.
It gives a bit of a "cursed game" feeling, don't you think?
In any case, in these 8 years since the release of PT, which in my eyes has truly revolutionized the horror game genre, many studios have sought to replicate the experience. Unfortunately, and even if some released quite correct games on the same concept of “loop”, none succeeded in dethroning PT in my heart.
And now that I come to the end of this article, I feel a little stupid: I would like to advise you to play PT to celebrate Halloween, but the majority of you will not be able to. You can always nostalgically watch one of your favorite Youtubers try the adventure.
I hope you still enjoyed reading my endless ranting about what I consider to be the best horror game of all time, in case you didn't catch it.
Of course, I have my fingers very firmly crossed that the next iterations of the Silent Hill franchise that we have been promised for years will be worth the detour. I'll be waiting for you around the corner, Konami.
Patch 1.07 rolling out this week from FromSoftware has given the game's dataminers and modders tons of extra files to explore. .
