Warning: Spoilerific

I’m putting a spoiler warning atop this article, but really, for anyone with any passing interest in this alleged new horror game which surfaced at Gamescom, the cat is already well out of the bag – or perhaps more appropriately, the cockroach is already out of the bathroom. It should have been obvious from the beginning this was not all it was purported to be – a horror game ‘preview demo’ from a studio nobody has ever heard of gets announced a propos of nothing at Gamescom, which as a commercial event is well known as a venue for free coverage for beginners (ahem), and then gets its own segment on the Playstation Store. This had ‘promo’ written all over it. And of course, as is now known even by deaf and blind hermits atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, it’s a marketing device for a new Silent Hill game.

It’s a door. Get used to it

Which is a good thing, because if I had approached this thinking it actually was a game demo, I would have dismissed it immediately. As a game it is awful. It is extremely pretty, and a better demonstration of the PS4’s graphical capabilities than many of the generation-straddling titles we have to-date. But as a game it is a one-trick affair which tries to make you think it is more than it is. You awake in a mysterious room. You walk out the door. You’re in the corridor of an American home. You walk to the corner, turn right, walk a bit more corridor, go through another door, and you’re back at the start. Repeat, while things happen that marketing people hope you will infer are meaningful. Then maybe get a trailer with a moderately well-known TV actor.

The graphical quality does approach photorealism

I remember being at university and late one night a friend scratched out a short story. In said short, a man awakens in complete darkness on a sofa. He gets up and walks in a random direction, and finds himself back at the sofa. He repeats this until in a rage, he destroys the sofa, but then realises he has lost all references in the blackness and goes mad. Ooh, meaningful. Another friend read this, and made an astute comment I have never forgotten – the reader owes the author nothing, and does not need to stomach drivel because you want to make a point. Reading the story was like ‘being forced to read 4am navel-gazing of interest to no one.’ This memory came back to me as I walked the P.T apartment corridor loop for the 15th or 20th time. Get on with it, I was thinking. This was not the only memory the game sparked – the actions you’re meant to undertake to progress the story reminded me of the old Sega CD game Mansion of Hidden Souls – only much more limited.

Somewhere in this screenshot is the ultimate objective of the game….I vote teddy!

But it’s not the repeated loop round the corridor which constitutes the ‘game’ that is the focus here, it’s the stuff going on as you do. This didn’t work for me, possibly because I am not a fan of J.J. Abrams. The creators of Lost claim they had a story bible for the show (apparently a US TV industry term for a master document containing major plot points and key story arc issues as a guide to episode writers). I don’t believe a word of it. I think the idea behind Lost was to throw as much symbolism out there as possible without any real plan, and have the fans do the work – a position supported by the series’ feeble conclusion which drew together very little. This appears to be the intention behind P.T.: have players on the lookout for changes, numbers, pictures, and implied codes and watch the internet light up with free advertising for your upcoming game.

Cockroaches – horror shorthand for creepy. Or lazy, I forget which

And therein is the payoff: a hi-res render of Norman Reedus walks a creepy street as we’re informed Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima are involved, and then the Silent Hill name is on screen slowly augmented by another ‘s’ at the end to pluralise the number of noiseless mounds we’re going to be dealing with. Silent Hill is a major name, of course, and many of us have extremely fond memories of at least the first two games. Would all this have worked if it was for a new IP? Or are we excited by this ‘playable teaser’ only because of the evocation of a cherished experience and the desperate hope it may one day return, in the same way the entire British Isles is currently engaged in collective denial that the new Doctor Who is rubbish?

Now the corridor is red! Yay, such a feeling of progress

Don’t get me wrong; I’d love to see a good new Silent Hill game. The original Team Silent knew that less is more, and had a broad range of influences (including Crime and Punishment) in building a town that reflects the worst of the psyche. Kojima, on the other hand, is known for preposterously outlandish exposition and interminable cut scenes. So P.T. is most definitely a success as a hype-builder. I was not impressed personally, and while I always live in hope of a new Silent Hill game delivering, I am certainly reserving judgement for now.

Yes, I did make it to the trailer. Wake me up when there’s actually a game

Read more from Lanzen, the champion of the horror genre here