Maybe the cancellation of Silent Hills was actually a blessing in disguise. The long-anticipated release of Kojima Productions' latest title is finally here, and despite mixed reviews surfacing over the past few weeks, it's actually good that we ended up with DS rather than its spirit twin, Silent Hills.
Even
"When [Silent Hills] went away, I was bummed, but when Hideo described what we were doing next, I completely forgot about it. I was like, thank God that 🔜didn’t work, because this is way better. This i▨s a completely different thing [...] I like the fact that Silent Hills didn’t happen."
P.T. Was The Perfect Horror Game
If you've been staying abreast of the development process of DS since the beginning, you likely haven't forgotten about the ashes out of which DS rose: P.T. If you are one of the many unfortunate people to have not caught onto the P.T. bandwagon before it was , then, in short, P.T. - short for "Playable Teaser"- was the perfect horror game.
It's difficult to know where exactly to start explaining why. You won't get very far in convincing people of its brilliance by simply describing what the player actually does during the game. That is, you walk through an L-shaped corridor that loops ♛over and over again, not really being able to interact with much at all, and occasionally being interrupted by spooky noises and a pallid woman.
One thing you could start with is its mystery factor. From the nature by which it w🍷as introduced to and subsequently removed from public access, to the cancellation of the game it represented, to the actual contents of 🀅the teaser's gameplay. Nothing exacerbates fear quite like the unknown.
Then there are the superb visuals. There's something about the way the preternatural events are conve🌌yed visually in a hyper-realistic 💟way that is inevitably going to add to the weirdness and terror (such as the talking fetus in the bathroom sink).
Another aspect of P.T.'s genius lies in the sound design. The sounds are really disturbing, such as the warped radio interference, to the pained and oddly sexual groaning that emanates from somewhere directly over the character's shoulder, to that unforgettably awful sound of a baby screeching from inside the locked fridge. These are also masterfully juxtaposed with silence, highlighted by the steady grating creak of a hanging lantern in th♊e hallway. There is no heavy reliance on low gr🤪umbling music to build tension, or deafeningly shrill interjections from a string quartet to float a jumpscare.
Although even P.T. is guilty of a jumpscare or two, they are still executed within acceptable boundaries. Importantly, this game - and it certainly is a game in its own right - does not rely on the classic jumpscare tactics to earn its place in the horror genre. In fact, it's become quite clear that P.T. , echoes of which are evident in games such as SadSquare Studio's Visage and Bloober Team's Layers of Fear.
And then there's Lisa
What makes P.T.'s resident ghost Lisa's particularly disturbing is her somewhat disproportionate appearance and height. There's kind of an thing going on here, where she is clearly human, but her proportions are just... off.
The Hills Aren't Alive
P.T. was removed from the PlayStation Store eight months after its initial release, coinciding with the tragic announcement that Silent Hills had been canceled. Within the first month of its availability, P.T. was downloaded over a million times an🌜d was . Impressive, considering this was only meant to be the traileꦓr for the real game itself.
Some awarded it status, while others called it "" AVClub crowned it the , trumping big names like F.E.A.R., Alien: Isolation, and even Amnesia. With P.T.'s claustrophobic, cyclical environment and the fact that it will forever be contained within itself thanks to the cancellation of SH, they fittingly call it "."
The Legacy Lives On
The game's removal from the PlayStation Store meant that it would be impossible to download it in the future. Fans were outraged, and since then, have made efforts to revive the horror gem. From , to bidding up to $1,500 on eBay for second-hand PS4 consoles that had P.T. installed on them, to literal🧜ly . Fans🐼 didn't and still don't want to let it go.
With Kojima's Death Stranding having since stolen the limelight, there was long-standing hope that it would fill the void left by the canceled SH. In some ways, perhaps it will. It is undoubtedly brimming with and of course, features both Norman Reedus and Guillermo del Toro who were involved in P.T. But DS is indeed its own game, and this is actually not a bad thing. Much like giving a sequel to a brilliant first instal🤡lment, there is always a risk of ruining a good thing.
So, maybe we're better off allowing P.T. in all its glory and mystery to remain an untouched "closed circuit" of brilliance. Hopefully, once we see how Death Stranding fairs, we won't have to change our minds on that.