P.T.

I've been looking forward to this one.

I played this on my PS4 Pro, which I really only kept around for this moment.

This is a bit of an odd game to talk about because it's a pretty bare-bones thing. The reasons why are fairly obvious, I mean it's essentially a tech demo put out to tease an unreleased Silent Hill sequel, but even as just that it leaves one hell of an impression. I'm sure at least some of the hype around this game was due to its mysterious release, but the quality of what's within is strong enough that I think this would have found an audience even if it was just some one-off horror experience, given what was on display.

Playing with the answers to puzzles at my disposal, it took me about an hour and ten minutes but I could easily have sped through it in much less time than that. The thing that slowed me down, though, is the atmosphere.

This game is scary.

I'm sure it's safe to approach this lady.

Despite the fact just about all you can do is walk around and look at things, I was constantly tense. My hands were sweating and I was terrified of when the next jumpscare might happen. There's just something about the lighting and sound design in this that adds to a feeling of unease that almost never lets up. It's incredible, and it's easy to understand why this tech demo managed to be so darn influential. 

While there are games that were clearly inspired by this, such as Layers of Fear and countless other indie games, I don't think we'd have gotten RE7 (in the form that we got it) without P.T. The reveal trailer for that game seems so evocative of this brief experience that I can't imagine it was a coincidence.

Turning around is a very bad idea.

And even through all this, it's so clearly Silent Hill (if you know to look for it). The save icon is reminiscent of the "Halo of the Sun", the setup reminds me of the haunted house tour from Silent Hill 3, and the gameplay hearkens back to the first-person segments of Silent Hill 4. While the name reveal was a shock back then, the connections to the series run deeper than just a title card at the end.

It's a nice title card, at least.

P.T. is a curious thing where it's an advertisement for a game that doesn't exist and maybe never existed, at least not fully, but it's taken on a life of its own. It's been lauded by some as one of the best horror games out there and, honestly? I can see it. Despite some awkward interactions and obtuse puzzles it's a memorable experience and it's a shame that only a small subset of PS4 owners ever had a chance to play it.

There's no playtime or records screen, but here's a Norman Reedus for your trouble.

I wonder if he ever worked with Kojima after this...

To close things out, I wanted to share my Mario Maker port of P.T. 

I don't know exactly why I made it, but this was something I felt compelled to create a few years ago.

 I made this all the way back in 2019, for some reason.