3) Pacing
When P.T. crept unassumingly onto the PlayStation Store in the wake of Sony’s Gamescom event back in August, fans were left understandably confused. What was the sole purpose of this game? (If you could even file it under that category.) Did Hideo Kojima troll the industry once again by branding the title under a fake company — in this case, the 7780s studio. And, if P.T. really was a playable teaser, what in God’s name was it teasing?
As it turns it, P.T. was in fact a playable tease for an all-new Silent Hill game that is being overseen by Kojima himself and Guillermo del Toro. Eagle-eyed players were able to find this out for themselves by “completing” the demo, thereby unlocking an end credits scene that showed Norman Reedus’ character appear on screen followed by the moniker, Silent Hills.
It was a fantastic setup. One that left many members of the gaming community reeling in excitement. But this excitement detracted from one simple fact: P.T. is a phenomenal horror experience in and of itself. Granted, if you went into the title completely blind — and hey, more power to you — then it may have seemed a little disorientating at first. But stick with it and you’ll discover an experience that is haunting, focused and above all, masterfully paced.
Strip away the razor-sharp visuals and gameplay mechanics and you’ll find a jet-black secret lurking deep within the rotting core of Kojima’s creation. But in order to uncover the mystery, you’re forced to proceed through the same corridor over, and over, and over again, discovering fresh information as you go. Some critics faulted the game for its linearity but for me, it’s all the better for it. In creating the perfect feedback loop, every time you open the door only to start at the beginning once again, you feel a little bit more knowledgeable and, depending on your resistance to horror, confident.
P.T. is a psychedelic trip that is, arguably, one of the finest and indeed purest horror experiences of recent years. We only wish a demo such as this, one that is so brilliantly crafted and contained, wasn’t such a rare breed.