Day 234 - Unreal PT 1.0.7
Horror, Nightmare Fuel, REDACTED ·
Sam’s Take:
So… umm… this is a strange one. I’ve been hearing about PT for years now. People called it “the scariest game never made”, and there was a huge controversy when the demo got taken down from the Playstation store. This game is a mostly faithful (more on that later) recreation of that original demo. The end reveal of this demo was that the full game was actually going to be a full Silent Hill title and also both Kojima and Del Toro were going to be involved somehow? Before I start getting very critical of this game I do want to make clear that I’m not happy it got canceled, and I think making this demo completely unavailable was a bullshit move and Konami should be ashamed. As we’ll talk about later, the demo completely functions as its own standalone title, so they could have just cut the Silent Hill teaser at the very end and kept the rest of the game. Getting rid of it shows how disposable Konami thinks games are.
With all that said, what the fuck are y’all smoking with this shit? There are two main things I don’t understand about the “scariest game never made” type comments. First, they did make it. It’s here, I just played it. PT has a beginning, middle and end. It has themes of paranoia, a stress-nightmare aesthetic, it is a full game. If this got released to Steam for a couple bucks today minus the ending Silent Hill teaser, everyone would agree, it is a full game. I understand there was a bigger game that was going to be made, but this demo is looping through a hallway thirteen times. Do you really think THAT had legs for a full game? Of course not, it was always going to be an entirely new thing, and maybe some story elements and thematic elements would be taken from the demo. No Silent Hill game was being made where you loop through a hallway EVEN MORE TIMES THAN BEFORE. I promise.
My second issue with that comment is… the game isn’t very good. Let me get this out of the way first: yes I understand that there are themes of paranoia, so bullshit puzzles where you have to search for tiny differences, or do insane wacky shit to progress puts you in that mindset. I get what they are doing… but having to look at the word “HELLO!” on a wall, turn away, then turn back so that every letter disappears except “O!” then looking at a different wall to see “HELL” written there is too much. I had to look at a guide several times playing this, and I’m a stubborn fuckin point and click player. Maybe if this wasn’t a daily project, I could have been more patient, it’s possible finding that out on my own would have been satisfying, but I HIGHLY doubt it. I appreciate the creepy atmosphere of the house… but I’ve been in many creepy houses. I’ve been jump scared by many slow-then-super-fast moving ghosts. I’ve played way more haunted house games with similar themes and arcane puzzles than most… because I’ve played Newgrounds horror flash games.
I feel like I’m about to get stabbed for saying this, but PT is just Exmortis with a budget. That’s a little mean. PT is better than Exmortis, less long notes to read, more subtle with how it explains the plot, but it’s in the same genre. It’s probably the best Newgrounds horror point and click we’ve played… but seeing a twitchy ghost down a hallway, then zooming towards you with a loud noise is the most Newgrounds thing I’ve seen since Sonic porn.
What were you all looking forward to? Was it just the Silent Hill brand name? Was it the names attached to the game? Do you all love games where you wander around creepy houses wondering what the fuck you’re supposed to do? If so hit me up, I’ve got at least ten games that’d be right up your ally.
Before I end this review, I do want to address the fact that this is an Unreal recreation of the game, and they did a very good job from what I can tell. There are some noticeable differences, the main three being no save function, controller rumble and the microphone not being implemented (both puzzle elements in the original PT demo), but other than that it’s pretty much one to one. I did unfortunately crash towards the end and have to watch the rest on YouTube, but I don’t want to be too mean about that. Konami deleted this from existence, and these people gave it back to the world. They deserve praise and accolades.
A hallway horror time loop is an interesting idea. There is a tangible descent into madness in seeing the same hallway degrade and become more confusing over time, but the scares are bland and the puzzles require either alt-tabs to a guide or the patience of a saint to complete, both of which remove the much needed tension holding the horror together. Judging it as a free game outside of the drama behind it, it’s fine. Better than most things we play, and certainly better looking. It’s clout to quality ratio for this game is absurd though. PT is my favorite Newgrounds point and click, but I am not losing sleep over the full title not being released.
Recommend: As a free game you can just download off the internet, sure, but keep a guide handy.
Replay Percentage Chance: 0%
Time Played: 30 minutes
Skeeter’s Take:
Oh boy. I have been hearing about P.T. for a while now, and am currently riding off the high of finally finishing the Silent Hill 2 Remake. Which, by the way, did you guys know that Silent Hill 2 is a good game?
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to give PT a chance in the only form it is available to my Playstation-less ass, which happens to be the Unreal version. I have heard about PT for years. I’ve heard about how it’s the scariest game that never was, and I knew it had a looping mechanic which intrigued me.
I’ll just rip the band-aid off early. I think PT is pretty good. I like the looping mechanic. I think it’s a fun idea and there’s a lot that can be done with it. Good bones! I think the puzzle aspect can ruin pacing a bit if you aren’t sure exactly what to do. I ended up looking up a guide to help me get through, and I would have spent hours trying to figure out the actual solution.
But I also think that was the point of PT in a way. It is a teaser for a full game. I think the idea was to put something out to the players that would give them something to chew on until the full release (RIP). I think Kojima wanted players to spend time figuring this stuff out, and discussing it. I read somewhere while trying to find guides that Kojima was surprised people figured the ending puzzle out in a day when he thought it would take at least a week. There’s a bunch of different mystic ways to unlock the ending, which I couldn’t replicate despite following several different methods I found online. The Unreal version lacks the ability of a microphone, so the supposed easiest method I couldn’t get to work. I eventually gave up and looked up the ending on Youtube. The phone rings and there’s some pretty cringe dialogue over the phone about some guy who’s back and he’s brought his toys (ugh). Then immediately after, a trailer for the full game rolls and my mouth went agape.
NORMAN FUCKING REEDUS
Look, I got nothing against the guy. Don’t know him at all, but I had to get to this point to really talk about what turns me off of PT.
We have no idea what Silent Hills would have been. It’s a game that for all intents and purposes does not exist. It wouldn’t really be fair to speculate on what Silent Hills would have been, but seeing Norman Reedus’ face pop up in a Silent Hill trailer smacked me back into reality harder than a can of tuna. There’s something about seeing a celebrity face in a video game that makes it super challenging for me to get more immersed. I think Mocap and all that is great and using real actor’s faces definitely works for me in some games.
But someone as big as Norman Reedus in a Silent Hill game just feels wrong. Don’t take that the wrong way! I think it would be cool if he did the voice acting and mocap or whatever else is needed, all that stuff is rad. But Norman Reedus’ face would have been in the game. And let me tell you, I don’t care what character name they would have given him, what his backstory would have been, or how different his personality would have been from himself, everytime I would have looked at him, I would have just seen Norman Reedus. Everytime I would have talked about this game, I would have referred to him as “Norman Reedus”. Every Silent Hill I’ve played has managed to feel extremely immersive, which really helps layer on to the fear and the horror. And nothing could be more immersive than looking at your character and muttering to yourself “That’s Norman Reedus”.
This is going to be a shitty complaint, but this doesn’t “feel” like a Silent Hill trailer. It feels like a Kojima Game Trailer.
Now, I’ve only completed the first Silent Hill and the second’s Remake. I have played through a good portion of Silent Hill 3, and I just about wore the disc out on an old demo disc I had of Silent Hill 4 that came with a Playstation Magazine I got back in the day. These are really the only ones I can personally speak on. So, just know my lens is a little narrow.
PT just feels different. The first four entries of the Silent Hill series all had this sort of connecting tissue. I’m not talking about the lore, or the story, even though those do get intertwined between games. I’m talking about the meshy-lonely-uncanny sinew that holds all that together.
What I’m talking about is pretty intangible. It’s part of what drew me into Silent Hill as a series in the first place, and it’s what keeps me fascinated now. There’s this uncanniness and atmosphere that carries itself through those games and really gives them that “Silent Hill” stamp. The “Vibes”, if you will.
I’m all for exploring new ideas, and trying something different with the series. I know the thick fog and the iconic town and the rusted industrial Otherworld are what a lot of people have come to expect with an SH game, but I don’t think those need to be present. I enjoy Silent Hill’s tone, and a lot of that is wrapped up in those very iconic things. The dense fog that has become a staple of the series was mostly used to skirt around technical limitations at the time, and now it’s just a part of Silent Hill. Up to a certain point, you need to have some of those iconic things included if you want it to be recognized as the IP you are going for.
There’s a few glimpses of this in PT. It has the whole “The character I’m playing is having manifestations or hallucinations about something terrible that either they or somebody else has done and learn more about their psyche through that” schtick but I think it plays its hand a little heavy. The first “loop” of PT consists of a radio broadcasting a news segment about a man who killed his family. It goes into detail about each of the victims, where they were, how he killed them, that he was chanting numbers, yadda yadda yadda. I kind of wish this led was buried a bit, or was revealed a bit slower since it made the symbolism feel more obvious than mysterious. Baby fetus in the sink? Wonder what that could be? Certainly not the child of the mother who was shot in the stomach.
That spooky ghost lady chasing you around? Yeah, the one with the gouged out eye and the giant hole in her stomach? Wonder who that could be?
Speaking of spooky ghost lady. What are we doing here, guys? Silent Hill 2 has some great symbolic creature designs. A lot of the monsters James sees are bathed in these sexual overtones. The Nurses wear skimpy outfits, the Lying Figures have what look to be high heels grafted to their feet. This is all to show James’ sexual frustration and probably his shame from feeling it. Hell, the Mandarins were given these big ass lips just to be an allegory for Mary’s harsh words towards James during her decline. They hang from grates underground because they don’t feel worthy of walking on ground or something like that. What I’m saying is, the designs all wrapped back into the main themes and stories, and gave us a deeper look into James’ subconscious mind. They all give the player more to infer about the psychology of the main character and even the mechanisms of the town itself.
In PT, We have a dead spooky ghost Lisa with a scary missing eyeball, and a fetus. Look, they brought Del Toro on board, so I am willing to bet there were some banging creature designs planned, but we are reviewing PT. Not the mythical Silent Hills.
The dead wife chasing me around the house was the lamest thing. I seriously felt like I was playing a PS1-retro graphics Itch.io horror game at times. There’s a moment that I think is scripted where the radio starts glitching and commanding the player to “Turn around”. When I turned around, the spooky ghost lady was laying in wait, ready to jumpscare and kill me! Ahh!
Most of the tricks pulled in PT felt more akin to a haunted house or popcorn horror movie. Light flickers for a second and the spooky ghost lady is visible for a split second and then is gone when the lights back on! Scary lady stares at you… and she’s dead! So it’s extra scary!
Don’t get me wrong, there were some things I really liked in PT.
The hanging bleeding fridge with crying baby inside (WONDER WHAT THEY COULD REPRESENT) that replaced the swinging lamp was really excellent. Made me feel super uncomfortable and I liked the detail of the bloody hands that show someone had forced the fridge door closed:
I liked the small details littered throughout the house that let you infer a bit about the inhabitants that lived there:
There are a ton of pills and alcohol bottles strewn throughout. There’s a half-eaten banana and candy just haphazardly left open and unfinished. The family photos help humanize the victims as well as put some names to faces.
I liked the endless hallway with all the eyeball paintings. We got to go Non-Euclidean for a bit, and the constantly shifting eyes were pretty unnerving.
However, not once while playing PT did I feel like I was playing a teaser for a Silent Hill game. I was about whiplashed after Norman turned around and that familiar and oh so jizzingly (sorry) good Silent Hill soundtrack came plunking in. It felt like I was watching a trailer for a different game with the SH soundtrack edited over top.
PT by itself was fine. I agree with what Sam said about the assumption the full game was going to play anything like this. I’m sure they wouldn’t let this looping mechanic idea go to waste, but this was just a teaser for a full game, and I think that phrasing it as a “teaser” instead of “demo” was very intentional. PT isn’t Silent Hills. We have no idea what Silent Hills would have been, but it wasn’t going to be PT, I would put a lot of money down on that.
So, I’d like to propose the next time you want to get angry at Konami for canceling the “best horror game ever”, I’d like you to consider a couple things:
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You don’t love Silent Hills, you’ve never played Silent Hills. You love PT. Silent Hills wasn’t going to be PT. You have no idea what Silent Hills was, or how good it would have been. You only know you like PT.
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Was Konami really in the wrong for cancelling after they saw this?
Plus we might not have got that SH2 Remake…
Recommend: Damn. I got to the end of this and realized that I don’t think I would even recommend PT to other people. Not even my friends who enjoy horror games. PT is a game I would never bring up to another person, but if someone came up to me at a party and asked me “Hey, have you played PT?” I’d respond, “Yeah, it was pretty ok.” and then leave the party because I don’t like parties.
Replay Percentage Chance: 10%
Time Played: Hour Thirty
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