Огляд PT (PlayStation)

Подивитися на будь-який notable horror game from the past decade, and you’ll uncover some minor reference to the Kojima powerhouse that was, and forever will be Silent Hills" wasted opportunity to pioneer and deliver one of the greatest torch-bearing experiences of all time. A decade has passed, and although we’re still no closer to seeing Hideo Kojima’s retracted masterpiece in its final form, we він має still able to relish the fact that most games continue to bear a striking resemblance with the twenty-minute playable teaser. It isn’t much, but it’s about as close as we’ll ever get to being at the outer edge of Silent Hills' would-be universe. Особа, МЕДІСОН, шари страху, for example, all teeter on those outskirts, and they’ll forever serve as a reminder of what could have been, but never will be.

ПТ has influence, and not just the kind that turns a few heads at an annual award ceremony, but the raw power to alter the formula of modern horror and wax an entirely different form of psychological storytelling. It’s old (at least in the eyes of a younger generation), yet it кровоточить through the cracks of most horror flicks, with its deeply disturbing mandala-like progression forming the bone marrow for an entirely separate vessel for the genre. A decade on, and that influence is still there, rooted deep within the code of practice. It’s an anchor point—a masterclass on how to elevate a suspenseful segment and keep the player second guessing their movements, their surroundings, and their ability to tell the difference between fact and fiction, a mirage or a slender woman who stalks your footsteps.

Для запису, ПТ can no longer be played. That is, of course, unless you took the opportunity to install it before its removal from the storefront back in 2015, in which case you can return to it to rekindle its roots. For everyone else, though, it’s an archival piece of art that’s just out of reach. If you’re in the latter division, then be sure to stick around with us a short while as we venture down memory lane. Let’s talk PT, і що б have been the prelude to the ever-elusive Silent Hills.

Spearheading Horror

Hideo Kojima, an icon known to countless gamers for his work with Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding and the establishment of stealth-based video games back in the late eighties, once made a decision to reshape the realm of horror with an original format—an idea that would eventually become the standard for indie and big-budget experiences alike. ПТ was to be an informal introduction to Silent Hills—a game that was, due to mixed creative and business visions, axed from the chalkboard and eventually abandoned. It didn’t give much of a glimpse into what was coming, though it did capture the essence of a world that was destined to be bold, beautiful, and devoid of comfort. And sadly, that’s where it ground to a halt and met it untimely demise. A standard was set, and the hopes of it ever seeing the light of day quickly diminished.

For those of you who’ve missed out on the chance to play Kojima’s lost creation, ПТ is, in short, a twenty-minute first-person walking simulator that takes you through a network of dimly lit corridors, with each of its winding sections offering hallucinatory snippets or seemingly unconventional image to flesh out an odd but woefully complex tale. It doesn’t tell you чому you’re in the place that you are, nor does it fill your head with information to help establish context. No, it slots you in a world, and it puts you on a loop—a track that takes you through various rooms of grotesque beauty and sickeningly dark hallucinations. A slender woman with a sinister smile on the balcony; a crying fetus in the bathroom sink; a hallway that stretches for miles. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel, just a spiraling rabbit hole that keeps you wanting to delve just that little bit deeper, if only to find the “treasure” at the bottom of the barrel. Spoiler alert: there is no treasure, only more questions and fewer answers.

Due to its randomly generated nature, ПТ is (or at least було) a game that you could easily play over and over again and still find something new with each fleeting moment. Heck, I never even бачив the slender woman on my first handful of trips into its world, but as soon as I discovered that it had countless outcomes and randomized moments, I found myself venturing back to experience it all again. It was still the same thing, naturally, but with another layer that needed to be unveiled. That, in part, was the reason for its global success: the unpredictable nature of its world and the lack of interwoven jigsaw pieces.

Звичайно, ПТ could have given us a lot more to help whet the mood for Silent Hills' eventual release. At the time of its launch, however, it felt like enough. The mood; the powerful sense of dread; the not knowing what loomed on the other side of the border; and the ominous feeling that something was preparing for an ungodly homecoming in the coming weeks. Sadly, all of these components contributed to a pipe dream that never made it to the mainstream. The stage was set, but the curtain couldn’t find the hands to release the knots and showcase the final production. Silent Hills died, and the audience was left on standby. Thus, we had our reason to mourn what would have been a testament to Kojima’s creative wizardry.

Вердикт

ПТ illustrates what would have, no, може have been incubated if it had just received the full treatment and the proper care from Konami. And yet, despite never making it to the centerfield of mainstream media, it continues to leave an imprint on the industry—an inkblot, if you will, that still seeps through the texts of hundreds, if not тисячі of modern doppelgängers. It’s a timeless reminder, if anything, that even the smallest passion projects—preludes, sneak peeks, or cutting room floor snippets—can still make a lasting impression on the world. Again, it’s a shame that it will never come to fruition, but the fact that it leaves just the smallest amount of breadcrumbs for fledgling creators to follow is the silver lining that, frankly, we still ought to celebrate. A bittersweet victory, really.