During the recent Guerrilla Collective showcase, publisher Microids showed off a teaser trailer for its next game: Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo. The game is being developed by Pendulo Studios which was also behind Runaway, Yesterday Origins, and Blacksad: Under the Skin. The game is being billed as a new kind of psychological thriller that walks the line between reality and fantasy.
The story follows writer Ed Miller who came out unscathed from his car crash down into Brody Canyon, California. Even though no one was found inside the car wreckage, Ed insists that he was traveling with his wife and daughter. Traumatized by this event, he begins to suffer from severe vertigo. As he starts therapy, he will try to uncover what really happened on that tragic day.
Narrative designer at Pendulo, Josué Monchan, said of the game’s inspiration, “Of course, Alfred Hitchcock’s movie was a major inspiration source, whether it’s about the game’s themes, its narration, or even the visual techniques we used that clearly mirror Hitchcock’s recurrent cinematographic techniques.” He also added, “Vertigo is not our only frame of reference. For instance, the fact that therapy is at the core of the narrative echoes Spellbound, and some characters resemble protagonists from Rebecca, Psycho, and many more.”
The game will feature a powerful narrative experience that pays tribute to the visual and storytelling techniques of the thriller genre. It will also allow players to investigate the vision of three characters with a different story to tell and explore different timelines to separate reality from deceptive memories. Prepare yourself for a disturbing investigation inside the human mind where the truth is sometimes worse than madness.
Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo is scheduled to be released at the end of the year on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
