The popularity of horror games and first person, defenseless titles that started to become a hit ever since the cancellation of Silent Hills P.T. never ceases to grow in numbers and creativity. But there is one specific title, one that I had interviewed awhile back, that has finally reached Early Access on steam which any fan of the Silent Hill series is going to easily get excited for!
Dreadful by Green Eye Games is capturing the concept of P.T. and blending it with inspirations from Silent Hill: The Room to bring back the environment and style that many have been waiting to see a strong return for! Here's the announcement trailer:
You start out the game in a way that shows off the fact that you are David Hill, a journalist, by placing you in his office, getting a call on a lead, and checking it out before leaving. There is a brief cut scene to show travel and then boom, the real game begins and you are inside of the home where the lead given took place.
The lead you got was of a suicide-homicide case where a father shot and killed his family before turning the gun on himself. What you begin to find out is that you are about to take on a story in which may be more than you can handle!
The beginning of the game reminded me of P.T. in multiple aspects; from the closed in hallways that brought the environment to a narrow stretch to the red lights that began to appear after you find that the exit ends up making you loop, much like in the famous demo! But it didn't end with that. It didn't take long for Mary, our infamous antagonist of the game, to start roaming the home while you searched for the next memory before leaving the home - or at least the current version of it you are in!
While you are in the home, the game is a defenseless first person style where you have to watch the temperature meter display on your phone to see if Mary is nearby while finding the next item that contains a memory. The memories seem to relate to final moments from the father before he committed the homicide, but they aren't just normal anger or ramblings. There seems to be a deeper event going on, possibly a cult that is in place, that the husband got mixed up in. This we won't know until the final release of course! During all this, you will have to watch your fear meter and make sure it doesn't get too high or leave David stressed for too long because a heart attack is a valid way to die this time! Also, your fear is what will give you away because Mary will not be able to see visually, but she will be able to smell your fear. So we all need to just relax!
I specify the game style house because it changes drastically after a strange event, that I won't say due to it being a spoiler, takes place in the home that makes you end up outside. Once you get to this point, it switches to a third person game and adds the ability to run. This is the moment that things go from P.T. to straight up Silent Hill style as the world is abandoned with cars and trash misplaced through the streets and a thick fog covering the landscape!
During these parts of the game, it is a survival style as you will find yourself a gun and enemies to take down that roam the roads! Not to mention a few strange characters that don't seem to belong here, yet end up saying some cryptic crap that just makes you end up having more questions then before they showed up!
Final Verdict, So Far...
This game was a lot of fun to play and I could really feel the Silent Hill experience while I was making my way through the confusing horror that played out through the hour long demo and I can't wait to play through the whole game! I love that he is bringing this series environment and style back to life through a new and original concept thats flooded with inspiration from the Silent Hill franchise!
Easy to say that I highly recommend this title to any horror gamer out there!
