Playable Teaser

In August 2014, Sony released a playable teaser for the PlayStation Store. Literally called Playable Teaser, at first, nothing was known about it, until the internet revealed that it indeed was a glimpse of what Silent Hills, the newest announcement of the series, would be about.

P.T. is a little demo where it becomes immediately obvious that nothing gets explained, controls are very limited and there is no true sense of direction. You end up in a hallway contineously akin to The Stanley Parable, but now it's set into a horror setting.

By now, countless of gamers have either played, seen or beaten P.T., in that very order. Before I talk more about it, I wanted to reference another review for remarking that the point of the demo was never to say that you achieved beating it.

No, the point isn't about running in circles. The point isn't about speedrunning. The point isn't about expectations. The point isn't about combining action with horror. The point isn't about using a walkthrough or arguably seeing a Let's Play.

The point IS to be lost in a psychological unstable event, immersing yourself through what you perceive, explore the surroundings, look for clues and experience true fear. And that is where Playable Teaser really succeeded.

Next towards being a terrifying experience in general, it really is even better when you know nothing about it before hand. The actual scares of the teaser are anything but a tease, because they were very effective and haunting in their timing and precision. My favorite one turned out to be the monstreous looking baby fetus lying in the bath sink, reminding me instantly of my favorite horror movie, Eraserhead.

Next to that, a vengeful ghost is present in the endless looping corridors and bathroom, which will surely shock your playthrough, because it seems that the random factor most of all comes from her presence.

Playable Teaser may have little to do with the overall franchise of Silent Hill, but if we can expect from Hideo Koijma, Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus a collaboration where the tone and atmosphere are carried by this caliber, alongside effective scares, then I will definitely look forward to the actual release of Silent Hills.