P.T. Resurrected: Allison Road and the Afterlife of Silent Hills
by Gary Alexander Stott
P.T. is set to live on through a spiritual successor named Allison Road. Like its inspiration, the project is a first-person horror experience set in a domestic environment, this time a claustrophobic townhouse.
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The title is being independently developed by a team of six, with creator Christian Kesler leading the charge. It is currently planned for release on PC in 2016, with console ports remaining a future possibility.
While the visual aesthetic is certainly reminiscent of P.T., Allison Road differs in that it gives the player an entire house to explore rather than a single looping hallway, as well as a fully-fledged mystery to investigate. The player controls an amnesiac character attempting to discover how they came to be in their environment, as well as the fate of their family. Like Gone Home, story elements are uncovered through exploration and discovery. The player must also contend with a chilling entity known as Lily, who is simply one of the many enigmatic forces at work in the game. |
So far, the team have showcased a well-crafted and detailed environment, as well as a frighteningly ghoulish character model. It remains to be seen how well they will be able to match the fear-factor present in P.T., but these are early days, and much more will be revealed in the coming weeks as Kesler's team bring their vision to life. Their progress can be followed through the game's official Facebook page, which is regularly updated with behind-the-scenes content and comments from the developers.
The release of P.T. was a ground-breaking moment in the games industry. It represented a new kind of marketing – the playable teaser. Last year, the dream-team of horror director Guillermo del Toro and industry icon Hideo Kojima devised a brief, haunting and cryptic experience which gamers around the world were tasked with solving. When the project was revealed to be a teaser for a planned reboot of the Silent Hill series, fans were over the moon. Anticipation was further increased through the involvement of popular Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus, bringing the dream-team up to three.
''The collaboration between Kojima and myself,'', stated Del Toro, ''the meetings, and the friendship that was developing was beautiful. We had an agreement on where to go. We had an agreement on how we were going to push the new platforms. We were having a blast."
However, it was not to be. During the corporate restructuring of Konami, Silent Hills, as the project was known, was cancelled. Worse yet was the controversial removal of P.T. from the Playstation Store, preventing new players from downloading the teaser. Despite the success of the playable teaser in generating interest for Silent Hills, it would never amount to anything but a fond and terrifying memory.
P.T. has gone on to attain cult status within the horror game genre. However, with titles like Allison Road taking such inspiration from its atmosphere and aesthetic, it's reassuring to believe that P.T.'s influence on the industry is only now beginning to be felt.
The release of P.T. was a ground-breaking moment in the games industry. It represented a new kind of marketing – the playable teaser. Last year, the dream-team of horror director Guillermo del Toro and industry icon Hideo Kojima devised a brief, haunting and cryptic experience which gamers around the world were tasked with solving. When the project was revealed to be a teaser for a planned reboot of the Silent Hill series, fans were over the moon. Anticipation was further increased through the involvement of popular Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus, bringing the dream-team up to three.
''The collaboration between Kojima and myself,'', stated Del Toro, ''the meetings, and the friendship that was developing was beautiful. We had an agreement on where to go. We had an agreement on how we were going to push the new platforms. We were having a blast."
However, it was not to be. During the corporate restructuring of Konami, Silent Hills, as the project was known, was cancelled. Worse yet was the controversial removal of P.T. from the Playstation Store, preventing new players from downloading the teaser. Despite the success of the playable teaser in generating interest for Silent Hills, it would never amount to anything but a fond and terrifying memory.
P.T. has gone on to attain cult status within the horror game genre. However, with titles like Allison Road taking such inspiration from its atmosphere and aesthetic, it's reassuring to believe that P.T.'s influence on the industry is only now beginning to be felt.
