This shit should be called PTSD.

Trauma describes rather accurately the state that I was in after an evening with P.T. – an “interactive teaser” released into the wild via the PSN yesterday. I found myself unable to play this sample-sized preamble to a new Silent Hill project for more than 30 seconds at a time before escaping to the serenity of the PS4 home screen with a tap of a button. I marvelled at how we didn’t really have that escape method when playing a horror game back in the day.

And by back in the day, I’m referring to my night with Silent Hill 3, and a certain, terrifying scene in a dilapidated hospital room where some nightmare clone stepped out of the mirror and proceeded to chase me, and my only reaction was to turn my PS2 off and flee my pitch black living room. It was a flight-or-fight response, and it was to a video game.

I think I experienced a mild version of that at least five times over the course of one hour  last night. Even after my boyfriend joined me on the couch, with the lights on in the neighbouring kitchen. Even then, this experimental, bite-sized entry into horror gaming got me. It got me good.

More than just the delicious horror this visits on gamers, it’s the insidious marketing methodology behind this release, as well as the ensuing conversations online for the past 24 hours that have grabbed me. This little teaser wormed its way into the online gaming consciousness, and I’m fascinated by it.

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