Highlights
- An independent developer announces a "spiritual successor" to iconic horror game PT, called Supernormal.
- Supernormal is heavily inspired by PT and Allison Road, promising a psychological horror experience.
- Set in a seemingly ordinary apartment with dark secrets, players investigate a young woman's disappearance.
Independent developer Hitori de Productions has announced an upcoming horror game called Supernormal, which it describes as a "spiritual successor" to the iconic unreleased horror game Allison Road, and also that game's chief inspiration, PT. Released in 2014 as a demo for Hideo Kojima's canceled Silent Hills project, PT has since become a cult classic, despite no longer being officially available for download on the PlayStation Store or elsewhere.
During its brief availability on the PS4 back in 2014, PT terrified and fascinated millions of horror fans, and its allure only grew when the project was canceled and the demo disappeared from the PlayStation Store. Countless horror games inspired by PT have been created in the nearly ten years since, including a widely anticipated project called Allison Road announced in 2015. Despite generating a lot of excitement during its development process, Allison Road was ultimately canceled in 2016.
Lessons Kojima Productions' Xbox Game Can Learn From PT
Kojima Productions' Xbox game is rumored to be in the horror genre, presenting Kojima with an opportunity to finish what he started in P.T.
Heavily inspired by both of these classic unfinished titles, Supernormal is a recently announced psychological horror game from first-time developer Hitori de Productions. According to the game's Steam page, Supernormal will see players take on the role of a detective tasked with investigating a young woman's disappearance, set in a "seemingly ordinary apartment harboring dark secrets." Like other detective horror games, Supernormal will task players with gathering clues to unravel the game's central mystery while terrifying paranormal events occur around them.
The Supernormal Steam page is not currently accepting pre-orders, but does allow interested fans to wishlist the game, which is set to release on January 8, 2024. The page does not yet include a trailer, but does display a series of screenshots that offer a taste of the game's impressive visual style and clearly display its PT-inspired roots. In terms of length, Supernormal will be relatively compact, offering "about 2 hours of gameplay," putting it in the same league as several beloved short horror games that offer condensed, terrifying experiences.
Hitori de Productions is setting itself a high bar to clear by associating Supernormal so closely with PT, given its almost mythical status among horror gaming fans. The fact that fans are still working to make PT playable on modern consoles almost ten years after the short demo was taken down clearly demonstrates how much love the community still has for it: any game trying to assume the legacy of PT will therefore have to work hard to live up to the original cult classic.
Supernormal is set to release January 8, 2024 on PC.
