P.T
If you were on YouTube in 2014, you could not escape P.T. Every creator and their mother were playing this game and sharing their gameplay with the world. Thankfully, this means we will always have a large video archive of the now removed teaser from the PlayStation store.
P.T was developed by the legendary Hideo Kojima, P.T standing for ‘Playable Teaser’, the game was a teaser trailer for the now cancelled instalment in the Silent Hill series ‘Silent Hills’. Unlike the usual third-person perspective in Silent Hill games, P.T utilised a first-person perspective in addition to an unnamed and unarmed protagonist.
Without any announcement, P.T ‘appeared’ on the PlayStation Store for free with its main allure to players being solely its mystery. Word quickly spread, and the game’s absurdism and inexplicable presentation made it feel as if the game itself was cursed.
The game is a marvel at conjuring a surreal and tense atmosphere, having the player walk through a hallway of a suburban house, only for the door at the end of the corridor to loop the exact same corridor you just walked down. As you delve deeper into the looping corridors you will notice slight visual or audio quirks, leading you to deduce that no two corridors are of the same. As you progress through the corridors you will encounter the antagonist ‘Lisa’, possibly resulting in a jumpscare and a Lynchian foetus lying in the bathroom sink either crying or describing disturbing events that occurred 10 months prior.
With around 30 minutes of gameplay and a relatively simple gimmick, P.T singlehandedly cemented itself as a milestone in the survival horror genre and gaming history as whole, with it still being cited by some as the most haunting gaming experience of all time.
Alice Asylum
Abandoned in production Limbo by EA, ‘Alice Asylum’ was set to be the third instalment in American McGee’s Alice series. McGee’s series took a fresh perspective to the traditional Alice narrative.
Set in London in the Victorian era, the series follows Alice Liddell and her deteriorating mental health due to the loss of her family in a house fire. Simultaneously, the once picturesque Wonderland (a metaphor for Alice’s psyche) has crumbled and turned into a nightmarish realm of horror.
Players traverse both 'Lunderland' and 'Wonderland' in order to reveal to truth's surrounding the fire. ‘Alice Asylum’ was set to expand on this universe, with multiple realms inspired by the stages of grief, boss fights with characters previously seen in the 'Alice' universe and over 30 customisable dress options.
Sadly, when American McGee approached EA with his design bible in 2023 (which is now available free online to download), they rejected his proposal and refused to commission any more Alice games but decided to retain the IP, leaving the series in limbo.
Thankfully, a fan of the series has stated that they hope to make the game themselves and from what I have seen, their progress so far is promising! Fingers crossed EA might see this and realise there is a real fan base behind the Alice series.