PlayStation Magazine UK - 12.2019

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10 SCARIEST MOMENTS ON PLAYSTATION

INFO PUBHOW TO PLAY 505 GAMES PLAYSTATION STOREDEV REMEDY ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE^2019

Control

One quiet revelation could make you lose it

G

etting jumped by the Hiss or coming

a cropper at the furry hands of mould

zombies are always nerve-wracking

experiences, but it’s not just the telekinetic

action that gets your blood pumping in Control.

As you dive into internal documents and explore

the Oldest House to tackle an extradimensional

invasion, many scares are slow burners drawn

from, in game director Mikael Kasurinen’s words,

“the mundane meeting the strange”.

A case in point is the NSC power plant. It’s central

to the day-to-day operations of the Bureau but

no-one will tell you exactly what ‘NSC’ stands for.

No, you’ve got to go digging – or rather levitating

• on your own to uncover that appalling little titbit.
  The revelation, which we’re sure will be the cause of
  another lockdown one of these days, is made worse
  by an off-hand comment made by security chief

Simon Arish you can overhear post-game. We don’t

want to spoil the unsettling discovery, especially as

Kasurinen stresses that “trusting the player” was a

key part of the team’s design philosophy. We hope

we’ve given just enough hints to pique your interest.

On a totally unrelated note: former Director

Northmoor... what a guy!

“To learn what ‘NSC

stands for you’ve got

to go digging – or

rather levitating –

on your own.”

Resident Evil VII

Welcome home

Playing the entirety of Resi

VII in PS VR blows the

Kitchen demo out of the

water. The only thing we’ve

got against it is having to

give the office headset an

especially deep clean after

every sweaty session.

The Persistence

In space, no-one can

hear you scream

Caught in a cycle of death

and cloned reawakening, you

must use your limited

resources to get your ship

home. Fantastic sound

design takes centre stage

as a means to unnerve.

Transference

Coming home will never

be the same

This computer-simulated

home is anything but sweet,

though the scenery’s glitchy

aesthetic is well worth

soaking in. It makes our list

for oozing style as much as

it does silliness.

Here They Lie

Breaking up and down

Relationships are at the

heart of this wander around

a grey city. The hostility of

the place contrasts with

your vulnerability and that,

coupled with the open-to-

interpretation plot, is why

it lies here.

Stifled

We won’t draw this out

Headset on, you bring this

wireframe world to life via

sound. Your echolocation

can draw the attention of

monsters, and when you

must choose between silence

and one late-game creature,

nothing is always scarier.

dev talk

“Humour is a fine line

to walk, especially in

a game like Control.

Telling outright

jokes would ruin the

atmosphere for the

player, so we instead

found our game’s

humour in the inherent

absurdity of daily

life at the Bureau.

[...] When you realise

these are just regular

folk with irregular

jobs, it makes the

horror they’re

experiencing

more relatable.”

Clay Murphy

Senior writer, Remedy

Entertainment

dev talk

“It’s more about being

implicit than explicit:

present questions

within the world, have

players explore it,

make them wonder,

and then have the

answers there as well,

but don’t give them

for free. You need to

participate, to be the

one that finds it out.”

Mikael Kasurinen

Game director,

Remedy Entertainment

An immersive world of horror Strap in and get scared silly with our top PS VR picks