The Best PlayStation Game Every Year 1994 - 2024
11. 2014 - P.T.
It was a worrying sign following the PS3 era that the PlayStation 4’s first couple of years was middling at best when it came to exclusives. In 2014, Driveclub missed the mark for most people, but at least InFamous: Second Son and Little Big Planet 3 were both decent.
One release that can definitely be attributed to selling PlayStation 4 units though, albeit second-hand ones that had the game still installed after it was pulled from the store, was P.T..
The once and never Silent Hill project leaned a brand new way into the series’ psychological horror. With only a simple repeating corridor to explore, players were constantly dangled over the edge of the next big scare, forced to push themselves through the door and search again for what might’ve changed. The incredible lack of enemies somehow didn’t negate the desire to defend yourself from what lurked around each consecutive loop.
It was impossible to pull yourself away and yet P.T.’s atmosphere was so dreadfully thick you daren’t look directly at it.
Who knows what Silent Hills would’ve become before its unceremonious cancellation and the demo's subsequent removal from PlayStation stores, but P.T. was one of the biggest stories in gaming in 2014 with every development. Despite only being a teaser, it captured the imagination of thousands, altering the trajectory of horror gaming for the next decade with both indie and major studios taking influence from the snuffed-out spark of genius that Kojima, Del Toro and their team had crafted.
You simply can’t say the same for InFamous: Second Son