Allison Road Looks a Welcome Residence for Fans of Silent Hill

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As the glimmers of hope faded for an Xbox One port and P.T. packed its bags and bid us all farewell, horror fans the world round hung their heads and sobbed at the unjust slaying of Silent Hills. We’ve been sharpening our pitchforks for a while, just waiting for the royal caravan to depart from the Konami headquarters and exact our sweet mob justice, but a new shining star has made me put down my arms and lust after a new terrifying IP.

When my boss messaged me last night and told me look into Allison Road, I thought he had misspelled something. It sounds like the name of a smooth jazz album, and rarely does horror stuff come along that I have no knowledge of. I was stunned to find not a teaser, not some concept piece, not a half-hearted Kickstarter, but a glorious full 13 minutes of gameplay. And it looked like this:

I think I speak for all of us when I say my first reaction to the graphics was, “holy shit!” Immediately, I was brought right back to P.T., which is pretty obviously what the game is going for. One of the first interactive objects has “Dad was such a drag!” written on the back, which fans who managed to get all the way through (or watch on YouTube) the terrifying Silent Hills announcement game will recognize from the ending. There’s also a similarly sinister tone to the brightly lit walls and starkly contrasting shadows. It is an uncanny kind of feeling, where things are just not quite right until shit really hits the fan.

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The description on the video assures us that this little demo does not reflect the final product, as they didn’t want to spoil anything. Though this shows the style and core mechanics, it is unclear if simply the series of events is different or you will inhabit an entirely different house. Here’s some more description of what to expect from the game’s Facebook page:

In Allison Road you will take on the role of the unnamed protagonist, who wakes up one day without any recollection of prior events. Over the course of five nights it is your objective to uncover the whereabouts of your family, unravel the mysteries of the house, and face off against Lily and other dark entities that are nested deep within its walls, while the clock is relentlessly ticking towards 3:00am.

What would you do if you could feel something stalking you in the dark in the safety of your own home? If you couldn’t tell what’s real and what’s not?

The single-player campaign will mostly take place in one British townhouse.

Your British townhouse.

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On face value, it sounds like a mixture of Gone Home and Five Nights at Freddy’s, but with more than just jump-scares. The knocking at the door, the constant tension of not knowing what is next, the mystery, and the stunning visuals easily make this game at the top of the list of things to watch develop. I’ll be bringing more news from Lilith Ltd. in months to come, but if this is a good representation of what’s in store for us, we might just have the next big horror game on our hands. They say it used to be a one man project back in September 2014, and in not even a year with a 6 person team they have gotten this far. It’s an amazing accomplishment, and they just might be the new horror game da Vinci.

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