You might have already heard that the PSVR game The Inpatient takes place in the same universe as the 2015 Playstation 4 game Until Dawn. It’s set roughly sixty years before that game, in the same Blackwood Sanatorium the first game introduced, and is due to be released later this year. I went hands-on with The Inpatient at this year’s E3, and while I didn’t get to see much, what I did see was interesting and unsettling. I wanted to learn more about this strange and eerie world, so I played Until Dawn for the first time.

We’ve talked about how much we liked Until Dawn before, but I didn’t know much about it when I started playing. I knew the essential premise, that the player takes control of beautifully mocapped young actors from Uncanny Valley, USA, and makes choices that dictate whether or not they survive, in the style of something like Heavy Rain. I expected all of that, but I was not prepared for the experimental ways the game plays you back.

There’s a lot to like about Until Dawn, but nothing stood out more than The Analyst, a deeply unsettling and enigmatic psychologist played by Peter Stormare that you speak with in between the game's main story chapters. These Analyst sections play out like confrontational therapy sessions, as the character challenges your choices and asks you to reveal your deepest fears. Do snakes or spiders bother you more? What's more disturbing, a clown or a scarecrow?

Once it has this information, Until Dawn uses it as a weapon against you.

Analyzing the Analyst

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As you progress through Until Dawn you make tense and unpleasant choices that dictate who lives, who dies, and who dies horribly. You'll also begin to notice the conversations you’ve had with the Analyst effecting small elements of the main story sections.

Every time you complete a chapter and visit The Analyst’s office things are a little different, and almost always far worse. Did you say that spiders or snakes bother you more? If it was snakes, the Analyst might have a snake sitting on his desk while speaking to you. If it's spiders that make you squirm, you'll be treated to this unexpected intrusion into the game:

Until Dawn is not the first videogame to break the fourth wall in this way, but this concept is rarely executed in such a disturbing fashion. Metal Gear Solid and the Psycho Mantis battle made quite an impression on my young mind ("You like Castlevania DON’T You?!"). Even the sadly overlooked Silent Hill: Shattered Memories had a very similar system to the one found in Until Dawn, in that the gameplay would change depending on answers you gave to a psychiatrist.

It’s a compelling concept for sure, and one that would fit perfectly in what we’ve seen from The Inpatient. Not only because the two games are set in the same universe, but because the setting and the immersion that comes with VR could take the personalized horror to the next level.

Scarier in VR

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Though it might not make sense to have the character of The Analyst return given the fact The Inpatient is a prequel, the complex system of choices weaponized against you could significantly enhance the experience.

We don’t know much about the narrative of The Inpatient, but we do know you are an amnesic patient in a psychiatric hospital. The premise is actually quite similar to that of The Analyst sections of Until Dawn. And The Inpatientt even begins with an older (in this case MUCH older) psychiatrist asking questions and reacting to your answers. In The Inpatient it’s quite clear you aren’t there by choice, and as you begin to unravel the disturbing narrative, it would be fascinating to see the choices you made earlier play out with the added immersion of VR.

Your personal fears are used against you to great effect in Until Dawn, but that manipulation could be amplified dramatically in a virtual reality. Horror in VR is incredibly effective at eliciting a fear response. Having those fears tailor served to you by a maniacal psychiatrist in a creepy setting would be a unique level of frightening I have yet to experience anywhere else.

If you think it’s scary seeing a spider crawling across the screen, imagine looking down to see your virtual body is covered in arachnids. Afraid of clowns? Imagine opening a door and coming face to face with a machete-wielding giggling psychopath.

It could even more subtle than that. Afraid of being alone? Maybe you’re forced to spend time in your cell with nothing and no one as the rain falls outside and no one hears your screams. Claustrophobic? Maybe a sadistic nurse seals you up in a morgue shelf as you tear out your fingernails clawing to get out.

Or maybe I need to see a therapist.

Anyway, the possibilities for frightening the player are endless. If implemented correctly, the concept of the Analyst and what he represents would be a phenomenal fit for The Inpatient from both a gameplay and tonal perspective.

Checking In

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I played The Inpatient only briefly, so for all I know all the ideas I've described here are already planned as part of the game. We’ve only just begun to explore the possibilities of VR for making us feel different emotions, and there’s no emotion more visceral than fear.

Until Dawn's Analyst personifies the exploration of our darkest fears and insecurities, and pulling that concept into the hyper immersion of virtual reality could produce a potentially revolutionary experience.

If done correctly it could actually be scary enough to be traumatic for some, but that won't stop horror fans from playing through all the different permutations of fear.

For more VR news and hardware, check out Newegg VR Central.