Remember P.T.? Some people call it the best demo ever created. Others will even go as far to say it was one of the scariest games ever made. Konami and directors Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro created P.T. as a way to lure people in to wanting a new Silent Hill game. As the demo concludes, players learn that P.T. simply meant “Playable Teaser,” and the tease was actually for a new title called Silent Hills.
As promising as this new direction looked, it’s dead in the water, and P.T. can no longer be downloaded. Lance McDonald, who is one of the lucky people to still have P.T. on his PlayStation 4 five years after it was removed, just made a startling discovering in the game. McDonald, who runs a Patreon that explores “video game hacking, modding, and exploration videos,” hacked P.T. to show players what happens when the camera faces in different directions as the scares are unfolding.
On Twitter, McDonald wrote “In P.T., it’s common to hear noises as if Lisa is right behind you, or see weird shadows moving around in front of you, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there. I hacked the game to allow the player to see behind.”
It turns out Lisa, the scary demon in the game, is always behind the player, and worse, she actually latches onto the player after they discover the flashlight. You can see the horror she brings in the video below:
She actually attaches to the player’s back as soon as you get the flashlight, here, I demonstrate how you can see some strange shadows. I then lock the camera in place and walk forward, showing how she’s always there… following you… pic.twitter.com/zarhwjNmZz
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) September 9, 2019
Kojima retweeted McDonald’s discovery, which makes it seem like Lisa always being there was a story decision that players eventually would have discovered. Even after altering the flow of the game, McDonald says it’s still terrifying. “The number of times Lisa has grabbed me and scared the absolute s— out of my while trying to test patches is exhausting,” he wrote. “I never get used to it.”
The sad reality of game development is some games get canceled, but few ever make it as far as P.T. did in the public eye before getting the axe. What could have been. What could have been…