GamesRelay

Name: Hysteria Project

Devleopers BulkyPix have brought something a little different to the PlayStation Minis range of games; Hysteria Project is a survival horror game in a first person perspective and makes use of Full Motion Video. Yup, FMV, that should bring back some SEGA CD related memories for some if nothing else. Originally developed for the iPhone its been ported over by Sanuk Games and it's an incredibly cheap title to pick up, setting you back a paltry £1.19 or $1.99 should your interest be piqued.

Hysteria Project puts you in the place of a kidnap victim, you awake in a shed bound up with duct tape and from here on in you must use your wits and your guile to escape from a crazed axe murderer; a creepy and unnerving start to any game.

Placing its roots in the "Make your own adventure" category, it's reminiscent of the old DVD game idea where a movie sequence would play out and then you would have to choose an option to continue and then the story would progress based on your choice. If you've ever had any experience with these then you should know exactly what to expect, well, for the most part. As the first scene plays out you can't help but be impressed, it's mean, it's dark and it's totally designed to suck you in. The camera work is done in a Blair Witch approach and right from the start it really works well with a film grain effect used to distort the film footage. While it's loading, one of the screens advises you to use a pair of headphones to really enhance the experience and it has to be said that it actually can draw you in a little more; especially with the lights out.

Soon after you awake in the shed you'll be given your first choice, the game pauses while you make your choice from a menu that fills the screen, you're not given an unlimited amount of time to make this choice so you'd better be quick about it, once your choice has been made the story continues and you see your choice played out, for good or bad. There isn't much in the way of 'lives' as you would normally find, if you make the wrong decision then you're told you are dead, but you can continue and remake your decision should you so wish.

Once you've made your way out of the shed then you'll find yourself in some woods, this is where you have to run from your attacker who you catch glimpses of as you look back to see if he's following, and he mostly is; in the woods your most common choice is if to turn left or right on the varying paths but you'll also come across hiding places you can take refuge in for a short while. While you're in the woods you'll occasionally come across paths that need to be negotiated to some degree; when you happen across these you'll enter a quick time event mode where buttons have to be pressed that correspond with buttons that flash up on the screen, although to be honest it sometimes doesn't seem to matter if you make these connections or not, even if you make a mistake there doesn't seem to be any consequence but it's probably best not to test that theory to often, when it does work properly you'll die if you miss the button press.

Unfortunately, what starts off well is soon diminished as you make your way through the woods and you have to choose a couple of times too many as to which path you should choose, the left or the right, it gets a little monotonous to say the least. It's not all choosing paths, you occasionally come across traps you must negotiate using the QTE method as you do with the paths, there are also clues to be found on the floor which can add a bit of mystique to the atmosphere, and of course the quick flashes of the axe murderer chasing you come along to break things up.

Once you've completed the game you'll be rewarded with a new icon on the menu screen which gives you a little more history and background about your experience, you get the impression from reading it that there is more in store from this story in the future; that said, the original iPhone version is over a year old now and nothing new has come from that, perhaps a few extra PSP sales can nudge BulkyPix in the right direction to develop this idea a little further.

Overall it's an enjoyable experience for what it is, the end of the game comes quickly, it's got about 20-30 minutes gameplay to it in total which reflect the low price of the game. You should think about picking this up if you've got some spare pennies hanging around on your PSN wallet, there's far worse in the Minis section of the PlayStation Store for a higher price than this, that's for sure.