During last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo festivities at Sony’s press conference, the developer Supermassive Games announced its forthcoming virtual reality psychological thriller The Inpatient by way of an E3 2017 reveal trailer. Now, the studio is prepared to unpack even more details about the title, with Nik Bowen, one of the Game Directors at Supermassive Games, announcing that the VR release is a prequel to Until Dawn.
According to a post Bowen wrote for the PlayStation Blog, The Inpatient is set in the 1950s – 60 years prior to Until Dawn – and the game puts players in the role of a patient with amnesia at the ominous Blackwood Sanatorium. In the latter title, the location is a recurring explorable area, but instead of seeing it in its inoperable state, fans will be able to experience it running at full capacity when The Inpatient drops as an exclusive for PlayStation VR.
Fortunately, for those who have yet to take on Until Dawn, Bowen assures fans that they don’t need to have played the title to enjoy The Inpatient. As the Game Director from Supermassive Games puts it, The Inpatient is a completely standalone release that includes a brand new story and cast of characters with whom to engage.
As far as The Inpatient’s plot is concerned, players are tasked with trying to figure out who they are and why they are at Blackwood, with the start of the game beginning with the protagonist being questioned by Jefferson Bragg, the enigmatic owner of the sanatorium. Bragg claims that he is on the side of the main character, but it’s up to players to determine whether or not he should be believed.
Over the course of The Inpatient, fans meet different patients and staff members that each have their own motivations and agendas, putting players in the position to react to them in different, yet specific ways, which will ultimately impact the direction the story takes. Naturally, though, with the game being billed as a psychological thriller, fans shouldn’t expect the choices presented to them to be easy, as our own hands-on preview with the game will attest.
Taking all of this into account, The Inpatient definitely shows promise as being a fantastic entry as an exclusive title in PlayStation VR’s line of games. The upcoming release is already considered by many to have been one of the best horror games at E3 2017, and with its prequel connection to Until Dawn, Supermassive Games is likely to imbue The Inpatient with plenty of scares and compelling gameplay once its development is finished.
The Inpatient currently lacks a release date, but will launch for PlayStation VR.
Source: PlayStation Blog
