A team offormerBioshockandDead Spacedevelopersat The Deep End Games has released a new trailer for its upcoming first-person horror game,Perception, and confirmed the game’s official release date for later this spring.Perceptionwill release across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on May 30.
The new trailer shows off the mansion in New England wherePerceptiontakes place. You can take a peek at the horrors that await below.
The main protagonist ofPerceptionis Cassie Thornton, a blind woman who must make her way through a mansion that is occupied by a supernatural force called “the presence.” Cassie’s only available tools are a walking stick, a smartphone, and her ability to hear. It’s that last tool that will have the biggest impact on the gameplay, as every tap of the walking stick or sound will create a visualization on screen that the player can use to make decisions.
“You don’t have shotguns and magic powers and all that,” project lead Bill Gardner said in aninterview with GamespotwhenPerceptionwas first announced in 2015. Gardner worked at Irrational Games for more than a decade before moving on, most recently serving as design director forBioshock Infinite.
“All you may do when it’s coming for you is run and hide; hop in a closet, get under the bed or the couch,” Gardner added. And hope, pray that it just passes you by."
In other words, it sounds like this horror game will be moreOutlastthanResident Evil. Players will have to use their wits and a limited number of resources to make it out alive instead of picking up a shotgun to take enemies down.
The game will play out across multiple chapters from different eras, with each chapter explaining all of the terrible things that have happened at the mansion. Gardner said it’s definitely a narrative-driven experience and that players can travel back in time, completing changing the geometry of the mansion in the process.
Perception was funded onKickstarterand is published by Poland-based publisher Feardemic. The crowdufnding campaign raised $168,000 on a goal of $150,000.
A spooky mansion in New England, a protagonist trying to solve a mystery and time travel across multiple chapters has us thinking ofEternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiemfrom the Nintendo Gamecube. It would be high praise ifPerceptionturns out to be anywhere near as good as that 2002 Silicon Knights game, but we’ll have to wait a little while longer to see if it can hold a candle to the othertop horror games of 2017.
Perceptionreleases July 09, 2025 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
