I heard about this game in a YouTube video maybe 7 or so years ago and then one day I found a copy on a European video game website and luckily they were able to ship to the US! Basically, it's a 1st person survival horror game where you play as a Japanese school girl that survives a train explosion and then gets stuck in a creepy backrooms / liminal space city. The city is full of really odd NPCs and there's also word of a cult going around kidnapping people. A lot of the citizens of this bizarre area are convinced that doomsday is coming and they say really weird shit to you. The dialogue can be really eerie or even really funny at times.
So for the gameplay, you basically need to explore this super creepy city, talk to these weird NPCS, gather clues, and solve puzzles to try and get back home. Oh but there's a catch. There's a huge mutant creature that is going around killing people and that includes you!
The creature itself doesn't look too scary, but the way it behaves really makes it scary. For one, it will make a subtle but loud huffing noise when it's near you. The thing is you often know it's near but you're not quite sure where. Then it will stop making noises entirely and just show up in the corner of your eye and start chasing you. Oh and I mean chasing you! This bastard lunges at you and even Naruto runs. It's fast and if it catches you, you're dead!
The way they integrate the creature is also very interesting. Basically, there's scripted events where it shows up, but it also shows up randomly too. it really adds a lot of unpredictability and makes the game really unnerving to play in the best way.
Besides the creature, what makes the game really interesting is you can have one companion with you and which companion you end up with will affect your ending. I say end up with because you start out with Naomi and if the creature gets you, she dies permanently. Then if she dies you can have a different companion. Each companion you have will comment on NPCs and story events, which adds a lot of replay value, on top of the multiple endings.
While you're making your way through the game, all of the environments are very samey-looking and mazelike, but it actually adds to the horror and really makes the locations feel eerie and unsettling. There's a ton of fog too, which is intentional and it gives the game a really creepy vibe. The environments really do remind me of those creepy liminal spaces that inspired those backrooms games, except this game was made way before backrooms was even a thing. Also, the music is very creepy and sparse. It plays, then it stops completely, and then it starts again. It feels very unnerving and it fits the game perfectly.
This game also does the survival horror thing that I love, which is making you piece together the story by finding clues and analyzing everything. The game doesn't beat you over the head with the story and it's pretty light on cutscenes and I absolutely believe it works in the game's favor. it makes the story a lot more creepy because you're basically slowly learning little tid-bits here and there and gathering all the clues to piece the story together yourself. I love this narrative design and I wish more games would use it.
The last thing that I really appreciate about this game is that there's just nothing else quite like it. It's very unique, especially for the time it was released. The closest thing I can compare it to would be Alien Isolation, except you can never fight back in Hellnight. All you can do is run away and hope the creature doesn't catch you. I would also compare it to Clock Tower and Haunting Ground, except the 1st person view, liminal space settings, and dark PS1 graphics really make the game stand out on its own. I would also say it kind of reminds me of a survival horror version of Kowloon's Gate, if anyone has heard of that.
This is genuinely one of the coolest and most interesting survival horror games I've ever played. It is obscure as hell though. Like seriously, it doesn't get much more obscure than this. This gem of a game is absolutely buried. I hope that more people can experience it, even if it has to be through emulation. Europe and Japan got a really cool survival horror game that the US totally missed out on and it's absolutely a shame. This should by all means be a cult classic imo. The problem is it's just too obscure and no one talks about it. This is the perfect game to play for the spooky season.
Also here's some super in-depth videos if anyone is interested in the game and wants to know more about it:
https://youtu.be/mQ5P79HW79w?is=WRWoRP1tDUA7fdb0
https://youtu.be/HKFYzYxpe_o?is=n0PR5DYnL5c_ue8u
