PlayStation’s June State of Play gives peeks at four upcoming horror titles

PlayStation just hosted their June State of Play, filled to the brim with fresh looks at upcoming games. Amongst those offerings were a handful of exciting horror titles. 

First up is a new trailer for The Lost Wild. Developed by Great Ape Games and published by Annapurna Interactive, The Lost Wild is a survival horror game that places the player amidst the hunting grounds of nature’s deadliest prehistoric animals. Playing as Saskia, the player will explore lush wilderness and abandoned research facilities whilst evading all kinds of dinosaurs. During the rapid montage of gameplay clips in the trailer, the player is shown crouching under cover to avoid detection, throwing a glass bottle to ward off an approaching raptor, running from a giant Hatzegopteryx in an open field, using a flare to see, and more. The dinosaurs themselves look and behave more realistically than most other depictions, which is a nice touch.

Little is known about the story of The Lost Wild. Gary Napper, the game’s director, writes in a PlayStation Blog post that, “as Saskia explores, she begins to uncover traces of what happened on the island—and why it was abandoned. She discovers abandoned spaces, subtle environmental details, and sees traces of fragmented human presence.” 

“Not everything is explained outright,” Napper continues. “We believe there is power in leaving gaps, in allowing players to interpret and question what they find. This approach creates a deeper, more lasting engagement with the story.” The Lost Wild is set to release in 2027 on PS5, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

That wasn’t the only Annapurna-published survival horror title presented at the State of Play. Developed by Screen Burn Interactive and produced by Konami, Silent Hill: Townfall follows Simon Ordell after he wakes up in the foggy town of St. Amelia. He’s been called there to “put things right,” with his only lead being the voices coming from a CRTV radio he picks up along the way.

Silent Hill: Townfall’s release date announcement trailer had quite a bit to share. The voice of the woman heard in the trailer from February’s State of Play belongs to a nurse named Zoe, with the game’s official website saying that she “cannot turn a blind eye to the problems at hand.” But something’s not right; she calls for Simon to return to St. Amelia over the CRTV radio, yet she asks him what he’s doing there when they finally meet face-to-face. Complicating matters is the fact that Simon doesn’t recognize the town nor Zoe.

Credit: Konami Digital Entertainment

The trailer also reveals new puzzles in Townfall. One sees the player tuning their CRTV radio, and another has them rotating consecutive rings on a mysterious door.

“As with some of Screen Burn’s previous titles,” says Townfall’s writer and director Jon McKellan in a PlayStation Blog post, “we strive to design puzzles and problems for the player that intertwine with the narrative directly, often telling part of the story in their setup or solutions.” He goes on to say that, “solving these puzzles isn’t just a way to progress in the game, though, but rather a way to understand the situation Simon finds himself in. Each puzzle has been designed while writing the story, so rather than a separate, unconnected gameplay layer, they’re grounded in the world you’re exploring and contextual to it and the town’s inhabitants. It means each carries a deeper meaning or revelation within them.”

Of course, what’s a Silent Hill game without chilling monsters and tension? The new trailer gives glimpses of a new monster, with an emphasis on stealth rather than the combat seen in the previous trailer. One clip shows Simon throwing a glass bottle to draw a monster’s attention away from where he needs to go. Stealth mechanics such as this, along with the ability to peek around corners that was shown off last time, haven’t been utilized in a Silent Hill game until now. Although P.T. (2014) and Silent Hill: The Short Message (2024) both employed a first-person perspective, Townfall seems to be attempting to make the most out of it.

In the same blog post mentioned earlier, McKellan describes the implementation of PS5 features. This includes motion controls, “such as fine tuning the CRTV into weak signals by twisting the device for a better signal reception, giving a more tactile feel to items in hand.” This is the first time that the series has added motion controls since Shattered Memories (2009).

Silent Hill: Townfall releases on September 24 for PS5, Steam, and Epic Games Store and can be pre-ordered at $49.99 for the Standard Edition and $59.99 for the Deluxe Edition. Pre-ordering the Standard Edition grants players a Rusted skin for the CRTV radio, with PS5 players being given an additional Beach skin for it. The deluxe edition comes with an alternate outfit for Simon, a digital artbook, and a digital soundtrack. Pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition gives the same CRTV radio skin(s) in addition to 48-hour early access to the game.

Credit: Mundfish Powerhouse

Another horror game to receive an update in this month’s State of Play is ILL in the form of a story trailer. ILL is a realistic first-person action horror game being developed by Team Clout studio with the help of Mundfish Powerhouse. The game throws players into the relentless insanity of a dark fort overtaken by a mysterious entity. In order to survive ILL’s grim story, players will need to face-off against unpredictable monsters in fights that feature a visceral dismemberment system and realistic physics.

This dismemberment system is shown off in the trailer as the player deals with what used to be people. From blasting monsters’ legs off and bursting their craniums underboot, to decapitated heads sprouting bony legs or rebar-infused brutes, ILL seems to have no shortage of gnarly combat and body horror. And with several guns shown in the trailer, along with grinning corpses lugging around fireaxes, it’s sure to be a blood bath.

Ironically, story details from this story trailer are scarce. However, it seems to indicate that the protagonist was in a coma before waking up in the infirmary of this fort right when this mysterious entity attacks. Now, you have to work with survivors and fight like hell to make it out alive.

ILL is set to release in 2027 for PS5, XBox Series X | S, and Steam.

Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe

Lastly comes the unexpected announcement of a sequel to Until Dawn 2. Taking the reins from Supermassive Games is Firesprite, creating a standalone experience with a brand new cast of characters in an unfamiliar setting. The characters at the center of Until Dawn 2 are the ghost hunting crew behind a popular, less-than-truthful paranormal channel known as “Dead True.” Now, having just signed a deal with a big TV network, this group of friends are being shipped off to an abandoned tropical island to film their first fully funded episode. 

But this workplace getaway is far from idyllic. The drama bubbling to the surface amidst the friend group is compounded by their intimidating boss applying pressure to heighten the show’s entertainment-value, even if it means pushing someone to their breaking point. The choices that the player makes to navigate these complicated dynamics will have massive repercussions, especially once they encounter the dreadful, heartbreaking, vengeful secrets that the island has been holding for centuries. As the crew discover these supernatural scares to be all too real, the player will have to make the right choices to determine whether they’ll make it until dawn or become another haunted legend. As the text at the end of the trailer says, “EVERYONE CAN LIVE,” “EVERYONE CAN DIE.”

Aside from branching choices in a supernatural horror story that can lead to the survival or deaths of every character, Until Dawn 2 has further connective tissue to the first game thanks to the return of Dr. Hill. He will once again be played by Peter Stormare, though his involvement in the sequel’s story is unknown at this time.

Until Dawn 2 is set to release in 2027 exclusively on PS5.