Hide Your Wives, Girlfriends, and Doppelgangers: 'Vertigo' Is Becoming a Video Game
I feel like Alfred Hitchcock would have been a gamer.
Before we get too deep, I have to admit that I'm not much of a gamer. I have a console and I play the ones that are famous or popular, but I don't dig too hard into the hidden gems. But when I heard that they were making a video game ut of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, I thought I'd have to expand my horizon a little more.
It turns out, it sounds kind of cool?
Recently, French video game publisher Microids announced Pendulo Studios is developing Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo, a video game billed as a psychological thriller. The game is slated to release on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and PC. It's expected to drop by the end of 2021.
So how is this like Vertigo?
The game features multiple timelines that the publisher said the gamer will have to “separate reality from deceptive memories,” and guide the main character throughout the game.
The official synopsis of the game reads, "Writer Ed Miller came out unscathed from his car crash down into Brody Canyon, California. Even though no one was found inside the car wreckage, Ed insists that he was traveling with his wife and daughter. Traumatized by this event, he begins to suffer from severe vertigo. As he starts therapy, he will try to uncover what really happened on that tragic day."
Josué Monchan, narrative designer at Pendulo Studios, said in a statement, “Of course, Alfred Hitchcock’s movie was a major inspiration source, whether it’s about the game’s themes, its narration, or even the visual techniques we used that clearly mirror Hitchcock’s recurrent cinematographic techniques. Vertigo is not our only frame of reference. For instance, the fact that therapy is at the core of the narrative echoes Spellbound, and some characters resemble protagonists from Rebecca, Psycho, and many more.”
I honestly cannot believe that it took this long for someone to think Hitchcock's work belongs in a video game. He had the best characters, thrills, and moral questions. While the movie of Vertigo doesn't feel like an obvious translation, I love how they took its ethos and used that to create something the player has to challenge themselves with as the driving force of the game.
Are you excited to play it?
Let us know in the comments.
