Hysteria Project is a 2009 FMV adventure game developed and published by French studio BulkyPix for iOS and first released on the App Store on April 7, 2009. It was released as a PlayStation mini available for play on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable on April 15, 2010 in Europe and April 22, 2010 in North America. The port was published by Sanuk Games. A sequel was released on the App Store in 2011, Hysteria Project 2.
Gameplay
The game is played from a first-person perspective and composed entirely of full motion video scenes as the unnamed protagonist attempts to flee a man wielding an axe. Gameplay involves the player either making choices as regards what action to take at a given moment, or tapping on the touchscreen during context sensitive moments.
When the player is presented with a choice, the game cuts to a decision tree, where the player selects their choice. The game then moves on to the next segment, and the player can see if they selected the correct choice. Choices involve, for example, choosing to take the left or right path, or choosing to remain hidden or run away. However, the game script is fixed, different choices do not lead to a branching narrative - if the player makes the wrong choice (choosing to remain hidden instead of fleeing, for example), the player will die and the game will end, with a text description of how the player has died. At this point, the game can jump back anywhere between one and three choices.
The other style of gameplay consists of tapping on the touchscreen to perform different actions, such as sneaking through a forest without bumping against branches or navigating a series of tripwires. If the player fails to tap the screen in the correct place at the correct moment, they will die.
Plot
The game begins with an unidentified man awakening in a shed, where he has been tied up for reasons unknown. After managing to free himself, he begins to run through the woods surrounding the shed. However, he soon finds himself being chased by a hooded man wielding an axe, the same man who had placed him in the shed originally.
As he flees, the player finds a mysterious, and recent, tattoo of a letter H on his arm, the same letter was also inscribed on the inside of the shed door. The player continues to run, until he seems to faint. He awakens to find himself being dragged back to the shed. Groggy and confused, he once again escapes from the shed and runs through the woods, only to once again find himself being chased by the hooded man. At one point, what appears to a creature made of black smoke darts across his path. As he flees, he finds a small land mine, which he throws into the path of the hooded man. There is an explosion, and the hooded man disappears. The player then races from the forest into a nearby building, disappearing up a flight of stairs. However, after he has entered the stairwell, the door closes behind him, and is seen to be inscribed with the same H as the tattoo and the shed.
Upon completing the game, the player is given access to a "secret file" which reveals some of the backstory. The file is in the form of a series of police reports from the desk of Sgt. Coyle. The reports detail how an eminent scientist, Professor Gustavo Ortega, has gone missing whilst sailing on his yacht. Evidence seemed to suggest a pirate raid, but no ransom demand was ever issued. Ortega was a world expert in artificial intelligence and nanotechnology and was head of a mysterious research project known only as "Project H", which seemed to have unlimited funding from the board of directors of Ortega's firm, NanoPharma. The only person he allowed work with him on the project was Professor Lisa Spencer, who was killed in a mysterious car accident several days after the disappearance of Ortega. However, her body was so badly burned that she could only be identified by some objects of jewellery she was wearing. The reports also reveal that following the explosion in the woods, several reports were made to police by people who had heard the noise and seen the strange black smoke. Coyle went to investigate the area and discovered the body of a man with a H tattooed on his arm who had died of a heart attack. A post-mortem revealed that some time prior to his death, the man had been tied up. In his pocket was a photograph of Ortega and Spencer, whom Coyle is convinced are still alive, with the incident in the woods connected to Project H. An extract from Ortega's journal also reveals that injecting newly developed nanomachines into a mouse resulted in enhanced senses, but led to the mouse becoming uncontrollably aggressive, and eventually dying of a heart attack.