The trailer, which you can check out below shows off some of the story of Paranormal Activity: Threshold, as well as its take on the found footage genre of horror. The story itself revolves around a group of young people moving into a haunted house because it was the only one that they could afford. As part of this, the player will have to deal with the various hauntings, and solve puzzles to discover the secrets behind the house.

The two pain protagonists of Paranormal Activity: Threshold are Daniel and Jessica Stewart, who have set about to remodel the old and dilapidated home. The found footage premise is established with the duo deciding to chronicle their attempts at remodelling by recording it with a handheld camera.

The horror aspects of the title start to bleed in when the Stewarts discover strange markings and items hidden in the various walls of the house. A dark presence then begins haunting them, slowly eating away at both of their mental states as they try and figure out what exactly going on.

Being developed by the studio behind The Mortuary Assistant, Paranormal Activity: Threshold will also feature plenty of puzzles for players to solve during their time in the house These can range from finding the right way to open a door, the messing with in-game objects, like an Ouija board.

One of the big twists in gameplay is the fact that players will get to explore multiple timelines of events that have taken place in the house. Along the way, as players uncover more and more of the secrets behind the dark presence haunting the house, they will also get to communicate with these entities. Thanks to the ability to play with multiple timelines and make various choices throughout the story, as well as the title’s use of the Paranormal Engine, the studio has also noted that each playthrough of the game will be unique.

All of the gameplay will essentially revolve around players figuring out the nature of the entities in the house, and then setting forth to discover solutions for how these entities can then be hunted down. Aside from these facts, however, not too many details about the gameplay of Paranormal Activity: Threshold have been revealed.

The last major title by DarkStone Digital was The Mortuary Assistant, which was released last year on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about it, check out our review, where we gave it a score of 8 out of 10 thanks to its engaging narrative and gameplay loop.

In The Mortuary Assistant, you play as Rebecca, a young woman who’s been hired as an assistant as the River Fields Mortuary, a creepy mortuary that is the subject of some rumours, though not enough to deter Rebecca from pursuing her professional goals. But what starts off as a seemingly ordinary job turns into something much more sinister, when her boss locks her in the mortuary at night, telling her that a demonic entity is haunting the facility and has attached itself to Rebecca. The only wait out now is to go about her job, figure out wat kind of demon is haunting her, and try and get rid of it before it fully possesses her.

"Is The Mortuary Assistant a spotless gameplay experience? No. Can it occasionally feel held back due to issues with controls, visuals, and the like? Definitely. But is it going to scare the absolute, ever-loving crap out of you? You know, it’s more than just a little likely that it will."

It’s a straightforward premise that still manages to have enough layers to it to remain interesting in several ways. From a narrative perspective, The Mortuary Assistant’s immediate narrative ropes in multiple other threads to keep things interesting, from the shady history of the mortuary itself, to Rebecca’s traumatic past and how it is informing the horrors that she’s now experiencing, to the constant tension brought about by the impending threat of the demonic presence itself. The game does a solid job of feeding bits and pieces of new information to you, and piecing them together to gain a deeper insight into Rebecca’s past or the mortuary’s backstory remains consistently engaging.

It’s not the story, however, that serves as the star of the show here. No, what makes The Mortuary Assistant worth your time is just how ridiculously scary it can be, and in more ways than one. It starts off with subtle things such as creepy whispers or windows and doors banging shut or shadowy figures that are briefly visible in the corner of your eyes, but as the game progresses, things quickly become increasingly sinister and downright evil.

Horrifyingly animated monstrosities can pop up anywhere in the environments, you can come across creepy writing in various places, corpses can just get up and start shambling away- The Mortuary Assistant has a healthy roster of different kinds of scares at its disposal (several of which are new ones that have been added with this definitive edition re-release), and not only are the overwhelming majority of them legitimately petrifying, the game also does an excellent job of rarely letting you feel comfortable about whether or not you’re ready for what nightmares you may face next. Admittedly, some of the scares do repeat sometimes, which means they end up losing their impact (especially when they’re more deeply tied to the story). Given the fact that this is a game that encourages multiple replays, that repetition can potentially be an issue.

"Horrifyingly animated monstrosities can pop up anywhere in the environments, you can come across creepy writing in various places, corpses can just get up and start shambling away- The Mortuary Assistant has a healthy roster of different kinds of scares at its disposal."

But The Mortuary Assistant isn’t just a straightforward walking horror sim. What sets it apart from your regular indie horror hit is its core gameplay structure. You are, of course, working at a mortuary in this game, which means you’ll be spending plenty of time getting bodies out of cold storage and embalming them (which, as you might imagine, is inherently disturbing in and of itself, especially given how actively involved you are in every step of the process), and while you’re doing that, you’re also tasked with not only figuring out what kind of demon you’re being haunted by (where the game feels somewhat similar to multiplayer indie horror sensation Phasmaphobia).

Every part of both of these critical processes is also highly technical. Embalming a body is a multi-step process that has you moving throughout the facility as you work with different kinds of equipment and items, from identifying the physical marks on a body and draining blood out of it to sewing their jaws shut and more. Just as involved and technical is the process of investigating and identifying the demon that is haunting you, and ensuring that you’re not getting any steps wrong in everything you do is always critical. The involved nature of Rebecca’s work, the attention you’re required to pay as you attempt to discover what demon is haunting you, and the game’s incredible knack for consistently keeps ramping up scares all combine together to make for some great gameplay tension. Every step of the way, The Mortuary Assistant is trying to get you to slip up under its terrifying pressure.

That’s not to say that the gameplay is devoid of any and all issues, however, chief among them being the controls. I never played this game on PC, but I’m assuming it would have felt much better to control with a mouse and keyboard. With a controller, simple things such as moving and looking around feel clunky and frequently inaccurate, and everything from picking up and using objects (which you’ll be doing a lot of) to interacting with things in the environment can feel a bit clunky. Just as problematic is the general UI and the menus, which struggle with issues ranging from issues with readability to occasionally unresponsive inputs.

"If you’re looking for a game that can legitimately terrify you while also delivering genuinely engaging gameplay, even with its aforementioned issues, this one is well worth looking into."

That lack of polish rears its head in audio and visual side of things as well. The Mortuary Assistant is a decent looking game, especially for a low budget indie title, but it does suffer from several noticeable technical issues, from muddy textures and frequently choppy animations to audio glitches and more. The game’s strengths in other areas admittedly make it easier to overlook such issues, but there’s no denying that they can drag the experience down a little bit.

Two years ago, The Mortuary Assistant released on PC, and though it wasn’t an overnight sensation by any means, it did catch the attention of a fair few people, but hopefully, it’ll see much wider success with its console release. It is definitely let down by its technical issues, and the moment to moment gameplay can feel a bit clunky because of the controls, but at its core, The Mortuary Assistant is a really good horror game. If you’re looking for a game that can legitimately terrify you while also delivering genuinely engaging gameplay, even with its aforementioned issues, this one is well worth looking into.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.