oh. my god.(SPOILER WARNING.) (srsly play this game blind)
Psychological horror is my lifeblood, and you have no idea how long I've been looking for more to play. It's a fragile genre to get right, and so many people these days rely on the "horror" part, (jumpscares, tropes, the general feeling of unease throughout the game that makes it hard to focus on the story...) and forget the "psychological aspect.
The difference between horror and psychological horror has always been the depth. Just how far are the creators of this game willing to lean into the surreal, nonsensical nature of the human psyche and weave it into a coherent tale? A tale that makes the player feel not just fear, but anguish too.
I was absorbed in this game. In it's story, in it's characters. Even when I couldn't understand fully what was happening. Especially when I couldn't understand fully what was happening. I still don't know what kind of assassin the driver is or what the nature of the hiker's powers are, but I think confusion is an important part of psychological horror too.
This story goes from casual to frantic to defeated and determined and I don't know if they get their better ending in "Nurture," but the mere fact it's labelled "ending 0" tells me the story doesn't end there, even if we stop seeing it. And that's catharsis in a way true psychological horror always should be.