The best psychological thrillers don't just unsettle us, they make us think about why we're so unsettled. The Gap, the latest project of Label This and Crunching Koalas, takes this principle one step further – forcing us to question our place in time, our sanity, and, more unnerving still, our entire existence. Out now on PC via Steam, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, The Gap looks set to become one of the most thoughtful and most unsettling games launching this spooky season.
Blending elements of psychological horror and the puzzle game genre, The Gap sees you filling the shoes of Joshua Hayes, a neuroscientist whose life has been turned upside down by a rare genetic disorder that's taken hold of someone dear to his heart. Worse still, when the illness begins steadily erasing the family member's most cherished memories, Joshua turns to an experimental treatment program, run by the questionable biotech giant Neuraxis, in a bid to be cured.
Not everything is as it seems, however, as Joshua must rely on deja vu to access parallel realities and alternate versions of his own past – each of which can alter and effect his own in the present day. The Neuraxis corporation promises its methods are safe (well they would, wouldn't they?), but it remains unclear how much they actually care about Joshua and his family's dwindling mental and physical state, while they're funding the corporation's research by using its shady technology.
In practice, you'll guide Joshua through a series of puzzles and psychological brain-teasers as you revisit the protagonist's memories, both good and bad; beautiful and painful. You'll travel back in time, and hop between realities, all the while painting a broader picture of who in this life can truly be trusted, and who might be out to get you.
Through all of this, The Gap is thrilling, thoughtful, and terrifying all at once. It's a psychological thriller about memories that you won't want to forget, where you watch the consequences of your actions unfold in alternate realities – in the past, the present, and the future.
The Gap is out now on PC via Steam, and the PlayStation and Xbox stores.
