Sam Barlow, the developer behind narrative experiments like Immortality and Her Story, has announced Precognition, a sci-fi horror game developed by Half Mermaid Productions. The project marks a significant collaboration with Brandon Cronenberg, the director of Antiviral and Infinity Pool, who is handling writing duties.
Precognition centers on a woman equipped with brain implants who possesses the ability to view and select between different visions. Players will weave together possible dark futures as they navigate the game's branching narrative structure. The premise sits squarely in Cronenberg's wheelhouse of body horror and existential dread, blending his filmmaking sensibilities with Barlow's signature approach to interactive storytelling.
This collaboration brings legitimacy and star power to an indie project. Cronenberg's involvement elevates Precognition beyond a typical genre exercise. His films like Infinity Pool explore transgression and psychological unraveling, themes that map naturally onto horror games. Barlow has already proven his ability to merge cinema and games through Immortality, which used full-motion video and fragmented narrative structures to create an unconventional detective experience. Her Story before that established Barlow as someone willing to deconstruct how players interact with story itself.
The pairing makes creative sense. Both creators work in fragmentation and unreliable perception. Cronenberg's films frequently feature protagonists whose grip on reality fractures. Barlow's games exploit the player's incomplete knowledge and force them to piece together truth from scattered evidence. Precognition's brain implant mechanic, which lets players choose between visions, amplifies that shared interest in fractured perspective.
The announcement positions Precognition as explicitly dealing with "really terrible things that are just around the corner." This suggests the game explores anxiety about the future, technological corruption, or personal doom. The vision-selection mechanic likely becomes a moral or strategic choice mechanic where players discover that different possible futures branch from their decisions.
Barlow has spent his career rejecting conventional game design. Immortality scrapped traditional gameplay loops in favor of pure investigation and discovery. Her Story pioneered searchable-database storytelling years before similar mechanics appeared in mainstream titles. Precognition continues that trajectory by treating choice not as branching dialogue trees but as a mechanism for selecting which horrific timeline becomes real.
The sci-fi horror genre has seen renewed interest from indie developers and established filmmakers alike. Games like Control, Psychological horror titles from Annapurna Interactive, and narrative-driven projects from A44 Games have shown there's an audience for unsettling, cerebral experiences. However, Barlow's specific approach remains relatively rare. Few games treat narrative selection as purely about viewing possible futures rather than dialogue consequences.
Half Mermaid Productions developed Immortality, so the studio has proven infrastructure and experience with Barlow's unconventional vision. That continuity matters when executing complex narrative games with production-heavy elements like likely FMV sequences or elaborate branching systems.
The game's release timeline remains unannounced. Immortality took several years to develop, and Precognition's scope suggests similar development demands. But the project's existence signals that cinematic horror games with literary ambitions continue finding funding and creative talent willing to push boundaries.