The Piano is a post-war survival horror murder mystery

It’s rotten luck to be accused of murdering a family member, but three of them? It’s probably something you’d like to clear up rather quickly. In The Piano, the accused, failed pianist John Barnerway finds himself wandering the streets of post-war Paris, trying to find answers and… make shadows explode? It’s a weird one, as the release date trailer above makes clear. It’s due out on May 24. 

As well as being a murder mystery, The Piano also dabbles in survival horror, which is presumably where the shadow creatures—perhaps a hint that our pal John isn’t quite all there—come in. And the ghosts, I guess, too. I’m just assuming they’re ghosts, honestly. At least they seem friendly, clapping and waving instead of menacing the living.

While the trailer and official site keep things vague, I am getting more than a whiff of Murdered: Soul Suspect, a great game (this is the hill I’ll die on) about a dead cop and his fedora solving crimes. Like The Piano it’s a supernatural murder mystery and adventure game, complete with ghosts and creatures from the other side, including the very same, robed, spotlight-eyed spectre that we briefly see hunting John above.

A strong aesthetic can carry a horror game a lot further than shiny graphics, but The Piano’s trailer doesn’t show either. It’s a bit of a muddle, visually, so fingers crossed the writing can support its intriguing premise.

Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

Latest in Horror
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
The outlast trials setting
'You just have to make them think this world is real, and this world can hurt you': The Outlast Trials devs discuss a changing horror genre and an insatiable need for scares
Silent Hill f transmission trailer screenshots
Silent Hill f is no longer banned in Australia, but it still sounds pretty messed up
One of Repo's player characters, resembling a yellow pedal bin with googly eyes, encounters a skeletal, open mouthed face with glowing yellow eyes.
REPO dev says it wasn’t actually inspired by Lethal Company, and started as a singleplayer cleaning game: ‘It was nice, but far from what REPO is now’
Uplifted chimp Penn and cyber-rat Trip in the key art for Animal Use Protocol
Animal Use Protocol's dysfunctional chimp-rat alliance drags the Stasis series into a horrible new first-person era
A woman with short hair stands next to a pot plant, provocatively
GOG's version of Silent Hill 4 has been updated with missing content from the original console game
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened