Half-Mermaid, the studio led by Sam Barlow, the mind behind games such as Immortality, Her Story, and Telling Lies, has announced its next project, Precognition. Described as a sci-fi horror adventure, the game is being made in collaboration with horror filmmaker Branden Cronenberg (Possessor, Infinity Pool).
Like previous Half-Mermaid titles, Precognition is a non-linear FMV adventure, meaning it features live-action scenes. The story centers on Diana, a woman who is implanted with an experimental brain implant that allows her to receive visions of the future. Diana is tasked with exploring these visions, focusing on specific moments, and committing them to her present-day memory, which will have consequences affecting how the future ultimately unfolds.
“We’ve really been trying to test the limits of non-linear storytelling, focusing on how the game feels to play, while encouraging player agency and freedom,” Half Mermaid co-founder Sam Barlow says in a press release. “We’ve pushed ourselves even harder with Precognition by bringing the feel of investigation and mystery games into a world of cause-and-effect, with a story that spins out as a consequence of your choices .”
Half-Mermaid has enlisted Brandon Cronenberg to co-develop and write Precognition. Cronenberg, the son of acclaimed filmmaker David Cronenberg, wrote and directed Infinity Pool (2023), Possessors (2020), and Antiviral (2012). According to Barlow, Cronenberg was the “perfect person” to work with due to his horror filmmaking expertise and his existing familiarity with Immortality and Her Story.
“The films I make tend to be subjective and experiential, with the horror emerging as one person’s perspective of the world warps around them,” Brandon Cronenberg says. “The games that Sam and the team have made over the years are subjective experiences by their very nature – no two people will have the same experience with them. So it’s the perfect place to explore these themes further”.
Precognition was first teased in January 2024 as Project C, one of two announced projects by Half Mermaid that also includes the yet-to-be-revealed Project D. Interestingly, Precognition had previously been advertised as being published under Blumhouse Games during Summer Game Fest 2024, but that no longer appears to be the case. Kinetic Publishing, the publishing arm of Phasmophobia developer Kinetic Games, has taken on funding duties and announced Precognition as part of a dedicated publisher showcase on August 12.
Precognition is set to launch in spring 2028 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC. To read more about the works of Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid, be sure to read our previous reviews for Telling Lies and Her Story.
