Sam Barlow and his studio Half Mermaid have officially announced Precognition, a new live-action sci-fi horror adventure game. The project sees Barlow, known for titles like Immortality, Her Story, and Telling Lies, collaborating with filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg, whose directorial work includes Infinity Pool and Antiviral.
Precognition will continue Half Mermaid's tradition of non-linear FMV (Full Motion Video) storytelling. The game centers on a protagonist named Diana who receives an experimental brain implant that grants her visions of the future. Players will explore these future visions, focusing on specific moments and committing them to Diana's present-day memory. These choices will directly influence and shape the unfolding future.
"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," said Sam Barlow, co-founder of Half Mermaid. "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."
Brandon Cronenberg, son of renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg, is co-developing and writing Precognition. Barlow noted Cronenberg's horror filmmaking expertise and familiarity with Half Mermaid's previous games as key reasons for the collaboration. "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 stated. "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."
First teased in January 2024 as "Project C," Precognition was initially slated for publication under Blumhouse Games but will now be released by Kinetic Publishing. The game is slated to launch in spring 2028 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.