Hysteria Project is like a mini youtube video, just without the swearing commentors and flame wars, and with more interactivity involved. It has low-res shakey camera footage, and it has you running around a forest, running away from this mysterious figure who seems to be seeking you out to kill you. The whole game really is just watching yourself run around a forest, trying to escape this figure who is following you around the whole way. But many questions have to be asked, like why are you here? Who is this figure? Where am i going to end up?

The game is literally a 30-minute video, which you can change by deciding on different actions at different occasions. Should i hide, or make a run for it? Should i go left, or go right? These choices are put in menus, but to make the game faster-paced, you have a time limit to choose between them. This does though, break up the game a bit, and also interupts the action too, because it pauses the video to let you choose. The game also auto-saves quite frequently too, which breaks up the game a bit, because you are dumped into a short static menu screen in the heat of the action. These choices don't make the game that open though, because there is only really one linear path to complete the game in, so if you do die, you'd just restart from the last option, and choose another way instead.

There are also quick time events, for example, you have to tap buttons quickly to climb through a plant-filled area quietly, or to run away from the figure. They are used quite well, but the disappointment with that is, you only use the and buttons in these events, so it's not that hard. You only tap one at a time too, and it would've been better if you had to use the analog stick for movements, or if you had to hold several buttons at a time to mix the gameplay up, like in Heavy Rain.

The game does do well in creating an eerie and mysterious atmosphere, and the strange and non-telling 'ending' will leave you asking questions still. There are also puzzle elements tucked inside the game, like looking out for symbols on the ground to know which way to go. The length, however, is only roughly 1/2 hour, and you won't really want to replay it again, unless you want to see how else you can die. Which brings me to one last thing, and that is that when you do mis-step and die, the video will end you one way, but a description afterwards will say something completely different. This is a bit puzzling, but it's ok of you just focus on one or the other.

Overall then, you won't really go wrong for trying this at the extemely low entry price of £1.19 / $1.99. Id recommended this for late night, headphones on, ghost story replacement, and for people looking to try something new. If you've played Heavy Rain before though, you'd be disappointed with this. It also lacks any other features or alternate endings, so there isn't much to do after the initial short playthrough. But it is worth trying.