Hideo Kojima’s long-teased Xbox horror title Knock has finally stepped into the spotlight. With MetaHuman-powered realism, eerie ambient detail, and a concept rooted in deeply personal fear, Knock looks like one of Kojima’s boldest ideas yet.
Knock trades jump scares for psychological unease
Shiftdelete.netPremiered during the Beyond the Strand livestream, the new Knock trailer opens with Sophia Lillis tapping a red key card against a red door. She enters a candlelit room. It’s quiet, but there’s an overwhelming sense that something is wrong. Rain hits the windows. Shadows stretch just out of sight. Some of the candles resemble Death Stranding’s baby pods.
Then, a Geiger counter-like crackle rises. A figure approaches. Without warning, it grabs her head, not violently, but with disturbing closeness. This isn’t cheap horror. It’s horror that lingers.
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Kojima built it from a real fear
On stage, Kojima revealed that Knock draws directly from his personal fear of loud, sudden banging. It’s an oddly specific phobia, but Kojima sees fear in ordinary sounds. That’s what sets this game apart: it doesn’t rely on monsters, but on sensations that feel real and deeply uncomfortable.
The facial animations, powered by Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman, highlight every subtle emotion. Lips tremble. Eyes twitch. Fear doesn’t just appear; it lives on screen.
Jordan Peele is working on a separate OD project
While Knock is a standalone entry under the OD banner, Kojima clarified that Jordan Peele is not involved in this chapter. Instead, Peele is developing a separate OD project, suggesting that OD may become a multi-experience horror universe.
Xbox is backing the project heavily. Phil Spencer described Knock as “bold, unique, and unmistakably Kojima,” with Unreal Engine providing technical freedom far beyond the Decima engine Kojima used for Death Stranding 2.
What we know about Knock so far:
- Built using Unreal Engine with MetaHuman visuals
- Subtitle stems from Kojima’s personal fear
- Jordan Peele is developing a different OD title
- Game blends film and gameplay language
- Possibly episodic or part of an OD anthology
Knock leaves us curious and uncomfortable
The teaser hints that Knock takes place ten years after a mysterious event, but little else is confirmed. Kojima joked that the game might be so scary, “you’ll soil yourself,” and honestly, he might be right.
The silence is loud. The door is open. Knock has begun.
