18.4 hours played
Written 5 days ago
This is another instance that I wish Steam reviews had an "okay" option, or we could rate out of five stars. This game would get a solid 3/5 stars for me. It just barely constitutes a "recommend." If you are a big fan of the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, as I am, then you may not like this game. This game is NOT like those franchises. Honestly, this game is primarily for fans of "Amnesia" games, as it is more of the same, with a few new mechanics.
The TLDR is if you are not already a big fan of Amnesia games, then you should buy it on sale, and play through it on normal. You will probably enjoy your time with it, but not want to play it again any time soon. Below are my extended thoughts about the game, mostly its flaws.
Let's start with what works: the atmosphere, tension, and sound design of the game are all excellent. The setting is creepy, the monster is scary-looking, the sound effects put you on edge, etc. Exploring a WWI bunker is fascinating, and all of the notes from your fellow soldiers explaining the story are engaging. Overall, the story is a bit shallow, but it's entertaining and if you take the time to read the letters/notes you find, you will feel sympathy and make connections with some of the characters. The "twist" is pretty apparent after reading maybe half of the notes that are available in the game, and then very clear before the final area, but I still enjoyed it.
The first flaw with the game is the monster itself. It just doesn't stay scary after a very short while, and honestly becomes a chore. This is even more apparent when you play on any of the higher difficulties, such as hard or "shell shocked." On the higher difficulties, you can't keep the generator going for long periods of time, and have to explore in the dark. When you are exploring in the dark, the monster is pretty much always prowling around, so you have to wait for him to leave the area, or cause distractions. Even on normal, you will be doing this a lot, so while the normal game mode is the best experience, it doesn't solve the problem. I'm sorry that I just don't find it fun to sit around in the dark waiting for the monster to move away. Also, it no longer has any tension or fear, when you are doing this every 15 minutes or so. I think this problem would be alleviated if there were more "monsters" in the game. Even if there were only three, but they had different mechanics, or separate territories.
The second flaw has to do with the mechanics. I played through on normal, then started a new playthrough on hard, and decided that I wasn't enjoying myself and quit. There are so many contrived challenges in this game that I just find frustrating. For example, when I found the lighter, I was excited to have an option to explore in the dark without making noise. NOPE. The devs made a halo or corona of white haze around the flame of the lighter that literally takes up half the screen, blocking your vision, making it useless for seeing in the dark. I KNOW what the fanboys will say: "Well, ACKSHEWALLY, the lighter is designed to be used to make torches and light molotovs, huehuehue!" Yes, that's what I mean by "contrived." The game devs decided that a LIGHTER would not provide LIGHT in a game that takes place in the dark! Really? On my normal playthrough, I found at least 15 grenades, okay great. I probably found about the same number of BULLETS, in my entire playthrough. In a WWI BUNKER, during a war! Realistically, there would be bullets everywhere. There would be piles of them. One more: the rats in this game are dangerous hazards and are set up as obstacles to prevent you from exploring different areas. One of the best ways to scatter them out of your way is to use a torch. In my playthrough, I only found the materials to make TWO torches. Each torch lasts about 60 seconds of use. This is because apparently STICKS are the rarest resource in the game! Again, why, why, why? This is a game where you can literally throw wood chairs against a wall and break them apart. Why wouldn't a soldier, trapped in a bunker with a monster, use the legs of wood chairs to make torches? I wouldn't be as frustrated with these choices if the game was set in some fictional place, but the devs WANT it to be realistic. You literally check your ammo by opening the barrel of your gun, and loading it one bullet at a time. Bust making torches from the legs of chairs? NOT ALLOWED. There are at least three more of these contrived challenges that I can think of off the top of my head. That's SIX primary mechanics of the game that are purely put in there to make the game more difficult, and don't have any justification or logic behind them.
The third flaw is that the game actually limits you in many ways. During the tutorial, the game directly informs you that there are multiple solutions to problems and that you should think creatively. But in many cases this is NOT true. Do you want to use a gas grenade? Well, you can either wait for the gas to clear, or use a gas mask (an extremely rare, hard-to-get item). Waiting for the gas to clear serves no purpose, as the only reason to use a gas grenade is to clear rats, and they return IMMEDIATELY after the gas clears. Did you find a tripwire connected to a grenade? Well you can either trigger it, or use the bolt cutters to disarm it (an extremely rare, hard-to-get item). Did you find a door that has a lock or chains on it? You HAVE to use the bolt cutters. Even a GRENADE doesn't work! Are you starting to see the pattern? There are NO other ways to disarm tripwire, there are NO other ways to clear gas, etc. WOW, everybody's so creative! (/sarc)
Very quickly, the gameplay loop becomes repetitive, and with all of the made up difficulties, I couldn't see a reason to play through a second time, making the game extremely short for the price tag.
