I spent a couple of years living in the original Silent Hill 2 game, being that I only had two games on my PS2: this and Metal Gear Solid 2. Eventually I knew the streets of Silent Hill 2 like the back of my hand, I knew every secret. I think I was one of the first people to note that if you try and access the top-floor of the Lakeview Hotel, where James and Mary's room was, you hear Mary cry out "James!" as you walk away (never found any online discourse on that until a few years after release, I may be overstating my OG status with this game but it's a badgeof honour I wear with pride). I have framed paintings on my walls depicting scenes from the game which I commissioned this Russian dude I met in the SH community to paint for me. I hate anything that isn't Team Silent. I am an insufferable, unapologetic, gatekeeping snob when it comes to this franchise. I was there when it all began, and I go into SH fan-spaces to crush peoples' headcanons with the crushing weight of my knowledge of the lore. I don't rate Bloober Team, I didn't like Layers Of Fear, I hate Konami, I hated the trailers, I hate this recycled remake culture we have at the moment. I LOVE THIS REMAKE. The gameplay is nothing special but the important thing was always going to be the atmosphere. Does it FEEL like Silent Hill; which to all fans of the series is practically a real place with a real vibe that is near impossible to properly describe but unmistakable when you feel it. Bloober Team did it. They really nailed it, they replicated the Team Silent formula perfectly. It plays like similar to a Silent Hill game, which is a little jarring really given how much the medium has moved on in the last 20 years, but crucially it looks and feels EXACTLY like my Silent Hill. I am so grateful to the developers for the care they took in getting this right, I didn't expect Konami to ever release something like this into the franchise. GG Bloober Team, you've won my lifelong respect as a game studio.
But some crazy things in the implementation that leave a sour taste in the mouth, such as the day and night cycle. The night is SO dark, pitch black almost, so you can't see or enjoy any of the lovely asthetics in this game. This is a shame as some effort has been put into the design-style and there's cosmetic upgrades to earn for your vineyard, which you can't enjoy because 50% of the time the screen is blacked out. You've just got to wonder what inspired these decisions. The gameplay and structure is pretty good, it feels like a very simplified Restaurant Empire game which works in its favour for me. Unfortunately, there are just too many little errors. The ESC key is signposted as the button to bring up the menu - it doesn't. The day and night cycle, as I mentioned, is baffling. It's a little obtuse at times, but that's a standard for the genre. And there's mechanics in there that I didn't even know existed, I'm only seeing them now because other reviewers who have googled the game have pointed them out. That's bad too. If they iron all this out, Terroir 2 will be a superb strategy game. And even if it isn't, I will probably buy it out of curiosity. This is a worthwhile game.
Any horror fan, any mystery fan, point-and-click fan, whatever categories this game falls into, if you're a fan of it, Dark Fall is an experience. The tension's not the only thing that'll keep you up at night, the puzzles are inventive and will keep you mystified long into the night. Satisfying. And the setting is perfectly unsettling, you find yourself wandering this horrible deserted train station and annexed hotel, it's inhabitants, like the buildings they lived in, are buried alive by decay and frozen in time and they're calling out to you. The only thing you need to worry about this game is have you the balls and the brains to finish it? Worth every penny.
Don't let anyone tell you there's anything special about this game. It's not new, it's not redefining gaming, it's not influenced anything that come after it. BUT it is really good fun, it's nice being a vampire and it's setting has a real interesting steampunk look about it. You've got this huge sprawling world to just vampire about in. Next to the first Blood Omen though (which if you're savvy and are used to heavy patching, you can play and run in full for free from the internet) it doesn't stand up too well, because that game was sick, really really good, 10/10. Blood Omen 2 despite it's conventional nature has a lot of great points - well acted and written, and therapeutic too, reaking havoc on humanity because you're a vampire and puny human life means nothing to you and you are their dark GOD OF MAYHEM. Anyway. I had some trouble running it on Windows 7, it crashed a lot, and it seems a lot of people have that issue, so for that reason only I'd say it's only really worth it if you're gonna play all the other games. Which you definitely should.