I'd say it's a bad game, but it would have to be a game for that label. Despite the fact that they made the penumbra and amnesia series, they apparently forgot how to make a game for this entry. Playing this is why I never, and at this point probably will never, touched rebirth. This should have been a short story or at most a 1 hour free interactive story, not a "video game" longer than a lot of actual games released. It's functionally a walking sim with every step taken to annoy you, hurt your eyes, and pad out the run time. If you actually like walking sims, just play it on safe and don't worry about playing it on normal. There is a reason they added it as an official mode. It's like outlast 2 but if outlast 2 had a positive worth noting. The only good things are the presentation and some of the story. It presents ideas in a way that sci-fi should, but that's it. Even the ending comes across as "whoops, we ran out of money" They draw everything else out but fade to credits so abruptly. At least the Bunker came out so now I don't have to write off the next game they release. Seriously, don't buy, just put a let's play on in the background or something.
Nor is it a boring "exploration" game where you just again walk around. It could easialy fall into that trap, but it manages to ascend that with a tight focus on triangulation and navigation, making it an engaging hand crafted experience. If you've played subnautica, imagine a much drier, much simpler, older and more indy version of that. Basic idea is, you are banished to an island with a fever. You find the rough formula for a cure and an idea of where to go, along with a compass and map. Navigate and find plants to science about with and try not to die or get killed along the way. Sounds simple, and it is, in the same way a fine sleek piece of woodwork made entirely from hand tools is. You can see the imperfections, but you can also see the soul within it, from the individually labelled chemical flasks, to the complete lack of procedural generation. This was a magic time when half life still mattered and before steam and the indie scene became a dumping ground for boring shovel ware, so the immersion is very present, from the different areas of the island having their own flora and fauna, to the sounds of a lonely loon in a pine forest. Everything is much better than it should be for a team of just two guys with seemingly no producer. Now if theres a negative it's the beast and what you can do with it. Unless I'm doing something wrong, the game suggests there is a combat system, and offers up all sorts of crude weaponry, but when you come up against the beast, you can't really do anything, and running and hiding doesn't work great either. There seems to be no feeling of being able to handle it which immediately kills the immersion, which is the whole thing the game has going for it. Now the beast looks good, and as long as you're faceing it, you can usually avoid it's strikes. It's not too frusterating and I would much rather have the very occasional threat that it is than none at all. I just wish it was done a bit better. Pick it up.
Just beat the game and got my ass kicked. I'm not a manager but I am a casual lover of moral philosophy so I had a great time. To start this isw a different game than the original while maintaining the spirit. You are no longer the Survivor who can make it through with no blemishes on your person, from what I can tell, there is no golden path. I could be completely wrong on that though. You are instead a Manager that got put in charge of the entire company that is constantly at risk of the employees buring the place down. Also you still have to survive. Ideally you do all of this without going too far. Thankfully what makes this fun is the game never seems like it's trying to actively say "Fuck you". Instead of the first frostpunk's think ahead and the moral choice might pay dividends (although that is still a thing here) it is a make one group happy and gain an advantage here, then use another tech/law/tweaking as it comes to come to a nice compromise to keep things together. Of course there are moments in the story that require big decisions that then require big solutions. That is how the game works it's story and climax path. And it does it quite well. I'm sure theres still things that I didn't explore enough, as I was being a based centerist chad, I never delved to deep into the cool zeitgeist system or any sort of extremeism. Now the game is different, but is it as good as the original? No, but only beacuse the original was so special and great, I'ts really tough to top. This is a good game that I was pleased with. I'd level some critisisms at not being able to find a balance to your city's resources, so there seems like there's a time limit, but I guess that's what utopia mode is for. Also I do miss the personal element of the first, but again, I think that's the point as you are on a much larger scale now, and that is a consequence. Anyway, if you like city building and management, you'll like this. Special praise to the sound. A given
Buy it, it possesses the soul of a masterpiece, but there are some things to know so you can enjoy it properly and not have a bad taste like the first time I played. The bad is that the game is constant tension, almost no safe or basically safe zones, and it is a long game for something like this. On the flip side, it's an alien game, it should be this way. Almost all negatives are a matter of, "barring sheer masterpiece design, how could they have done this better?" The AI can spend too long hanging around, and it isn't always clear if the enemy can see you or not, many times I should have been spotted, but nothing happened, a few times I should have been fine and was caught. Add on the lack of quick and save anywhere saves, and you have the recipe for a frustration feast. Now to remedy all these problems if you aren't a hardo; play on easy. The alien is still a one hit kill and I don't think any AI is dumbed down. It's a matter of better health and items. I played on easy and had such a better time: those working joes made me miserable when I first played years ago. Just play on easy if you're looking for fun. Now despite my assertion of the flaws, why am I so ready to recommend? This is the perfect game adaptation of the 1979 film. The presentation and hard work these people did to make everything from the sound, set design-everything- is so amazing I can't properly explain it. Play it and you will understand. As for the actual gameplay. When it's good, it's GOOD. It is so hard to properly adapt something like the cat and mouse nature of the original film, but somehow, they pulled it off as best as someone could. Not with out some flaws, buti mentioned that before. There's a reason nothing has topped this in a decade. You can defend yourself which is always a plus in these games, but again, self defense is very much in the old survival horror sense, so be careful. Tl;Dr Buy it, play on easy if you don't like frustration. Perfect Presentation
The game is legendary at this point. It's from the golden age of the mid 2000s. If you like horror or shooters, this is one of the best of both. Feel free to wait for a sale though as both vivendi and warner suck, and monolith has been confined to the brand mines for over a decade.
While not the scariest or all time greatest game ever, this was a pleasure to play that takes the design philosophy of Half-life and makes it's own unique game. They take an idea to focus on for a sectin and then expand on it and work it into the rest of the game. The combat is fun, there's exploration and you have to use your head to figure things out or make combat easier. The "survival" and "Horror" Elements aren't super strong, but what aspects are there serve the solid narrative very well. The music ranges from very suiting, to standard Living Tombstone fare, if you like the latter, great, if you don't, it isn't present enough to bother you. Voice acting overall is solid as well. I don't think I have a single negative thing to say about this. Maybe I wish there was more to it, but I don't consider, "This apartment is incredibly well made, and designed, I wish there was more" as a demerit. They kept it focused and knew what they were making, and the game flourishes because of it. Graphically from a technical perspective, did it look amazing? No. Barring the night sky looking crisp and beautiful in a way that elevates the game, the graphics are fine looking. I prefer that however. I will happily see less than stellar graphical fidelity if it means we get a good 3d game that isn't yet another pixel indie. Artistically however, the game is spectacular. Everly locatation exudes atmosphere, the main boss designs and not only really cool both in look and function, but they will stick with you. In short, play the game. I got it for insanely cheap on sale, and if you bought it full price, you won't be unhappy. They did what developers should have been doing for the past decade, which is take a hit to graphics and make up for it with skillful design and rich substance. I have no idea how I never heard about this and found it by chance on a sale. I'll have to play nightmare house and look foreward to more in the future. Keep it up.
If you know the famous games from these people, you know that it is more experience than game. A ballet of music and color controlled by the player. Now, there is a goal, a beginning middle and end, and you interact, so I still consider this, Journey, and Abzu real games. It's best to view it having the same principal as a skateboarding game, except instead of jumping and doing tricks, you are a petal on the wind. You revitalize plants and bring color to the world. Very engaging and satisfying if you enjoy the feel of cleaning something or creating beauty in a game, and you do it through movement. Some might be put off by it's simplicity or the fact that the control you have doesn't feel super tight. Also I could be wrong but this ps3 game doesn't seem to have controller support. But if you want a nice, pretty experience especially as a sampler for what was to come from the creators before we got blown away by Journey, you should be happy with this game for this price.
While this game does a great job at emulating the Internet back when it was as fun as it was cursed, it also does have value beyond the nostalgia. Putting aside the massive amount of work this probably was; be it giving each page it's own believeable yet still entertaining personality, a bunch of customizable bits, and more music than is even reasonable for being in this game (some of which are genuinly fantastic in their own quirky way)--all done despite a player maybe not even seeing the majority of it if they are rushing through--there is a great detective element to it. I loved having to use my head and the knowledge presented to me to get to the bottom of something, I also loved that in a small way, the game let me be the kind of Janny I wanted to be, and reacted accordingly. All of this is in service of not only a cozy and fun experience, there is also a genuine and heartfelt story--both mainline and with various characters--as long as you are paying attention. Toss in a couple other simple distractions and you got yourself a great experience. My advice to those who a vacilating: it is more than worth it on sale and I would have been happy at full price. Get it, settle down with something tasty, and just take your time taking it in. I'm looking forward to Dream Settler.
Buy it. Gameplay wise, this game is incredible. I nails the ideal survival horror combat of being hazardous and clumsy without being frusterating and still allowing for oppurtunities to dodge or run if you need. The enemies, while a present threat were never too many, making each encounter meaningful. The puzzles were excellent too and a good variety. I only had to use a guide twice, once when I was shamefully age checked, (you'll know which one) and another where, along with the previous puzzle, the game didn't seem very recptive to me and I needed to do the solution a couple times. It's not triple A so I can excuse what amounted to minimal jank in an otherwise smooth and functional game. It looks great, along with honest to god animation. It feels like a while since I've seen something graphically modern with a proper character art style that isn't horribly performance captured. The main setting is gorgeous while seeming cluttered in a way that suits it, that or they threw too many assets in, I don't know how this games production was. Regardless, the game can be scary and beautiful if not both and when it really counts the design nails the aestetics of the big two while maintaining it's own look. Sound wise the music is incredible. If music from the classics is what your ears hunger for, then they will eat well here. However the voice acting for the main woman, while she isn't bad at all and sounds suitably Canadian, there seems to be a lack of direction for her. It isn't stilted or cheesy, It just sounds like there could be improvement. However we can chalk that up to classic style voice acting perhaps. The only other critisisms are a stalker enemy that didn't seem properly presented as one, causing me to waste way too much ammo before realizing, and in early game the save situation seems very trecherous which might lead to frustration if you aren't careful. TL;DR If you are looking for Survival horror this is a full course meal that you'll remember
TL;DR Give it a try on sale, it actually has gameplay and the good is really good if you can get past the bad. Pros: It's a tight game by a small company The presentation is fantastic Some sounds, like the main character and the enviroment are spectacular It lacks a lot of adventure pitfalls The dark areas it goes to are well done and not the type you see often Cons: As far as I know you can't skip any bloody dialogue or death scenes. Super awesome when they purposefully put you in a trial and error situation after a dialogue scene, kill you, then automatically send you back before the scene. Everyone knows better, make your damn scenes skippable. All together the plot seems iffy with many things that could have been explored more (but it's a humble game so I won't harp too much on what are very likely bugetary short comings. It would seem as though they for some reason believe that adventure gameplay involves reading 12 non brief diary entries for each bloody pda you find, of which there are plenty. It screamed for audio logs supporting solid puzzle gameplay. Granted this is probably because the voice acting budget was likely very cheap. They bafflelingly use text to speech for a human character despite having access to a human female. The actual adventure gameplay leaves much to be desired and any backtracking and exploring can at times get very tedious. To conclude: If you really love reading as a way to pad out the bits of gameplay, and are also patient, the negatives may actually be positives for you. Clearly the people who made it are capeable of making something good as long as they understand the shortcomings that they are able to fix. It is a great horror experience but not a great gaming experience. I hope they're next efforts show growth. I'm rooting for you.
