When I started this game, I honestly had little idea what to expect. I've enjoyed everything I've played from this developer in the past. But on the other hand, the movies have a terrible reputation as a bad set of films. So when Epic Games was giving it away for free, I picked it up because "why not"? In the same spirit when the dice picked this, I was far from against it. Now as I finish it up, I walk away pleasantly suprised. Come on in and see why.
Story: Peter Shannon is missing and a search party has been assembled at Black Hills Forest. Ellis Lynch is a bit late to the party, but accompanied by his faithful dog Bullet, he is here to help. And while thankful for the help, the sheriff didn't ask because Ellis isn't exactly in the best frame of mind. Still he insisted on helping, so taking a map and a spare radio, he heads into the woods.
This simple beginning will start Ellis' journey through the woods and madness living within, and that really is the best way to describe it. You are about to embark on a journey of insanity driven by a combination of the horrors living in these woods and Ellis' PTSD. And while this sounds like a cheap hook to throw at you, it really isn't. You are never told this in some ham-fisted manner. In fact you are never really told this at all until the final act of the game. Instead, you are shown as his attacks cause his vision to blur at first before slowly getting worse in response to the world around. It is no secret to the story I am giving away here, but it is also not thrown in front of you in the "look at me, Im special" kind of way you might expect a modern game to use instead of genuine talent. It blends with the game, becoming part of the story-telling instead and is even used to drip-feed you bits of Ellis' past as they merge into the total picture this story is telling.
It is not a complex story by any means, and in fact is very straight forward when you back up and look at the events. But the attention to detail along the way makes this story a dark and twisted art-form all it's own.
8/10
Graphics: In a word, stunning. You will spend most of this game in the woods which genuinely approaches photo-realism if you have the hardware to back it. Different times of day offer their dawns, dusks, and everything in between, bringing a dark and foreboding view to what you might have expected to see had you played in the woods as a small kid. Add to this a few caves, staggering cliffs and even a tunnel or two that are straight up supernatural feeling and you can expect to be wowed from beginning to end. And all this natural beauty combines with a less natural side. Dilapidated and rotting away houses and industrial mills will also greet you to the same level of detail, if not for a much more bleak effect.
Your companions, on the other hand and despite how few there really are, run the gamut from carrying the same level of care to standing out for the wrong reasons. To start on the highest note of the group, you have your dog, Bullet. Easily the best looking of the characters you will see on screen, he is by your side through most of the game. You will see him running around to different places of interest and the animations used are perfect. Even up close, he still looks very good and wont break any kind of immersion. In fact the only time you might notice a detail or two is when petting him, as there are times the fur movement is just not quite right.
But the real issue here is with the enemies. At first the difference will fit right in as it's a horror game and the majority of what you deal with moves so fast you just won't see anything off, but when you are finally allowed some detailed look, the more human ones definitely hit the wrong side of the uncanny valley and have a much more "video game" look then would help them out. This is particularly true in the game's finale, being the one downside to an otherwise brilliant final push to bring it all home.
8/10
Sound: This is one of those games that relies a lot more on ambiance then music for most of the experience, so expect to spend a lot of time listening to the crunching of leaves and background animal life you might expect from a wooded area, but the few times the game uses music, it does so very effectively, usually to heighten some supernatural or emotionally charged moment. You won't remember the music much as it does exactly what it's designed to... enough so you may not even notice it even being there. It's absolutely perfect at keeping out of the way.
Which honestly is a great thing in this case. I don't often get to say this, but if you have a headset, you are doing yourself an absolute disservice not using them while playing this. A lot of sound work was directed at making sure you could use it to pinpoint what you need to effectively, most often as a good clue what direction Bullet ran off to, but also to listen for signs of danger when he isn't available, and it's brilliant at making the ambiance make spacial sense. Add to this some legitimately good voice work and I can say nothing against how this game sounds from opening scene to end credits. Enjoy this one.
9/10
Gameplay: If you came here expecting an action packed adventure, I'm afraid you came to the wrong game. You will spend the majority of this game wandering through the woods looking for your next clue to guide where you need to go or to find objects you need to unlock the next puzzle. There is really little in the way of challenge here, be it in the few enemy encounters you will have or the puzzles you will have to solve. The former do have some variety and even a few encounters that resemble combat, but most of the time, it's using a mechanic to avoid the enemy. There is little here that will hold you up for long before moving on the the next scene.
Rather, these sections are used more as a vehicle for the environment and characters to tell the tale you are now taking part of, but that is not to say these are not clever. Combat, when you have to use it, involves you playing as much attention to your dog as it does the enemy since he can detect them far better then a human, and deflect them with your flashlight once you manage this. It is frantic and will require you to pay attention or get killed by the monsters in the woods.
Meanwhile the puzzle-type that stands out the most involve the camera you find early in the game and the tapes you will find throughout. These tapes not only give you story glimpses of what happened to the kid you are searching for, but can be used to manipulate the world, changing the state and positions of objects recorded to match where they are at whatever point you pause the tape, and you will have to do this many times, figuring out which thing you need to manipulate and why. Some will be easy, obvious and near where you found the tape, while you will have to find others, and this leads to the real weakness this game has... the wandering.
You are in the woods, after all, so some wandering is expected rather then hand-holding you from place to place, but the game has points where there is no real lead at all, requiring you to basically blunder into the next spot. They are thankfully not that common, but they can definitely be annoying when you are in one and just are not wandering in the right direction for a good long while.
7/10
Bugs: While the game ran perfectly fine most of the time, I do have to note one major bug which actually brought my game to a screeching halt about halfway through. There is a "cut-scene" which leaves you barely able to move by design and after a certain amount of time, you fall to your hands and knees... except I was able to get too close to a wall to do so. The result was I slammed face first into the wall and stopped there, unable to progress since there was no room for the sequence to complete. I had to reload the game and lose about 30 minutes of progress due to this.
Score: I have to say this is a game that pleasantly surprised me. Having played a few of this studio's previous games, I can confirm their mastery of atmosphere and considering how much of an amazing social experiment the first movie was, I knew they were going to have a lot to work with. But at the same time, having not seen any movies following, I had no idea just what had been developed or botched with the mediocre titles. I just knew the reputation, but the game proved it wrong. What is here is brilliant looking, atmospheric as hell, and plays pretty well overall. If you have a taste for horror games, you probably should check this one out. Just don't come here expecting to be really challenged or for anything legitimately action packed... cause you won't be.
7/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i3-3220 (running at 3.30 Ghz)/AMD A8-7600 (running at 3.1 Ghz)
- 4 GB RAM
- Geforce GTX 750 Ti/AMD Radeon R7 265
- 16 GB hard drive space
- Windows 7
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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