Once in a while hype gets to all of us. It's part of being a gamer or really a fan of anything. Admittedly I've found it harder and harder these days to get hyped up for games "coming soon" between expected delays, development hell, and watching AAA publishers scrambling for the next alternative cash grab as the loot-box scandal exploded in their collective faces. But even now, there are a few names which will get me excited to see on a new game being released soon, none more so then Frictional Games. So knowing this game was going to be mine, I broke my personal rule and pre-ordered it, starting my play-through the night it became available to download. A week later, I had the game finished, and while I loved it for the most part (this isn't a spoiler, I knew I would likely enjoy this), not everything was perfect. I'm not sure what I think about how this adventure closed in on it's ending(s), but... well let's step inside.
It is 1937 and Tasi and Salim are a young couple traveling abroad. In love as one would expect, it is the young Tasi who is doing her best to keep her husband's nerves at bay during the flight, at least until disaster hits and a storm brings the plane down with a crash. But this crash is not exactly what you would call normal. While the storm is on, Tasi sees things outside the window... flashes of an extra-ordinary world of black skies and stark cityscapes... and then when she wakes up afterwards, she is alone at the crash.
This is where the game puts you in control. You will play the roll of Tasi as she leaves the plane desperate to find the others who were aboard, including her Salim. From a first person perspective, you start following the path of the survivors through the desert and various locations, learning what happened to them and you. While this may not sound like a lot to start with, discovery is a huge factor in the intrigue as the world shows you that you may not be as alone as you once thought. To explain more is to do anyone with an interest in this game a huge disservice as the explanation and the path to it will keep horror fans excited to see what happens.
Not that the game is going to thrust you into this right away. Rather expect the story to be a slow burn which will ratchet up the tension well before anything jumps out at you and says boo... and yet that doesn't exactly mean you are safe either. You see, Tasi has a rather unique condition. The details are not clear to you or her, but early on (as in before you even leave the plane) she has a memory of being handed a bottle of medicine and being told it will help her... but she must remain calm. Anger or fear will only make her condition worse. And being stuck in dark places where you really can't see will ratchet up her fear quite effectively, rendering not just what's in dark places, but the darkness itself your enemy in this game. Yes, the first game used darkness as a fear source, too, but this time is different. This time, you don't just go mad but you actually risk losing yourself to this unknown threatening Tasi's mind. The world itself can be very much against you even before you consider who or what you are sharing it with.
And it isn't like they are not threats either. Much like the rest of the series, you are not armed during this adventure. Rather, you will be forced to run and hide from the monsters you will face when necessary and outmaneuver them when possible. But unlike the environment itself which this game handles better then anything else in the franchise, these monsters are a bit of a weak spot. Do not get me wrong, they definitely serve their purpose and ramp up the tension and risk to you, but at the same time, they don't have that disturbing touch the original game gave them, at least not till late-game anyway. Rather they are just another obstacle in the way, often out-shined by the world they are in both in threat and memorability. That is not to say they won't ruin your day if you give them a chance, they just often don't have much chance to stand out until late where some truly cool creature design starts to surface.
But with your hands free of weapons, Frictional brings back their trademark "grab" mechanics that made interacting with the world in just about everything they have ever made special. Your left mouse button is effectively (and your targeting reticle literally) your hand and holding it down on just about any object will pick it up and let you move it around at will. This is also how you will manipulate things that are attached as well, like opening doors and throwing switches, giving the world itself a tactileness most first person game simply can not match. Furthermore the game uses the hand display to explain exactly what kind of action you will do either while holding or clicking the left mouse button. And what isn't on the mouse, the game supplies in instructions as you go. These instructions will show in just about the center-top of the screen, they rely on a little bit of text and outline so as to not be in the way.
But this is also where I have to point out where this game suffers some. Unlike the first title, there is very little in the way of exploration in this game. There are very few hub areas and the game is structured in an incredibly linear way. This is a disappointment since the game ramped up the danger of the dark so much better then the original, but it is an expected one considering how much of the story is told in a meshing of the characters along the way and even the world itself instead of just notes you can find and read. You almost have to enforce a linear path to keep what you want to say in the order you want to say it.
But I do have to point to that for two points at the very end of the game where, I have to wonder about those choices, and in order to explain will require me to use a spoiler. If you do not wish to hear them, please skip past the following indented text:
The game reveals fairly early on that Tasi went on this expedition with her husband knowing she was pregnant, a detail that much like everything else outside the plane crash, she had forgotten. Her body won't let her forget for long though as she finds herself going through the process of it at an accelerated rate, ultimately going into labor towards the end of the game... and this is the first point I find questionable. When this happens you still play the scene in first person stumbling to and through a murdered village with Tasi occasionally stopping and roaring in pain, culminating in finding the doctor traveling with them and him helping her give birth. This is not done through a cutscene but you play it as a mini-game, still in a first person view, right down to a button to "push" when asked.
This is really weird for a horror game and very out of tone for the development studio, but at the same time, I can kinda see some use for the horror story in it as this "mini-game" is used to enforce the condition she is in which you by now know effected everyone who was with her. You are doing this while wresting with the camera to keep focused on the doctor's face so Tasi can focus and not lose control, really bringing home just how bad those blackouts she has had while you play are and what they imply. Sadly the second iffy decision and last moment before you make your final choice to decide how the game will end is a lot less easy to justify.
This last point is at the very end when the game has revealed exactly what happened to you and your expedition. And while this is important to the story of the game, it is not to this spoiler. What is is an alien woman now has Tasi's baby and leads you there, only to give you a moment to "comfort and feed the baby." So in this alien world at the very end of a horror game, Tasi unbuttons her blouse and proceeds to breast feed the child for a fairly lengthy time with you being basically forced to watch from her point of view.
When this started, exactly two thoughts went through my head. The most immediate was "welp, there goes my Twitch channel, and just before Extra Life too." Thankfully I was wrong here, but my second thought was the mental version of my eyes rolling to the back of my skull before looking at my watch. It was rather lengthy and really added nothing to what was going on.
These two points collectively change the tone of the game from awesomely dark and creepy to just weird and (if you think about why the developer might have wanted it) a different far less fun kind of creepy at the very last possible moment. It doesn't ruin the game, but it seems out of place and I can assure you.
Bugs: This game ran flawlessly while I was playing. Apparently it did have bugs to fix as it was patched mid-play-through but I saw nothing at all.
Overall: Despite it's quirks at the end, this is a really good horror game. It is a very linear experience that will last you 8-10 hours, keeping you on edge just about the entire time. And while it doesn't try to play with you sigh an insanity system, it uses a different kind of insanity to much higher tension then anything before. If you loved both Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA, you are absolutely gonna love this too. If you are a fan of genuinely tense and scary games, this one will not disappoint you provided you can put up with a slow burn start and maybe a different kind of fucked up at the end for a short time (that seems to be forever). Everyone else, if you want to try horror, this is far from a bad point to start.
Score:
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i3/AMD FX running at 2.4 Ghz
- 4 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 460/AMD Radeon HD 5750/Intel HD 630
- 50 GB hard drive space
- Windows 8/10 (64 bit edition)
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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