I walked into this game with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I had attempted to play the demo way back before it came out during one of Steam's Indie-fests and found a lot to complain about, particularly around he controls. But on the other, I was trying to play it on my media center with a controller, an interface I am not particularly happy playing first person games on in the first place and a PC that was woe-fully underpowered for it. Add to this that it was an early build being shown off and I knew I wasn't being fair to it. So when Epic gave the game away as a freebie a little ways ago, I decided to give it a second shot and pick it up. And then the dice picked it, so I shrugged, put my concerns aside and downloaded it. I'm glad I did.
Story: Desmond is a psychiatrist. He's lived his life trying to help others get through their inner struggles. By trade, he is an excellent listener and often proved good at helping others plan those baby-steps they need to get past their own traumas. But now he faces the biggest challenge of his life... He himself falling into the same madness he has tried to help pull others out of.
And now that insanity has begun to make itself manifest as Desmond wakes up in a semi familiar basement with no idea how he got there. And just as important, he isn't alone. Someone is leaving him notes... someone who clearly knows him well, has their eye on him, and wants to be sure he never leaves this building alive.
I know this is very vague description, but once again we have a game where the best way to experience the story is to go in fairly blind, letting the game reveal it's twists and turns as you explore the areas you will find yourself in, and it will do so in several ways. The important outline of the situation will be given to you via conversations with characters as the game progresses, but the finer details are yours to find in the form of documents along the way, environmental details, and your own ability to piece it together. The effect is a story that will be as much of the experience as you desire, or as little if you are interested in just jumping into the action and to Hell with why. But overall, it is a nicely written tale I have to recommend playing through.
9/10
Graphics: Honestly I can see no reason to complain about the look of this game. As a fairly recent first person game, you can expect it to look highly detailed and really bring it's world to life... and this is a game that delivers on that promise. But that world itself is the real star this time around. You will spend most of your time wandering around a run-down building with a few floors, each of which has very specific functions to those who should be here with you. And that is the vibe it just oozes: untimely abandon. TVs don't work quite right, lights are gloomy, and dust particles permeate the halls you are forced to wander with few exceptions.
And yet this vibe is carried into several other locations you will find yourself wandering as you navigate each section of the game. Anything from these dark and wasting halls to... well, the places themselves are so tied to the story I honestly do not want to explain them here. This is just one of those games where everything, even the world itself means something and to give any of it away is to spoil it for you.
But you are not quite as alone as that vibe it all has suggests though. These areas will include a small cast of characters who you will get to know as you play, with the two you get to know the most in the form of an antagonist who keeps taunting you and setting you up to fail, and a feline companion who wants nothing more then to see you make it through this harrowing night. When you see the source of the voice, it is a treat as he is appropriately creepy looking, but it's the cat who will steal your heart. She is absolutely adorable (and yes, you can pet her). Everyone else who plays a main roll, I will leave you to discover entirely for much the same reason I will not explain the places you will see.
Aside from them, however, there is really only the common enemy fodder you will find: inky humanoid masses called simply Inklings. These things are just alien enough looking to be creepy the first time you encounter one, and that's before it moves inhumanly fast, making it clear it wants to take pieces out of you like a monster in a movie. Unfortunately like a movie that overplays it's creature, however, the startling nature of these does not last, however.
Overall, the game looks great, and gives all the vibes it's looking to and oozes character. Enjoy the feel of this.
8/10
Sound: Like many games in modern times, you can expect the sound to be very solid here, if limited by what you do and how you interact with the world. Things bounce and bang with all the noise you would expect. (And with how quiet and the game can be and how much you want to keep quiet yourself more often then not, those sudden banging arounds can definitely leave you tense!).
But for how good the soundscape of effects is, it's the absolute weakspot in this title. The voice acting is absolutely awesome, from the characters you will come in contact with, to Desmond dealing with everything and trying to keep himself calm though his ordeal and knowing his mind is slipping, to even "the voice" taunting you onward. He in particular is interesting as he oozes malice, sarcasm, and even dark humor across the whole ordeal... despite the fact that he sounds just like Pete from Mickey Mouse and Goofy cartoons. It is simply a joy to hear.
But the absolute best part of what you hear is when the game deems to treat you to music. Between sections, you will be given the chance to find a vinyl record, the song on which will retell the sorry tail of what you have just witnessed, but with the talents of none other then The Living Tombstone! If you do not know who they are, this is a nerd-rock-electronica band who has over years written songs inspired by whatever games they were into at the time, getting noticed in particular for tracks around the now infamous Five Nights at Freddy's series of games. I can only imagine the thrill of finding themselves working with a game studio to produce this one, and they nailed it out of the park.
9/10
Gameplay: In Sound Mind is an FPS/Puzzle game which will have plenty of both to keep you going. You will play from the point of view of Desmond as he starts his adventure by trying to find a way out of the basement he's currently stuck in. This early in the game you have no way to do anything beyond find the flashlight before you can get our and escape to the rest of the building.
Doing so will find you reaching your first apartment door letting you search for your first tape. These cassettes are recordings of sessions Desmond has had with various patients and will guide you to the other parts of the game, in which you will be required to resolve the issues within before being allowed to leave. Doing so will also require you each time to acquire a new tool in the process which will then let you access the more of the building and find another apartment door to explore.
You will also find weapons in the process so you will be given the chance to defend yourself with more action-based gameplay as well, but if you are good enough you technically never have to rely on it. I am never going to claim to be that good and I honestly believe few will be. While combat is far from constant, ammo is scarce enough to be thankful for that since combat can be intense when it happens, your weapons are not always the most accurate, and Desmond is not the toughest of men, taking severe damage in rapid succession when your enemy prefers to be in your face rather then flinging ink at you (and you will find inklings that specialize in both). Although you can collect pills which will permanently boost your stats to make him more survivable, and you will definitely want to, cause this game doesn't always play fair.
It's almost never anything big, but just things like explosions hitting you when you would think you had ample cover, or enemy placement that gives you no chance to respond without taking some serious damage unless you know in advance. Thankfully the game does make up for this since it is very generous with checkpoints, giving you one just before just about every major game development as well as whenever you enter a new location for the first time. It is really hard to lose a lot of progress if you get dealt a bad hand. Add to this the game keeps the last several saves and you will find it an easy choice to go back and replay a moment that gave you a tough time and see if you can come out of it better. It's just a shame the game will make you feel like you should do that once in a while in an otherwise absolutely awesome experience.
7/10
Bugs: I do not believe I can call any issues with this game bugs. It actually ran damn near flawlessly. But I do have to report slowdowns around the hanger late in the game. I do not know why since checking performance showed the card was not near maxed out AND the room really didn't appear to be anything that should have caused it, but that single room for some reason dropped my frames noticeably on my rig.
Score: Overall I have to say this was probably one of the better games I have played in a long while. Yes, it was far from flawless, but it oozed atmosphere and the story telling was absolutely top-notch, enough to allow even "Pete" to be menacing before seeing him for the first time (and solidifying that menace). This was simply a great game, and it's a shame it's flaws came through particularly on the absolute last act, souring the end. If this game's gameplay itself was tightened and polished just that much more, I would have something I would have to argue with myself about marking as the first 9 of the year. As it stands though it is still an VERY solid title which I would recommend anyone with a taste for the horror of the mind itself give a go.
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i5-4460/AMD FX-6300
- 8 GB RAM
- Radeon R9 280/Nvidia Geforce GTX 960
- 20 GB hard drive space
- Windows 7 (64-bit only)
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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