Scary game.
Interesting until tedious. I don't regret playing, but I also don't see myself ever returning.
The best and most realistic weapons simulation in any game EVER. The voice actor does an amazing job with the script he's been given. This game is challenging to the MAX, and it is a very fun kind of challenge don't get me wrong. The lore is amazing and is absolutely limitless, The Compound is fun to dick around in and complete challenges and puzzles.
absolutely nothing matches the feeling of learning how to operate the guns in this game without the help menu pulled up. 9/10 makes you feel like john wick's inferior cousin
This game is the best at actually delivering a realistic depiction of pistols to me, and also has a interesting lore behind the story with fun gameplay
Fucking cool game you get good at complicated gun stuff and you also get scared out of your mind at a little turret. Its very immersive and fun and hard. You should try it.
CN: Mild references to Suicide
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Amazing gunplay, great environments. One thing that I don't think is brought up when talking about this game is that, at least for me, its sort of the perfect modernization of arcade games. You spend every level surviving and picking up tapes that you have to listen through, and if you get shot once you get demoted to the last level, but with the random generation of rooms, tape, guns, and enemy spawns it's not guaranteed you'll get to where you were before, backsliding is completely possible. The dressing to disguise the more arcadey nature of this is a serious discussion of guns, suicidality, and a very thinly spread out narrative of people being trapped in a virtual system told slowly through notes and pickups, which you can only piece together after 100s of attempts.
The reality is that you'll probably hear the tapes dozens of times over which is one of the reasons why it makes out that its trying to hypnotize you, with really crisp audio in comparison to the first game. This is no accident, in fact there's a moment where if you explore the main area for long enough you can find an arcade cabinet for Receiver 1, its aware of its game design relationship here. In fact each level threshold takes around the amount of time, 15 minutes or so, that you would probably expect the average person to spend invested at an arcade. For 4 tapes it can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes depending on how soon they spawn, eventually you'll know the spawn placements of them but never whether they are actually in a building or not. This fact is further intensified by the fact that you can replay the game with a larger narrative surrounding it, 'beating' the game doesn't mean never playing it again.
While some people may see the tone as hamfisted in places, with how dramatic many of the audio logs are and how a few of them are cries of the suicidal, I think the fact it can juggle a more haunting tone with how breezy gameplay can be is no easy feat and contrary to that opinion I think it works well as a sort of unique insidious tone. You can run fast in this game, REALLY FAST, but it requires tapping the button forward over and over again. You can snipe enemies as soon as you see them out of the sky, and they make a really cathartic crunchy crash sound when the flying drones fall. The gun preparation and tension of leaning around walls leads up to moments where you can shoot as if you're playing 1 of those carnival shooting games. Still the pace is also methodical, theres more fear here than in most horror games. The jumpscare of being gunned by the turrets or chased by the flying drones is unparalleled and it somehow keeps that intensity after many hours of play. On the flip side the arcadey nature allows you to get into its 'flow state' more which fits the nature of what the game is trying to convey about how guns in media have become normalized.
Reciever 2 specifically utilizes RNG and a fail state to great effect, transforming it into a game that you can play for hours or plug and play once or twice a night. Really have to give it to the sound design team because every noise in this thing, the hums the shots the cracks the running all sound incredible. The lighting is great to but if it wasn't for that incredible sound design this wouldn't be half the game this is. High recommend for audiophiles.
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Amazing gunplay, great environments. One thing that I don't think is brought up when talking about this game is that, at least for me, its sort of the perfect modernization of arcade games. You spend every level surviving and picking up tapes that you have to listen through, and if you get shot once you get demoted to the last level, but with the random generation of rooms, tape, guns, and enemy spawns it's not guaranteed you'll get to where you were before, backsliding is completely possible. The dressing to disguise the more arcadey nature of this is a serious discussion of guns, suicidality, and a very thinly spread out narrative of people being trapped in a virtual system told slowly through notes and pickups, which you can only piece together after 100s of attempts.
The reality is that you'll probably hear the tapes dozens of times over which is one of the reasons why it makes out that its trying to hypnotize you, with really crisp audio in comparison to the first game. This is no accident, in fact there's a moment where if you explore the main area for long enough you can find an arcade cabinet for Receiver 1, its aware of its game design relationship here. In fact each level threshold takes around the amount of time, 15 minutes or so, that you would probably expect the average person to spend invested at an arcade. For 4 tapes it can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes depending on how soon they spawn, eventually you'll know the spawn placements of them but never whether they are actually in a building or not. This fact is further intensified by the fact that you can replay the game with a larger narrative surrounding it, 'beating' the game doesn't mean never playing it again.
While some people may see the tone as hamfisted in places, with how dramatic many of the audio logs are and how a few of them are cries of the suicidal, I think the fact it can juggle a more haunting tone with how breezy gameplay can be is no easy feat and contrary to that opinion I think it works well as a sort of unique insidious tone. You can run fast in this game, REALLY FAST, but it requires tapping the button forward over and over again. You can snipe enemies as soon as you see them out of the sky, and they make a really cathartic crunchy crash sound when the flying drones fall. The gun preparation and tension of leaning around walls leads up to moments where you can shoot as if you're playing 1 of those carnival shooting games. Still the pace is also methodical, theres more fear here than in most horror games. The jumpscare of being gunned by the turrets or chased by the flying drones is unparalleled and it somehow keeps that intensity after many hours of play. On the flip side the arcadey nature allows you to get into its 'flow state' more which fits the nature of what the game is trying to convey about how guns in media have become normalized.
Reciever 2 specifically utilizes RNG and a fail state to great effect, transforming it into a game that you can play for hours or plug and play once or twice a night. Really have to give it to the sound design team because every noise in this thing, the hums the shots the cracks the running all sound incredible. The lighting is great to but if it wasn't for that incredible sound design this wouldn't be half the game this is. High recommend for audiophiles.
an expanded version of the novel concept that the first game had, which honestly..... i mean its what i asked for. the first game was a barebones idea that was cool but didnt really amount to much else, but this REALLY expands it. its just a shame that the difficulty is a bit artificial at times, especially with the whole "every time you die you get thrown back to the previous level" system, which is piss annoying.
CW: Light discussion of suicide
When you think about it, it is a little odd how uniform the controls for guns are across games. It’s not even limited to shooters - any game where a gun is in your hands for more than a minute or two will probably have you (on keyboard and mouse) shooting with left click, aiming with right click, and reloading with R. It’s so commonplace that games that dispense with this control scheme tend to stick out in your memory as One Of The Things That Game Does. To be fair, Receiver 2 does still bring back some of what I just mentioned - you shoot with left mouse, aim with right mouse, and R… kind of reloads? Well, it racks the slide. It’s a fairly minor part of reloading given that you don’t do it every time, but it counts. Depending on how you want to break it down (and the state that your gun is in) there are several additional steps, but don’t worry, those all have buttons too, separate buttons.
One of the interesting things about having to press forty goddamn buttons to reload your gun is that it becomes a kind of meditative practice. If you’re able to avoid saying “fuck this” after shooting yourself in the leg on three consecutive reload attempts, you begin to develop muscle memory. This is usually a good thing, but you will have to adapt to different guns or you will go to put your Glock on safety and shoot yourself in the leg in full-auto. This isn’t all about the buttons you press, though, because Receiver 1 had fucky controls too, and this isn’t a review of Receiver 1.
Receiver 2 takes things to the next level in a number of ways - the most obvious is that the game has actual textures now (instead of vaguely gesturing in the direction of “graphics”), but there are also more guns, more tapes, and additional mechanics. Receiver 2 is about diligence. Better textures and lighting means those turrets are better able to blend into the background. More guns means you need to remember additional quirks for each gun. More mechanics means that you can no longer just autopilot once you’ve figured the game out - bullets will richochet, negligent discharges will happen. You will need to listen to the tapes to figure out if it’s safe, or if -
I also mentioned shooting yourself in the leg. This will happen. A lot. It happens significantly less frequently as you get the rhythm of the game, and then you will get the Single-Action Army and you will remember what shooting yourself in the leg is like. I said it’s a game about diligence - the tapes are not joking about understanding the lethality of the tool and "anchoring yourself in the moment". It is not about autopiloting, it is about understanding the process so thoroughly that you can make the correct decision under pressure without hesitation.
So what are all those other tapes about? Why does the dude always sound like he's about to cry? While it’s not very clear if the Receivers are a cult of some kind, they’re at least some kind of movement dedicated to fighting The Threat, a nigh-supernatural force that preys on unsteady or unfocused minds. When its effects are at their worst, this can result in the Receiver taking their own life... and this is where my feelings on the game’s themes become a little mixed. Suicidal people are generally treated with dignity in the game and are still granted agency in its story, despite the influence of “The Threat” on their decisions, but mixing in lore elements when talking about actual suicide feels a touch wrong, even if the message is generally right. It does help the themes of the game come full circle - themes that initially feel like they’re about a spooky ghost that places turrets everywhere, but transform with time into warnings about taking care of your mental health. The Threat Echoes - another new game mechanic - are also a bit indelicate unless you read the reward(?) tapes afterward (they don’t automatically play) where their purpose is made clear: highlighting how easy it is to lose sight of the people who value you and your company when things go south.
It’s not a perfect way to send this message, but it’s very clear the developers put a lot of care in and are sincere about it, and I do think it makes a lot of good smaller points on the way to painting its grander picture. It’s an interesting message to attach to an extremely mechanically unique game, and - in addition to wishing more people played it - I wish there was more exploration of the themes it contains, because I do think there’s a lot to talk about that’s just being left on the table when Receiver 2 does find its way into the conversation.
When you think about it, it is a little odd how uniform the controls for guns are across games. It’s not even limited to shooters - any game where a gun is in your hands for more than a minute or two will probably have you (on keyboard and mouse) shooting with left click, aiming with right click, and reloading with R. It’s so commonplace that games that dispense with this control scheme tend to stick out in your memory as One Of The Things That Game Does. To be fair, Receiver 2 does still bring back some of what I just mentioned - you shoot with left mouse, aim with right mouse, and R… kind of reloads? Well, it racks the slide. It’s a fairly minor part of reloading given that you don’t do it every time, but it counts. Depending on how you want to break it down (and the state that your gun is in) there are several additional steps, but don’t worry, those all have buttons too, separate buttons.
One of the interesting things about having to press forty goddamn buttons to reload your gun is that it becomes a kind of meditative practice. If you’re able to avoid saying “fuck this” after shooting yourself in the leg on three consecutive reload attempts, you begin to develop muscle memory. This is usually a good thing, but you will have to adapt to different guns or you will go to put your Glock on safety and shoot yourself in the leg in full-auto. This isn’t all about the buttons you press, though, because Receiver 1 had fucky controls too, and this isn’t a review of Receiver 1.
Receiver 2 takes things to the next level in a number of ways - the most obvious is that the game has actual textures now (instead of vaguely gesturing in the direction of “graphics”), but there are also more guns, more tapes, and additional mechanics. Receiver 2 is about diligence. Better textures and lighting means those turrets are better able to blend into the background. More guns means you need to remember additional quirks for each gun. More mechanics means that you can no longer just autopilot once you’ve figured the game out - bullets will richochet, negligent discharges will happen. You will need to listen to the tapes to figure out if it’s safe, or if -
I also mentioned shooting yourself in the leg. This will happen. A lot. It happens significantly less frequently as you get the rhythm of the game, and then you will get the Single-Action Army and you will remember what shooting yourself in the leg is like. I said it’s a game about diligence - the tapes are not joking about understanding the lethality of the tool and "anchoring yourself in the moment". It is not about autopiloting, it is about understanding the process so thoroughly that you can make the correct decision under pressure without hesitation.
So what are all those other tapes about? Why does the dude always sound like he's about to cry? While it’s not very clear if the Receivers are a cult of some kind, they’re at least some kind of movement dedicated to fighting The Threat, a nigh-supernatural force that preys on unsteady or unfocused minds. When its effects are at their worst, this can result in the Receiver taking their own life... and this is where my feelings on the game’s themes become a little mixed. Suicidal people are generally treated with dignity in the game and are still granted agency in its story, despite the influence of “The Threat” on their decisions, but mixing in lore elements when talking about actual suicide feels a touch wrong, even if the message is generally right. It does help the themes of the game come full circle - themes that initially feel like they’re about a spooky ghost that places turrets everywhere, but transform with time into warnings about taking care of your mental health. The Threat Echoes - another new game mechanic - are also a bit indelicate unless you read the reward(?) tapes afterward (they don’t automatically play) where their purpose is made clear: highlighting how easy it is to lose sight of the people who value you and your company when things go south.
It’s not a perfect way to send this message, but it’s very clear the developers put a lot of care in and are sincere about it, and I do think it makes a lot of good smaller points on the way to painting its grander picture. It’s an interesting message to attach to an extremely mechanically unique game, and - in addition to wishing more people played it - I wish there was more exploration of the themes it contains, because I do think there’s a lot to talk about that’s just being left on the table when Receiver 2 does find its way into the conversation.
I beat level five with a cowboy gun I'm gonna cum
shot myself in the foot because I was practicing poor firearm safety
Both a really terrific, exhaustive simulation that wants its audience to really understand the weight of something as dangerous as a gun, and an extended, genuinely really valuable therapy session. There's better writing here on mental health and mindfulness than in most games, and it ultimately reveals itself to be a really thoughtful and sincere attempt to help those who feel they're alone and lost in a world where everything feels disconcerting and unfamiliar. I loved it a ton.
This review contains spoilers
What is the game actually like?
You wake up in a dream world, an endless maze of buildings, with a gun and some bullets. You have to find these little tapes that make a strange singing noise. Each tape you listen to progresses you towards the next level. Each new level brings a different random gun from a set. The Threat sends horrible little robots after you, initially just static sentries but later, worse. Your best shot is to spot them first and disable them from a distance. If they kill you, you'll 'rank down' and start from the previous level. It's pretty tough once you get to the 3rd rank, but if you're careful you can get higher. There is a huge amount of fun to be had here, if you like stealth without vision cones and you like careful shooting with as much of the operating burden on the player as I've seen in any game (I learned a lot from these games about how guns actually work). I have never finished it but I've reached the final rank, and played a ton of it in any case. It's not for everyone but it's really really something.
Theme chat
(CW self harm, mental illness)
I enjoyed the first game a lot, and when this came out it was a big moment for me. More of the gun simulation that is very neatly done, more terrifying beeps to make you freeze and then run, more hunting for tapes. And importantly, still no shooting at people or even people-shaped things. The tapes and talking about the Threat more explicitly made it feel clear that the Threat is a metaphor for depression or other mental illnesses that can cause self harm. Much time in the tapes is spent on stories of people with clear depression spiralling or recovering, as well as gun safety/clearing malfunctions to prevent accidents. The tapes even talk about the stuff the US Army did to desensitise their soldiers to killing other people (human-shaped targets, distancing themselves mentally from their actions, etc.). I don't think the game is trying to tell you to keep a gun close and be ready for a physical threat. I think it's trying to tell you to take care of yourself and watch your brain for signs of an internal threat, and also if you have a gun, take it Very Seriously and don't assume anything is safe about it. All messages I support, really.
You wake up in a dream world, an endless maze of buildings, with a gun and some bullets. You have to find these little tapes that make a strange singing noise. Each tape you listen to progresses you towards the next level. Each new level brings a different random gun from a set. The Threat sends horrible little robots after you, initially just static sentries but later, worse. Your best shot is to spot them first and disable them from a distance. If they kill you, you'll 'rank down' and start from the previous level. It's pretty tough once you get to the 3rd rank, but if you're careful you can get higher. There is a huge amount of fun to be had here, if you like stealth without vision cones and you like careful shooting with as much of the operating burden on the player as I've seen in any game (I learned a lot from these games about how guns actually work). I have never finished it but I've reached the final rank, and played a ton of it in any case. It's not for everyone but it's really really something.
Theme chat
(CW self harm, mental illness)
I enjoyed the first game a lot, and when this came out it was a big moment for me. More of the gun simulation that is very neatly done, more terrifying beeps to make you freeze and then run, more hunting for tapes. And importantly, still no shooting at people or even people-shaped things. The tapes and talking about the Threat more explicitly made it feel clear that the Threat is a metaphor for depression or other mental illnesses that can cause self harm. Much time in the tapes is spent on stories of people with clear depression spiralling or recovering, as well as gun safety/clearing malfunctions to prevent accidents. The tapes even talk about the stuff the US Army did to desensitise their soldiers to killing other people (human-shaped targets, distancing themselves mentally from their actions, etc.). I don't think the game is trying to tell you to keep a gun close and be ready for a physical threat. I think it's trying to tell you to take care of yourself and watch your brain for signs of an internal threat, and also if you have a gun, take it Very Seriously and don't assume anything is safe about it. All messages I support, really.
CW: Mass shootings and right-wing ideology
Alright I've got one major problem with this game, the narrative is a little more prevalent in this one and they made it play exactly like alt right-wing propaganda. The whole narrative revolves around an unknown threat that is both all-powerful and weak, that you cannot actively fight but must permanently train and prepare for, and that you must be paranoid of those around you (especially those who disregard the threat as nonsense or not a problem) keeping your weapons on hand at all time for a supposed war you may suddenly need to fight. Ideologies like this especially do not need to be repeated at a time with mass public horrors such as when these scared armed teenagers decided to 'fight' their supposed 'threat' at schools. This alone tanks the score, like mate cultural context heavily applies in situations like this. Couldn't keep playing when the game mentioned keeping your weapons ready to turn on those around you, scared me for the fate of our warring world with just that piece of dialogue.
Outside of this, basically the same game but with graphical upgrades, enemies aren't as stupidly strong and actually easier to deal with, and the buildings feel less repetitive to traverse.
Alright I've got one major problem with this game, the narrative is a little more prevalent in this one and they made it play exactly like alt right-wing propaganda. The whole narrative revolves around an unknown threat that is both all-powerful and weak, that you cannot actively fight but must permanently train and prepare for, and that you must be paranoid of those around you (especially those who disregard the threat as nonsense or not a problem) keeping your weapons on hand at all time for a supposed war you may suddenly need to fight. Ideologies like this especially do not need to be repeated at a time with mass public horrors such as when these scared armed teenagers decided to 'fight' their supposed 'threat' at schools. This alone tanks the score, like mate cultural context heavily applies in situations like this. Couldn't keep playing when the game mentioned keeping your weapons ready to turn on those around you, scared me for the fate of our warring world with just that piece of dialogue.
Outside of this, basically the same game but with graphical upgrades, enemies aren't as stupidly strong and actually easier to deal with, and the buildings feel less repetitive to traverse.
I hadn't expected Receiver of all things to get a sequel, but honestly, I'm glad it did. Everything from the first game was polished, iterated and expanded upon to where I'd argue it's reached full potential.
As a firearm simulator, it's deeply engaging to learn how every gun operates and commit its intricacies to muscle memory. As a stealth game, it's unbelievably tense and immersive, but I'm also extremely jumpy by nature so your mileage may vary.
As a narrative about mental illness and mindfulness, I understand it's quite divisive. I've been diagnosed with clinical depression and autism for almost 20 years, with signs that I might also have ADHD. I've struggled and suffered and continue to do so. How Receiver 2 handles this topic, how it uses its narrative and gameplay to explicitly and implicitly talk about mental illness was very poignant to me for reasons I could talk on and on and on about for an hour or two. Rather than spend half an hour writing an absurd wall of text, I'll simply put it like this: For a game about guns, Receiver 2 is deeply empathetic and encourages coping mechanisms, safety, and social awareness in ways not a lot of media dealing with these topics does.
I'm gonna be thinking about and revisiting Receiver 2 for a while.
As a firearm simulator, it's deeply engaging to learn how every gun operates and commit its intricacies to muscle memory. As a stealth game, it's unbelievably tense and immersive, but I'm also extremely jumpy by nature so your mileage may vary.
As a narrative about mental illness and mindfulness, I understand it's quite divisive. I've been diagnosed with clinical depression and autism for almost 20 years, with signs that I might also have ADHD. I've struggled and suffered and continue to do so. How Receiver 2 handles this topic, how it uses its narrative and gameplay to explicitly and implicitly talk about mental illness was very poignant to me for reasons I could talk on and on and on about for an hour or two. Rather than spend half an hour writing an absurd wall of text, I'll simply put it like this: For a game about guns, Receiver 2 is deeply empathetic and encourages coping mechanisms, safety, and social awareness in ways not a lot of media dealing with these topics does.
I'm gonna be thinking about and revisiting Receiver 2 for a while.
The last levels are pretty hard, exploration is kinda fun. In general I liked it as much as the original one.
A very unique and well put together FPS that has a surprising amount of things to say. Even if you don't care for the story elements, you stay for the unique gun mechanics (which, I'll be honest, it wouldn't be much without).
When a game is as frustrating and difficult as this however, the gameplay loop tends to get a bit stale - but I probably only died so much due to how impatient I got.
When a game is as frustrating and difficult as this however, the gameplay loop tends to get a bit stale - but I probably only died so much due to how impatient I got.
Frustrating. Aesthetics are on point but the gameplay leaves much to be desired. Feels like a proof of concept rather than a full video game, which is very disappointing considering the first game came out of a game jam. Pick it up if you enjoyed the first game, but don't expect things to be too different here.
tap, rack, bang.
essentially an extended exercise in bullet meditation. its arcade-esque structure belies how much rigor and alertness receiver 2 demands of its players regardless of how uncompromising the randomized threats can be. most games become faster as you improve, but receiver 2 instead gets slower; refining your play here often means being methodical, taking your time, steadfastly running through your keyboard rituals as though they were rosary prayer beads, surveying environments carefully, and retaining a stalwart level of composure against the odds. brilliant map design evokes a constant dread & claustrophobia by endlessly looping hallways of industrial boiler rooms, penthouse apartments, and construction scaffolding, suggesting both subconscious impermanence and familiarity ('you' have had gunfights here before, sometime, somewhere else). you're thirty floors up in this intensely alienating, inescapable nightmare realm and the only one who can save yourself is you. and things continue in this genuinely frightening way until you learn to start flipping the script and turning the stringent limitations of its level design into opportunity. whether that means having a quick exit plan between floors, shimmying across ledges to avoid detection, or bolting and jumping through a window to avoid a barrage of turret fire. this isn't even yet digging into the intensely granular gun mechanics - the long and short of it is that by so sternly forcing players to abide by its ruleset, receiver 2's simulacrum is one of the sharpest games to ever transpose ideas of mindfulness onto a set of mechanics. a good few too many games about mental health only demand faux-resilience through narrative affect or through memorizing sequences of buttons in simplistic twitch platforming fashion, but receiver 2's interweaving of constant repetition and punishing failure reveals a strict & cohesive prescription and regimen: your mind and body have to be in sync if you're gonna stand any real shot out there.
tap, rack, bang.
generally speaking, in martial arts, a weapon is an extension of your body. it's cliche, but holds true. the only way to master a sword is to consider it as a limb. and in other games this is, i would argue, felt as a guiding philosophy. thinking and problem-solving is abstracted across these body-oriented mechanics. lavish one-button reload animations in games have conditioned players into seeing a gun as an extension of the player; i've argued in the past that leon in resident evil 4 is a particularly good example of this. a rifle to leon is as central to his kit as a knife, a grenade, a herb, a roundhouse kick, all executed with more or less the same mechanical apparatus.
tap, rack, bang.
receiver 2 brings guns and mental health to the forefront, but it shrewdly elides the easy question or metaphor regarding the grisly culture surrounding firearms in the united states to instead focus on your simulated gun as an extension of your mind and the implications of that idea in a diseased sociopolitical climate. reloading has been calibrated across not just one key, but several, and each gun will have different quirks or tics to master in this regard. revolvers are simple and reliable, but slower to reload and less equipped to deal with multiple threats, whereas the automatic pistols have more complex inputs in tandem with more versatility, but similarly present more opportunities to malfunction (and yes, your guns will jam in multiple different ways - good luck diagnosing and treating that while threats have their watchful eyes on you). likewise, dozens of other minor nuances are present: a colt m1911 has a safety switch, but when using a glock that same key is utilized to turn the glock's full-auto feature on, so holstering unsafely with a glock you attempted to make safe means your thigh is about to eat two or three bullets. without weapon acumen you are every bit as likely to kill or incapacitate yourself as a turret or drone is likely to gore you.
tap, rack, bang.
the central structure of receiver 2 revolves around the collection of analog tapes concerning firearms history, media representations of guns, common logical and emotional fallacies, and tips for maintaining a more lucid mind. these tapes are randomized and don't explicitly spell out their associations given how wildly varying they can be, but its lessons and mantras all hone in on a few key ideas which are subsequently internalized over the unfolding hours. the act of physically pointing and shooting has been entirely stripped of context and weight - what has this gratuitousness and gratification done to us? we live in a fractured environment which has the potential to fracture ourselves in turn - how can we safeguard ourselves against these negative influences? just as there are rules in place for the safe operation of a firearm, so too are there rules for the exercise of one's mind. and if you can safely train to have a mind impervious to adversity, you can begin to survive and aid others in survival.
tap, rack, bang.
receiver 2 is mechanically, narratively, and artistically sympatico in a way very few games have achieved. its prescription of an analog remedy for the digitized nightmare we've slowly come to inhabit over the past couple of decades is novel and commendable, regardless of a couple of minor issues i have with the game's prose (that said you will find no other game which explicitly draws a parallel between the birth/subsequent expansion of the universe and a chambered round shot in the dark). and it is a game presented with total earnestness and clarity regarding its subject matter. few sequels expand on the core concept as meaningfully as receiver 2 - a third game would be redundant, but its ending gracefully reminds us that the work we've set in motion doesn't end with our investment in these abstracted life-or-death scrambles. we break free, and we are made to live with the lessons we have slowly accumulated and grasped. "perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time". excellent stuff.
tap, rack, bang.
your mind's eye sharpens.
essentially an extended exercise in bullet meditation. its arcade-esque structure belies how much rigor and alertness receiver 2 demands of its players regardless of how uncompromising the randomized threats can be. most games become faster as you improve, but receiver 2 instead gets slower; refining your play here often means being methodical, taking your time, steadfastly running through your keyboard rituals as though they were rosary prayer beads, surveying environments carefully, and retaining a stalwart level of composure against the odds. brilliant map design evokes a constant dread & claustrophobia by endlessly looping hallways of industrial boiler rooms, penthouse apartments, and construction scaffolding, suggesting both subconscious impermanence and familiarity ('you' have had gunfights here before, sometime, somewhere else). you're thirty floors up in this intensely alienating, inescapable nightmare realm and the only one who can save yourself is you. and things continue in this genuinely frightening way until you learn to start flipping the script and turning the stringent limitations of its level design into opportunity. whether that means having a quick exit plan between floors, shimmying across ledges to avoid detection, or bolting and jumping through a window to avoid a barrage of turret fire. this isn't even yet digging into the intensely granular gun mechanics - the long and short of it is that by so sternly forcing players to abide by its ruleset, receiver 2's simulacrum is one of the sharpest games to ever transpose ideas of mindfulness onto a set of mechanics. a good few too many games about mental health only demand faux-resilience through narrative affect or through memorizing sequences of buttons in simplistic twitch platforming fashion, but receiver 2's interweaving of constant repetition and punishing failure reveals a strict & cohesive prescription and regimen: your mind and body have to be in sync if you're gonna stand any real shot out there.
tap, rack, bang.
generally speaking, in martial arts, a weapon is an extension of your body. it's cliche, but holds true. the only way to master a sword is to consider it as a limb. and in other games this is, i would argue, felt as a guiding philosophy. thinking and problem-solving is abstracted across these body-oriented mechanics. lavish one-button reload animations in games have conditioned players into seeing a gun as an extension of the player; i've argued in the past that leon in resident evil 4 is a particularly good example of this. a rifle to leon is as central to his kit as a knife, a grenade, a herb, a roundhouse kick, all executed with more or less the same mechanical apparatus.
tap, rack, bang.
receiver 2 brings guns and mental health to the forefront, but it shrewdly elides the easy question or metaphor regarding the grisly culture surrounding firearms in the united states to instead focus on your simulated gun as an extension of your mind and the implications of that idea in a diseased sociopolitical climate. reloading has been calibrated across not just one key, but several, and each gun will have different quirks or tics to master in this regard. revolvers are simple and reliable, but slower to reload and less equipped to deal with multiple threats, whereas the automatic pistols have more complex inputs in tandem with more versatility, but similarly present more opportunities to malfunction (and yes, your guns will jam in multiple different ways - good luck diagnosing and treating that while threats have their watchful eyes on you). likewise, dozens of other minor nuances are present: a colt m1911 has a safety switch, but when using a glock that same key is utilized to turn the glock's full-auto feature on, so holstering unsafely with a glock you attempted to make safe means your thigh is about to eat two or three bullets. without weapon acumen you are every bit as likely to kill or incapacitate yourself as a turret or drone is likely to gore you.
tap, rack, bang.
the central structure of receiver 2 revolves around the collection of analog tapes concerning firearms history, media representations of guns, common logical and emotional fallacies, and tips for maintaining a more lucid mind. these tapes are randomized and don't explicitly spell out their associations given how wildly varying they can be, but its lessons and mantras all hone in on a few key ideas which are subsequently internalized over the unfolding hours. the act of physically pointing and shooting has been entirely stripped of context and weight - what has this gratuitousness and gratification done to us? we live in a fractured environment which has the potential to fracture ourselves in turn - how can we safeguard ourselves against these negative influences? just as there are rules in place for the safe operation of a firearm, so too are there rules for the exercise of one's mind. and if you can safely train to have a mind impervious to adversity, you can begin to survive and aid others in survival.
tap, rack, bang.
receiver 2 is mechanically, narratively, and artistically sympatico in a way very few games have achieved. its prescription of an analog remedy for the digitized nightmare we've slowly come to inhabit over the past couple of decades is novel and commendable, regardless of a couple of minor issues i have with the game's prose (that said you will find no other game which explicitly draws a parallel between the birth/subsequent expansion of the universe and a chambered round shot in the dark). and it is a game presented with total earnestness and clarity regarding its subject matter. few sequels expand on the core concept as meaningfully as receiver 2 - a third game would be redundant, but its ending gracefully reminds us that the work we've set in motion doesn't end with our investment in these abstracted life-or-death scrambles. we break free, and we are made to live with the lessons we have slowly accumulated and grasped. "perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time". excellent stuff.
tap, rack, bang.
your mind's eye sharpens.
Gun mechanics are kinda neat for a little bit.
Receiver 2 is The Witness for gun people, and I mean that in the most positive way possible.
Receiver 2 prods at the Grand Supposition of games with a finely-sharpened stick. It makes no attempt to filter the truth of firearms, both the oft-bypassed nuances of using one and the position they have in culture, depicted or otherwise. In so many ways does it drive home a sense of precariousness, from the haphazard bounce of every live weapon while ADS to the highly frustrating loop of the ranking system. The gun enthusiasts in the audience misattribute the glocklegging mechanic as an inaccuracy bogging the game down when it's clearly a lesson in mindfulness... also bogging the game down (but in a good way). As an aside, the drones in this game act like drunk hornets when they spot you and it freaks me the fuck out.
As someone who has, many times, oogled the reload animation for the rifle in Resident Evil 4 (though maybe it’s the man attached to the arm driving that one), I was split exactly even on curiosity and repulsion. It’s in the nature of games to abstract ideas, but the outspoken tone of Receiver 2 suggests that even a small bit of introspection would likely halve the industry like a watermelon, freeing something in the process but likely just draining it of that sweet military money.
So, the game’s really interesting! ... I just wish the narrator didn’t sound like he was crytyping and/or calling into a 900 number every time he talked to you. Seriously, if you don’t believe me just listen: https://youtu.be/yBA1aLh5wrg?t=306
As someone who has, many times, oogled the reload animation for the rifle in Resident Evil 4 (though maybe it’s the man attached to the arm driving that one), I was split exactly even on curiosity and repulsion. It’s in the nature of games to abstract ideas, but the outspoken tone of Receiver 2 suggests that even a small bit of introspection would likely halve the industry like a watermelon, freeing something in the process but likely just draining it of that sweet military money.
So, the game’s really interesting! ... I just wish the narrator didn’t sound like he was crytyping and/or calling into a 900 number every time he talked to you. Seriously, if you don’t believe me just listen: https://youtu.be/yBA1aLh5wrg?t=306
I could write an essay on this game and its use of suicide notes. I've mentally drafted the outline multiple times. Maybe I still will at some point. The problem is that my conclusion is a giant shrug. Receiver 2 treats the topic of suicide with as much care as any piece of media I've seen, but that level of care is matched only by how deeply it disturbed me. There's one particular note that felt like it crawled beneath my skin and started burrowing into my marrow. And I still have absolutely no idea what any of this means.
Is it effective? Yes. Is it in line with the game's themes? For sure. Am I reacting this way because of my own history of mental health issues? Maybe! Could the game make the same point without the notes? I don't know. Is it necessary? Again, I don't know. On some level I appreciate that a game has made me engage with such complicated feelings, but I have to stop just short of praise. It leaves me with a messy jumble of thoughts and emotions that I'm incapable of shaping into a single coherent opinion.
Is it effective? Yes. Is it in line with the game's themes? For sure. Am I reacting this way because of my own history of mental health issues? Maybe! Could the game make the same point without the notes? I don't know. Is it necessary? Again, I don't know. On some level I appreciate that a game has made me engage with such complicated feelings, but I have to stop just short of praise. It leaves me with a messy jumble of thoughts and emotions that I'm incapable of shaping into a single coherent opinion.
It's just Receiver but bigger and better. More rooms, more guns, more enemy types (kinda). Lots of fun and it has a cool and eerie atmosphere to go with it. Definitely worth trying out.