This review contains spoilers
Not as outwardly terrible as I was expecting but this is still pretty bad lmao. I think the biggest sin of this game isn't that it's tactless and exploitative - which it is, but I'm not necessarily against that kind of story-telling because I think you can get at deeper truths about mental illness and other such things through a "tactless" approach - it's major problem is that in all it's bluntness and graphic imagery it doesn't really get at anything meaningful or interesting to say. It kinda hits on a lot of heavy topics - child abuse, loneliness, bullying, suicide etc etc but I never feel that it coalesces into a complete, satisfying experience because the narrative feels so clumsily put together.
There's also the other elephant in the room; this is trying to replicate the highs of PT like so many other horror games have been trying to do since that demo sent shock-waves nearly 10 years ago (!!) and it just never replicates it. I don't think it's without it's cool moments; going through your childhood home in a loop while your character gets progressively smaller and smaller until she relives a traumatic memory of her mother locking her in the closet is pretty effective despite the scene itself imo and is the closest this comes to really understanding why PT worked so well. Aside from that, this is not really the greatest in terms of it's design! I don't have a huge disdain for the final chase like a lot of other people seem to have (it only took me 3 tries) and I guess it put me on the edge of my seat, but only because I had to kite Sakura-Head (or whatever they end up calling it) around in order to find the very last interactive item and I didn't wanna lose my progress - aside from that it's a pretty bad climax with the monster which is a shame, because the design is fucking incredible and one of my favourites in recent years and I just wish it's final chase wasn't as clunky as it was.
Couple of more bullet points because I'm writing this on the fly:
- I think a lot of people's criticism of the bluntness/lack of subtlety in this isn't necessarily off point, but they seem to have an issue with this being unsubtle in general which is distinctly not the issue here - the issue is that literally everything in the game is blunt and it takes away from each story beat so much - maybe the reveal of Anita bullying Maya would've hit harder if it felt like the game wasn't spelling it out at every turn; I came across the hate-filled note and it's pretty easy to guess the outcome of it, at least imo
- I think the environment design is pretty cool! for all the issues the final chase has, it looks great and the graffiti art is beautifully detailed
- very funny to see the game immediately start off with a note about how COVID-19 stagnated the growth of a town. I don't even have any thoughts on that I just think it's funny as shit
- I think the presentation of the game leaves a bit to be desired with me; don't mind the way that it uses live-action cutscenes with lip syncing that's slightly off because we'll never achieve the same sense of unreality that Silent Hill 2 did with it's FMV's and this is a neat enough substitute, even if the actual scenes themselves aren't directed in any particularly interesting way but I think the way this keeps using 3rd person cutscenes makes this feel a lot more jumbled then it already is. maybe I'm insane, but idk it bugged me
I think that's all my thoughts? I don't know man, I just find this to be more underwhelming then anything. not the worst thing I've ever played but this is still pretty bad!
There's also the other elephant in the room; this is trying to replicate the highs of PT like so many other horror games have been trying to do since that demo sent shock-waves nearly 10 years ago (!!) and it just never replicates it. I don't think it's without it's cool moments; going through your childhood home in a loop while your character gets progressively smaller and smaller until she relives a traumatic memory of her mother locking her in the closet is pretty effective despite the scene itself imo and is the closest this comes to really understanding why PT worked so well. Aside from that, this is not really the greatest in terms of it's design! I don't have a huge disdain for the final chase like a lot of other people seem to have (it only took me 3 tries) and I guess it put me on the edge of my seat, but only because I had to kite Sakura-Head (or whatever they end up calling it) around in order to find the very last interactive item and I didn't wanna lose my progress - aside from that it's a pretty bad climax with the monster which is a shame, because the design is fucking incredible and one of my favourites in recent years and I just wish it's final chase wasn't as clunky as it was.
Couple of more bullet points because I'm writing this on the fly:
- I think a lot of people's criticism of the bluntness/lack of subtlety in this isn't necessarily off point, but they seem to have an issue with this being unsubtle in general which is distinctly not the issue here - the issue is that literally everything in the game is blunt and it takes away from each story beat so much - maybe the reveal of Anita bullying Maya would've hit harder if it felt like the game wasn't spelling it out at every turn; I came across the hate-filled note and it's pretty easy to guess the outcome of it, at least imo
- I think the environment design is pretty cool! for all the issues the final chase has, it looks great and the graffiti art is beautifully detailed
- very funny to see the game immediately start off with a note about how COVID-19 stagnated the growth of a town. I don't even have any thoughts on that I just think it's funny as shit
- I think the presentation of the game leaves a bit to be desired with me; don't mind the way that it uses live-action cutscenes with lip syncing that's slightly off because we'll never achieve the same sense of unreality that Silent Hill 2 did with it's FMV's and this is a neat enough substitute, even if the actual scenes themselves aren't directed in any particularly interesting way but I think the way this keeps using 3rd person cutscenes makes this feel a lot more jumbled then it already is. maybe I'm insane, but idk it bugged me
I think that's all my thoughts? I don't know man, I just find this to be more underwhelming then anything. not the worst thing I've ever played but this is still pretty bad!