This review contains spoilers
everything i absolutely LOVE in a game; beautifully detailed & stylistic ps2 graphics, a strong fem protag, a puppy, actual terror, amazing ost, dark/deep topics handled with care, & not-so-sane villainous women.
some people describe this game in a not-so-kind way, using SA terms to latch onto it in a short blurp. i think the way they told the story telling of something so dark & horrible was really handled quite well, except the game over sounds. those are truly terrifying & uncomfortable. the commentary about being constantly sexualized is not something that players who didn't grow up fem can always immediately identify with, so it hurts to see people call this (pardon this, i saw someone say this & it stuck with me because of how gross it was) "bad touch simulator." when, yes, this game is running from stalker enemies who want you for just your body, i feel as though i could relate to it (on not such an extreme scale). to be a woman is to be often seen as an object, a lustful longing. the game encapsulated that very well. other's call this game "edgy" whereas it is, in my opinion, completely not. i don't think with the way the narrative was written that it would just be created solely for shock factor or gross out content. there's something here that i believe any woman/fem presenting person could relate to. much like sh3 (sorry. i try to not bring it up every 5 minutes but it took me 10 to write this review) you either "get it" & relate to it, or you don't.
sexuality, gender constructs, etc should be considered in more horror games. there's something truly terrifying about how human brains react when exposed to such raw emotions & feelings. i don't feel like many games can showcase stuff like this, whether they're afraid of talking about it (probably why this will never be remade/re-released), or just handled completely horribly; by using disgusting imagery. when imagination & left out details leave your mind to wander & fill in spots.. sometimes making it more impactful than if it was just shown as an image on screen. i love these now 'retro' games where they weren't afraid to tell a story without having to rely on forcing the player to watch gruesome acts of torture, much like many many many horror movies do. i love ps2 horror for that.
that being said.. playing it was very fun, hewie felt like he was actually being trained & responded better & better as the game went on. some puzzles were absolutely obtuse & i needed a guide, but i think if i didn't play this in one sitting (11 hours.. okay i really liked it & wanted to know the story) i could've figured out the puzzles by looking around longer/better.
i absolutely loved the 'comment' section in the menu. i am an absolute WHORE for flavor text in horror games & loved that you could see that throughout the game. i heard in hard mode you can read hewies!! definitely need to do a replay. honestly a con i had was that there was not enough flavor text in some parts. i read all the notes i was given & still wanted more information on some of the characters, especially daniella.
all in all, great game. terrible that it's impossible to play on original hardware. :(
some people describe this game in a not-so-kind way, using SA terms to latch onto it in a short blurp. i think the way they told the story telling of something so dark & horrible was really handled quite well, except the game over sounds. those are truly terrifying & uncomfortable. the commentary about being constantly sexualized is not something that players who didn't grow up fem can always immediately identify with, so it hurts to see people call this (pardon this, i saw someone say this & it stuck with me because of how gross it was) "bad touch simulator." when, yes, this game is running from stalker enemies who want you for just your body, i feel as though i could relate to it (on not such an extreme scale). to be a woman is to be often seen as an object, a lustful longing. the game encapsulated that very well. other's call this game "edgy" whereas it is, in my opinion, completely not. i don't think with the way the narrative was written that it would just be created solely for shock factor or gross out content. there's something here that i believe any woman/fem presenting person could relate to. much like sh3 (sorry. i try to not bring it up every 5 minutes but it took me 10 to write this review) you either "get it" & relate to it, or you don't.
sexuality, gender constructs, etc should be considered in more horror games. there's something truly terrifying about how human brains react when exposed to such raw emotions & feelings. i don't feel like many games can showcase stuff like this, whether they're afraid of talking about it (probably why this will never be remade/re-released), or just handled completely horribly; by using disgusting imagery. when imagination & left out details leave your mind to wander & fill in spots.. sometimes making it more impactful than if it was just shown as an image on screen. i love these now 'retro' games where they weren't afraid to tell a story without having to rely on forcing the player to watch gruesome acts of torture, much like many many many horror movies do. i love ps2 horror for that.
that being said.. playing it was very fun, hewie felt like he was actually being trained & responded better & better as the game went on. some puzzles were absolutely obtuse & i needed a guide, but i think if i didn't play this in one sitting (11 hours.. okay i really liked it & wanted to know the story) i could've figured out the puzzles by looking around longer/better.
i absolutely loved the 'comment' section in the menu. i am an absolute WHORE for flavor text in horror games & loved that you could see that throughout the game. i heard in hard mode you can read hewies!! definitely need to do a replay. honestly a con i had was that there was not enough flavor text in some parts. i read all the notes i was given & still wanted more information on some of the characters, especially daniella.
all in all, great game. terrible that it's impossible to play on original hardware. :(