As a fan of the prior game, this game is a good follow-up to its success; however, I am disappointed with how this game is a less challenging and cohesive experience. Before I continue with my piece, I do value the creative labor and effort put forward and can be recommended for fans. The binaural audio, tribal combat music, cinematic direction and overall tone gives me goosebumps. So it pains to levy criticisms given the context.
Starting off, the other characters feel underutilized and underdeveloped given it is a focus. Perhaps a lack of time or content prevented characters to form stronger relationships and moments to endear them to the player. Rather, the side characters are essentially entourage and barely have personal or group conflicts if the story decided to follow through on what little it had. For example, about the protagonist opening up to another character or hiding a traumatic fear seems to have been dropped or resolved off screen. What gets me is the story insists they are followers but vanish when combat occurs. It is cool though how the combat transitions show them working together but I do not think that substitutes for character writing. It does use character parallels to create unspoken empathy and connection, but having the voices mention this subtlety ruins what could be nuance and subtext in writing. I just wish it was possible to optionally talk or interact with these characters, otherwise I am not sold beyond their role in the story. Looking back, I miss Druth's performance in the prior game even more.
The story experience is a mixed bag. First off, the pacing feels slow specially with the various walk and talk segments where a auto-walk feature would be sorely appreciated. Find the symbol barriers still do not make sense or feel good to complete although the first one does make sense as it invokes past trauma.The mirror puzzles are a bit better for variety although only a little. Each chapter set piece feels devoid of challenge or impact leading to long periods of boredom before anything exciting occurs. Lastly, the ending can be subversive but I feel it does not make sense or built properly. My favorite moments are the first two chapter set pieces and the rest left me wanting.
Comparing with the prior game, it has a far stronger and complete albeit flawed experience. Some problems with it are its unnecessary permadeath and combat system which is not suited for multiple enemies. This game does not have permadeath thankfully and opts to fighting multiple enemies one at a time through tense though nonsensical transitions. About permadeath, I am not against it but I feel it may invoke undue trauma or stress if handled improperly given the mental health consideration; however, it did make every fight, chase, stealth and balancing matter somewhat. So its removal without any compensation hurts the tension and tone. This also applies to the combat where the fights are not demanding even on hard mode with dodge canceling. I am way happier without managing multiple enemies in this system, but the combat feels stale without some innovation to it. I somewhat lament how it also diminishes the combat role of the voices in indicating enemies from behind. Both games do share persisting issues such as the walk speed discouraging exploration and a lack of field-of-view accessibility option. To that effect, I would rather play the prior game over this one for a better experience despite the padding and lulls.
I still like it but I was expecting more I guess.
Starting off, the other characters feel underutilized and underdeveloped given it is a focus. Perhaps a lack of time or content prevented characters to form stronger relationships and moments to endear them to the player. Rather, the side characters are essentially entourage and barely have personal or group conflicts if the story decided to follow through on what little it had. For example, about the protagonist opening up to another character or hiding a traumatic fear seems to have been dropped or resolved off screen. What gets me is the story insists they are followers but vanish when combat occurs. It is cool though how the combat transitions show them working together but I do not think that substitutes for character writing. It does use character parallels to create unspoken empathy and connection, but having the voices mention this subtlety ruins what could be nuance and subtext in writing. I just wish it was possible to optionally talk or interact with these characters, otherwise I am not sold beyond their role in the story. Looking back, I miss Druth's performance in the prior game even more.
The story experience is a mixed bag. First off, the pacing feels slow specially with the various walk and talk segments where a auto-walk feature would be sorely appreciated. Find the symbol barriers still do not make sense or feel good to complete although the first one does make sense as it invokes past trauma.The mirror puzzles are a bit better for variety although only a little. Each chapter set piece feels devoid of challenge or impact leading to long periods of boredom before anything exciting occurs. Lastly, the ending can be subversive but I feel it does not make sense or built properly. My favorite moments are the first two chapter set pieces and the rest left me wanting.
Comparing with the prior game, it has a far stronger and complete albeit flawed experience. Some problems with it are its unnecessary permadeath and combat system which is not suited for multiple enemies. This game does not have permadeath thankfully and opts to fighting multiple enemies one at a time through tense though nonsensical transitions. About permadeath, I am not against it but I feel it may invoke undue trauma or stress if handled improperly given the mental health consideration; however, it did make every fight, chase, stealth and balancing matter somewhat. So its removal without any compensation hurts the tension and tone. This also applies to the combat where the fights are not demanding even on hard mode with dodge canceling. I am way happier without managing multiple enemies in this system, but the combat feels stale without some innovation to it. I somewhat lament how it also diminishes the combat role of the voices in indicating enemies from behind. Both games do share persisting issues such as the walk speed discouraging exploration and a lack of field-of-view accessibility option. To that effect, I would rather play the prior game over this one for a better experience despite the padding and lulls.
I still like it but I was expecting more I guess.