An overstuffed, tonally disjointed attempt by Shinji Mikami to recreate the magic of early Resident Evil, with a dash of Silent Hill thrown in for good measure. I'm naturally inclined to enjoy this kind of survival horror, but this game left me cold, for a number of reasons.
My principal issue here is the storytelling, which has problems on a number of fronts. Most obviously, large parts of the beginning and middle of this game feel completely extraneous. Almost nothing happens that is of any consequence to the overarching plot in Chapters 2 through 8, so I felt adrift for most of that section of the game. This also happens to be the part of the game that feels most like it is half-heartedly checking off lists of well-worn survival horror cliches - mental hospitals, graveyards, sewers, catacombs (most of which feel like unused sets from a Saw movie). It's unfortunate, because once the plot starts to pick up around Chapter 9 (a miniaturized reconstruction of the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil that contains some of the game's creepiest imagery), I became a lot more engaged. Overall, I think elements of this story are rather cool, but I have no idea why the game needed 15-20 hours to unfold its relatively straightforward plot.
The other thing that holds back the narrative is the abject lack of character development. The player character, Sebastian, is a complete blank slate who seems to be reacting to things that happened five chapters ago every time he speaks. There is a very underdeveloped attempt to give him some backstory through journal entries, but unfortunately these never really tie in to the main story. His partners aren't much better. We have Joseph, whose main characteristic appears to be that he values his glasses more than his partner's life. Then there's Kidman, whose actions are totally nonsensical unless you play the DLC. Our antagonist, Ruvik, ends up as the only character to get fully developed, and he's just a one-dimensional mustache-twirler who views everyone around him as fodder for twisted science experiments.
The game is also a mixed bag gameplay-wise. In what I can only assume was an attempt to re-create the sense of tension generated by the tank control, fixed camera angle style of the early Resident Evil games, the camera here is pushed way in over Sebastian's shoulder, and letterboxing is added to further limit the player's viewpoint. Conceptually, I appreciate the attempt to creatively utilize the game's visual style to build a sense of tension, but too often it leads to situations that feel cheap. There's never any effective way to tell if you've been spotted when you're sneaking, and there were a number of times when the first inkling I had that my character was in danger was a chainsaw or hammer killing him in one shot (instant death BS abounds throughout the game).
On the other end of the spectrum, I really enjoyed the resource management aspects of the game. The amount of ammo and other resources spread throughout the levels feels extremely well-balanced - I was always short enough for there to be tension, but I never completely ran out so that I couldn't progress. The shooting, particularly with the heavy weapons, feels appropriately satisfying.
The monsters are hit or miss for me (too many generic zombies and writhing masses that just read as blobs of goop from a distance), but a few of the goofier designs really work (see: the Safehead guys). It's unfortunate that the singular quality of some of the best monster encounters is diluted by repetition - the unnecessary repeat boss encounters contributed to my feeling that some of the early chapters should have been left on the cutting room floor.
I was ready to say I hated this a few chapters in, but the improvement in the second half of the game left me with some positive vibes. Still, there are too many failed experiments (ha) and misguided design choices for me to view this as much more than a mixed accomplishment.
My principal issue here is the storytelling, which has problems on a number of fronts. Most obviously, large parts of the beginning and middle of this game feel completely extraneous. Almost nothing happens that is of any consequence to the overarching plot in Chapters 2 through 8, so I felt adrift for most of that section of the game. This also happens to be the part of the game that feels most like it is half-heartedly checking off lists of well-worn survival horror cliches - mental hospitals, graveyards, sewers, catacombs (most of which feel like unused sets from a Saw movie). It's unfortunate, because once the plot starts to pick up around Chapter 9 (a miniaturized reconstruction of the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil that contains some of the game's creepiest imagery), I became a lot more engaged. Overall, I think elements of this story are rather cool, but I have no idea why the game needed 15-20 hours to unfold its relatively straightforward plot.
The other thing that holds back the narrative is the abject lack of character development. The player character, Sebastian, is a complete blank slate who seems to be reacting to things that happened five chapters ago every time he speaks. There is a very underdeveloped attempt to give him some backstory through journal entries, but unfortunately these never really tie in to the main story. His partners aren't much better. We have Joseph, whose main characteristic appears to be that he values his glasses more than his partner's life. Then there's Kidman, whose actions are totally nonsensical unless you play the DLC. Our antagonist, Ruvik, ends up as the only character to get fully developed, and he's just a one-dimensional mustache-twirler who views everyone around him as fodder for twisted science experiments.
The game is also a mixed bag gameplay-wise. In what I can only assume was an attempt to re-create the sense of tension generated by the tank control, fixed camera angle style of the early Resident Evil games, the camera here is pushed way in over Sebastian's shoulder, and letterboxing is added to further limit the player's viewpoint. Conceptually, I appreciate the attempt to creatively utilize the game's visual style to build a sense of tension, but too often it leads to situations that feel cheap. There's never any effective way to tell if you've been spotted when you're sneaking, and there were a number of times when the first inkling I had that my character was in danger was a chainsaw or hammer killing him in one shot (instant death BS abounds throughout the game).
On the other end of the spectrum, I really enjoyed the resource management aspects of the game. The amount of ammo and other resources spread throughout the levels feels extremely well-balanced - I was always short enough for there to be tension, but I never completely ran out so that I couldn't progress. The shooting, particularly with the heavy weapons, feels appropriately satisfying.
The monsters are hit or miss for me (too many generic zombies and writhing masses that just read as blobs of goop from a distance), but a few of the goofier designs really work (see: the Safehead guys). It's unfortunate that the singular quality of some of the best monster encounters is diluted by repetition - the unnecessary repeat boss encounters contributed to my feeling that some of the early chapters should have been left on the cutting room floor.
I was ready to say I hated this a few chapters in, but the improvement in the second half of the game left me with some positive vibes. Still, there are too many failed experiments (ha) and misguided design choices for me to view this as much more than a mixed accomplishment.