Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS4) Review

 

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS4) Review

Date Released: May 24, 2018

Date Played: October 21, 2021

I was so excited when Koji Igarashi, the creator of Castlevania Symphony of the Night, was launching a Kickstarter to fund the spiritual successor to that game.  Afterall, he had made one of my favorite (if not actual favorite) games of all time when his masterpiece came out on the PS1.  So, I decided to fund his campaign (something I'd not done before nor since).  More and more money kept flooding in and I watched as they added stretch goal after stretch goal.  As we all know, the game raised an insane amount of money.   I waited patiently for my copy to come in the mail.  When it arrived, I put it into my PS4 and played it right away.  How did I feel about that game?  Well, I'm not going to tell you.  Because this review isn't even for that game!  It's for an 8-bit prequel that was one of the stretch goals from the crowdfunding campaign.  It can't be any good right?  After all, it's just a little extra game that was tossed in with the main event... right?

Wrong.  Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a full on 8-bit marvel that stands toe to toe with the games that inspired it.  It was obviously heavily influenced by Castlevania III on the NES.  So heavily inspired, in fact, that one review I watched said the game was in danger of copyright infringement. While this is a snarky comment meant to draw a laugh, there's some serious truth in those words. It plays almost exactly like Castlevania III, and that's not a bad thing.  Honestly, if this game had been released on the NES, it would be considered one of the best games for the system and would be a classic that everyone waxes nostalgic about whenever the topic arises.  Not only that, it hangs up there with some of the best retro-inspired indie games of the modern era.  

You play as Zangestsu, a samurai who is tracking a great evil to a mysterious castle. He has a short sword attack and several sub weapons you can collect/switch out by attacking floating lanterns.  These sub-weapons use energy that can be replenished by collecting mana bottles (just like Castlevania) As you clear each of the first 3 stages, you can recruit an new ally to help you.  The first is Miriam.  She is more agile, has a longer reach, and can slide on the ground. Next is Alfred, a wizard who is very weak but has strong sub-weapon attacks.  Finally, Gebel is a vampire who has an awkward attack but can turn into a bat and fly.   All of these characters have their strengths and weaknesses and utilizing them correctly is key to your success.  You can switch between the characters at any time (provided they haven't died) and will typically be using them all in every stage. There are many areas and shortcuts that are only accessible by one character, so keeping them all alive is a big focus of the game.  Learning which sub-weapons are best used in each area is very fun and is more thought out and balanced than the Castlevania games, in my opinon.

The difficulty balance of the game is one of its strongest suits.  From the beginning, you have the choice of Normal mode.  After that you can chose from Veteran or Casual difficulties.  Veteran mode acts much like the Castlevania games on the NES.  You have limited lives and can get extends by collecting the rare 1-UP item, or by scoring more points.  Also, getting hit knocks you back... and anyone who has ever played one of the old NES games will tell you that this will be the main thing that gets you killed.  There's nothing quite like taking a single hit from a medusa head that knocks you back into a pit of instant death.  Luckily, the game has a pretty forgiving checkpoint system.  When one character dies, you go back to the previous checkpoint with the remaining 3 characters to give it another shot.   Once they all are dead, you lose a life.  Surprisingly, this still drops you back at the checkpoint instead of the beginning of the level.   Casual mode is much easier and basically eliminates the "Nintendo Hard" mindset of the game.  You have unlimited lives and knockback is removed. This adds some much needed accessibility to people who don't have those die-hard reflexes developed yet... or perhaps lost a bit of their edge from their childhood.  Personally, I liked Veteran mode the best and would recommend it for anyone's first playthrough.  It's a good challenge, but isn't nearly as difficult as the games that inspired this one.  Luckily, the game has a solution to this.

After finishing the game, you'll unlock other modes that can make the game much more difficult, add new stages, change bosses, and force you to take routs different than your previous runs.  Also, there's nothing that says you HAVE to recruit the other characters.  You're more than welcome to just ignore them... or kill them (a surprise is waiting for you if you do).  Running through all the different permutations of ally recruitment unlocks additional endings and even more modes... and is one of the best features of the game.  You can run through all 8 stages in about an hour, so the game was designed to play again and again.  The levels have a good length and exploring all the different routs you can take is a joy.  It makes those additional playthroughs feel less tedious for sure. Also, the boss fights are pretty great.   They are the most memorable and fun parts of the game and I enjoyed each one its own way.  Yes, this even includes the final boss on the highest difficulty without recruiting any allies (which took me about 10 tries).  Trying to beat each of them using the various characters was a blast.  I can't even remember the last time I enjoyed learning boss patterns this much.

Since you're going to be playing through the game several times, the stages better be pretty entertaining.... and for the most part, they are.  You start in a town before catching a train, then travel through a clock tower, take a ride on a rickety ship, before arriving at the castle sewers, and finally working your way to the tip top to face off against Gremory, the final boss.  Of the 8 stages, some feel a lot stronger than others.  The first stage, in particular, has fantastic sprite work and a lot of cool parallax scrolling.  Towards the middle of the game, things tend to blur together and the stage design can get a little repetitive. This never lasts too long and the rest of the level design is more than good enough to make up for it. The game looks fantastic for an 8-bit game.  It's certainly not something that could be put on the NES for real, but it almost seems like it could. There are effects, death animations, and enough sprites on the screen to cause your NES to burst into flames if it tried to run this game, but it does perfectly capture the way playing one of those old games felt. This hits me right in the nostalgia and brings me back to those days of my childhood sitting in front of the TV with my friends and passing the controller back and forth while trying to make just a little more progress.  

These games are known for their music, and Curse of the Moon comes pretty hard and packs a lot of heat in this category.  It's not quite as memorable as some of the Castlevania music from the past, but it's close. There's some catchy melodies and rocking beats that range from baroque to metal.  It's what you would expect to hear and checks all the boxes you could ever want for a game like this.   It would certainly hold its own with the best of the best soundtracks from the chip-tune era.  

Technically, the game ran great.  I saw no flicker or slowdown like you would expect from an 8-bit game.  There were no crashes, patches, frame-drops, or any other technical problems while I played.  I mean... this isn't exactly pushing the system too hard.  Still, there are a lot of ways the development team could have dropped the ball on this one, but they didn't

So, what's my final conclusion?  This is a great game.  If you're a fan of those side-scrolling staples from 30 years ago, this is a must play.  Even if you've never played one of them in your life, this is a great starting point to jump in and give one a try.  The fact that this is a supplemental bonus to a larger game is even more impressive.  I'm so glad that this game got a retail release.  I want to go back and play it again before too long.  And, let me tell you, that's a strong statement considering I just beat the game 8 times in a row over the last 10 days.  I was able to unlock every trophy in the game... and I never got bored doing so.

Final Status: Completed (unlocked everything and finished all modes)

Final Score: 9/10 (Amazing)

Kholat (PS4) Review

 Kholat (PS4) Review

Release Date: March 8, 2016

Date Played: October 11, 2021

Up next on Horror Month 2021 is Kholat. Developed by Polish Developer IMGN.PRO. I added this one to my wish list after I saw Radical Reggie recommend it on a pickups video he did.  It sat on my wishlist for a good long while until it finally went on sale in the UK for $16.49 with free shipping.  I imported it and it sat on the shelf for a couple of years before being randomly selected to play.

You play as an investigator who is following the steps of the 10 Russian hikers that went missing during the Dyatlov Pass Incident in 1959.  It's a true story where their camp was destroyed and they cut their way out of their tent only to be discovered dead in their underwear many yards away.  They had cuts on their bodies and appeared to have the daylights scared out of them.  Many mysteries surround the case and a lot of them are still unanswered to this day.  There are plenty of supernatural and Earthly explanations theorized over the last decades and the story continues to fascinate a lot of people. Just reading the Wikipedia article of this strange event is fascinating and seems like the perfect setting for a horror game. I would consider myself to have a mild interest about the situation and was excited to try the game.  

From the title screen you're welcomed by magnificent music in the form of sparse piano accompanied by swelling strings and wistful female singling. It really evokes a sense of melancholy and uneasiness. It's truly spectacular and couldn't fit the game any better. The rest of the music in the game is also great and is used very well.  It is often playing and is the real star of the show.  On top of this is narration by none other than Sean Bean.  He of course performs wonderfully as do the other voice actors that were used to narrate the game.  

As for the game itself, it's a horror based exploration game.  It's kind of in that walking simulator genre, but is actually based more on an orienteering mechanic.  You're given a map, compass, and several sets of coordinates and are supposed to go investigate the 10 locations the hikers visited before that great tragedy befell them.  You can't see your location on the map and have to orient yourself from the clues you find and your surroundings.  Now, I'm just going to come right out and say it, I absolutely hate navigating around in this game.  I know how to use a map and a compass, but you normally don't have to use those in mountain passes that act more like mazes than open areas.  The vast majority of the time you'll be lost with no way to discover where you are until you randomly stumble onto one of the 10 locations or find a clue that will put a new marker on your map. The new pinpoints on your map are there to serve as markers to help you locate where you actually are, but often times they didn't seem to appear on the map in a location that resembled my surroundings.  For example, there was one clue on the right side of a long road.  When it appeared on the map, the icon was to the left of the road and set back a distance. This made me feel like I was going the wrong direction, so I turned around to retrace my steps.  It was only after 5 or so minuets of going back the way I came before I realized that I needed to turn back around and heat the other way.  These clues not only "help" with locating yourself on the map, but they also help fill in the story and are quite often voice narrated. Like I said, these performances are often really good.  The clues range from spiritual philosophy, supernatural explanations, and journal entries that help flesh out the whole situation. It does help build an atmosphere that is somewhat intriguing.  Adding to that intrigue is the gigantic world of Kholat.  It's snowy, mountainous, and forested. It can be quite beautiful, but it's so full of valleys and jagged peaks that it impedes your view of your surroundings and gives the game a very claustrophobic feel that isn't very welcome.  This works against the game in terms of immersion and the stupid orienteering mechanic.  There are also really short draw distances in the game.  So, even if you go up to a vantage point to try to plan your next move, you can't see anything in the distance.  

There are orange supernatural spirits in various locations on the map, and if you run into one of them you're done for.  You die and go back to the last new clue or location you discovered.  Sometimes this will set you back 30 seconds, other times it can set you back 30 minutes.  Often times, you'll just come around a corner and run smack into one of the orange spirits and have no time to react.  Or, an orange fog will come spilling down the side of the mountain and you have to outrun it.  It's all frustrating and feels cheap. When you die, you're greeted with a load screen that lasts about a minute before you can jump back in.  This makes these accidental deaths all the more irritating and rage inducing. I know these orange spirits (and the other supernatural events in the game) are supposed to add to the scariness, but it never really gets there.  They just feel like more of a hinderance to your progression rather than being the main mechanic of the game itself. I feel like the game should be about you escaping from the monsters that killed those hikers rather than it being about waiting for the monsters to get out of your way so you can go read more journal entries.

Speaking of running, it's mapped to the the R3 button in this game; which is idiotic.  Not only that, you have to continually hold it down to keep running.  This is such a terrible gameplay flaw that I can't overstate it.  After about 20 seconds of this, you'll have a hand cramp.  Hell, an hour after I stopped playing (as I'm currently writing this review) my hand is STILL sore from it.  This HUGE oversite is made even more grievous by the fact that there are unused L1 and R1 buttons on the controller.  Why couldn't the developers map it to one of the unused buttons, or at least give us a chance to rebind what the buttons do in the game? I know this doesn't seem like such a big deal, but trust me, when you play this game it's all you can think about.   You want to run so badly because you walk so slowly and everything is so damn boring that you just need to get a move on.  This button mapping gets directly in the way of you eking out what little enjoyment there is to be had in this game.

On the technical side, the sound design and score are outstanding (as mentioned earlier).  The graphics aren't great and have an early Xbox 360 feel to them.  I also encountered a fair amount of framerate drops that really took me out of the game.  These would often occur when you were near one of the 10 locations you're trying to discover.  These are usually accompanied by some sort of set piece to ratchet up the tension.  Unfortunately, when this happens and the framerate drops it basically gives you a heads up that something big is happening and spoils the surprise.  You can tell that the developers are pretty new to the game.  It's not uncommon for your first game to be a little rough around the edges, and this one certainly fits that description.  But, I can't fathom why they thought the orienteering mechanic would be something people would enjoy doing.  Walking simulators have a bad enough reputation as it is.  I'm guessing they didn't know how to tell the story they wanted to and relied on the walking simulator format as a vehicle to make it into a game.  Then, they added the navigation aspect to try to add some more "gameplay" to spice up the experience.  Sadly, this backfired, in my opinion and it ended up being a hindrance rather than a strength.

My final thoughts on the game are obviously very negative.  Other than the music and sound design I didn't enjoy this game at all.  The orienteering game mechanic isn't fun and makes playing the game a chore.  Piled on top of that is the fact that it's literally painful in your hand to run in this game.  It just makes the time you spent wondering aimlessly around the map all that more frustrating.  The setting is really cool, but they don't do enough with the awesome material they've selected and instead just focus on random bits of lore to add to the generally creepy vibe rather than construct a real story.  As I've mentioned before, I have a gaming sin called, "Esoteric Bullshit" where you have to wander around trying to figure out what you're supposed to do.  It's probably my biggest pet peeve in gaming and Kholat is a game built around that pet peeve.  You're always lost and can't even find your location most of the time and it just makes your time in their world feel like there's no urgency or direction.  I hated it.  I know the game got mixed reviews (mostly leaning negative), but I never though it would be this bad.  

I couldn't bring myself to finish the game and after 3 or so hours...  and with an aching hand I threw in the towel and decided to move onto something more worth my time. 

Final Status: Played for several hours... and quit.

Final Score: 3/10 (Bad)

The Inpatient (PSVR) Review

 The Inpatient (PSVR) Review

Date Released: January 23, 2018

Date Played: October 10th, 2021

Continuing on with Horror Month 2021, we've come the "In Patient," a VR horror game from the developer Supergiant Games.  They are most known for the PS4 cult classic Until Dawn. Personally, I am a huge fan of Until Dawn and loved it when I played it for Horror Month 2016.  Then, last year, I played the spinoff game Until Dawn: Rush of Blood which was a horror based rail shooter/carnival shooter set in the Until Dawn world.  And let me tell you, that game was great as well.  So, I was excited to try The Inpatient.  It was another game set in the same universe and was supposed to be a sort of prequel to the first game in the series. I grabbed it very cheaply not long after it came out and put it on this shelf with the rest of the collection until it was randomly selected for me to play.  So, were my expectations met? I won't beat around the bush.  The Inpatient is terrible and barely constitutes being a game at all. 

You play as some character locked up in the Blackwood Sanitarium who is suffering from amnesia.  The game takes place in the 1950s and fills in the story of the origin of the monsters in Until Dawn.  As you learn in the first game, (spoilers ahead!) some miners got trapped in a cave in and had to resort to cannibalism to survive.  This caused them to become cursed.  When they are rescued, they are all committed to the Blackwood Sanitarium to recover. Eventually, the curse takes over and they all become monsters and kill everyone in the sanitarium and continue to hunt on the mountain that serves as the setting for Until Dawn. You basically act as a passive witness to all the events going on with the monsters taking over the sanitarium.  Although, most of these events are just sounds in the distance and not very much is really shown.  

Gameplay really only consists of attempting to walk around with the game's terrible controls while people talk about what's going on and why everyone is dying.  Most of your time is spent in your room talking to your cell mate or following people around as they move through the enormous environments.  There's little to no gameplay other than finding and collecting memory fragments that spark flashbacks of how you came to be in the facility.  If I had to describe the style of the game, I would say it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.  Often you will be presented with different dialog choices that can affect the outcome of the game.  There are several endings and a generic cast of characters that can be saved/killed through your actions.  It rehashes the Butterfly Effect mechanic from the first game and builds up how important your choices are.  But, since the experience is so miserable, mustering up the energy to care about these choices is the hardest task you'll have to perform while playing this game. Even though the whole game is only about 2 hours long, it overstays its welcome and was a total chore to finish.  I guess you're supposed to play through the game several times to try to pick all the different paths and save/kill everyone... but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  The last 30% of the game is just following people around while they open and close doors on the way to the other side of the sanitarium.  It's extremely boring, and knowing that there's really no danger kills all sense of tension and fear in the game. Also, since I played the first game, I basically knew what was going to happen.  It's slightly creepy, but other than the occasional cheap jump scare it's not scary at all.  Most of these jump scares you can see coming from a mile away, so even that aspect was a let down.

Whatever choices I made led me to becoming cursed myself and I had to abandon my plans to escape to help other people off the mountain.  It was very anticlimactic.  There's a post credit scene the reveals that you become the monster that set the events of Until Dawn into motion 60 years later.  I guess that's a little interesting, but not enough to save this game from all of its other flaws.

The character models in the game don't look great and have a strong uncanny valley look to them.  On top of that, the voice actors aren't very strong... of course, they're really weren't given much to work with. I feel like the developers want you to have some sort of emotional attachment to these characters so you care about them enough to try to save them, but they are so hollow and their dialog is so superficial and brief that everyone ends up feeling like an extra in a low budget movie.  Half of the characters you encounter only have a handful of dialog at most and most of that boils down to cliched lines like, "Did you hear that!?" or, "What to you think happened here?!?" Just listening to these NPCs prattle back and forth is exhausting. On a positive note, the setting of the sanitarium can be really nice sometimes.  This is especially true when you enter large open areas, point your flashlight up towards the ceiling, and really get to take in your surroundings and feel the massiveness of the sanitarium.  Unfortunately, all you ever do is just walk through them at a very leisurely pace. It's the most immersive aspect of the game and should have been explore more by the developers.  As for the technical aspects, I didn't have any crashes or other issues other than some slight motion sickness at the beginning of the game (during a segment while you're being pushed in the wheelchair).

Honestly, this game is quite bad and is more of an interactive experience rather than a game.  The story is bland and executed poorly, the game controls are abysmal, and most of the time with the game is just passive where you stand around and watch characters have dialog. The whole package feels like a total cash grab from Supergiant Games and I'm disappointed in their choice to release this game.  I wonder if they were contractually obligated to make a handful of VR games and they pretty much just shoved this one out into the shovelware bin.  With all of the heart, great writing, and energy put into the two other games I've played that they developed, there must be some sort of outside event that caused this trainwreck of a game to be released. 

I bought this game not long after it came out and I paid $8.15 for it... In my opinion, that's too much money... and coming from someone who has paid stupid premiums for terrible games that are "rare," that's a bold statement.  In the end, I can't recommend this game to anyone.  It's a terrible game and not even a good VR experience.  Stay away from this one.

Final Status: Beaten

Final Score: 3/10 (Terrible)

Yomawari: Night Alone (Switch) Review:

 Yomawari: Night Alone (Switch) Review:

Date Released: October 26, 2018 (Switch Rerelease)

Date Played: October 7th, 2021

This game was originally released for the Playstation Vita back in October of 2016.  I remember hearing the game was pretty well received by both the critics and the general public so it was quickly put on my radar... but wasn't exactly the highest priority.  After all, I'm not the biggest fan of handheld gaming and wasn't really into collecting too hard for the Vita.  When they sequel to this game was released with a PS4 port, I knew I wanted to play it; but of course, I had to play the original first.  Unfortunately, I just never came across it and let it slowly move down my priority list.  After a couple of years, I was super excited to learn the game was being re-released on the Nintendo Switch with both games on the same cartridge.  I'm in!  Sign me up.  I ordered a copy from Amazon.   I patiently awaited the day for it to arrive.  When it got here, I was dismayed to learn that the package had been crushed and the game case was destroyed.   So, I returned it and requested another.  Unfortunately, Amazon had already sold through their stock and could only issue a refund.   I checked online and everywhere was sold out.   So, I waited, and waited, and waited... until the game was going for over $130.  That's totally insane.  The only other time I've ever seen a game go into the 3-digit mark after only a year was Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii.  So lame.  

It didn't look like Nippon Ichi Software was going to do another print of the game either.  I was about ready to just pony up the cash and grab it when I found a copy on Ebay that was missing the manual.   I was able to snag it for $85 (shipping and tax brought it up to $96.65).  I wasn't happy... but at least I had it.

So for the 2021 annual horror month, this game was selected and I was ready to find out if my investment was worth it.  I popped in the game and dove right in.  Honestly, it didn't take me very long to develop a first impression.  The game is very simple in terms of both story and gameplay, but has a unique aesthetic that I feel helps it stand out.   Now, I know you're asking yourself, "So, was the game worth the $100 you spent?"  Truthfully, no.  Not in terms of the experience I had while playing through the game.  Perhaps it will be worth it in terms of a monetary investment, but that's not something I typically think about too much.   Let me just say that I hope the sequel to the game that is also on the cartridge helps with the buyer's remorse.   

You play as a very young girl who is 4-7 years old.  After a surprise tragedy at the beginning of the game (and the most shocking part of the game, by the way) your sister heads out into the town to help.  It isn't long until your sister becomes lost and it's totally up to you to find her.  The art style is presented in a very cutesy children's book way that is very endearing and makes the game stand out from the pack.  You view everything from an isometric angle that only serves to add to the already unique visuals.  The game itself is actually survival horror... surprisingly.  You wander around a traditional Japanese town while searching various locales.  You'll visit the school, Shinto shrines, lots of both the vacant and parking variety, a factory, the forest, an incinerator, street after street of housing, and many more places you might expect to see.  It feels like it's a real town and is the real star of the game.  As you explore, there are copious amounts of Japanese spirits that impede your way. These can be crying girls (a la The Ring), black spirits, huge tentacle monsters, ghost dogs, corpses hanging from a noose, and a plethora of other grotesque and thought provoking horrors.  As you get closer to these spirits, your character's heartbeat will increase and your only recourse is to sneak by or run.  That's right, there's no combat in this game.  Sneak, run, or hide.  Those are your only options. Luckily, you are equipped with a flashlight that will reveal the location of the marauding spirits when you shine the light on them.  This does help the gameplay and adds a bit of strategy (this is especially true for the enemies that are attracted to light) but it leaves the whole experience feeling more like a stealth game than survival horror.  There are way too many enemies scattered all over the map and you're in a constant state of anxiety.  Many times these spirits polka dot the area and you have to find the best rout between them.  You have a stamina gauge that allows you to run for a short distance before it depletes, but if you're in the vicinity of a spirit, it depletes almost instantly.  With the overabundance of the spirits roaming around, managing this gauge becomes the real focus of gameplay.  When an enemy catches you, death is instant.  The fully black screen splattered with blood lingers for a few seconds and then drops you back at your last checkpoint. You'll be seeing the screen often... quite often.  Death is inevitable. Even though there are a lot of checkpoints and dying never sets you too far back, a lot of the sneaking sections are very frustrating with their tight tolerances for sneaking by, running, or finding a hiding spot.  This forces a lot of sections of the game to be an exercise in trial and error.  On more than a couple of occasions I became highly irritated to the point of yelling out swearwords and wanting to slam down my controller.  For a game that's only 5 hours long, that's too often. 

There is a little bit of resource management like you would expect in this style of game.  You collect stones, candles, fish, coins, matches, and a few other trinkets that can be used.  Unfortunately, most of these are extremely limited in their usefulness and are only used a couple of times during the entire game.  The game could have used some more items to play around with to add some variety to the whole situation.  Scattered around the town are little shrines called Jizo statues.  If you offer a coin to one of them, it will act as a quick save spot and also a teleport location to fast travel around the town. Obviously, these are invaluable and are a key focus of the game. Many sighs of relief were made when I saw one of these appear on my screen. The other key items of the game are basically just keys and other items that allow you to access areas previously closed off to you.  Unlike most survival horror games, you don't really solve any puzzles to get these key items.  Most are just lying on the ground or tucked away in some corner.  Exploration is the name of the game of Yomawari. You find a locked gate, explore the area a little, find a key, unlock the gate, and then move on. There are a few minor puzzles that involve pulling a switch to empty a pool and another where you have to jump between two realities to avoid enemies, but other than those the only real puzzle elements are puzzling out how to sneak past enemies. 

As mentioned before, the presentation of the game is quite good.  There is very little music in the game and I honestly only remember hearing any music during the final credits.  This gives the game a very isolated feel and certainly helps it live up to it's name, "A Night Alone."  The sound design is very good and there are certainly a good amount of loud and shocking sounds to give you a little jolt. I encountered no bugs or issues while playing and the play control was spot on.  The little girl walks pretty slowly, but I think that actually helps the game more than it hinders it.  After all, do you want a 5 year old that can outrun every spirit that's after her?  That doesn't sound very scary.

There you have it.  Yomawari is a brief survival horror-lite game with a cute and appealing aesthetic. The story is rooted in a very interesting Shinto/Japanese folklore setting that helps it stand out from the crowd and keeps things fresh.  The gameplay is very basic and never really improved or changed during my time with the game.  I really liked exploring the city, but the overabundance of enemies never really made me feel like I was free to just enjoy my surroundings and soak in the world the developers created.  Maybe if you were able to eliminate enemies instead of just avoiding them, then I would have enjoyed my time with the game a little more. The game isn't really scary, but it's almost always tense and a bit unsettling. I'm looking forward to playing the sequel.  Hopefully, they decide to add a little bit more nuance to the gameplay.

 Also, the ending.  Boy, was that... eye popping.  

Final Status: Beaten

Final Score: 7/10 (Good)