Now this is how you do a horror game. Perfect atmosphere. The story unveils itself with the care that a blossoming rose does. Which is to say it's a beauty to experience. The first person combat added a breath of fresh air to what by this point was an oversaturated 3rd person walking simulator genre. All wannabe Resident Evils. Not Condemned, nay, this game was one of a kind. Every combat situation genuinely feels scary as your low on supplies fighting off druggies, demons, and ghosts with literal crowbars, mannequin limbs, and limited ammunition shotguns. I must add how satisfying it is to knock an enemy out with a mighty swing. This game has that next gen weight to it :) Even the puzzles in this game were fun to complete. Honestly, this was my game of the summer for 2023. I had a blast playing this. If only the sequel could've been as good.

The actual plot is a light touch to be sure, but taken as little more than a series of spooky segments connected only loosely by a thin narrative framing, it's one of the more effective horror games I've played, even if it does eventually kneecap its own sense of horrific grounding by taking a hard left turn at the traffic lights into Bonkersville. Feels like I'm playing a horror game, not watching an interactive horror movie, and given its age and the frankly terrible state of the genre both before and since, I'd call it a resounding success.