I won't pretend this game has no issues like some people do happily, but I fully intend on ignoring them when it comes to recommending this game because it's a free 7-8 hours fully fledged game with extra game modes and co-op. Cry of Fear is a game that comes the closest any game has ever come to emulating Silent Hill's vibes since the last "good-ish" release from that franchise, that being Silent Hill 4 back in 2004. This standalone FREE game, which started off as a mod, accomplishes that feat while bringing plenty of its own, wholly unique, identity, charm, and vibes. Its story brings up topics that few other games would dare touch and then handles them with due diligence. The gameplay has many interesting elements, from interactive melee combat to the inventory system, not to mention all the great locations you visit throughout the experience. The final sequence, in particular, has two very cool variations, depending on the two only choices you can make in the game. There's just so much thought and passion behind the smallest of things in this game. From enemies you encounter to details in the healing animation, it's really solid stuff that major triple AAA studios struggle to achieve with their roomfuls of writers and truckloads of budget (An especial 'fuck you' to the hacks at Blobber Team). That being said, some of the gameplay decisions, like sending you on a backtracking goose chase without a map, certain enemy placements, ALL of the terrible first-person parkour you need to do, difficulty spikes up the ass, certain sections being just a mistake (anything related to swimming: why?). It's just not perfect, but I think that's understandable when like 3 or 4 people made the majority of the game.

I REALLY want to score this game higher because the story and themes are amazing and the gameplay was okay for the most part. But the last biome is unironically one of the worst things I have ever seen in gaming as a whole and it's design and philosophy go directly against what the devs accomplished in earlier portions of the game. I beat the entire game, collected all pieces for the secret ending, saw the last home scene and on my way to the last boss I got grazed by a fucking shockwave attack going though the floor. I didn't even die, but I still took out the disk and decided I'm done with the game. I was tired of asking myself why do I only ever take damage when the visibility is dogshit or something teleports behind me or a shockwave comes from behind a wall, or when I'm in the air with limited movement options. I feel like when you take Retunal under the microscope you start seeing this everywhere. Why are there attacks that penetrate walls and floors below you, which results in truly unavoidable hits? Why design all these awesome risk/reward mechanics when the optimal strategy in EVERY SINGLE RUN is to never engage with them? Why do 75% of the weapons just straight-up suck? Why are there so many artifacts that do next to nothing or are just worse versions of other artifacts in the game? Why did the devs pick one of the most gameplay-heavy genres if their primary objective was to tell a story? If Returnal was not a roguelike and just a story-driven experience I would gladly give it an 8 or a 9. But it is a roguelike and I have to compare it to other roguelikes, and they all fucking sweep it with no effort.