This review contains spoilers
What would be a forgettable CYOA/interactive movie is elevated by nice graphics, good interpersonal drama, solid acting, and some actually scary moments. This is a big step up from Night Trap-era cheese. It must have been expensive to hire an ensemble cast of talented actors, but it pays off.
The facial mocapping is also really good, which is crucial for communicating the drama to the player (I actually thought this was an FMV game before I started playing it, but no, it's all mocap and CG. Very impressive.) There's also the mysterious Analyst sequences between every chapter, with a creepy psychologist played by veteran character actor Peter Stormare.
The writers have a good ear for dialogue, and the characters really do sound like bunch of teenage dipshits.
Prediction: it's totally Josh. He's been planning this for a year to get revenge on everyone who got his sisters killed.
...
…and I was right! Although Josh is not the real threat. Once Josh reveals his psycho killer prank, the game shifts tone and turns into a monster movie. I didn’t like it at first, but I admit it’s kinda cool how they squeeze in several subgenres of horror into a single experience.
So the game is pretty linear overall, but there are some choices that reverberate, and they do a good job of maintaining continuity no matter what the player does. Many of the choices and QTEs just don’t matter though. For example, Mike’s finger/machete dilemma with the beartrap is just completely superfluous, because Mike will survive to the last chapter no matter what.
The characters and the cast were pretty great, except Emily and Matt. Emily is just a super bitch with no redeeming qualities, and Matt has no personality and is totally miscast. He wears his letter jacket and Emily keeps calling him a meathead, but the actor is the scrawniest, most soft-spoken, baby-faced dude in the entire game.
The facial mocapping is also really good, which is crucial for communicating the drama to the player (I actually thought this was an FMV game before I started playing it, but no, it's all mocap and CG. Very impressive.) There's also the mysterious Analyst sequences between every chapter, with a creepy psychologist played by veteran character actor Peter Stormare.
The writers have a good ear for dialogue, and the characters really do sound like bunch of teenage dipshits.
Prediction: it's totally Josh. He's been planning this for a year to get revenge on everyone who got his sisters killed.
...
…and I was right! Although Josh is not the real threat. Once Josh reveals his psycho killer prank, the game shifts tone and turns into a monster movie. I didn’t like it at first, but I admit it’s kinda cool how they squeeze in several subgenres of horror into a single experience.
So the game is pretty linear overall, but there are some choices that reverberate, and they do a good job of maintaining continuity no matter what the player does. Many of the choices and QTEs just don’t matter though. For example, Mike’s finger/machete dilemma with the beartrap is just completely superfluous, because Mike will survive to the last chapter no matter what.
The characters and the cast were pretty great, except Emily and Matt. Emily is just a super bitch with no redeeming qualities, and Matt has no personality and is totally miscast. He wears his letter jacket and Emily keeps calling him a meathead, but the actor is the scrawniest, most soft-spoken, baby-faced dude in the entire game.