I was genuinely, really excited to play this game, especially after beating SH2, but god fuck is the first half of this game just unbearable. It feels like that they overcorrected in making the gameplay less easy by just making every single encounter annoying. For one, they're all damage sponges, which isn't bad at all, but worse considering that they put in atleast 3 to 4 at a time in one room, and most of the time they are just faster than you. The first half of this game aswell is also just really really linear, with next to no puzzle solving at all, unless you wanna count different shades of finding keys to open doors so you can find more keys to open more doors puzzle solving. I don't hate the fact that the gameplay is more focused on survival horror, but almost all your weapons suck and you're just forced to not engage with this games combat and run around everything, which isn't a problem that's fine, every survival horror is like that, but it's the fact that there is always so many enemies in every single room, and they're all usually very claustrophobic hallways, and the enemies are faster than you and will stunlock you.
What sucks the most, is the fact the last half of the game is basically near perfect. Albeit, it just reuses the hospital from SH2, and remade the theme park from SH1, but that's not bad at all really, especially with the fact the remade theme park is fantastic. The combat/gameplay just becomes better, there's a lot more puzzle solving which, albeit, isn't as fun as it was in 2 or 1 but is still really enjoyable.
The otherworld in this game looks fantastic and I was always glad to see more of it in this game since there was a lack of it in SH2. This game has genuinely frightening moments and scared me a couple times.
The story is also really good, continuing off the ending of SH1, with some really great character writing, Heather I honestly think is the best SH protagonist.
If the entire game was basically just like the last half of it but extended, this would be my favorite, but god is the first half just unbearable.
What sucks the most, is the fact the last half of the game is basically near perfect. Albeit, it just reuses the hospital from SH2, and remade the theme park from SH1, but that's not bad at all really, especially with the fact the remade theme park is fantastic. The combat/gameplay just becomes better, there's a lot more puzzle solving which, albeit, isn't as fun as it was in 2 or 1 but is still really enjoyable.
The otherworld in this game looks fantastic and I was always glad to see more of it in this game since there was a lack of it in SH2. This game has genuinely frightening moments and scared me a couple times.
The story is also really good, continuing off the ending of SH1, with some really great character writing, Heather I honestly think is the best SH protagonist.
If the entire game was basically just like the last half of it but extended, this would be my favorite, but god is the first half just unbearable.