nlegianniscurry
1 review liked by nlegianniscurry
Credit where credit is due: this is MILES better than Man of Medan in pretty much every conceivable way. That said, if you're unfamiliar with the first entry on the Dark Picture Anthology, be forewarned: being better than MoM is an easy feat!
Regardless of any comparative praises, which as I said before are practically null considering the circumstances, I will say that the mystery of the apparent reincarnations, the monster designs, and at least the overall idea that the game wants to put out there is good. It's just a very underwhelming execution that ultimately dooms it all.
One of the first big things is the monotone pacing and sequence of events. The chapters can be described with a simple flowchart consisting of: PCs enter a place -> they gotta get outta there! -> they get outta there -> repeat. Sometimes they escape from a VERY slow monster in between, but most follow that structure. Even if you can look past that, it becomes impossible to ignore how badly distributed the screentime of the scenarios is. Andrew has 11 playable scenarios while most of the other characters have around 5, which makes Andrew make up most of the gameplay. Angela straight up vanishes for a shitton of chapters just to make a cheap kill, even if you don't have the means to actually undergo that event!!! what!!!
Locked traits, a mechanic introduced in Little Hope and dropped from further entries immediately after is a terrible mechanic. It ties thematically with the game, of course, but whose ideas was it to put such a mechanic in a game with such a binary philosophy? What's the point of locked traits if and endgame decision can override them entirely, making the whole mechanic a "if you choose wrong, die" instead of something that actually leads towards a horrible fate? It makes no sense and makes the final fate feel underdeveloped and confusing.
Story spoilers for the ending below because Backloggd has no way to spoiler tag without compromising the whole review
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing kills a good mystery than a bad reveal, which if you know anything about this game it's common consensus that it doesn't stick the landing, and I can now confirm that it really doesn't. Not that the twist is insultingly bad, even if it's just "lol nothing was real actually" again (at least it has more to it this time), but how it's so much less interesting than what was building up to it. It's an attempt at a Silent Hill plot written by people who endlessly lurk the "appearance and symbolism" section of the Silent Hill wiki, without realizing that a lot of the strength from Silent Hill's stories doesn't come from what is real and what's not, but what is on the gap between reality and delusion. If James looked at the camera and said "this is what Pyramid Head REALLY means, also he's not real!", what's the point? There's a review on this game that calls the ending something along the lines of "ending explained material" and it couldn't be more true. The twist makes the witch plot feel weightless, and when the crux of your mystery has no weight, the truck slam (because he was the bus driver...) that should be the final twist becomes a limp slap to the face.
Even ignoring the twist, everything regarding the family from the prologue feels underbaked. I assume the whole idea behind the game is that Andrew blames himself or Megan for the fire. Maybe both. But it's no one's fault because it was accident, but you have to condemn the reverend to reach that conclusion. He's a devil worshipper! Also the devil was on the prologue too, I guess? And he wanted to get Megan on the satanism? Or it's a CSA metaphor, but probably not?! Why was the devil there?!??!?!?! Why did you give me so few Angela scenes???????? Fuck you Supermassive, I picked her you fuckers!!!!
Regardless of any comparative praises, which as I said before are practically null considering the circumstances, I will say that the mystery of the apparent reincarnations, the monster designs, and at least the overall idea that the game wants to put out there is good. It's just a very underwhelming execution that ultimately dooms it all.
One of the first big things is the monotone pacing and sequence of events. The chapters can be described with a simple flowchart consisting of: PCs enter a place -> they gotta get outta there! -> they get outta there -> repeat. Sometimes they escape from a VERY slow monster in between, but most follow that structure. Even if you can look past that, it becomes impossible to ignore how badly distributed the screentime of the scenarios is. Andrew has 11 playable scenarios while most of the other characters have around 5, which makes Andrew make up most of the gameplay. Angela straight up vanishes for a shitton of chapters just to make a cheap kill, even if you don't have the means to actually undergo that event!!! what!!!
Locked traits, a mechanic introduced in Little Hope and dropped from further entries immediately after is a terrible mechanic. It ties thematically with the game, of course, but whose ideas was it to put such a mechanic in a game with such a binary philosophy? What's the point of locked traits if and endgame decision can override them entirely, making the whole mechanic a "if you choose wrong, die" instead of something that actually leads towards a horrible fate? It makes no sense and makes the final fate feel underdeveloped and confusing.
Story spoilers for the ending below because Backloggd has no way to spoiler tag without compromising the whole review
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing kills a good mystery than a bad reveal, which if you know anything about this game it's common consensus that it doesn't stick the landing, and I can now confirm that it really doesn't. Not that the twist is insultingly bad, even if it's just "lol nothing was real actually" again (at least it has more to it this time), but how it's so much less interesting than what was building up to it. It's an attempt at a Silent Hill plot written by people who endlessly lurk the "appearance and symbolism" section of the Silent Hill wiki, without realizing that a lot of the strength from Silent Hill's stories doesn't come from what is real and what's not, but what is on the gap between reality and delusion. If James looked at the camera and said "this is what Pyramid Head REALLY means, also he's not real!", what's the point? There's a review on this game that calls the ending something along the lines of "ending explained material" and it couldn't be more true. The twist makes the witch plot feel weightless, and when the crux of your mystery has no weight, the truck slam (because he was the bus driver...) that should be the final twist becomes a limp slap to the face.
Even ignoring the twist, everything regarding the family from the prologue feels underbaked. I assume the whole idea behind the game is that Andrew blames himself or Megan for the fire. Maybe both. But it's no one's fault because it was accident, but you have to condemn the reverend to reach that conclusion. He's a devil worshipper! Also the devil was on the prologue too, I guess? And he wanted to get Megan on the satanism? Or it's a CSA metaphor, but probably not?! Why was the devil there?!??!?!?! Why did you give me so few Angela scenes???????? Fuck you Supermassive, I picked her you fuckers!!!!