This has got to be one of the more unique games in the genre even by today's standards.
Just finished it up and there's nothing else quite like it. Forget Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc. and expect something very different.
No inventory management, no health items, no damage sponge enemies (regular or bosses), no linearity, no playing the entire game with just one or two characters, the list goes on.
The game structure and progression is very unique, you basically have a timeline that is divided between various characters and you are going back and forth playing the different characters in different points of the timeline. And you can be progressing the timeline differently depending in what order you are doing the missions. So you may be way ahead on one side of the timeline/story but way behind on another.
It's all divided into missions (yup, an actual mission based survival horror game) and there are multiple versions of said missions that you have to unlock by fulfilling side objectives in other missions. For example you might need a fuse for one mission but if you don't have it then you won't be able to play this mission until you find it in another mission. Luckily you can bring up a menu which tells you exactly which mission contains that item, and when you start that mission you will be told the side objective you need to complete (on the map screen). You don't then have to complete the mission after doing the side objective, just bring up the timeline again from the pause menu and jump right into that other mission that you needed the fuse for. It's all very convenient, though the objectives can be vague often times.
The character handling tries to be a bit overly 'realistic' and can feel quite clunky. Your characters can't run for long and will need a good few seconds to recover if you run too long (which isn't all that long). There is no carrying weapons over between missions. You either get something at the beginning of a mission or you don't (in which case you'll have to find something). You can also pick up weapons from all enemies you knockout (including melee and guns). The game had "focus" shots long before RE did, basically let a character aim for a bit before shooting and they will deliver more poweful shots.
Speaking of enemies, there are two types. Ones that are sensitive to light and get hurt by it while others that get alerted by light. So there a nice balancing act going there.
And there's of course the unique sight jacking mechanic, you can can see through enemy eyes. This is a big part of the gameplay and helps with everything from stealth to combat. Stealth is a big part of the gameplay.
Some characters have unique abilities like being able to control enemies while there is another character that has poor eyesight and needs to sight jack his dog for traversal. Cool stuff since even enemies become part of your tool kit.
The story is super confusing but at the same time very meaty and interesting. You experience it through cutscenes etc. but also through collecting items for the archive. These can be anything from items, letters and newspapers to audio tapes, news broadcasts and commercials (actual vids). Very well done and adds a lot. There are a hundred in total, I got over 80 of them during my playthrough by playing normally so they aren't hard to find.
They even went beyond that and created actual online websites for some of the characters. Like there is a character who is a psychic and they made a website for her where she promotes her business and does tarot card readings, it's still active: http://www.yumemi-salon.com/e/index.html
Also, you can switch between first person mode and third person at any time on the fly and play the entire game that way from start to finish. Capcom still hasn't figured this one out.
Overall, it's pretty amazing that Toyama was able to jump start Silent Hill and then go off and make another unique survival horror series from scratch, very unlike other games in the genre. Really hope that whatever he is working on next at his new company either builds on top of this or is yet another unique take on survival horror.
Just finished it up and there's nothing else quite like it. Forget Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc. and expect something very different.
No inventory management, no health items, no damage sponge enemies (regular or bosses), no linearity, no playing the entire game with just one or two characters, the list goes on.
The game structure and progression is very unique, you basically have a timeline that is divided between various characters and you are going back and forth playing the different characters in different points of the timeline. And you can be progressing the timeline differently depending in what order you are doing the missions. So you may be way ahead on one side of the timeline/story but way behind on another.
It's all divided into missions (yup, an actual mission based survival horror game) and there are multiple versions of said missions that you have to unlock by fulfilling side objectives in other missions. For example you might need a fuse for one mission but if you don't have it then you won't be able to play this mission until you find it in another mission. Luckily you can bring up a menu which tells you exactly which mission contains that item, and when you start that mission you will be told the side objective you need to complete (on the map screen). You don't then have to complete the mission after doing the side objective, just bring up the timeline again from the pause menu and jump right into that other mission that you needed the fuse for. It's all very convenient, though the objectives can be vague often times.
The character handling tries to be a bit overly 'realistic' and can feel quite clunky. Your characters can't run for long and will need a good few seconds to recover if you run too long (which isn't all that long). There is no carrying weapons over between missions. You either get something at the beginning of a mission or you don't (in which case you'll have to find something). You can also pick up weapons from all enemies you knockout (including melee and guns). The game had "focus" shots long before RE did, basically let a character aim for a bit before shooting and they will deliver more poweful shots.
Speaking of enemies, there are two types. Ones that are sensitive to light and get hurt by it while others that get alerted by light. So there a nice balancing act going there.
And there's of course the unique sight jacking mechanic, you can can see through enemy eyes. This is a big part of the gameplay and helps with everything from stealth to combat. Stealth is a big part of the gameplay.
Some characters have unique abilities like being able to control enemies while there is another character that has poor eyesight and needs to sight jack his dog for traversal. Cool stuff since even enemies become part of your tool kit.
The story is super confusing but at the same time very meaty and interesting. You experience it through cutscenes etc. but also through collecting items for the archive. These can be anything from items, letters and newspapers to audio tapes, news broadcasts and commercials (actual vids). Very well done and adds a lot. There are a hundred in total, I got over 80 of them during my playthrough by playing normally so they aren't hard to find.
They even went beyond that and created actual online websites for some of the characters. Like there is a character who is a psychic and they made a website for her where she promotes her business and does tarot card readings, it's still active: http://www.yumemi-salon.com/e/index.html
Also, you can switch between first person mode and third person at any time on the fly and play the entire game that way from start to finish. Capcom still hasn't figured this one out.
Overall, it's pretty amazing that Toyama was able to jump start Silent Hill and then go off and make another unique survival horror series from scratch, very unlike other games in the genre. Really hope that whatever he is working on next at his new company either builds on top of this or is yet another unique take on survival horror.
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