Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Ralizah Dying Light 2 is kind of the game I think people are describing when they describe what they wanted from Dead Island 2, which is funny to me, because Dying Light 2 already exists and I remember it was met with a pretty lukewarm response on release. I got through about 20 hours of it, which comparatively was enough time to clear the main campaign and the majority of the side content in Dead Island 2, but it feels like I barely made a dent here in that time, which very much ties into the open world bloat you talked about.

My issue though was so much of the story progression was locked behind these frustrating, tedious, checkpointless, stealth missions, that I eventually just bounced off of it. The fun for me was drop kicking zombies off of skyscrapers and killing bandits with rusted taped together piles of crap, but you often weren't allowed to just do that and progress the game in the process. This is why, for the opening few hours at least, Dead Island 2 was a treat, by comparison.

Funnily enough, that dread you are talking about has happened to me with the Resident Evil 4 remake lately. I haven't played that game in weeks, I recognise that basically objectively its a great game, but its just super sweaty. I would say the challenge is generally well tuned, so its never exactly frustrating, but most encounters usually take me a good few attempts even on the base difficulty, and a single chapter leaves me absolutely exhausted, even though many run less than an hour. It just isn't what I want from a game after a long day of work, and by the time the weekend comes around I am doing other things, so I just haven't touched it. And the longer I go, the more that fear grows that I'm gonna jump on, not remember all the controls and just get immediately stuck, unable to progress again, but the idea of having to go through it all over again from the start, also doesn't appeal to me at all, knowing some of the encounters I barely made it through the first go around.

In terms of Dead Island, it is one of those weird series for me where I swear I have owned a copy of either that or Riptide on every console I have owned since they have come out, but I have no real memory of getting very far in either of the games, despite playing them over and over again over the years. I guess each time I play for an hour, realise I'm not that into this right now, forget about it and then a new console comes along, Dead Island sounds like something I'd really like and it has been long enough to forget I attempted it already, so I pick it up and do the same thing again. I have them on PC, maybe I should make a meaningful attempt to actually beat them.

@Pizzamorg I've had the distinct impression that I'd probably like Dying Light if I ever got to it, but... eh, you know, zombies. And I don't need any more 100 hour games in my life than I already have, which is the even bigger issue.

Unless it's MGS, Splinter Cell, or some other sort of stealth-focused experience to begin with, stealth gameplay almost always make a game worse. Like, yeah, dude, this is what I wanted: tedious missions that make it where I can't utilize the majority of mechanics that made your game actually fun to play. I want to creep around and pray that your AI's dodgy detection doesn't catch me. And if I am caught, I want to go alllllllllll the way back to the beginning of the sequence.

In general, I'm inclined to agree that narrowing the scope of a game later on in a way that contradicts the appeal of the early hours is bad. If a game is based around freedom and survival, I don't want to be locked into setpieces just because you can't figure out how to structure a story well around a more gameplay-focused structure.

Interesting perspective on RE4R. The original, at least in my experience, was appealing precisely because of how easily playable it was. It was like one of those B movies you have to stop and watch every time you pass it on the TV. I actually do feel a resistance toward going back and playing horror games because of how tense some of them can be, but this is part of the appeal of the genre to me: a good piece of horror media will make you at least somewhat hesitant to keep diving in, even if it's excellent.

My PC is full of games I've needed to make meaningful attempts at for the better part of a decade now. One day, I'll stop buying new stuff and actually focus on what I own.

I'm glad I am not alone in hating stealth in games, nothing ruins a game for me like random forced stealth missions with insta fail states if detected. Every one of those sequences needs to get in the bin.

@Ralizah It’s good to know I’m not the only one who has trouble distinguishing Dying Light from Dead Island from Dead by Daylight. Include the confusion that there are also separate games called Daylight and Deadlight, and all the games with “dead” or “death” in them which are horror or zombie based (Dead Nation, The Walking Dead, Evil Dead, House of the Dead…). Not to mention DayZ, Days Gone… The number of zombie horror games which are obsessed with putting “dead” or a version of the word and “day” is just crazy. Add several that have “dawn” in the name or some version of “light” or “darkness” and my brain just can’t keep up. 😅

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (PS5)

Think this may actually be my first PS5 review here.

General Gameplay:

• A survival horror adventure game that sees you exploring the dilapidated ruins of an old mental hospital, exorcising spirits, solving a variety of light puzzles, and more to progress. The first 2/3rds of the game generally take place across the same 2 building complexes, and features a lot of back & forth backtracking to access a new room or two here & there. The last stretch of the game opens up considerably, albeit through a much more linearly designed environment (not really a complaint, but I don't think the game world was that much, if at all, larger than that of Maiden of Black Water, & IIRC some complaints I remember about that one being that the game world felt smaller compared to it's predecessors. I don't really feel that's the case in this instance though).
  
  Whether it be rhythm mini games, sliding tile puzzles, or even math, you'll have to stretch your brain a bit to progress.
• Although the game world is one large interconnected environment, it's still broken up into 12 story chapters. You'll actually be taking on the role of 3 different characters during your playtime, and as a general rule of thumb your playable character is swapped from one chapter to the next (they all start at different points in the hospital, though in general all the rooms you unlock as one character are unlocked for the others as well once you reach an area you already explored as another character). Also, each character has their own independent inventory & equipment upgrades.
• Of course it does feature those divisive "tank" controls prevalent in the genre, though I don't think they're much of an issue here (at least when it comes to exploration). The most irritating part is probably that you have to shine your flashlight across the environment in order to reveal interactive elements/pickups (the game will give you a general indicator that something is near you), and sometimes the game can be very finicky with how precise you have to be in order to illuminate something (sometimes I had to go over a surface 3 or 4 times before that familiar sparkly glow would appear). Also, there is a slow and long animation involved pretty much anytime you reach out to touch/grab anything. The reason for this is that some items are optional, and in those cases there's a chance that a ghostly hand can reach out & grab you (causing you to permanently lose said pickup) if you don't let go of the button & pull back quick enough. Luckily, these grabs didn't seem to be as common as they were in Maiden of Black Water.
  
  You aren't gonna grab me... and I'm not gonna get a good photo of you.
• The game doesn't include an auto-save function (well it does, but it only activates when you pass by a save point anyways), so you'll have to seek out a save point if you want to save your progress. Luckily there's usually one nearby with how interconnected the environments are, but even when not it's usually not all that dangerous to trek back to the last one if you feel you really need to (most encounters seem to be scripted, so you don't have to be worried about ghost encounters in areas you've already been through unless the story is sending you back that direction again). Save points don't recover your health, but you can spend some of your score (which effects your endgame grade) as currency to buy basic healing items, film, and even alternate costumes/accessories (though those aesthetic items have to be unlocked by gameplay achievements before you can purchase them).

Combat:

• Two of your characters come equipped with a Camera Obscura, your main tool used to interact with the world & exorcise ghosts. When a ghost appears the HUD indicator at the top of the screen will flash either yellow or red (or blue if there's a non-ghost point of interest nearby). If it's yellow, the ghost won't attack you and you can nab some points by taking a picture of it before it vanishes (the harder it is to snap it, the more points it's worth, and these appearances tend to be used as a hint as to where you should head next, so keep an eye on them). If it's red the fight is on. Although you can shave off some health anytime you take a pic, what you really want to do is wait right before you're attacked, that way you can hit them with a titular "Fatal Frame". This deals extra damage & allows you to string together 3-4 total shots in quick succession dealing major damage if you pull it off (and adds a ton of points to your score, especially if you defeat it with one).
  
  Ready to go, though I don't think I'll be able to do much damage here (more on that later...).
• You do have a basic film that has unlimited "ammo", however you can obtain more powerful variants that have limited usage (the lesser of these can be traded for at Save Points, but the most powerful are only very rarely found in the environment so you'll want to hoard them). You can also obtain a selection of various "lenses" for the camera, which when equipped will unleash different special attacks if you have the special guage filled (which refills when you hit ghosts with regular shots/Fatal Frames). Some lenses may slow down a ghost's movement speed, while others take particularly powerful shots.
• The third character comes equipped with a Spirit Stone Flashlight instead of the Camera Obscura. Pretty much it's gimmick is that it can blast ghosts with stored moonlight, and in all honesty is a much more effective weapon than the camera. It only has one type of "ammo" to keep track of (it's infinite, but you have to wait for it to recharge quite a bit if you fire it off in too quick succession) meaning it's strength is generally built to last the entire game from the start and it has a wider area of effect making attacking groups of ghosts easier. Like the Camera it can also be equipped with a number of lenses (one of which allows it to take pictures in exchange for it's offensive capabilities, which is useful in certain scenarios, like snapping the "yellow indicator" ghosts). This is a pretty big departure from how it would go on to be used in Maiden of Black Water's Ayane (from DOA/Ninja Gaiden) campaign, where it could only briefly stun ghosts IIRC.
  
  This auto trophy pic is the only shot I have of Flashlight combat.
• In comparison to Maiden of Black Water, combat in general is a lot more tense, but not always for the right reasons, though there are some upsides too. With a few exceptions the environments in Maiden were a lot wider & there was more going on with the combat system, making encounters much more "gamey" & fun, but ultimately at the expense of atmosphere (especially since lesser "mook" ghosts would often respawn IIRC). Meanwhile there are a lot of encounters in Mask that take place in small or tight areas (like hallways) that make combat a bit more clunky (heck, fighting more than 2 ghosts at a time tends to be a nightmare in general with the Camera, no matter how large the environment. Luckily that doesn't happen too often. Most group ghost attacks tend to happen when you have the Flashlight, which is better equipped for those encounters). That said, as mentioned before most encounters seem to be scripted, so if you do need to trek back to save after a rough patch you won't have to deal with respawning foes.
• I should also mention that there is one ghost you'll occasionally run into who can't be defeated (hard to miss, as the screen will become black & white and all film grain-y), where you'll have no choice but to run to the nearest exit. While it can be surprising when she pops up, like the other encounters in the game I eventually learned these are scripted and you can usually re-enter the room right after you escape with no worries.

Other Gameplay:

• Along the way you'll have the chance to stock up on these Blue & Red "Spirit Stones". Blue ones are used to upgrade the general capabilities of your Camera/Flashlight (attack power, reload time, special attack meter capacity, etc.) while Red ones power up the effectiveness of Lenses. Again, each character has their own inventory, so don't hold back on one character in an effort to hoard for another one, as it doesn't work that way.
• Also, there are these creepy little "Hazuki Dolls" hidden away all across the environment (I assume there's at least one in every single room, no matter how small or insignificant) that you can take pictures of. I'm not exactly sure of their purpose (other than getting a message that it's curse has been lifted whenever you snap one), or what if anything you get for finding them all (I honestly thought I had found the vast majority of them, and while I found over 50 of them, there are more than 70 in total!) You can buy a guide that reveals all their locations at a Save Point, but it would take a huge chunk out of your score so I didn't go for it.
  
  Hey! What are you doing up there?

Story:

• Across your adventure you'll take control of Ruka Minazuki & Misaki Aso, a pair of amnesiac 17 year old girls who were patients of the abandoned hospital when they were younger (and are amongst the few survivors of whatever incident befell it). When the other survivors start dying mysterious deaths, they feel compelled to explore the complex and find the truth of the matter once & for all (they have the Camera). You'll also take control of Choshiro Kirishima, a private detective who found the girls when they were younger during the mysterious incident back when he was a cop, revisiting the site in order to solve the mystery himself (he has the Flashlight).
  Ruka Minazuki
  
  Misaki Aso
  
  I somehow managed to go the entire game without screenshotting the dude, lol.
• Outside of that, most of the lore & narrative is revealed by notes, diaries, recordings & such you find throughout your adventure.
• Apparently there are actually two different endings, with a basic "bad" (or I guess neutral) ending, and a better "good" ending. Whether or not you have to play through the game multiple times to get the good one (screw that) or if there's just something I missed (maybe the dolls? Just a guess though), I don't know.

Graphics/Audio:

• While it's origins as a Wii game become apparent if you get really up close to any textures, it's generally been touched up really well, and the dark grimy atmosphere is both effective at hiding imperfections & being genuinely unsettling. Seriously, even when I was fairly certain nothing was going to happen, the atmosphere is good at keeping you on edge. Plus there are a handful of jump scares (like a mannequin turning to stare at you the first time you point your camera at it, and only the one time) that are really fun, even if they are few & far between.
• Whether it be derelict operating rooms, subterranean caves, and ancient shrines, there are a lot of creepy environments to explore (though the starting hospital areas are the creepiest, IMO).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Our lovely leading ladies showing off some not so lovely environments.
• It has super effective audio design too. Whether it be ambient moans, scratching, creaking & more, or the sudden piercing sound of a phone ring or intercom system, it's constantly unsettling. Probably one for earphones, though I'm too much of a sissy, lol.

Overall:

• Pretty solid time if you know what you're getting into. Yes, it's a bit clunky which is common for survival horror (especially of it's time), but it has a highly effective atmosphere that oozes dread & stayed with me when I went to bed at night (especially when I was playing it late). Plus, I can't dislike a game that includes swimsuit costumes too much, lol (though the costumes pictured are the DLC swimsuits, I never met whatever conditions were required to unlock the base game swimsuits). With the Maiden port & this remaster releasing in relatively close proximity, I hope that means they're planning on doing more with the franchise soon.
  

@RR529 Nice! I really need to get back to this. While I like the more claustrophobic setting aesthetically, my issue with it is that it makes certain setpieces pretty frustrating, since ghosts will materialize in the walls and grab you from the side, which is incredibly difficult to avoid. This is the first time I've felt genuine frustration over the combat in this series. One encounter early on literally took five or six retries, because it was an in a narrow hallway, and I was surrounded by spooks.

Going back to an old game like this, it's also difficult to remember that it doesn't have free camera controls. I eventually learned to leave the right analog stick alone, but I think this series worked best in that regard when it still had fixed camera viewpoints.

But yeah, the atmosphere remains effective throughout, which is, more than anything, what I appreciate about this series.

"I somehow managed to go the entire game without screenshotting the dude, lol."

I could pretend to be shocked, but I think both of us probably fully expected that you wouldn't, right?

Very nice screenshots, btw.

@Ralizah, I think I know of the exact encounter you're talking about (three ghosts that appear the first time you try to enter one of the patient rooms?). I died like 5 times there myself. Luckily, most of the other times you have to fight 3 or more ghosts with the camera it usually happens in more open areas, but it's still highly annoying (usually causing me to drain my healing item reserves).

The flashlight is seriously the more effective weapon here, especially once you upgrade it a bit (by late game I was practically walking straight up to ghosts nearly one shotting them up close with it).

To be fair, I was almost certain I had taken a screenshot of him standing next to a painting. I must have accidentally deleted it when I was purging all the trophy videos (not sure if you have a PS5 yet, but it both takes an auto screenshot AND video every time you earn a trophy). I'm sure I could probably just turn it off, but I haven't fiddled around the settings yet.

@RogerRoger That was wild. I'd literally just finished reading your new review, refreshed the page, and it was gone.

Doing some editing?

@RR529 That was the most egregious instance, yes. I guess that particular battle must be difficult for a lot of people! But the truth is I've weirdly struggled with combat throughout the game. No idea why tracking the ghosts is so much harder for me this go around!

@LN78 you've blocked Rog haven't you? Why are trying to engage with him and tagging him with that post of yours when you clearly want nothing to do with him? 🙄

@HallowMoonshadow Oops. My mistake. Edited accordingly.

It had some rad screenshots too! Hope it comes back.

@Pizzamorg Me too. Rog writes some of the best reviews on the site. And I really appreciate that they often don't conform to the majority wisdom, yet are always well-reasoned.

Didn't get the chance to fully ready it myself (I skimmed it over not long after it was first published) but it was cracking stuff from Rog as usual.

No pressure to put it back up of course @RogerRoger if you don't want to!

Nice Fatal Frame 4 review there @RR529!

The only game I've played in the series myself is the second, Crimson Butterfly.

Honestly it scared the pants off of me and I'm not quite sure if I'd really wanna go back into the franchise (Though I understand 4 & 5 are much tamer).

Both this and MoBW do seem to have been spruced up fairly well. Not to mention the sheer fact that this finally got brought over to the west is an achievement of itself and it sounds like it does a pretty good job, especially on the audio front!

I somehow managed to go the entire game without screenshotting the dude, lol.

... I know Ral already brought it up but I found this line rather amusing myself too. But not just for the obvious reason.

If I recall correctly Crimson Butterfly's main cast was all girls with only one male npc (That wasn't a ghost at least) so I probably would've done the same in that situation and forget to take a picture of them 😅

I'm sorry you feel that way! If I can share opinions here, I would hope everyone feels comfortable 😂

I also realised my comment seemed like real faint praise, the writing was great as well by the way, I hope my reply didn't come across otherwise as I only mentioned the screenshots 😬

@RogerRoger That's... an incredibly sad thing to hear. But I'll respect your decision.