Cronos: The New Dawn - PS5 Review

Cronos: The New Dawn by developer and publisher Bloober Team—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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Layers of Fear VR - PSVR Review

Layers of Fear VR by developer and publisher Bloober Team—Sony PlayStation VR review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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When Layers of Fear first came out, it was something of a divisive title. It relied heavily on jump scares and tension building, making excellent use of audio. However, it’s somewhat slow burn pacing and gameplay was not for everyone. If you were a fan of this title when it released, the good news is that Layers of Fear VR is the same game you enjoyed the first time around – it’s just getting a PSVR coat of paint that allows the game to pop in a new and interesting way. If you did not care for the title when it first came out? Odds are this new take on Layers of Fear won’t be what makes you a convert.

I enjoyed Layers of Fear when it came out. I was in the camp of gamers who could admit that while the game had some pacing issues at times, its overall atmosphere (which was ably assisted by excellent sound design) kept me engaged – despite a relatively short play time of a few hours. However, Layers of Fear is now nearly half a decade old, and it is showing its age a bit. It has had sequels. So the VR touch-up feels a bit late in getting here.

That being said, because the original “flat screen” game was handled from a first-person perspective, it is one of those titles I sometimes thought about as a potentially great fit for virtual reality. I can’t help it – I’m a sucker for horror games and their jump scares get magnified in VR.

For those who have not yet played the original game and are unaware of the story – it’s built around an artist looking to pain his masterpiece. Your character is exploring this house and essentially the gameplay starts to turn into something of a series of fetch quests, prompting you to explore the house to work through different ‘layers’ in the panting. However, as you trek through the house, what is real and what is not becomes an increasingly blurry line that builds up to most of the scares experienced.

The implementation however, is not completely perfect. This was not a game that was built with VR in mind. It is a title that is half a decade old with virtual reality bolted onto it. As such, the visuals are not always perfect. I really did appreciate how effectively the VR touch-up made the atmosphere and scares that much more palpable, but there were times where the interactions just felt a little janky and off, making it more challenging than it should have been to simply interact with an object in the environment. There is not a ton of actual gameplay to be had in either iteration of Layers of Fear – you mostly walk about and interact with things. But the VR implementation just feels clumsy at times and that hinders the experience.

I found Layers of Fear VR to be a comfortable game to play however, which kind of surprised me. Sometimes moving around in a slightly claustrophobic environment in virtual reality can cause a bit of VR sickness, but I never ran into that here. There’s some odd distortion effects that occur as well, and I was surprised that they did not disorient me more. I dare say – I just thought they looked really cool in VR. Really the only time I struggled was with the sometimes frustrating interactions / inability to move because I got hung up on something in the environment unseen while walking. Similar to other first-person horror games, Layers of Fear VR relies heavily on perspective. The devs do a nice job with lines of sight and angles to help pull off some of the game’s more notable scary moments.

I will say that from a quality standpoint, Layers of Fear started slowly for me and got better in the second half. Now, because I played it before, there were a few moments that were slightly diminished for me. It’s been a few years, so there were definitely cobwebs in places, but I had some moments where I could clearly recall what was coming as well.

Summary

Layers of Fear VR is targeting a very specific niche. It’s a horror game that is somewhat short in nature and relies heavily on jump scares. This plays into the VR medium, and to that end I still had fun with it – but the original game came out several years ago and the VR here is tacked onto to an already slightly older title. The end result is a somewhat mixed bag that is appropriately scarier than the original, but also suffers a bit in terms of gameplay. If you are a fan of first-person horror games and have a PSVR, Layers of Fear VR is worth a go. If this genre is not normally to your liking though, odds are the VR additions won’t convince you to overlook this game’s issues.

Score: 7 / 10

 

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The Medium - XBSX Review

The Medium by developer Bloober Team and publisher Bloober Team SA—Microsoft Xbox Series X Review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

So I generally have an unwritten rule in which I don't do horror. I'm a chicken shit and things that go bump in the night keep me up at night with a night light. It's just not my cup of tea but every now and then something catches my eye and I get a sprout of bravery. The Medium, by the Bloober Team which have done both the Observer: System Redux recently covered by Nick and the Blair Witch covered by Izzy, is what I decided to be brave on and in some ways, mistakes were made but they were worth it even if I've had a few sleepless nights because of it. 

Taking the role of Marianne, The Medium starts off with her talking to someone off screen making it fairly easy to get invested as it feels like she's talking to you about events leading up to this point in her life. Recently deceased, it fell to her to prepare her foster father for a viewing as she made her way back to the funeral home that he ran. Getting a bit of a taste for the mechanics involved, Marianne will soon get a phone call starting this horror show off for real. 

Making her way up to a government resort named Niwa at the behest of someone on the other line of a telephone, it soon becomes clear that this won't be a vacation as the resort is run down and in ruins with vegetation having started to reclaim it. With the potential that whoever called no longer being present in the world of the living, Marianne heads in to find the voice from the other end of the telephone line with answers to her condition that she never thought she would find. 

There's a lot that I would like to say about The Medium but I'll start with the first thought. Wow. Graphically the environments that you'll be walking Marianne through are detailed making it really easy to want to explore and find out what secrets it's hiding even if it's haunted as hell. Mechanically the controls are basic enough with you moving through the environment and checking out points of potential interest but it's Marianne's ability that steals the show. 

On a general principle, we know that mediums have a sort of power in order to sense the departed or supernatural. It comes in a few flavours from basic senses to outright communication with the beings no longer from or from this world to start off with. Taking it to another level, Marianne depending on the power of the forces involved will quite literally exist both in this world and the world beyond simultaneously. She can move through both walking, touching and affecting her environment either through either realm. 

While this would be in a sense nothing new to the worlds that we explore, Marianne's adventure takes it a step further as you quite literally move through both at the same time needing to check both surroundings simultaneously for clues or hints of what's required in order to move forward. Appearance wise they couldn't be more different from one another so there's a bit of an adjustment the first few times, but eventually it becomes natural enough to be looking and exploring both without realizing you're looking at two whole separate sets of visuals. 

From there, the rest boils down to puzzle solving assisted by some fairly well written and voiced dialog. From Marianne herself to others that she'll meet and others who will forever remain disembodied voices, each character lends itself to helping build you into the immersion that, if like me, wi have you jump a few feet off the couch at times on a scare that you really didn't see coming. This is only helped, and worsened for me, as the ambient noises and haunting tracks were glued to my ears with some pretty hefty headphones. The opening screens before the main menu do say for best experience use headphones and they weren't lying. 

Not to simply settle in for the same style of gameplay over the course of the dozen or so hours that The Medium can take, and avoiding a fair amount of spoilers, there is going to be some going back and forth between the real world and the spirit world alongside the split screening. While in one world or the other, you’ll still be affecting things in the other but while in the real world for example, Marianne is a lot more vulnerable than she would be in the spirit world with some of her abilities which will also cross over through the split screening. 

On a final note, it’s rare to find nothing wrong with an experience. The writing, the ambient noises, the music, the dialog, and the interaction with the world are all spot on and playing on an Xbox Series X with a 4K television really helps to sell the visuals. If I had an issue or two it may be that at times certain objects were not quite as responsive due to the angle that Marianne would be standing at or that I did hit a glitch once or twice causing me to restart from the previous autosave because something stuck. Otherwise? This was a fantastic experience.

While I don’t generally sit down to horror, or horror like experiences, the Bloober Team with their atmospheric and psychological horror The Medium had me hooked from start to finish. With a very well paced story and solid mechanics that let you explore the run down resort that Marianne finds herself in, it was really hard to put down the controller as the secrets that often lay right around the corner just begged to be answered. Score: 9 / 10

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Observer: System Redux - PS5 Review

Observer: System Redux by developer Bloober Team and publisher Aspyr—Sony PlayStation 5 Review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Observer: System Redux is the same basic title that came out a few years ago to rave reviews, but with a few new missions and updated visuals. If you missed this cyberpunk thrilled the first time, you absolutely owe it to yourself to play it. Having enjoyed the title myself in the past, I was more than happy to revisit this dark version of 2084 a second time.

You take the role of Daniel Lazarski, an Observer. This is the title given to those who hack into the minds of those who draw the attention of corporations – the true, new power in this dark version of 2084. Right off of the bat, to hear the protagonist voiced by now-deceased Rutger Hauer just lends an immediate weight to the character than it might have had in less capable hands.

While the content is described in some spaces as cyberpunk or thriller, I’d go so far as to say there’s a very strong sense of horror here, just in an unusual setting. Everything that worked about the storyline three years ago holds true today. The core plot device of Daniel hocking into the memories of both the living and deceased creates a very open template for the narrative, and it is used to great impact by developer Bloober Team (also known for the phycological horror game Layers of Fear). Dan’s work however, comes with risks and begins to compromise his own ability to process things. The abstract darkness of others’ dreams seem to be creeping into his own, adding that horror element that makes the atmosphere so thick with tension throughout.

While Observer: System Redux is largely an adventure game, there is a stealth element baked into the gameplay that was not always my favorite aspect of the original. It feels as though it has been finetuned here (admittedly, it’s been a few years and maybe I was just better at it having experienced this before?), but it seemed a little more forgiving this time. If that is the case, then I am appreciative as I vaguely recall feeling more frustrated when playing the title for the first time a few years ago. That being said, I enjoyed my second tour through the game and found myself more than willing to have conversations with the many unusual, memorable characters you can encounter along the way. Being an adventure game at heart, Observer: System Redux wants you to explore, and is at its best when you’re taking your time and just soaking the atmosphere.

There are some nice touches throughout as the protagonist’s grip on sanity starts to slip more and more, but I will not get into the actual story here. If you played the game a few years ago when it first released, you have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen here. The key plot points have not changed any, though the three additional cases are welcome and continue to add to the world-building. If you are new to the series, anything more than what I have said would prove to be a disservice to you, as the story is really the main reason to play this.

The sound design of the original game was already quite good (again, something the development team seems to have a really good handle on based on their other titles I’ve played in the past), and that remains true here. With a set of headphones on, the subtle ambiances are easier to pick up on and appreciate. However, the true improvement to the presentation comes in the visuals.

The original Observer was not an ugly game, but it is amazing what a few years can mean both in terms of the technology and the development team’s improving skills. Character models are notably improved, with more smoothness to the animations. Beyond the characters however, the environments are also markedly improved upon. I am a sucker for that cyberpunk, neon glowing aesthetic found in movies and games, and Observer: System Redux really nails this. The hum and glow of the world around you, punctuating the often dark, rain-slickened environments just melds wonderfully with the audio to create an immersive experience that I was more than happy to revisit despite having played the game a few years ago.

Summary

Observer: System Redux is a welcome update. At first I questioned why we were getting it so soon after the initial game’s release only a few years ago, but those concerns abated rather quickly. Small quality of life improvements to the gameplay make the experience less frustrating this time around, the additional missions are well-done and welcome additions and enough cannot be said about how much better the visuals look this time around. As someone who enjoyed the game when it first released, I did not regret my second time with it here. If you missed Observer three years ago and dig cyberpunk themes, you really do need to check this title out.

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Blair Witch - Switch Review

Blair Witch by developer and publisher Bloober Team—Nintendo Switch review written by Izzy with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

In the interest of full disclosure, let me begin by saying that I don’t know anything about video games, so I encourage you to take this review with a grain of salt, or a ring of salt, in keeping with the theme. In fact, I’ve barely touched a controller since my older brother begrudgingly allowed me to hop on as Player 2 back in the good ol’ Nintendo 64 days. What I DO know, however, is horror. If it’s scary, bone-chilling, gruesome, eerie, sinister, unnerving, spine-tingling nightmare fuel, there’s a good chance I’ve seen it. So when the opportunity came along to play through a game based in the Blair Witch Project universe, I said “Well, if I was ever going to play a game, it would be THAT game” and play it, I did. Almost obsessively, as I’m sure my video-game-obsessed-boyfriend would smugly tell you.

You play as Ellis, a troubled cop and veteran, who is travelling into the infamous Black Hills forest to join a search party for a young boy named Peter. The first sign of trouble to come is made apparent by a phone call from your seemingly estranged girlfriend, Jess, who questions Ellis’ desire and capability to join in the search. From your subsequent contact with Sheriff Emmett Lanning prior to venturing into the woods, it’s clear Ellis is, for undisclosed reasons, somewhat of a Persona Non Grata presence in this investigation. Armed with nothing but a cellphone, flashlight, and your trusty companion, a dog named Bullet, you venture into the woods where you begin to decipher the mysteries of both Peter’s disappearance, and Ellis’ psyche.

The game is successful in this regard by disclosing that the choices you make, and the way your companion is treated will affect the eventual outcome. This actively contributes to the overall atmosphere of the game, as the self-doubt creeps in seemingly as quickly as the darkness by which you are enveloped. I found myself asking “When was the last time I pet Bullet?”, or “Is this real or is it just a vision?”, or, in a textbook definition of life imitating art, channelling Heather (one of the film’s protagonists) and experiencing the defeating mental anguish that comes with realizing that the log you’ve just come across is in fact the same log you walked by 20 minutes ago, and you are indeed very lost, and Oh God I’ve Doomed Ellis To Wander The Forests Of Burkitsville, Maryland Until His Inevitable Demise. Of all the places to die. Maryland? Really!? I’m sorry Ellis. I’m sorry Bullet.

Bullet! Your companion and Bonafide Best Doggo is your saving grace. Bullet serves not only as your literal guide dog through the forest, but he can also track the scent on items of Peter’s you collect on your journey, as well as search for nearby items that are crucial to the game’s progression. While there is much more to discuss in regards to the storyline, I find horror to be at its most impactful when the element of surprise is maintained. So I will leave you to unravel the remainder of the story (and the ending to which your choices lead) for yourself.

However, I did have some issues with Blair Witch that I feel could potentially put off more seasoned gamers. For one, there is very little to the actual game play (Editor's Note: Very much a walking simulator). Despite the opportunity for multiple endings, the playthrough is fairly linear in nature, which at times leaves you feeling like the illusion of choice is more important than the choices you’re actually making.

Prior to starting the game for the first time, you are prompted to adjust the brightness until a box on the screen is barely visible. This is purported to be for the overall atmosphere of the game, but in my experience, rather than affect the creepy factor, it affected the annoyance factor as I spent a truly ridiculous amount of time squinting at the TV and running into invisible walls by straying off a path I couldn’t make out in the darkness. Of course, this could be easily fixed by just adjusting the slider by a few notches upon replaying, so it’s not really a criticism, more of a suggestion. Turn it up. Eye strain is serious business.

Other than the mechanics that a novice like me occasionally struggled with, and without spoiling the story, I will say that there was nothing particularly interesting or original about Ellis as a protagonist. In fact, the game does a poor job of having any aspect that is anything more than a worn out trope. That’s not to say it’s inherently bad, just that it’s been done. Over and over and over again. By the time I reached the game’s final setting, and had been proven correct about where the overall story was headed, I was a little bored with it. Which is doubly unfortunate because the game’s final chapter is dragged out much longer than it needs to be.

What was supposed to be the culmination of the search for Peter, and Ellis’ slowly dwindling mental well-being ends up being an overproduced, drawn out fore into every haunted house, PTSD, horror cliche in existence. All that being said, I am, and remain, a huge fan of the Blair Witch movie. Even my boyfriend (who gets spooked by a slight breeze, and sleeps with the lights on for three weeks after a pile of clothes flung onto a chair casts a particularly nefarious looking shadow in the middle of the night) enjoyed both it, and the parts of the game he watched me play through his fingers.

What the game does borrow from, and contribute to, the Blair Witch mythos is exactly what made the movie such an effective piece of horror. For the overwhelming majority of it, there are no jump scares or cheap tricks. What you get instead is the terrifying sensation of being very lost, and very hunted in a forest that seemingly gets darker by the second, as you slowly start to question Ellis’ (and your own) sanity. For psychological horror fans like me, that alone is worth the price of admission. For video game fans, well, I’ll leave that to the experts.

Score: 7 / 10

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Layers of Fear 2 - Xbox One Review

Bloober Team deserves a lot of credit for taking their surprise hit Layers of Fear and creating a sequel that manages to feel new and different, while still understanding what it takes to put a chill down a person's spine.

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Layers of Fear: Inheritance Delves Deep into the Psyche of the Painter’s Daughter

Layers of Fear was a spooky, atmospheric game that I was actually quite fond of in my Xbox One review of the game. I am looking forward to seeing how this follow-up game plays out.

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Revisit the Madness in Layers of Fear: Inheritance on August 2, 2016

While not a perfect game, I thought the original Layers of Fear was still a very trippy, tense experience worth having. That has me excited about this bit of news then.

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Layers of Fear - Xbox One Review

Layers of Fear is an indie effort, that looks and feels more polished than a lot of the psychological horror games out there. Do not mistake this for a title like Outlast that relies on action and jump scares, but instead steadily builds the tension throughout the narrative.

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Brawl - PS4 Review

I love a good four player local multiplayer game where everyone can be in the same room to yell at one another regardless of what happened so when the idea of Brawl came around I figured it would be perfect as I already had several people coming over that I could throw controllers into their hands. Knowing that it was like Bomberman was going to make for an interesting experience due to the creepy music, macabre artwork, and special powers.

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Bloober Team looks to make things right with Brawl

About a year ago this indie team released the game Basement Crawl to really rough reviews and player feedback. Now Bloober Team is looking to learn from their mistakes - will Brawl make things right?

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