Progress update and some thought.
I... I don't like it? I kinda very much don't enjoy playing big parts of it?
I just made it to the hotel and made it a bit inside. The shore and forward (hotel including) is a BIG sight of relief and finally something a bit better... although I feel it will have other world crap part to... right?
Anyway - Gameplay is kinda repetitive and stiff. At least on a controller. But that's ok.
Graphics and audio are of course amazing.
Story and story cutscenes are of course great too.
but my problem lies with the dungeons. I hate them. It's catharsis to be playing through this and solving all these puzzles and looking for abstract keys. over and over again.
It's creepy, disgusting and very oppressive. The prison was terrible/horrible. Same with labirynth.
I love the parts of the game outside that are brighter, with fog and streets//shops to explore. That''s great.
The apartment or even a bit (only a bit) of a hospital were good.
But anything that goes in the other world is dragging on foverer.
And I don't get why. We all know what the game is about and what James did. It's the twist everyone knows for 20 years.
Even if you didn't, it's obvious as hell.
But we are beaten over the head again and again and again. OK I GET IT I KNOW WHAT HE DID. LETS FUCKING GO.
It's truly tiring and I assume it is the intended experience but cmon. It's a bit up it's arse.
And maybe that's a critique of original game but I never played that one... but if original really is 8 hours... then I am already twice that and what I assume is twice the pain.
And the game is just disgusting. It relies on the simple horror of disgusting. And that's ok but not for this long stretches at a time.
I am not having a problem with the combat or puzzles. I am having problem with prolonged disgusting dungeons, you can barely see anything in for 4 hours.
how is this a game people love and play 100 times over? I don't get it.
I love Evil Within and finished it 3 times. Same with Alan Wake for example. But this is kinda not doing it for me.
Again - it's beautiful and just polished to hell. There is nothing I can objectively really attack here. Just that I find it too oppressive, too disgusting and I would cut the runtime of all the "dungeons" at least in half. Maybe cut the whole labirynth out too. it did nothing for me. What was the point of it? the faces on the cube and different trials? Just to waste my fucking time that's why. Yeah I get it it's his inner guilt blah blah blah
edit1: One more tiny critique is the constant fake out monster noises and environment noises. I understand creating atmosphere but most of the noises are from nothing. These crawling noises, monsters in the walls, something running around you in the dark. It's very well done but you loose control what's a real threat and what you can ignore.
/rant over. I will continue tomorrow. hotel is refreshing and beautiful so far but I can already see it will be a pain in the ass of locked doors too and same enemies that hide in the corner and once you spot them, they don't leave you enough time to shoot them
