It is 1899. Near the end of the year, of the century. You wake in your mansion. Fever-ridden since the expedition to Mexico. It has taken away your memories. Where are your sons? You feel driven. Downwards. Metaphorically and literally. The titular machine beckons. It has been sabotaged, and it is up to you to fix it. Everything is at stake. Oh no. In the name of all that is fair and just, no. Did you really do it? You can't have. It's impossible. You have to stop it. To save them.
You are Mandus(Longworth, restrictive). Butcher. You've made a name for yourself. And a lot of money. Serving the elite. Of course, how have you been to the poor? Indeed, how has everyone? And what does it all amount to, if you can't protect your own? You find almost no one around. Voices, however. The Engineer phones you when he can, directing you to start back up the huge, ominous thing, the crowning achievement of all your hard work. You find recordings of your meeting with The Professor, who you allowed to see some of the otherwise hidden beast. Both performed by Roper, anxious and curious, respectively. Rounding out the cast are your two children Enoch and Edwin(Craig, playing, as all 8-10-year-olds do), who, unfortunately since you hear from them a lot, aren't as well-acted. Little is creepier than kids, and you never lose sight of catching up to, and aiding, them as they invite you to join their merriment.
This does a solid job exploring many related themes. With the setting of industrialism, the approaching Great War, and the protagonist's hard-earned wealth in sharp focus, we go through sacrificing people's humanity, and for the regular people who were mere workers, well-being emotionally, and in too many cases, even their physical well-being, to where many were injured, even died. Because the rich wanted them to work harder, as their new wonders could. This is set before it was tempered with caring about the individual. Nihilism, humanity, altruism, guilt. The story brilliantly has you going back and forth between understanding the why, and being disgusted with the what and how.
The plot is told by a few means. Via flashbacks, now short and infrequent. The notes, silent, long, wordy and overly expository. And the aforementioned. It's bloated, yet vague. Reveals a lot with the intent to pave with good intentions the well-known road, while not all going together well. It does take place in the same universe. Builds on aspects you might not have expected. As a sequel, it changes what we thought we knew. Goes in a different direction. It remains body-horror that hints rather than shows... an example of the opposite might be something like Dead Space. A suffocating atmosphere. Gradual build. Audio, especially the unseen, including steps, violence and other recognizable events.
I will beat around the bush no longer. This does remove, not replace, not adjust, straight-up excise, a lot of the most beloved elements of The Dark Descent. Limited fuel for the lantern, albeit of course this has worked without fail in Silent Hill, which this bears numerous other similarities to, such as the recently abandoned familiar and comfortable, a warning of when danger is near, and a ton of mystery surrounding what's going on. Of course, it does lack the open areas, the combat and plenty to use it against, which one might so expect from this. The spotlight means you can see further, and appreciate the vast scope of the source that you're returning to.
Any lamp or candle you encounter, you can use, no need to count tinderboxes. They don't end up doing much, anyway. Resource management is entirely gone, letting you take it at your own pace, and see that this does not take away all the fear. Health regenerates, since you still wouldn't find any use at any point for the...Laudanum? They put that in their body? Repeatedly? Intentionally? Willingly? Man. No wonder these guys lose their minds.
I will argue that it does make sense. It mirrors the feeling and nature of your situation. However, I will admit that it is missed. The phenomenal physics interaction is now minimal. Heck, if you find something, you've probably just stumbled upon the solution to a puzzle, possibly before you realized there was one at all. Honestly, a lot of the time, using that term is being too generous. They're almost all tasks. You drag a thing to another place, pull a lever, sneeze and voila, you've opened one of countless secret passageways, activated a thing or the like. Even if they pose at least a little challenge, you're told the solution.
Enemies are a problem in every release by Frictional Games that I've played, which is all but SOMA. I do own it, and will get to it. How do you deal with them, do you even know they're there before it's too late, can or can't you fight them at all much less well, etc. Of course, they are always scary, as are any of the products as a whole. That remains. And this is the best handled of them. It's a lot like the Thief series. Can't see 'em? You'll hear a clear indication. Remain in the dark and don't make noise. Stay out of their way, let them patrol and avoid them, and you won't be discovered, much less attacked. If they do, you *will* have to Sprint, and determine where you should go. There are not that many, they're in too few areas, they're bad at catching you, and, frankly, at times they simply don't at all seem interested in doing so. It being logical, once you learn enough, does not excuse how much it hurts their potential for inspiring dread, which was significant until you saw that.
This has a ton of disturbing material, if gore does remain rare. I recommend this to any fan of survival horror. 7/10
You are Mandus(Longworth, restrictive). Butcher. You've made a name for yourself. And a lot of money. Serving the elite. Of course, how have you been to the poor? Indeed, how has everyone? And what does it all amount to, if you can't protect your own? You find almost no one around. Voices, however. The Engineer phones you when he can, directing you to start back up the huge, ominous thing, the crowning achievement of all your hard work. You find recordings of your meeting with The Professor, who you allowed to see some of the otherwise hidden beast. Both performed by Roper, anxious and curious, respectively. Rounding out the cast are your two children Enoch and Edwin(Craig, playing, as all 8-10-year-olds do), who, unfortunately since you hear from them a lot, aren't as well-acted. Little is creepier than kids, and you never lose sight of catching up to, and aiding, them as they invite you to join their merriment.
This does a solid job exploring many related themes. With the setting of industrialism, the approaching Great War, and the protagonist's hard-earned wealth in sharp focus, we go through sacrificing people's humanity, and for the regular people who were mere workers, well-being emotionally, and in too many cases, even their physical well-being, to where many were injured, even died. Because the rich wanted them to work harder, as their new wonders could. This is set before it was tempered with caring about the individual. Nihilism, humanity, altruism, guilt. The story brilliantly has you going back and forth between understanding the why, and being disgusted with the what and how.
The plot is told by a few means. Via flashbacks, now short and infrequent. The notes, silent, long, wordy and overly expository. And the aforementioned. It's bloated, yet vague. Reveals a lot with the intent to pave with good intentions the well-known road, while not all going together well. It does take place in the same universe. Builds on aspects you might not have expected. As a sequel, it changes what we thought we knew. Goes in a different direction. It remains body-horror that hints rather than shows... an example of the opposite might be something like Dead Space. A suffocating atmosphere. Gradual build. Audio, especially the unseen, including steps, violence and other recognizable events.
I will beat around the bush no longer. This does remove, not replace, not adjust, straight-up excise, a lot of the most beloved elements of The Dark Descent. Limited fuel for the lantern, albeit of course this has worked without fail in Silent Hill, which this bears numerous other similarities to, such as the recently abandoned familiar and comfortable, a warning of when danger is near, and a ton of mystery surrounding what's going on. Of course, it does lack the open areas, the combat and plenty to use it against, which one might so expect from this. The spotlight means you can see further, and appreciate the vast scope of the source that you're returning to.
Any lamp or candle you encounter, you can use, no need to count tinderboxes. They don't end up doing much, anyway. Resource management is entirely gone, letting you take it at your own pace, and see that this does not take away all the fear. Health regenerates, since you still wouldn't find any use at any point for the...Laudanum? They put that in their body? Repeatedly? Intentionally? Willingly? Man. No wonder these guys lose their minds.
I will argue that it does make sense. It mirrors the feeling and nature of your situation. However, I will admit that it is missed. The phenomenal physics interaction is now minimal. Heck, if you find something, you've probably just stumbled upon the solution to a puzzle, possibly before you realized there was one at all. Honestly, a lot of the time, using that term is being too generous. They're almost all tasks. You drag a thing to another place, pull a lever, sneeze and voila, you've opened one of countless secret passageways, activated a thing or the like. Even if they pose at least a little challenge, you're told the solution.
Enemies are a problem in every release by Frictional Games that I've played, which is all but SOMA. I do own it, and will get to it. How do you deal with them, do you even know they're there before it's too late, can or can't you fight them at all much less well, etc. Of course, they are always scary, as are any of the products as a whole. That remains. And this is the best handled of them. It's a lot like the Thief series. Can't see 'em? You'll hear a clear indication. Remain in the dark and don't make noise. Stay out of their way, let them patrol and avoid them, and you won't be discovered, much less attacked. If they do, you *will* have to Sprint, and determine where you should go. There are not that many, they're in too few areas, they're bad at catching you, and, frankly, at times they simply don't at all seem interested in doing so. It being logical, once you learn enough, does not excuse how much it hurts their potential for inspiring dread, which was significant until you saw that.
This has a ton of disturbing material, if gore does remain rare. I recommend this to any fan of survival horror. 7/10
