If you can't be arsed to watch the video or if I didn't mention it, Dreadout is a horror game based on Indonesian ghost stories so if nothing else we have quite a unique setting. I've played plenty of horror games based on Japanese folk tales or the more American style of horror of something terrible trying to cut you into little bits, but I know fuck all about Indonesian folk stories and ghosts so that alone was enough to draw me in.
The game starts out with a group of high school students and their teaching getting lost somewhere in Indonesia where they stumble across some kind of deserted town. The curious school kids run inside to explore and eventually come across an old school. The silent protagonist and her friend stay outside while her buddies go exploring and when they return one person's gone missing. Upon reentering to search, ghostly shit starts happening and the game begins for real.
Before I talk about the game play I HAVE to talk about the graphics because they suck to a degree that is actually shocking. If you have ever seen any games on the Xbox Live Arcade indie thing, it LOOKS like that. The characters just look fucking weird when moving and the environments look like something from an early PS2 game or worse. I'm aware it's a small indie developer working with what they can but they are terrible to the point where even someone like me, who cares very little for fancy graphics, had to raise and eyebrow and say "oh god".
The best way to describe Dreadout would be poor mans Project Zero (Fatal Frame). You walk around the school, solve puzzles and every so often you'll encounter a ghost which you must photo to death with your camera phone. At lost of the ghosts, however, won't die with camera power alone and you must solve a little puzzle or 2 to figure out how to off them once and for all. The camera is also used for a number of puzzles so it's a little more than just a weapon to fend of the nasties.
Combat is a big problem in this game though because it sucks a massive dick. There isn't much "real" combat as such and most ghosts are easy enough to stun away or flat out kill just by keeping a good distance and snapping when the little damage indicator comes up. There is one boss fight though which takes the absolute piss and almost ruins everything. The boss fight involves you being stuck in a small room with a ghost that you can't see without the camera being readied and once it takes a certain amount of damage it starts to frenzy. When it's mad, you have exactly ONE chance to snap it for damage otherwise it will stun lock you to death and there is fuck all you can do about it.
This leads to the games next big problem which is death. When you die, you don't get a simple game over or anything like that, you get sent to limbo. Limbo is a black screen with a big white thing at the other end that you run into in order to revive. The first time you die, the white thing is really close but each subsequent death makes it move further and further away. This becomes a pain 2 or 3 deaths in because you just want to try the fucking boss again but now you have to wait so that the developer can give you tips for things you already know or thank you for buying the game, which they could have fucking done in the credits. It's just obnoxious.
The other complaint I have about this game is that it's too fucking short. I was expecting a little more since a great deal of time passed between the demo and the final release and the two are totally different. Granted, the second act of the game is being provided as a free update but the game is like £15 on Steam and for a title this short and budget looking, £15 is a little steep.
To sum up, disappointment is what I feel for Dreadout. The Indonesian folklore setting was enough to get me excited for the game back when the demo and the demo was fun enough for me to want to buy the full thing. The full game however, is a mess of shitty puzzles and shitty combat and only takes a couple hours (if that) to beat. That said, I'm still looking forward to act 2 because I'm hoping that they will learn from the mistakes of this one and make the next act much better.
I can't recommend Dreadout while act 1 is still the only thing available since it's pricy for what it is, a bit crap and very short. If you see it in a steam sale for 75% off or something, absolutely grab it but until then you can play any of the much better horror games on Steam.
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