A game based on the works of Howard Lovecraft, which, with its lengthiness, bugs and poor optimization, balances between "I recommend!" and "LORD, DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME!"
In the role of a private detective, the player finds himself in a city that has been swallowed up by a flood. The streets are flooded, around fires, looters and a sea of violence. At the same time, creatures new to science appear in the city - which destroy people. Strange monoliths appear from the water, and people around go crazy! The economy is destroyed and more valuable than money is not gold, but cartridges!
And in this soup set, the player must not just survive - but survive, solve mysterious cases to find the missing, killed, and finally unravel the tangle of plot threads that will lead him to the source of the madness of the whole city.
Pros:
+ Many Easter eggs and references to the works of Howard Lovecraft.
+ Easter eggs and references to world works, movies, games.
+ Quality voice acting
+ Achievements
+ Collectible cards
+ Interesting plot
+ Ability to craft
+ Pumping the hero
+ A giant open city to explore!
+ Many houses can be entered
+ Minimum interface on the screen
+ Studying the map, to move around the city
+ Several types of opponents
+ Multiple hero weapons
Minuses:
- Terrible optimization
- Various bugs
- Voices can suddenly cut off and the player is left in silence
- Little background music while exploring the city
- Cardboard NPCs
- NPCs just spawn around the player while they are walking around the city - which makes the city not feel alive.
- The choice of the player does not affect anything
- Useless crafting system
- Useless idea with ammo
- Lack of shops, or the possibility of improving your inventory
- Costumes do not carry bonuses
- Several factions in the world - do not interact with each other in any way while exploring the world
- Monotony in the interiors of buildings
- The price of add-ons that cost almost as much as a game - but do not bring anything other than a costume and a couple of small tasks.
Total:
As I wrote above, the game is difficult to recommend due to a number of problems that the player will face. And if you discard the bugs, due to which you will sometimes restart the game, as well as remove bad optimization, due to which your top PC will produce unstable frames on a seemingly empty stage, then the game is still quite stuffy.
When all games restore the player's health for no reason, or while visiting certain places - this project, like a true survival game, laughs in your face and makes you collect garbage in search of components to create a first aid kit.
Are you used to the handy item wheel and weapon swapping? Here it is also made more inconvenient.
The game provides sanity that can drop during supernatural events - but in reality, it drops from everything. And the nightmares that appear in your inflamed brain are capable of killing a hero. Therefore, when fighting monsters, you need to not only watch the enemy himself, but also the health bar, the mind bar and the ammo counter. Oh yes - I forgot to mention that the game is serious and will not automatically reload your weapons. Therefore, when the cartridges in the clip run out, do not forget to hide and reload.
Enemies can deal damage both through objects and through walls. At the same time, parts of the monsters can get stuck in the entire environment - stretching to the entire level and causing damage to you if you hit them. Packing is a common enemy tactic - so you need to always be moving and maneuvering. But because of the strange, huge opponent's box - you can't escape if a small wieldbeast stands in the doorway. Although visually - there will be plenty of space for passage!
Tasks in the game do not mark the desired area for search, but give only an approximate location. Which the player must independently find on the city map and get to the place. And the idea of the project "The locals already know the city very well, therefore they refused to number the buildings" - makes the search for the required premises rather tedious and long.
It will be especially difficult for players who suffer from geographic cretenism and are able to get lost in three pines. Because the player does not have a mini-map to help navigate the city. Only a large map and route memory.
In addition to traveling on land, we will travel by water - by boat. Since many streets are flooded. And also - under water - in a diving suit.
And if on a boat, we have nothing to be afraid of, since the developers have removed opponents for transport. Then under the water we are waiting for the loss of reason, geothermal springs and the only monster that will try to destroy us.
The plot of the game is pretty good. But because of the gameplay, which slowly stretches all the action on the screen, the player quickly loses interest in it.
There is a hero upgrade in the game, but in fact they are pretty useless. Especially closer to the middle of the game - when the abundance of ammo and the power of weapons, displays a constant notification "NO PLACE" when collecting components.
The game seems to be difficult due to unbalanced gameplay, optimizations and bugs. Seems boring due to slow. And many players will abandon it in just an hour.
But if you don't give a damn about these problems and try to have fun, then the game will turn out to be quite excellent.
3.0