I have played many survival horror games over the years, but the two franchises most people know are Resident Evil and Silent Hill. This game does have elements of both of those franchises, but has enough of its own charm to stand strongly on its own merits. Though not perfect by any means; however, neither are many of the games in the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series. I prefer Silent Hill, myself, and I would say this game has more elements from that franchise than Resident Evil. The horror is intense and it is simply crazy as you just do not know what is going to happen next or where you are going to emerge at. That being said, I kind of knew what was going on, I would compare it to a film, but then that would give away a bit too much about the plot so I will not say what movie this kind of is reminiscent of if said movie had a horror slant to it.
The story has a detective and his partner along with a rookie detective driving on their way to a mental institution. When they get there, they go inside only to find a bloodbath as many officers and doctors and nurses lay about the place, dead. Well, the detective goes into a room and watches security footage of what is going on and soon finds himself face to face with a strange hooded man who incapacitates the detective who then awakens to find himself in some sort of slaughter house type setting. He must flee a chainsaw wielding maniac and slides down a blood soaked slide finding himself in the sewer where the maniac again chases him and the detective soon finds himself getting out of the mental hospital only to find himself in a crumbling city! All this happens before the title is shown! You then have to help the detective through a warped world where things can change at a moment's notice and where at times you seem to be in the past or in a hospital where a strangely creepy but attractive nurse resides.
The game play is a bit like The Last of Us or the Uncharted series as you can do sneak kills are go in, guns blazing. You can also hide in lockers or under beds, but beyond the opening scene where you must escape the chainsaw guy, I really did not see much need to utilize this feature. Like a lot of games that auto save, sometimes it does it quite frequently while other times you have to go over a rather large area all over again. This does not happen too often, but it is annoying when it does. You can also save in the strange hospital area with the nurse and this is where you can upgrade your equipment and weapons and yourself using this green liquid that you sometimes find in jars and sometimes can collect from fallen enemies. The game does let you adapt to what you like doing most as by the end I was shooting the enemies in the leg and then setting them on fire as a match is almost better than a bullet in this one!
So it was a rather fun game, but like most horror movies and games, it just fails to be good enough to rank a 10. This one, I played through, win the game and still have too many questions left unanswered. I believe many of these questions can be answered if I purchase DLC packs, but I just do not think I should have to purchase anything else after buying the game! What was the deal with the creepy but cute nurse? What was the deal with the detective and his wife and daughter that you kept getting strange snippets of during the game? Just a couple of questions that the ending of the game just ignores and leaves you hanging. Still, it was a good game that annoyed me at times and startled me a couple of times too so it did its job for the most part.
