DisturbedSwan Posted October 13, 2017 Share Posted October 13, 2017 Played the first 80 minutes or so. Incredibly impressed so far, it has actually managed to exceed my expectations. Got quite a jarring start to it, Kidman randomly shows up and puts you back into Stem, telling you about your daughter (who knew?) being stuck in there. It's just all incredibly convenient and I'm sure Mobius is upto some Shenanigans, they're definitely using Sebastian for something...don't trust them at all. Things go wrong pretty much as soon as you enter Stem, Spoiler you don't enter the idyllic little test town that Kidman promised you but some nightmare. It's all incredibly Silent Hill, and actually a bit Twin Peaks too with the red drapes and black/white flooring in some places, definitely some Bioshock in there too. You make your way through this incredibly creepy old hotel trailing this Photographer guy, all whilst dodging dead Mobius agents trapped in time loops. A freako soon turns up and an exhilarating chase sequence ensues, and that's the end of that sequence (for now). You then find yourself in Union proper, and are funnelled into an extended tutorial, meeting some of the zombie-like enemies similar to the first game. And that's pretty much where I left it. But yeah, I'm incredibly impressed so far, the atmosphere is just absolutely horrific and the whole small foggy town vibe really reminds me of Silent Hill, I just love the way they mess with you as well through the Stem-delusions, so great to just have no idea what the fuck is going on some of the time. Oh and the graphics are a HUGE step-up from the first game, I never subscribed to the idea that the first game looked bad necessarily, but looking back on it now it was incredibly dated, just looking at the character models and lighting in the new Steam engine (modified IDTech 5), it's such a huge step up. The frame-rate has been a pretty solid 60hz but I have had a few dips to 57 or so at times, seems solid enough though to not notice for me. Some pics too: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 13, 2017 Author Share Posted October 13, 2017 Shame @Nag I do think you'd lap this up, it's so different to the first game it's crazy really, RE2's Raccoon City to RE1's Spencer Mansion if you get me. So yeah, played another 3 hours earlier, really got stuck into it. It's kind of crazy really. It's so original in lots of ways, the feel of it whilst you're sneaking around is pretty unique but it definitely ape's RE2's Raccoon City, along with Silent Hill, Left 4 Dead, Bioshock, Alan Wake, Twin Peaks and even Dead Rising, never expected to be saying that! I really didn't expect the exploration side of things to come into the fore, I've found myself looting through houses and exploring every nook and cranny I can. I've been down roads and entered buildings where I'm not quite sure I'm meant to be in and used shock bolts combined with water to take down a gang of enemies like Bioshock, it really is such a mish-mash but still manages to feel unique. It's just such an interesting experience. You have this clear survival horror vibe running through everything you do but then you're free to fully explore this town (Union) in pretty much anyway you see fit, you can find hidden supplies, weapon cache's, Mobius signals and all sorts that you might not of even though of it. I was able to climb upto the roof of a building during my play-session earlier and just look out over a few areas of the town and all the enemies below going about their routines. I managed to kill a gang of enemies using the shock bolts of the agony crossbow combined with some water (that was conveniently placed on the ground) and felt like an absolute badass whilst doing so. After this I discovered a few derailed train carriages (which of course reminded me of RE0) to explore. The game played tricks with me here, reintroducing the Photographer antagonist from earlier and setting enemies on me when I least expected it. Where the Dead Rising influence comes into play is from the side-quests involved in collecting missions. I followed a signal to an auto-shop in the town, entered and investigated to find a few residual memories (or whatever they call it) which are like old memories playing on repeat. Sorted stuff here and was hunted by a few enemies whilst searching the supply areas but never experienced nothing to crazy. It's kind of weird how I haven't found the game more difficult thus far, I'm playing on the hardest difficulty available (nightmare) and have only used 1 health syringe in the game thus far. Unlike the first game, it auto saves regularly and you can save-scum a bit at the save houses as they fully replenish your health with a mug of coffee. Its just got such a different vibe to the first game. Such a Silent Hill Homecoming/Dead Rising/RE2 vibe where you're free to explore the entirety of this town and discover all the nasties around to your hearts content. I really dig it, I love exploring areas and when you combine this with a horror game you never know what's around the next turn. Some pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 16, 2017 Author Share Posted October 16, 2017 Played another 4 hours today, 8 total. Finally managed to drag my arse out of Chapter 3 towards the end of my session, must've spent about 5-6 hours in that chapter alone! Just TONS of stuff to do and places to explore. I just got utterly lost in exploring every nook and cranny of Union that was accessible to me, finding precious supplies, killing tons of enemies and getting into some pretty weird situations with some ethereal beings of some kind. Most here probably know I absolutely love games that push you to enter a new house or open a door to see what goodies are inside and this has this in abundance, it just has some traps you've got to look out for and when you get overwhelmed by enemies you might as well reload a save. Most of all though, I love it when the game plays with you. Sometimes you enter houses to explore and really weird shit happens, and I just love that feeling of not being in control, taken to this completely different realm and you're just along for the ride, fully submissive to a particular ethereal master for a period of time, you know the game (and the master/mistress in charge) is just toying with you, but there's nothing you can do about it apart from escape the nightmare they've put you in like a good little puppet. It's just such a fantastic setting, I loved that about the first game too, this completely artificial realm run by someones own thoughts and visions, bending you to their will and toying with your expectations, experiences, memories and reality along the way. I have felt that the game has been a little too easy so far though, that may sound like bravado considering I'm playing on the hardest difficulty setting, but using save-scumming and the safe houses to regularly top up my health I have rarely been caught in a bind. If I feel an encounter with enemies could've gone better I'll usually just reload the last auto-save and try again until I get the best result, preserving the most bullets and health in the process, I don't remember the first game auto-saving as much as this? I think it had it, but only before key encounters or boss encounters if my memory serves correctly. I've also found the texture pop-in incredibly jarring, it does kind of go with the setting, as the world you're in is falling apart at the seems, but even so it has been a little jarring in rare instances. But yeah, I think it's safe to say I'm utterly besotted by this, it has still managed to exceed every expectation I had for it and I truly manages to surprise and amaze me at almost every turn. I'm still early in so things could change, but for now I'd have no issues saying this is one of my favourite horror games of all time. A couple of pics: Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 Difficult one really @Nag this is going to sound like bravado but I rarely get properly scared by horror games anymore. This definitely has its moments. When it goes into these strange nightmarish sequences at the beginning of the game or when you're exploring a random house in Union it can be quite scary, not incredibly so but enough to put me on edge and freak me out a little. But the sections where you're just left to your own devices to explore Union aren't scary at all, no more so than something like Dead Rising I'd say, the music and atmosphere do keep you just about on your toes and if you get jumped by an enemy you can be startled but I wouldn't say I hated exploring at all and felt like I had to run back to the safe rooms, quite the contrary actually, I felt I could spend as much time as I liked exploring and didn't feel particularly worried about doing so. The only times I was on edge was when I entered a house, as things could go very weird very quickly but yeah, just exploring Union isn't really scary at all. The standard enemies are the RE4 zombie-types that the first game had ('The Fallen' or something?) aren't scary in the slightest, it's only really the boss-type enemies that freak you out visually though there are a couple of standard enemies that get introduced a little later which are a little more unsettling. So yeah, not really as scary as something like Outlast 2 and nowhere near as oppressive as that game, but still got a good air of tension about it and the nightmarish sequences are genuinely freaky in places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regemond Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 14 hours ago, Blakey said: I have felt that the game has been a little too easy so far though... but using save-scumming and ... If I feel an encounter with enemies could've gone better I'll usually just reload the last auto-save and try again until I get the best result, preserving the most bullets and health in the process... Does this not defeat the majority of the difficulty in and of itself? So if you'd played the game 'properly', rather than reloading every time you make a minor mistake, it would introduce further tension and difficulty, as well as have you potentially stuck looking for more ammo? Therefore also increasing the fear factor @Nag is looking for? I get why you'd play it this way, as I'm not great at survival horror myself, but it seems like you're kind of cheating yourself out of the experience the devs set to make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 4 hours ago, regemond said: Does this not defeat the majority of the difficulty in and of itself? So if you'd played the game 'properly', rather than reloading every time you make a minor mistake, it would introduce further tension and difficulty, as well as have you potentially stuck looking for more ammo? Therefore also increasing the fear factor @Nag is looking for? I get why you'd play it this way, as I'm not great at survival horror myself, but it seems like you're kind of cheating yourself out of the experience the devs set to make. I guess it defeats some of the difficulty, as if things go particularly tits up you can reload and have another go, but the Devs have put that in there so I can't really be blamed for save-scumming if they put the system in the game. Could've easily stuck to the save system of the first game but I guess they wanted to make it a little more forgiving for newcomers. I do it in all sorts of games so as soon as I realised I could abuse the system a bit in this I took advantage of it. I'm not too bad with it, it's only if I waste a ton of ammo or get reduced to very low health by being stupid then I'll reload, if I've just used a few more bullets than I should've done or taken some damage then I won't bother, you should've seen me with Dishonored 2! I actually think the coffee stations in the safe houses are a bigger crutch, I'm on chapter 6 now and I've only used 2 or 3 syringes in 11 hours, with a full case of syringes and a med kit in my inventory. That's because coffee fully replenishes your health, so if you limp back to the safe house with low health you know you can just get back to 100% with the coffee, they do take awhile to recharge, but even so, it has been a bit of a crutch. They say Nightmare in this is more like Normal (survival?) in the first game, so maybe I was just expecting a little too much in terms of difficulty. No big deal anyway, the game is bloody incredible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 I like to support games like this day 1 as I want more AAA single player survival horror games and a TEW2 sequel to finish the trilogy. It's pretty much just this and RE7 keeping the torch lit, every other franchise has got cancelled, even the once mighty Silent Hill I got it as a late Birthday present though, but happily would've paid the £27 for it myself if it came to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 I'm pretty sure @Blakey was a "screen looker" back in the day. Cheating cunt. I understand save scumming in some strategy games as when it goes tits up the actual game might end. But in linear action games like this you shouldn't need to do it, if you do the game isn't well design. I'm trying to remember if the early Resident Evils forced me to do it but i don't think i did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 I know @Nag I wasn't having a go, I know there's a ridiculous amount of games coming out at the moment and we all place our bets on the ones we think we'll enjoy the most etc. I'm just very sad that AAA SP games are dying out, and after an Indie-led revival of the Survival Horror genre it's now dying again in the AAA space Haha @Duck well if it's in there then I'll take advantage of it, that's the way I see it, I'm worse at it in games where you can save/quick-save at any time, this just auto-saves a bit too often and contains multiple auto-save spots I think. I am half-tempted to play it again in AKUMU (or whatever they call it) just to see how they handle the saves. Alien: Isolation is probably the best save system I've encountered in a modern Survival horror game, making saves and the act of saving itself feel like genuine life-or-death scenarios, god I loved that game. RE7 was (mostly) excellent in this regard too, although there was a few too many cassette recorders towards the end of that for my liking if I remember rightly. First RE I remember playing as a kid was the Code Veronica on PS2, I remember being so spooned out by that game, having to get the ink ribbon for the type writer and stuff don't think I ever even made it to the first boss in the REmake either. Anyhoo, back to TEW2. Put in another 3 hours earlier, 11 total, now up to Chapter 6. Chapters 4-6 were pretty bonkers really, and things have gone back to being rather linear like TEW1 for the time being. Spoiler There's this underground tunnel system under Union which enables you to get to different parts of the town even though they're all cut up and and floating in the air and shit, you're tasked with getting to a new access point to this underground system 'The Marrow' and getting to City hall where the antagonist has kidnapped your daughter. I'd explored a small part of The Marrow earlier on, being rewarded with the shotgun for my curiosity, but here it was part of the main story and in a completely different part of the tunnels compared to before. Slowly made my way through and had a gauntlet type area where a load of enemies come flying at you and you have to survive, all very RE4, but I managed it after a few attempts only to be led into a really unexpected first-person stealth section (unable to use guns due to a gas leak) which was a very cool change of pace. Once I got to City Hall I knew I was in for a boss fight, and sure enough, the hulking mess that was stalking me at the very beginning of the game I now had to fight. Took me a while to get the hang of it, her sawblade kept cleaving my head clean off but using the traps dotted around and plenty of bullets I managed to put her down. I entered the city hall itself and this is really where the fun began, the Photographer antagonist from the beginning makes you his puppet again and you go through an increasingly creepy amount of dark hallways and strange 'art exhibits' before turning on a Switch whilst being hunted by a weird creature with an old Bellows Camera for a head. Made my way out and back into The Marrow to continue on my journey, meeting some really weird spunky looking creature (honestly!) down there and unexpectedly meeting a friendly face along the way... Absolutely loved it all, it just continues to amaze me, the action stuff in the underground, then being messed with by the weird antagonist again in Spoiler City Hall, it is just so fantastic, I really didn't want to put it down. Some pics: Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskey_chaser Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 I wish I was better with scary games, but i'm such a massive wimp i'd never get through the first 20 minutes. No idea why as I find most horror films dull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regemond Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 1 hour ago, Chimay said: I wish I was better with scary games, but i'm such a massive wimp i'd never get through the first 20 minutes. No idea why as I find most horror films dull. It's the control. At least it is for me. Watching a film, that's happening to someone else, there's not as much tension, it's a passive experience. With games it's under your control, it's kind of happening to you. Makes it much worse. I've only ever finished Silent Hill 2 and the first Evil Within when it comes to scary games. I've watched the wife play plenty of them though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 Played another 3 hours earlier, 14 total, now up to Chapter 9. Bit of a mixed bag today really, as soon as I exited the safe house and saw I had another mini-open world to explore I was a bit like 'oh, this again?' Not really sure why I felt that way as I loved exploring the previous iteration but I guess I just didn't expect to be doing it so soon after 3 linear chapters is all. But yeah, once I pulled up my sleeves and got on with the job at hand I still had a lot of fun. The difficulty has definitely gone up though, I was doing my usual thing, just exploring when I got pulled into a side-quest to help someone out. It was one of those 'protect the person' kind of deals where he had a health bar and you had to kill all the Fallen around him before he died. First couple of times I tried it I was getting properly battered by everything, it's an overwhelming number of enemies to face at ones, I had to use my med kit for the first time and a couple of syringe's before dying. Restarted and finally managed to get a knack to it, using the oil drums to set them on fire and the (limited) shock/exploding bolts I had for the Crossbow to stomp and blow them all to pieces. But yeah, that was damn tough, tougher than the first boss fight I thought which is odd, but pleased I managed it. The first boss comes back to life and now decided to stalk you everywhere you go in this part of Union. So you can come out of a safe house or a home you've just finished exploring and then feel your controller vibrating, knowing you'll have to leg it with everything you've got as soon as you come out to avoid being sawed in half. Definitely makes things more tense as you're exploring the place. Found a ton more ammo pouches, bullets and whatnot, did another side mission for the guy I rescued back in The Marrow which involved turning on a server then absolutely legging it back to the safe room . This was very handy indeed as it opened up a lot of the supply crates I'd seen dotted around this part of town, meaning I was absolutely chock full of stuff by the time I got back to the main story at hand. The main story stuff was great. You go to the Spoiler Theatre and the Photographer guy won't let you in until you've 'studied' 2 pieces of his Art dotted around the town. Both of these pull you into the weird art gallery area that was at the beginning of the game, it basically wants you to nick a key to get into a room where a gruesome piece of art is, all whilst being chased by Fallen and/or some big skulking monster abomination. Once I'd destroyed both these pieces of art I was let into the theatre and there was TONS of story cutscenes mixed in with some weird art gallery sections and a surreal Batman: Arkham scarecrow/The Void in Dishonored here which culminated with my second boss fight. This gave me some trouble initially. He has this attack where he sneaks up on you and knifes you, this wouldn't really be an issue ordinarily but these knife attacks do TONS of damage, 1 or 2 of these and I was dead. Took me about 3 or 4 tries before I finally put him down, had to use a med kit and a couple of syringes in the process but I eventually got there, the shotty seemed really effective against him and they seem to encourage using it with little spots of ammo dotted around the boss arena. Watched the cutscene after the fight was over and called it a day. Whilst I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep last night Clair de Lune was playing in my ears definitely got my hooks in me and I can't stop thinking about it, I was a little disappointed with today's session but thing's are looking incredibly interesting with the story going forward. Some pics: Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 19, 2017 Author Share Posted October 19, 2017 That's the sneaking animation, I usually do it for photos so I can fit more of the screen (and more of Sebastian's ass ) in the shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Had a killer migraine all day so by the time it went off I only managed to squeeze in 2 hours, 16 total. Up to Chapter 11. I don't really, it was probably the migraine still affecting me more than anything but I didn't have too good a time with it really, you're led straight into a new Antagonist, and put into this Church catacomb-type locale with plenty of enemies, was almost a direct sequel to the Church level in the first game and some of it looked like DOOM, so I'm thinking there may of been a bit of asset overlap? Who knows. Anyway, this locale just didn't do it for me really, I thought it was a bit dull compared to the game up to that point, lacking in any colour, and just made me think I was back in the first game rather than this one. Things definitely got a bit better after I got out of the Church catacombs, I awakened to find I randomly Spoiler had a new female ally fighting alongside me? That was incredibly random, even for this. Things went very RE4 where we had to defend a room of incoming enemies, before a long stealth section which included new fire-zombies that light up and down at will so they're harder to sneak up on. Made me way back to The Marrow with Spoiler my new ally and to the nearest safe-house and called it a day. So yeah, a mixed bag really, I guess I feel after the end of Chapter 9 it has been a bit of an anticlimax and not really pushed on in the way I would've liked, no idea how far in I am, but my gut tells me I'm probably 2/3 in now. A couple of pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 22, 2017 Author Share Posted October 22, 2017 Finished this earlier, took me 22 hours in total according to Steam. It was a really great ride, and surprisingly emotional at times towards the end. I still think it really loses a lot of momentum after the first Antagonist is put to rest. The game struggles to find its footing and rushes to make you pissed at these two new antagonists for the rest of the game, but their whole aesthetic and art style were nothing compared to Stefano for me, he just had such a Sander Cohen (Bioshock) vibe to me, this mad artist, tons and tons of personality and I loved the way he messes with you. But the gruff Preacher afterwards is a bit of a damp squid and his locales feel incredibly recycled from the first game. There's some really cool throwbacks to Resi in there, one of the chapters has you exploring some of the Mobius laboratories and they looked and felt SO like some of the shady underground Umbrella labs from that series, some of the action elements, melodrama and monster designs felt much more aligned to RE in this than the first game too. Up until Chapter 9 I was incredibly besotted with it, but that lull in the middle hurts the whole pace of things significantly and if the last 3-4 chapters hadn't been as good as they were then I think I would've ended up enjoying the first game a hell of a lot better. I won't spoil the shenanigans that happen in Chapter 14, but let's just say if you loved/played the first game then I think you'll adore this chapter Spoiler It ends pretty much how you expect when you first start the game but with some little twists and turns along the way, there's a underlying theme of sacrifice to pretty much all the games key plot points and it's no different at the end. What surprised me too was how beautiful the final level was, it's the huge snowy landscape with the music swelling up and seeming to ponder on the wind, you're free to gradually make your way through this and then eventually to the house on the hill to await your fate. There's this incredibly kickass segment where you control Kidman breaking out of Mobius (all very Umbrella again), ducking behind cover and shooting a ton of Mobius agents to rescue Sebastian and Lily from STEM, just such a nice touch. Comparing this to the first game, the technical side is night and day really, the first game was pretty rough around the edges in places, looked like the cross-gen game it was and the frame-rate struggled a lot on certain platforms. This feels SO much smoother, I was able to run it at a consistent 60 on PC but I understand console versions run at a pretty stable 30 most of the time. I do think it's much more accessible to newcomers as well, the lower difficulties added (although I personally haven't tried them) seem to cater much more to newcomers and the semi-open world design allows new players to get the hang of all the mechanics and enemies at play without being penalised for it. Where it falls short to the first game is boss fights and monster design. It's just nowhere near as memorable a tale either, certain heart-stopping moments like facing Laura, the Keeper et al. in the first game and how fucking fantastic those fights were, how tense they were just aren't present in this at all. There are a few boss fights, and the one against Stefano is by far and away the standout of the game (the final boss' monster design is great too) but they just don't feel anywhere near as memorable or menacing as the first game. It's odd, I was really expecting to be sitting here typing this saying that I much preferred the first game and that this isn't quite as good. But I don't feel that way now, as mentioned above I feel like the first game is more memorable in terms of locales and enemy designs, but that game had a lot of rough edges and certain mechanics that not many folk were willing to put up with to get to the end, whereas with this it's a much easier, less stuffy story (and experience) to get stuck into. It's much more forgiving and eases you into this mad world rather than throwing you in the deep-end and hoping you can swim in the first game. So I really like both, but in different ways, I felt like the first was more of a harrowing ride through hell, whereas this was more of a Liam Neeson style revenge action-flick with horror elements. So yeah, there's still nothing quite like TEW really, I really am so very pleased we still have games like this around, it hearkens back to Resi a lot more than TEW1 I thought, maintains a much more consistent vision, feels a more confident, less schizophrenic game and players of RE will definitely get more of a kick out of this. It really is a gem. Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regemond Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 7 hours ago, Blakey said: there's still nothing quite like TEW really, I really am so very pleased we still have games like this around, it hearkens back to Resi a lot more than TEW1 I thought, maintains a much more consistent vision, feels a more confident, less schizophrenic game and players of RE will definitely get more of a kick out of this. I bought it on release to play through with the wife (ie I play, she watches) but haven't had a chance to start it up yet. Gonna send her this quote to see if it makes her want to give it a go rather than me. She might be able to get past the tougher - modern - mechanics if it feels a bit like an old school survival horror. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted October 23, 2017 Author Share Posted October 23, 2017 yeah that really made me giggle when it popped up after the credits @Nag great reference back to the first game. Nice one @regemond you should be ok to play, now I've finished it, I'd say the entire last half of the game is barely scary at all really, there's a couple of moments here and there really but primarily all the scares come in the first half of the game. When I said about hearkening back to Resi I meant in terms of themes, enemy designs and locales really, all the controls feel very similar to RE4 and TEW1 just a bit tighter and more refined in places, there are a couple of puzzles in there but that's it really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regemond Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 Nah it's not for scary purposes I don't want to play it, just trying to spark the little geek inside her that likes gaming. If the themes grab her she might be able to work through the bits in this that she couldn't get to grips with in the first one. Other than that I'm just waiting for her to give the go ahead to play it. Not looking forward to spreading my time between that AC:O and Wolfenstein from next week though... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikzilla Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 I had a great time with The Evil Within 2. Story is dumb as fuck, but the stealth action and weird horror was great. Will definitely be playing again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikzilla Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 I quite enjoyed the Duran Duran cover. Not sure why because it’s crap, but for some reason I liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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