When I first saw this game, I thought it might be interesting playing what sounded like a survival horror game in a full 2D environment and figured I'd give it a try. I saw only the 2nd game really recommended and wasn't sure if it was as much of a direct sequel to the first game so I played it without bothering with the first one. In retrospect, I kind of wish I'd played the first one first as they do seem somewhat related (I saw there's at least one recurring character), but I can say I didn't feel like I had a hard time following anything, the story is fully independent and complete with just this entry.

The Coma 2 has us following Mina Park, a highschooler whose best friend, Youngho (I constantly kept forgetting he was her friend and not her brother for some reason) has recently fallen into a coma and she's been visiting him at the hospital regularly. The very beginning of the game, we're in the real world, dealing with a short tutorial of the inventory, map, and traversal systems at Mina's school, which also introduces us to her other close friend, Da-hyun and a couple other students. It's not long before Mina is sucked into a sort of nightmare realm version of the school full of monsters, traps, and all manner of grossness. This realm is called "The Coma" and seems to have drawn her in due to her proximity to Youngho. The rest of the game sees her attempting to escape numerous enemies, including a vicious pursuer enemy who loves to one-hit kill you. The game isn't confined to the school entirely and you go to several other areas with their own distinct feel, cast, and relevant lore and ghost stories.

The gameplay I found generally interesting. The game uses a few simple mechanics to making things interesting and allow you to dodge monsters, despite the fact most of the game is side-scrolling with no jump button or anything, mainly just run and dash. That said, the gameplay is generally quite simple and the majority of the monsters are avoided if you just hold the run button (though there is a rather strict and punishing stamina system if you rush too much). Interacting with most objects in the world requires a short QTE that can make things tense when you're trying to escape a nearby threat. If you are spotted, you can hide under tables, or in lockers. The less cover you have and the lower your stamina is when you reach the hiding spot, the more difficult the QTE to hold your breath. While it was certainly nothing fancy and in a lot of ways was overly simplistic, I really enjoyed the gameplay for what it was. It was a nice way to keep the game from JUST feeling like a 2D walking sim without having too much frustration or challenge that it slowed down my progression. The rest of the gameplay is fairly similar to a lot of survival horror games, revolving around inventory management and navigating a twisting map with locked doors in need of keys and puzzles in need of codes.

My only real complaint with the gameplay was that the balance pacing was odd. The beginning of the game I felt overflowing with items, my inventory would fill up quickly and I'd still have access to like 8 different healing items I could pick up even though I'd yet to use even one. It felt like maybe the resources management aspect was really deemphasized by just giving you so much stuff you never have to make tough decisions. Later in the game however, while it rarely ever got very "hard," the items were suddenly way rarer, which seemed odd compared to the breeze of the early game.

I found the narrative generally pretty strong. Most of the characters aren't overly complex, but they're well-defined and mostly comprise the "ghost vigilantes," a small group of other humans currently navigating the horrors of the Coma. Yaesol is the main one you interact with and I generally appreciated her, even if it was a little silly that she was a serious character who keeps pens and scissors in her thigh holsters. The lore and world are pretty well-defined and easy to follow. The game has a good number of notes with a lot of text that provide background on the different characters you meet and the nature of the Coma itself, as well as foreshadowing the eventual twists later on. Several of the sections also feature a sort of side quest in which you gather supplies for crafting an item to help you. I believe completing these was how you avoid taking permanent damage that sometimes occurs at the end of the chapters, which was a neat little mechanic to add in and made the side quests feel much more connected and worthwhile in-world, rather than some random task Mina is doing simply because she's in a video game.

The game isn't super scary, but I found the horror experience pretty good. There's definitely a real gloom and dread that hangs over each of the various buildings you explore and the ghastly circumstances of being trapped in the Coma inspire a real sense of dread. I also found some of the chases fairly tense and heart-racing, even if it was a little annoying that much of the time, getting caught at all means instant death with no autosaves. While I haven't delved into a ton of Korean horror previously, something about the aesthetic definitely fits what I've seen of it, which is also cool to add to the experience.

All in all, this is one of those games I don't think is incredible or groundbreaking in most senses, but I just simply really enjoyed the experience of playing and can't help but rate it very positively. I played about one major section per night every night for much of a week until I beat it and I found myself really looking forward to playing it each night, which is how I know I've got a winner. I wouldn't really recommend it for everyone, or even every horror fan, but I found it to be a gem of a title that I'm considering replaying sometime. It definitely sold me on picking up the first game which I'm already looking forward to starting sometime soon.