DreadOut (2014)

Although I partially picked up DreadOut because I heard some really good things about it and I liked the look of it, I found myself pretty impressed with the game. After recently not really enjoying another Indonesian horror game, Pamali, I was really looking forward to seeing if this title might fare better and it totally did. While the game definitely has some significant flaws that keep it from being truly amazing, DreadOut comfortably earns its four stars with unique and evocative atmosphere, aesthetics, and horror, held back only by sometimes-uneven gameplay and a confusing storyline.

I absolutely loved the presentation for this game. While the graphics sometimes look rough by modern standards, for an indie game in 2014, I think it actually looks quite impressive. I love the lighting and shadows in the game, especially the way they actually contribute to the art rather than obscure it, as is often the problem in horror games with a lot of darkness. The characters are distinct and well-designed, despite dressing quite similarly. The English dub is surprisingly pretty good (aside from a couple characters). I was going to use the Indonesian voices for more immersion at first, but I found the English dub really well-done and appealing so I stuck with it. Ira is especially well-acted and has multiple really amusing scenes including one early on when screwing with her best friend, our silent protagonist, Linda. I think the environments are similarly quite well-designed. Despite how many rather large areas there are in the game to explore, they all look unique and detailed. This is especially significant as I've played quite a bit of indie horror by now and they have a tendency to look alike due to relying on readily-available pre-made assets. The sound design as well is rather incredible and the general atmosphere is tangible enough that I found myself getting a little creeped out despite the fact I played this on stream and have at this point become jaded enough that most horror games don't get to me at all. The monsters also have some pretty great unique designs that are pretty disturbing and a significant contribution to the horror of it all. Though it was less on an atmospheric level, the lyrical songs playing during the title drop and credits were bangers.

The gameplay is a bit hit-or-miss. Survival Horror veterans will immediately recognize the influence of Fatal Frame given that the combat heavily involves using a camera to snap pictures of ghostly entities to damage them until they're banished. The difficulty mainly comes in having to track them as they creep around you, in and out of walls and obstacles. The camera system is far simpler than in Fatal Frame however with the ability to take pictures quite rapidly, limited only be somewhat annoyingly impossible to track i-frames. As well, there's no need to charge up spirit power or upgrade your camera. There's a decent amount of combat in the game, but it's simple enough that it's not super fun given it's usually alternating between too easy and frustrating because of the ways in which enemies do or don't abuse the limitations of the system.

Most of the game involves exploring the various creepy environments, looking for clues and solving puzzles. It's impressive how expansive the different areas are, especially for an indie game, but admittedly, it could be quite easy to get lost and feel like you have very little direction where to go and even though the game includes some helpers in this regard (Linda's journal has tips and the screen lights up when an interactable is nearby), I spent a lot of time wandering back and forth not sure what to do. That's part and parcel of many horror games, but it felt like it was too common and went on too long several times. A good half of my playtime was spent not really making progress and that made the game drag more than I'd like, though it didn't ruin it considering the game still only took me about 4 hours all-told. The puzzles themselves are mostly fine. Once you figure out where you need to be, usually they're not too hard, though it was often frustrating that the indicator for a nearby interactable seemed to pop up even if it was on the other side of a wall or something, causing me to stare at a lot of stuff for way too long when there wasn't anything accessible there.

The story of the game is probably one of my biggest issues. I've tried looking up info online and even the fan communities seem pretty lost on what the actual canon story is, what everything means, and how well any of their theories are even supported by the game. There is now a couple more games in the series (that I'm definitely going to play) that may help explain some things but it was a little frustrating finishing the game and feeling more confused about what was going on than when I started. That said, I did really like that you have a "ghostpedia" and files in the game that provides background on the creepy entities you encounter, many of which come from local folklore (and even a couple I recognized from Pamali!), providing some sense of intriguing micro-narrative. While the actual plot is somewhat incomprehensible, I did still feel like the scenes and execution were pretty good. The game is surprisingly rather cinematic and engaging. I should also note that when I say the story was confusing, I generally mean the "why" and the "what really happened" of it. The basic premise and interactions between the characters are mostly pretty easy to follow, at least for most of the game. The scene near the end when you're talking with Ira is especially quite cool and creepy.

All in all, I found this game really impressive in general. But as an indie horror game, I was kind of floored. That's in no way to imply indie games can't be "good" of course, only that some of the ways in which DreadOut excels are just not things you'd expect from a smaller budget. There is a sense in which the game is simple and could use polish, and the playtime is pretty short. But there's a lot of it that feels really well-done and fleshed out in a way I don't see often in indie horror. I wish the issues I had with the game weren't as significant as they were, but I really enjoyed my brief time with DreadOut and really look forward to playing the rest of the series (and hopefully following their stories a bit better).

I had low expectations going in--I anticipated a cheap Fatal Frame ripoff--but I quickly got my hopes up. DreadOut has great atmosphere, the kind where even when I knew something was coming, I still jumped. It has a great, spooky setting and very memorable ghosts. The more I read memos and ghostpedia entries, the more excited I was to watch the story come together. It never did. There's tons of potential here, but it's barely explored. It's as if Digital Happiness began a story in act one, then forgot it actually needed to be developed until they needed to slap an ending on the game.

So why does it get three stars out of my customary four despite that? Aside from the fact that I rounded up, it gets higher marks because the atmosphere and setting are things DreadOut consistently does well, and I enjoyed playing through once just to experience them. It failed as a game, but as a walking sim where I took pictures of ghosts, I enjoyed* myself. I'm glad I didn't pay full price--in addition to the lack of developed story, there's bugs that still haven't been fixed and a considerable lack of polish (the number of typos is staggering), and as things stand, the game's simply not worth a full $20. But while I was disappointed, I didn't feel my time had been entirely wasted. If you're interested, you may want to pick it up on sale just to experience it once.

*I didn't have the same problems with most of the bosses that other players have reported on Steam, but the final boss had me using profanity I didn't even know I knew. It's not that the fight is difficult so much as it's extremely annoying. If you're the kind of gamer who breaks controllers, you may want to steer clear of this one.