Post Trauma

For me, this is a very very VERY light recommendation. Post Trauma was one of my most anticipated games for the year, and ultimately I feel pretty underwhelmed. It's almost exactly how I felt about Hollowbody, in terms of expectations and what I ended up getting. If you are someone that loved Hollowbody, then you will love this... but otherwise, maybe not.

This is a very Silent Hill 2 inspired game. It pretty much has all the same environments as 1 and 2 and 4 ( a school, a hospital, a train station), but it also takes many notes from the gameplay and atmosphere. This is a SLOW BURN of a game with a heavy emphasis on atmosphere and psychological horror... which ends up being a huge negative for me.

The issue is the pacing. Exactly like Hollowbody, you are essentially slowly moving through very sparse environments, solving one or two puzzles at a time. Combat is very rare, mostly its there for occasional variety and set dressing. But yea, this game is sparse.

You could argue that Silent Hill 1 and 2 are equally sparse, with lots of empty space, maybe one or two items per room. But I love those games. Here it just feels so empty and slow. It's maybe slightly tighter than Hollowbody, but I just don't get the point of building a game with tons of great art direction, only to sprinkle a couple interactive elements here and there. It just feels like a waste to me.

There's TONS of puzzle-only horror games I love - Tartarus Key, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Somnifuge, True Fear, etc. But those really know how to layer puzzles on top of each other so that you're always engaged and there's not much wasted real estate. It's a design decision that seems to borrow from the walking sim genre. If that's your thing, you'll enjoy this.