Those who explore more as they play will be able to find clues as to how to solve these puzzles, or non-subtle visual cues strewn throughout the environment. It’s a simple system that distils risk-reward to its purest components, but it works very well in a game like this.Īs with most horror games, there are numerous puzzles to solve throughout the village in DreadOut, and most of them are pretty well designed and not just thrown in for the sake of having puzzles. The idea behind the game is pretty simple, and also similar to Fatal Frame – the game rewards players for letting the ghosts get closed before taking a photo of them by doing more damage to said ghost. Linda is armed with a smartphone, which she can use to light up the area as well as take photos of ghosts.
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It keeps you on your toes, essentially.Īnyone who has experience with the Fatal Frame/Project Zero series will know how DreadOut plays. Most good horror games manage to use their scores to instil dread and fear into the player – and there were many times in DreadOut where I would ponder whether a distant noise was part of the game’s moody soundtrack or an actual occurrence in-game. It feels quite similar to Akira Yamaoka’s work, but significantly less polished in terms of production and with a uniquely localised Indonesian tinge. The soundtrack mixes some ominous and ambient tracks with some heavier, yet subdued guitar pieces. There are little games that have a soundtrack similar to this – though the closest one would have to be the relatively unknown Cursed Mountain, featuring some very sombre Gong-like instrumentation. While the voice work is cheesy (as most would expect from a game of this calibre), the soundtrack is particularly effective at establishing a brooding atmosphere. The strongest element of DreadOut’s presentation is easily the score.
That being said, it’s worth commending the team for not reusing asses throughout the story as almost every area, texture and model was entirely unique – right down to signage posted around the area. One could argue that this is more of an attempt to appeal to the “old-school” style of horror games where everything wasn’t clean, crisp and in high definition, but it does result in a very ugly game. Textures are muddy and Linda doesn’t really move or animate as fluidly as she should – this is particularly noticeable when Linda is “reacting” to scary things in the game – where the animations seem to be awkward and disjointed. Running on a simple Unity engine, DreadOut does not look very good at all, even on a good setup. On a technical level, the game already suffers from very dated visuals. This combination gives much greater weight to the game’s “scares” too. The village Linda explores is very much deserted, and most players will feel some discomfort as they explore the village – through a combination of miserable and dilapidated visuals along with a very well thought out soundtrack. When talking about DreadOut, it’s important to highlight the two major ways in which DreadOut presents itself – on a more ambiguous, non-tangible atmospheric level, and on a technical level.įor the former, DreadOut is one of the most atmospheric horror games I’ve ever played. While the game’s pacing is pretty well done, there are some pretty common horror tropes exhibited here that many hardcore fans will roll their eyes at, but on the whole the writing and the story is pretty well focused – for what we’ve got here in the first act anyway. This isn’t to say that the “journey” through Act One is unenjoyable – in fact – it’s pretty fantastically paced, but many people might feel unsatisfied at how much of the story has been obviously left out for a future iteration of Act Two. Part One offers an interesting storyline, but it definitely leaves the player wanting more.
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Upon investigation, it becomes clear that there is much more to the town that meets the eye, as numerous ghosts start to appear at night time, and Linda herself feels as if there is something happening within her relevant to all the goings-on.ĭreadOut will be delivered in three parts – Part One, Part Two and a Free Roam mode. The story follows Linda and a group of her friends, who come across a deserted village that isn’t on their map. The game itself was developed through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, and was built on a budget of approximately US$29,000.
As such, it features a lot of references to Indonesian folklore and mythology, which in itself is unique and refreshing considering these themes have not been explored to great extent in previous games. DreadOut is a survival horror game designed and developed in Indonesia.