The game isn't bad, it's just pedestrian. I'm a third of way through (assuming there're 14 or 15 chapters) and I haven't been scared once, not a single damn "boo-ahhhhhhhh" moment. I also don't find the atmosphere all that tense either as most enemies can be circle strafed into oblivion. Even the prepackaged mob assaults are easily managed by repositioning yourself from the crowd of enemies and using the copious number of traps placed within each level.
I have to agree with this sentiment.
I don't really feel any creepy sense of tension or anxiety from this game at all. And I think the problem is that it's because I have no context for any of the locations in the game, the enemies in question or their design/look or any aspect of the narrative whatsoever.
I'm starting to think that they designed the set pieces and environments first because they thought half collapsed and run down gothic locations (and hospitals) are 'scary' environments because that's supposed to be scary.
Then they decided to make the characters detectives because, you know,
cops, and they couldn't put a cohesive narrative together that had it all make sense.
So they plugged in a generic psychological horror story where things don't have to make sense or be in any cohesive order because it's all someone's psychosis and nothing has to have any structure. It'll get told in pieces and you can put it all together later.
So much effort went into the art design and I don't really care about any of it. I'm completely apathetic to all of the atmospheric elements of the game.
What I'm left with is an action-horror shooter where I'm killing nondescript and uninteresting monsters in a combat engine that isn't good enough to make up for the underwhelming aspects of the game.
I've just come across some asshole with a box on his head, and I already know he's going to be yet another Pyramidhead clone. Which is another problem with this game: it's reliance on boss encounters. When there is only one way out of a corner and you know what it is, the scenario becomes an exercise in trial and error. Tension gone. For a horror game, that's a failure.
This game is something like 'Resident Evil 4 meets Silent Hill 2', but it's not nearly as effective as either one of them.
This is, exactly as Magician put it, a pedestrian effort. And I think the reason for this is because they worried too much about turning off gamers by not giving them enough of the type of agency they're used to: blasting their way through everything.
Mikami said that he believed the key to a survival horror experience was creating something intimidating while striking a balance to find some way to give the player the tools they need to overcome the challenge. I don't think he's struck a very good balance here.
