OK, it's not that I think I don't like it, I know I don't. But I'm still semi-reluctant in facing that fact because I should like this game! I should like this game a lot in fact. It's this small-scale love letter to the classic Silent Hill games; it (from what I played) pretty much takes place exclusively in an apartment building; it has a very eerie soundtrack, mixed with some calming synth stuff to outright noise intended to make you feel comfortable; you can examine nearly everything in the environment and your inventory, and so on. Talking to his stuffed cat is a small but pretty effective touch in adding to the atmosphere and highlighting your character's mental state, or lack thereof, and there's a lot of little things like that in there that I really admire.
On paper, Lone Survivor sounds like a game made exactly for me! But, for one thing, I really dislike the art style. I'm not one who's especially into pixel art all that much to begin with, but Lone Survivor's extra chunky pixels doesn't quite jive with me very much. It has some great atmosphere, courtesy of the soundtrack, but the actual visuals don't do enough to leave me feeling uncomfortable or scared in any way. And of course, as has been mentioned many a time already in the past, the main character's face mask resembles a giant Quagmire grin and I CAN'T BLOODY UNSEE IT OH GOD.
The gameplay itself seems fine. I enjoy the idea that of course supplies for everything are extremely scarce; stumbling upon a new flashlight battery always gives me the feeling of relief. The combat's simple and not really... fun, but hey survival horror so that's not really the point. But not having access to your map (unless I'm doing something wrong?) is really annoying, since a lot of the apartment all looks pretty similar. And while I also like me some obscure psychological horror stuff, Lone Survivor so far seems a little too abstract. It's admittedly rather harsh to judge a game's story when I've barely seen any of it, but as of now it all feels like it's being random for the sake of random. Which, again, kind of an empty criticism but the point is it's not engaging me quite like Silent Hill usually does; it doesn't share the same alluring mystique that is so often there at the forefront.
Bottom line is, I don't find it to be particularly scary. The soundtrack is really good and makes for a great bit of faux-Akira Yamaoka, but everything else just isn't grabbing me. Exploring the apartment is a bit of a hassle, and the art style simply doesn't cater to my tastes unfortunately. I may eventually force my way through it bit-by-bit (LULZ), but as of now I can't say I'm left with the desire of wanting to jump right back in there and solve this mystery ect.
Jeez, badmouthing this game frankly makes my heart ache. Because as I said, I wish I liked this game more, I really do... Oh well, I can still take a little solace in thinking that I've thrown a little support to the guy's way for making his own little survival horror thing. I've actually bought this thing twice now! Once on the PC, but for some reason playing it with keyboard controls felt really off to me, so I eventually bought the DC version on the PS3.
/sighhhhhhhh
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