"THRILL SEEKING!!!! Gloomy and dark Horror game!!!!"
The game starts off as you, an FBI agent named Ethan Thomas, investigating two murders in a dark shrouded apartement complex with two other authorities who supposedly were drove mad to kill themselves by a seriel killer. Right from this beginning the games spooks commences.
Throughout the game, you will walk into rooms with flashlights and nothing but a steel pipe or a peice of conduit to bash the insane, and the nonliving to dickens. Many elements of horror movies were compiled into the not only the gameplay but also the sound. If you have a surround sound system, PLEASE USE IT! I don't have one and I didn't want one because the noises on the game will raise the hairs on the back of your neck and want you to quit!!!
Many times you will walk and an enemy will be in a close proximatey and the screen will imediately turn into a blurred black and white with shadows of a person running all around you, with an ambience of horror sounds that not even the scariest of movies can portray.
The story gets deeper and far darker once you find the seriel killer and commence you hunt to stop the "ONE WHO CAUSED THIS MADNESS."
At this point in time you will pick up a fiery 2x4 and begin the quest through an abandoned barn with nothing but darkness to fall upon you!
GAMEPLAY
IMO the gameplay was very strong. I really enjoyed the first person perspective because it allowed the developers the oppurtunity to to scare the player by having AI jump out at you from all angles without being able to see it like most contemporary 3rd person horror games (such as silent hill). One thing I didn't enjoy was the speed of Ethan Thomas. It seems he didn't move to my liking and you had the option to make him run, but you had to smash down on the left joystick to do so. All in all very well and inovative for a horror genre.
GRAPHICS
Really this was the worst of the 4 games I have played, BUT they were very stellar and the sound and gameplay made up for all the graphical faulty. Don't get me wrong, these graphics were next gen, but not competeable with a DOA4 or COD2!!!
SOUND
I think that I covered that pretty well. Even without a surround sound on an 8 year old 20inch Sony Wega (non HD) this sounded better than any game I have played when it comes to scaring the shi* out of you!!!
VALUE
A 10!!!! Enough said!!!!
I really cannot tell anything else regarding the story or creepiness. You just have to buy this game and play it in the dark.