A young woman in a creepy, trap ridden, psycho inhabited castle, with only a dog at her side. Sounds good, but is it?
This is what a survival horror should be about, a regular person who has to be strong and use their wits to get out alive. No fancy weapons to pump lead into the foes, just using the surroundings to your advantage, and finding different items to help stall, or stun the enemies. Of course not saying that I dislike games which rely on heavy weaponry, I love Resident Evil, it just makes more sense for you to be unarmed against loons if it is to be a true survival game.
The game may look and play the part, with good voice-actors, impressive graphics and a long playtime, but there are a lot of flaws to it. The story is one, as although you sort of get what is happening, you still aint got the foggiest what it is all about. Noone properly explains what the "Azoth" is, and why they want it from you. More importantly, why you have it to begin with! I think the biggest flaw of all, is the enemies. I know they want poor Fiona dead, and will stop at nothing till this is the case, but for the love of God, could they at least leave her be for longer then 10 seconds? I spent more of the game running away squealing "Hewie!" searching for places to hide, which a majority of the time I can't use coz a) the enemy is in the same area as the hiding place (right round the corner of a big hallway!?) which prompts the irritating message "i don't have time for this! i have to get away!" or b) they discover you coz they are a pain in backside, more than you get to actually play the game. Now call me stupid, but if you were trying to get rid of an enemy and saw a good hiding place, and nowhere else to go, and of course the foe was round the corner, wouldn't you hide in it asap? Apparantly not. This really got on my nerves. You try closing the door behind you so they aint in the same room so you can use the hiding place, but by the time you reach it, they have opened the door and are in the same place, meaning no hiding. Id understand if it is a little room, but a big corridor and they're round the corner!? (i am referring to the 2nd part with crazy Daniella, and a gap with a curtain near the start of the area). It seems quite bad, coz by doing this, the game designers thought they'd make it as real as possible, and by running to a dead end then disappearing, it is obvious where you are hiding. Strange how this never crossed their minds, when you are in a box room, with small furniture except for a big wardrobe. Yeah as if it aint obvious that Fiona is hiding there *rolls eyes*. Luckily for us, the foes are dense, and don't think to look there. Oh except for when you have hid there so many times, as you have no choice, for the lack of hiding places in the game is very poor.
This really ruined the game for me. After a long spell of running, hiding without being discovered and getting rid of the foe, you can finally get back to the game. You then have to run through countless rooms to get back to where you were (as the hiding place is miles away) and you are barely in the new room before you hear the foe music kick in and once again they are back. I found it extremely irritating when after hiding, the foe leaves the room and the message "coast clear" appears, only for the enemy to be right outside or re-enters the room when you have emerged from your hiding place. Cue running around for ages once again. I did however manage to suss when this was going to happen. There is always creepy background music in each area. When you hear it go completely silent, the foe is about to appear. So when hiding and "coast clear" appears, if it stays silent, they are still lurking and will make a reappearance, if the creepy background music (not the foes music) comes back in, all is safe. Sometimes though while you wait for them to reappear, they find you, but if you're lucky, the second time round when the recheck the area when the game lied about it being clear, they still can't find you. Also there are blue orbs that float about too. They are easy to avoid, but should one hit you, it will either blow your cover, causing a stalker to be aware of your location, or cause Fiona to panic (if you are hit quite a few times).
Right enough about the enemy problem, let's focus on the main game. The game is relatively simple. There are general puzzles to solve, keys to find etc. Clues come in all shapes and sizes, from files, to markings or pictures on walls, to books lying on tables. Each time you discover something, you may hear a short chime, which means Fiona has recorded something in her diary (where does she keep this I wonder? lol) It can sometimes be helpful. other times it just states the obvious and is useless, which means working it out for yourself. But don't stand there pondering too long, no doubt the foe will reappear any second. There are grandfather clocks throughout the game which are used to saver your progress. (not a big majority but there is always one when you need to save) You can usually tell there is one nearby by the fairly loud ticking sound. You can't however save when a foe is after you. You can't do anything when they're near by in fact, you always get the "i don't have time for this! i have to get away!" message cropping up. So if you did a big puzzle , and want to save, you need to just try and hold on till they disappear so you can, otherwise risk dying and doing it over.
There are many traps throughout the game too. Usually Hewie will bark them out for you. If he is growling then danger lies ahead, sometimes he don't though, and you find out for yourself that it is dangerous. One being before your boss fight with Debalitis. You find out the hard way that the floor is incomplete. Cue a long scream, and a crunch or broken bones at the end of it. I hope Hewie is happy now!? Although if you paid attention to the sign in the room before, you'd have kind of worked it out. Me? I always did like to see the gruesomes deaths before solving puzzles properly hehe I never could work out how to get spiked in that iron maiden hiding place later on...
It has to be said, that the main hero of the game is Hewie. While Fiona is the star, she is far from a hero. If it weren't for this lovable pooch, Fiona would have kicked the bucket a long time ago. Freeing him from the tree was the wisest choice she made in the game. It is a jolly good thing she is an animal lover. An animal hater would have grunted and laughed at the poor animals misfortune, and would later have discovered whilst either having their back crushed, chopped with glass, or shot that it was the biggest mistake of their life. But luckily Fiona likes animals so she is just peachy. (After all, Fiona couldn't use her brain and try attacking the foes with items lying around like a lamp or metal pole could she :p)
At first Hewie is fairly disobedient. He doesn't know Fiona, and apart from her helping him, there is no other trust. This is where you come in. You need to build the trust right up, if you want the best results from him. Regular commands followed by praise each time he does something right will make him more obedient. Giving him treats too like Beef and chicken jerky, and making sure he is always at good health is a big part of this too (use them wisely as they are scarce). Try not to scold him too much, as it will only make him dislike you that little bit more. Feeding junk like onions and dangerous items synthesised, and kicking him is more likely to get you killed and abandoned later in the game (choice of endings for the game). It is quite simple to keep him on side, I just praised him as much as possible, even after he attacked a foe successfully, and for it, I ended up being branded a top breeder at the end of the game, the highest you can be. You could just generally praise every so often, but he won't be as faitfhful. Take time out every so often to get him to "sit" and "shake" followed by praise to really boost your friendship levels.
Fiona has a panic meter in the game that when it reachs max, she will scream and run like a mental person (funny how now she can suddenly run fast yet she waddled before) and will run into walls and stuff in her way. She becomes pretty hard to control, and if you fall on the floor, she will crawl like a snail until she recovers. This is the perfect opportunity for the enemy to finish the job, all you can do is call "HELP!" to Hewie, and let him stall the enemy, so you have a chance to get back up. If your friendship level is low expect to be done in. If it is high, you have nothing to worry about. You can't see the panic meter, it is invisible, but the screen gets that little bit hazier the more panicked you are. So when you are at full panic, not only will you have trouble controlling her, the screen will be grey and fuzzy, making your vision a lot more difficult. She will only scream "HELP" when panicked. You can't do anything when panicked, no even access the sub-screen. If you think you are about to panic, use an item to calm you. I never used these items, I like living dangerously lol She also has limited stamina, which once again is invisible. She will slow down and sort of trot when she is knackered. To recover, you either take it easy, use an item, or drink water at the rare sinks about the castle (this also sets your panic meter back to normal) You have to be careful with running, you should save it for when the enemy appears, but she walks so slowly, you will find yourself running quite a bit . You can tire out Hewie too, as he tries to keep up, once again give him items or let him relax (unfortunately you can't lift up the toilet seat so he can drink that water while you have the sink lol)
Throughout the game you can collect medals which when used in a synthesise room (big holes in the walls). You have a machine with round slots and balls that turn in them in different colours. Each colour is a certain item. Some medals are for specific colours, but in general you can pretty much have whatever colour for each medal. There will be of course more of the specific colour for the specific medal then the other colours, making it a little easier to get it, but it is pretty tough. You can make helpful items, which are stronger the more of the same colour you match. They need to be next to one another, as it goes by a chain. You could have 4 of the same colour but if they aren't linked by the chain, then you will get a weaker item or nothing. If you managed to get quite a few colours next to one-another but all different colours, then it is the same as above. They need to be the same. You can link up more than one set of colours. You could have 2 green, 2 blue and 3 white and randomly get a certain item. If you manage to get the same colour in all or nearly all of the holes, you will get something extra special. The machine is tough, as the balls turn fast, and there are grey balls which are duds, you get nothing for them. It is all about timing, but unfortunately you don't have all the time in the world. After a while the current ball spinning will randomly stop (usually on grey) and go to the next one, so you have to be quick. There is usually never a clock to save near the synthesise room, which means no reloading if you make a mistake, or exiting and saving each time you are successful, so it really is all about chance.
I think I have covered everything lol so all in all, the game isn't bad, it looks great, and has fairly interesting gameplay, that will just keep you hooked. If you can grit your teeth and bear the enemies popping up far far too often, then id recommend it. It isn't really disturbing, where you may find it jumpy when you first see the enemies and be a bit spooked, you'll soon realise that a stone on the floor is more scary. Although they can appear at different times, it still feels like clockwork and you'll be saying to yourself "ooh it's been 30 secs, i expect Daniella will be appearing any second now..." *cue enemy music* "a-ha! just as i thought!* and in the end it will be far far more likely that you will find yourself swearing at the foe to go away, and cursing that they have appeared again so flaming soon, then suddenly screeching "oh my gawd! eek! help!" and tapping away at the buttons like a madperson trying to flee. So if you want a good survival horror, and can turn a blind eye to the enemies regular appearances, this should be right up your street.