At A Glance
Released: 9/4/13
Reviews:74,356, net overwhelmingly positive, as of 7/2023
English Reviews: 31,303
Localized in:
Had Publisher: No
Majority of reviews:
English ~30%
Russian ~19%
Simp. Chinese ~11%
Price: $19.99
Review report:
Negatives: Frustrating at certain points (Solving puzzles?) Polish player upset by regional price increase (Steam suggested this?), poor pacing (too *many* chase sequences and non-stop heart pounding),disappointing ending, gameplay repetitive, started out scary and foreboding for people then deteriorated from there when getting into the gameplay
Positives: strong atmosphere, absolutely terrifying (So much so that multiple people have not beaten the game or gotten very far), well-optimized, seems like no one mentioned the graphics of the game despite it being one of the greatest points of the game
Gameplay
Head can be moved during ‘cutscenes’
Can sprint in every direction except back
Took 1.59 seconds to walk the length of the car
Sprinting vs walking backwards has a speed difference
TV jumpscare turns on automatically, not strictly based on proximity
Eventually both the cop beater and the other chaser leave through the door across from the decontamination room
The NV light doesn’t follow the zoom when batteries are out
Music
Tense, creepy music begins playing upon beginning to scale the scaffolding
Thematically appropriate orchestral songs play for each individual enemy, gives them a personality that we get to hear
Sounds
Used WWise
There is a kind of low bass drop sometimes when the camcorder switches to night vision
Once the battery gets low, a buzzy/whirring noise plays and the light starts flickering in and out
The tv jumpscare definitely has a crow or some animal in there
In stressful areas a heartbeat sound is present, but it's sort of phasey and quiet
Art
Top of jeep is about eye-level
No realistic physics with the water, mainly audio
Interesting, one window with the blinds mostly drawn is just a low-res texture of the entry walkway (even though it is on the wrong side)
If crawling up stairs, hand can clip through floor
Birds flying outside are 2D sprites, no mesh
Interestingly, some of the architecture of the asylum is incoherent
The front has a large section of windows, but looking inside the room where those windows should be is a dead end that Chris walks into
By the time players get there and have a chance to make a connection they forgot about it (horror takes over + *respectfully* players are not that smart)
When freecamming with NV, the green effect is gone, but I can see all there is to it is a small point/spot light
I believe the green effect amplifies light that is already in the world
Light is still on when the camcorder runs out of battery, but the radius and intensity appear to decrease
Outside the asylum area mountains are only half-made, there are no backs
Since they are far enough away the tris can be saved, no need to make something the player won’t see
Sky sphere is large and has a sunset area, dark forests mountains,clouds
There is a section with lightning which illuminates parts of the sphere, how?
Can’t be a point light, the entire sphere is lit up
Must be a BP that illuminates the darkest parts (forest) and is intensified closer
For the intro cutscene, Miles’ body is actually inside the chair of the car
The outer car was almost completely dark on the drive up
A lot of the intro animations are done on the arms only
The animation for walking seems to save the current frame when stopping, then starts at that frame when the player moves again
This is a smart way of avoiding stutters with quick click controls
Wires on the gate camera were like squares, not a ton of triangles
When hanging from a ledge, Miles curls his legs (even though it can’t be seen)
When freecamming into the bloody tv room, one of the guys is there in T-pose, unanimated but the wheelchair man is fully animated
Windows in the tower outside appear to be displaying a bent ceiling, it looks more like a shader that bends more the farther away you are
In the first dark room there is an extra wall jutting out of the far left corner
Odd that nearly a decade later it’s still there, was it something I did?
In a blocked off hallway a lot of stuff is missing, pieces of the wall, hallways at the end
The left side appears to be another hallway, but it could just be a window
The other hallway is not rendered beyond a couple of meters
Room with the tv doesn’t have any shadows on Miles (not even from the tv light)
In the office with a battery, looking outside the window you can see out, but looking from outside in there’s a huge brick wall where the window should be
When crawling in freecam, the left leg is animated, even though you don’t see it (maybe as a shadow?)
The low-res entrance texture is used for a lot of windows
In the abandoned office before the wheelchair guy, outside the windows is the fountain and scaffolding, no texture
You can see meshes of the fountain, scaffold, and trees, but the lighting is very dim and minimal (only windows are lit)
At the dead security guard with keycard, the light around him appears as a sphere in NV, has it always been like this?
When miles sits in the security office chair he doesn’t actually pull it closer, it stays still and he is sitting in midair
Before father drugs Miles, he isn’t there yet, and his injection mark is quite far from his ‘neck’
For looking at NPCs from afar in NV some features look thin, like head and calves, is this intentional optimization?
Reflections on the decontamination window are now a mirrored texture but not exactly accurate (reflected hallway when there is actually a stairwell)
Before you get to the cop beaten by the patient, cop is in t-pose, blood effect is continuously playing, and patient is not there
When you run into the twins again and shimmy above the prisoners, as soon as Miles hits the window where he can see them, they disappear
The eyeballs on all the humans are made of some material that glows when the cam light is shown on them
Bugs/insects on the floor are 2d sprites
When leaving the building to go outside everything becomes darker (layering another PP effect?)
Even lamp posts don’t illuminate well
In the sprinter area the fuse place was darkened when i freecam’d back in there
This is further evidence that another post processing effect is being used to make dark areas darker
Flames are flat billboards facing player
UI
Instructions are displayed in plain white text at top of screen
Disappears after about 5 seconds
5 zoom modes, the farther you zoom the louder the whirring of the camcorder is
Tiny reticle in the middle of the screen
Disappears when the camcorder is up
The reticle has a very large area of interactability as long as player is facing door
At least a foot away from door in either direction
When the camcorder is down there is still a grain filter, just lighter
When doors are slammed the entire screen shakes a bit
Scare Factor
A lot of the lights are pointed up, illuminating from below
Was this done intentionally to create unease?
Jumpscare with tv turning on
Open door to library and a corpse jumpscares
Trying to squeeze through bookshelves jumpscares
Atmosphere is insanely oppressive and tension-building, never know where the horror will come from or which jumpscare to expect next
Extra
Forward speed is 1200, found in .ini for editing
Loading screen before game, allows time to load assets
When standing still, camera rises slightly up, then lowers for longer to replicate breathing
When the camera is held up, behind the scenes that arm is extended outwards and away from the player body, why?
Perhaps the best way to avoid having the arm seen
If gamers will never see it, who cares how it gets done?
Morin camera, brands after last names
Overall
Putting my own opinions aside, the art is superb, the animations are fluid, everything is optimized to a perfect degree
The story is one that seems to be one people have heard and seen before, but the setting and undertones make it a fresh one for all eyes
The game is terrifying, so much so that a massive amount of players bought and played the game without ever finishing it out of fear (only ~23% of players finished the main game)
Music and audio in general were also superb
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