Dreadout 2 Review

If you know me on Twitter or even IRL, you will know I jump at the chance to experience a new horror video game, and after a recent slew of great smaller horror titles these last couple of months, I went into Dreadout 2 optimistic, but disappointed by the time the credits rolled.

In Dreadout 2, you take the role of 17 year old Linda Melinda,  following on from the events of the first game – which, if there were any key points in Dreadout 2 that harked back to the previous title, I wouldn’t be able to tell you as I found the story quite confusing to be honest.

There is however a “Story Before” button located on the main menu which recaps the story from the first Dreadout game and subsequent DLC which is a very nice touch and I wish more games utilised this feature. It’s especially handy in the case of Dreadout 2 as the first game only launched on PC, with the sequel launching on consoles too.

Starting Off

Right from the get go, you’re dropped into the school late at night, with not much explanation of where to go or what to do, other than to “find a key” to get out of the school. Conveniently, a classmate holds the key in his possession and is hiding in a classroom cupboard from a “white figure.”

Your next move will either just be the correct one, or you could end up spending ages walking around without a clue of what the game actually wants you to do, in order to progress, and these moments repeat throughout the game unfortunately.

Couple this with one of the main ways of dealing with enemies being a camera mechanic that doesn’t want to work most of the time,  you are left feeling frustrating and in for a tedious time with a few decent scares thrown in.

Mechanics/Combat

How this camera mechanic works (or how it’s supposed to work should I say) is that enemies get within a certain range and the phone screen starts to look like it’s going blurry/fuzzy and this is when you’re supposed to “attack.”

The camera is the biggest disappointment here, as the game relies heavily on it. The majority of boss fights rely on a janky camera mechanic that doesn’t work, making the build up to the next boss a more worried time, than an excited one.

SPOILER Warning

Ex: One of the boss fights in the later half of the game is an enemy who has separated it’s head from its body yet both parts come after you. The neck down is a slow zombie like enemy whilst the head is an annoyingly fast flying enemy.

You’re required to keep snapping pictures of the top half whilst dodging attacks from both the top and bottom half except, it’s like the “sweet spot” for the camera to attack is far too sweet and just boils down to pure luck rather than skill or practice.

SPOILERS END

Enemies/Gameplay

Dreadout 2 has a somewhat solid start during its first and second acts, but seems to drop off in a big way for the rest of the game.  It feels like they put a lot of care into the first two acts and after that, it’s just repetitive and a little annoying.

Some of the larger enemy designs are cool, interesting and freaky but for the most part you are met with a bog standard enemy type that sometimes feels like they’ve been placed to fill the game out in certain areas.

At multiple points throughout Dreadout 2, it feels like the game decides to spawn a big group of these bog standard enemies at you in small tight spaces, which is not helpful at all when you’ve got a main character who can’t run fast or is constantly getting stuck by walls/doors for no reason, it becomes tiresome.

I put around 8 hours into Dreadout 2 and did see it all the way through to completion. Throughout my playthrough, on-top of everything else listed in the review above, I was met with countless screen stutters and a glaring amount of pop-in, which again was unfortunate to experience. 

Verdict

If you are a horror game fan, like myself and are on the look out for another great horror game to add to your collection, sadly this isn’t it. If, I’ve not put you off, and you want to experience this game for yourself (after all this is only my personal opinion) may i suggest if you have a backlog of horror titles, that you maybe push Dreadout 2 to the top of your playthrough list, in order to avoid being let down later on.

Whilst only sitting around the £15 mark, there’s still better indie horror games out there to fill your time with.