Post Trauma Review

Post Trauma tells the story of Roman, a tormented train conductor who finds himself in an alternate, disturbing dimension after a terrible panic attack. In order to find way out and survive, Roman will need to use his wits to overcome puzzles and his strength to battle various monstrosities looking to kill him.

Post Trauma is a third person survival horror game where players will need to solve puzzles, survive encounters with monstrosities and find their way through various areas such as a train station, school, hospital; typical areas found in the genre. And yes, Silent Hill’s influence is all over this. Throughout your adventure, you’ll find a a limited arsenal of weaponry to defend yourself.

While our aging protagonist isn’t an officially trained soldier, he can properly defend himself. As you roam through this nightmare, you’ll find a pistol, shotgun, sledgehammer and spear. And unlike the protagonists of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, Roman has a stamina bar, so you can’t run forever.

The stamina bar will also be drained when using melee weapons, but also when dodging. That’s right; you can dodge enemy attacks. It becomes especially useful in certain situations such as boss fights or certain enemies. Which leads me to the fact that combat is poorly balanced. Some enemies will take two sledghammer hits or 1 shotgun shot (one of the bosses goes down with a mere three shotgun bullets!).

Whereas some other regular enemies will require players to master the act of dodging because you’ll be resorted to using melee weapons as ammo is scarce and they will just swallow all of your bullets. The final boss is mostly puzzle based, which is quite unique. But speaking of which, most of the puzzles are a throwback to classic 90s gaming puzzles where you need to note things down and really rack your brain.

The game looks great as a whole; but is not without a few visual quirks. The environments are well-designed and well thought-out; enemy design is gruesome and some of them do feel like they are straight out of Team Silent’s rejected pile and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The fixed camera adds a layer of tension that’s sorely missing the genre. All remakes of classic horror games are being turned into glorified shooters. The soundtrack, or lackthereof, relies heavily on the ambience and noises to create a tense atmosphere. The few tunes we hear, mostly during cutscenes, are fine, but again the Silent Hill inspiration can be heard. Voiceover work is hit and miss. There’s not a huge cast of characters, but the woman playing Lisa does a bang up whereas the man voicing the protagonist, Roman, lacks the emotion of the situation.

While the team made a great effort, there are a few shortcomings. The first one being the lack of maps. While yes you can see maps on certain walls of specific areas, you cannot take them meaning you need to either take a picture on your phone or doodle it on a piece of paper. Maybe they wanted some realism to get players to scramble finding their way and adding a layer of tension, not having a map makes it more confusing due to the fixed camera. Also makes backtracking a pain. Additionally, the controller vibration is actually annoying and you can’t disable it. It’ll also sometime trigger for no reason; like when saving and won’t stop until you finished saving. And you can’t even disable the vibration.

Post Trauma is a great, enjoyable, albeit short survival horror game. The environments, settings and characters all do their part to offer an unnerving experience. The fixed camera is a welcome addition and throwback to classic gaming. Despite its flaws; lack of map, backtracking, questionable voiceover and sometimes clunky movement, Post Trauma is a fun and creepy experience. I strongly recommend playing this little gem, whether you’re a long time fan of the genre or looking to dip your toes.