Remorse: The List Review

As humans we have evolved to know what scares us and what is safe, and when it comes to the world of videogames, horror is something many of us find intriguing despite the fear that lies ahead. Since the release of the original Resident Evil back on the PS1, it’s a genre I have consistently returned to despite the way it can make me feel. Now horror is entirely subjective and what terrifies one person will have another in fits of laughter. So, here I find myself, yet again, trapped in some ramshackle town, trying to find random things and dodging the denizens of hell.

Story

Remorse: The List is the newest first-person survival horror aiming to scare the bejeesus out of any would be explorer, whilst telling a story of regret. Set in the Hungarian town of Hidegpuszta, players are given little explanation of who they are or why they are here other than the titular list. Venturing through the many parts of the town, solving puzzles and finding collectables (of course), will see small clues given as to your purpose but it’s all a bit vague. I won’t spoil what story there is here, but it does unfortunately fall into the rather played out “broken man” thing we’ve seen so many times before. The opening doesn’t exactly scream originality either as you walk down a corridor lined with spinning chairs, flashing lights and one of those twisty corridors you get in a fun house at the local fairground.

Fortunately, entering the town sees things improve massively despite the usual dank apartments and spooky hospitals. The mood changes, it’s darker and more eerie. Lights flicker in the distance, and shapes move about. Small ambient sounds add to the tension but it’s the silence that really creeps. It all feels a bit familiar but different. Then you make your first morbid discovery. A corpse hacked to pieces and put back together again on the floor. Lovely.  

Gameplay

It’s at this point that the 3–4-hour adventure begins, and anyone who has played a survival horror in the last 25 years will be right at home here with the mechanics. Light puzzling that mainly involves finding the right item for the doohickey and combat. That’s not to say there aren’t a few brain twisters in here, but they are few and far between. Refreshingly, each of the three key progression puzzles can be tackled in any order as the story itself doesn’t unfold in a linear fashion. These furnish you with items connected to traumatic events from the protagonists past with further meat added to the story via collectables in each area.  

As always, inventory juggling is a puzzle of its own due to the limited space. This is somewhat compounded by the lack of universal storage. In other words – if you ain’t carrying it, you better remember where you dropped it. Thankfully this can be expanded with certain items, but space is still at a premium. 

Combat is also simplistic and clunky. Melee swings are cumbersome and firearms, with exception of the shotgun, don’t feel punchy. Most encounters can be avoided by running away but with the abundance of ammo and the high speed they move at it’s best to just put them down. The problem is that it’s not challenging or fun and most enemies are a bit spongy. The game leaves an abundance of ammo scattered around so weapons are never short, but it feels like a bit of a chore as you backpedal and fire wildly as they surge towards you. I can’t help but feel a more robust melee system a la Zombi or even Condemned would have been a better fit and would have made combat more terrifying. 

It doesn’t help that enemies have some of the jankiest animation and are exceptionally uninspired. One enemy is basically a flat red silhouette that shoots easily avoided spikes out of the floor and the rest are just things that rush you. They look horrific as well and not in a good way – these are not necromorphs. There was however one boss encounter that I enjoyed when I figured it out. This saw you trapped in a series of interconnected rooms being chased about the place. It seemed simple – just shoot it in the face. But no, there was another option, a better one. Burn stuff. This turned into a fun game of cat and mouse as I baited the boss to a pit to stun it whilst running about trying find items to put in an incinerator. Letting me use my head rather than my gun for a change was one of the standout moments on offer here. 

And ultimately that’s the issue with Remorse: The List – there just isn’t a lot that stands out about it. The game doesn’t open well although it does improve and had me intrigued for the first hour or so. Exploration was fun and I laughed at the odd jump scare that caught me but then it all got a bit comfortable. The scares are telegraphed, enemies become an annoyance as opposed to a challenge and then there’s all the back tracking. Yup, expect to see the same streets and hub areas over and over as you cart items from one location to the next and back again. I also spent ages running about lost only to find a random thing I could interact with because the game doesn’t give you any indication of what you can interact with except ammo and health packs. 

Presentation

The presentation is also a mixed bag. Environmental visuals can be quite impressive with the lighting doing a lot of the heavy lifting and hiding the low geometry and texture work. The darker areas heighten the tension and hearing a screaming beastie hurtling towards you from the shadows gets the hair on the back of your neck standing the first few times. But you have it happen so often you just become immune to it all. Numb as you unload your Uzi into the sprinting corpse before you. The audio is all over the place with odd music cuts and some even failing to play – I still have no idea what was on the collectable tapes. I also had the game crash twice and control prompts that did appear also don’t match the button you’re meant to press. The music is ok, just expect to hear the same thing loop over and over in each area.

Conclusion

Remorse: The List is a weird game because as much as I sound like I really didn’t like it; it had something that kept me playing. It’s clear there was passion put into the project, but it feels like the scope outweighed the talent in some areas. If you are a fan of the genre and are looking for a breezy, if slightly janky, survival horror this is easy to recommend due to the short play time and occasionally creepy atmosphere. For everyone else, it’s probably an avoid unfortunately.