No one has rated this review as helpful yet
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 236.8 hrs on record (123.6 hrs at review time)
Posted: 5 Jan, 2015 @ 11:34am

The story isn't that great, but it makes up for it with some spectacular suspense and horror elements:

As you head through the hallway, you hear something... Soft scratches behind a door, distant wails... suddenly to your left, something is banging on the door, screaming to be let out! You run down the hallway in terror and close the door behind you, relieved to be away, when a monster steps out of the shadows to attack!

There are lots of little moments like this that I absolutely love about this game, eerie moments that don't need sound to feel strange, soft utterances that make you fear the next corner, visual cues that get your imagination running in top gear like a child afraid of the monster under their bed... Played at night and alone, the isolation can become almost unbearable, enhancing the suspense and terror tenfold. I think my play hours speak for the experience I have had with this.

Had enough of the singleplayer campaign? Try out one of the included free downloadable missions! There's over a dozen of them, each with their own unique style. One of them was even made by the staff of the main game, so it includes more voice acting from Simon's VA, Stig Sydtangen!

As if this spectacular singleplayer gameplay wasn't good enough, there's a co-op, too! I have yet to play through it fully, but it notches up the difficulty and turns it to 11. You need good teamwork and close friends to survive this terror-inducing revisit of the singleplayer campaign.

Considering the game was built using the Half-Life 1 engine, the graphics are absolutely stunning. When I played it, there were occasional crashes, which made Nightmare mode's less-than-five saves frustrating at times, but in some ways it adds to the feeling of suspense as you play.
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