CAPTURED 2

When you think about the concept of a sequel, it's often something of a pipe dream for that sequel to not only recapture the quality of what came before, but for it to improve upon its concepts. Though, not all sequels often have all that much to follow up, which is the case for Captured 2. The first game, suitably titled: Captured, was a simple, but enjoyable Skinamarinkesque spot-the-anomaly game. In fact, the way I've talked about it downplays its qualities as I personally felt it was the best of its type. I appreciated the P.T. style looping hallway and I felt the anomalies were fun to spot, and at times even funny in their own right. I also liked how the game parceled out its story, giving it to you through anomalous TVs and phones that let you hear of the world outside of your hell. In that way, I think the game tries to explore a bit the concept behind Skinamarink rather than just showing off what it'd be like to experience it yourself, which is the final positive quality about the first. Captured 2, in two major ways, improves upon the first. For one, the gameplay loop is just across the board better. There's little bits of improvement in terms of enemy interaction, anomalies generally felt more interesting and impactful due to their relevancy to the plot, and there was a bit more humor in the game on the anomaly front as well. You get this little tale between toilets and chairs, one I mustn't spoil, but it's a great gag that surprisingly does not ruin the atmosphere of the game at all. Secondarily, there's an actual plot now beyond the simple "you're in a loop, your recordings make it out, and your family misses you." Honestly, I was impressed by the game in this respect. As I took note of previously, certain anomalies exist as extensions of the story. Your loops also change throughout the days as a response to the story. As such, you feel a lot more connected to your characters and what is happening, which is a great little touch. I think the tragedy of this character being separated from her family and forgetting even their worst memories associated with her family, namely the loss of her mother, is a well done one. I cannot say it moved me especially, but I felt that it was quite well done for the few hours the game ends up lasting. The closing scene felt like a sweet way to close what ends up being a fairly well-paced, brisk experience. On the other hand, the final message that the developer leaves off with almost made me tear up. It completely recontextualizes the game as being an exploration of the horrors of Alzheimer's and what it could be like to live day by day and begin to lose your memories permanently. I won't get too deep into it because I don't like the idea of talking about something so personal as that in an interview, but I can say it makes the game feel more impactful to me to have that context behind it. I would not say this is a flawless instance of what this series could do, but outside of gameplay I do not know really where they could go next as the game feels pretty final in that regard. Mainly, I think the enemies, just as they were in the first, are somewhat of a disappointment mechanically. The first game was generally fairly simple with its enemies, but they added a nice bit of active horror to the experience that kept' you on your toes. Here, the enemies don't feel significantly different from the experience of the first, and in fact they feel somewhat unbalanced in the normal mode. Mainly, I see no reason for Jestie's existence as it asks for the same response that Ring-A-Ding does. Walk-E was easily the best of the enemies as it actually tangibly affected my gameplay in the long-term (as long as any given loop can be, that is). It was also great fun because I streamed this game to a friend in discord, which added another layer to the whole thing. Nevertheless, this is no great slight against the game. As is, I think the enemies serve as much purpose as they do in the first game, which is to say they act as little more than mood enhancers that sometimes impact your gameplay. For me, that's enough. I'm more than excited to see what the developer goes on to do next after this. Having the willingness to go back and improve on an idea and actually succeed in doing so is an impressive thing to me, and I also love that they took what could have just been a fun idea and nothing more and injected something personal into it, making it feel so much more substantial than it otherwise would feel.

Прошёл игру за 2 часа, в итоге в принципе понравилось. История вышла не сказать, что трогательной, однако же послесловие подпустило комок к горлу. Просто норм, ожидал лучшего. Как хоррор игра довольно посредственная. Перевод на русский тоже неоч.

Top shelf horror game. Not one to miss. Nuff said

I love this game! Thanks for making such an amazing game with such a deceptively impactful story. I'm glad you have so much support while making this game and it shows :)!

Wie der erste Teil einfach GIGA stark aber mit noch mehr Kreativität, grandios herzzerreißender Story und kompromissloser Atmosphäre. Ein Pflichtkauf!

Cinema. Game of the year. Also has a website ARG!

I learned about this game from watching jacksepticeye play it. I loved it so much I bought this and the original. Incredible games. The story is touching, the scares don't feel cheap or overdone, the anomalies can be funny. If I absolutely had to I would only make one change: I wish you could see what perks you have already picked up in an insanity run. It's possible I'm just missing where to find it. I have found myself getting confused between runs about which perks I have currently active and which was from a previous run and I've just forgotten I don't have it anymore. But I love this game and I'm planning to finish 100% of the achievements today.

i cant seem to complete the game seems like abit bugged and does not let me actually beat the game even though i got stuff correct i wish it was working but idk what the ♥♥♥♥ is going on!? still recommend as a cool scary game but I'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pissed off that it wont work THIS WILL HAPPEN IF GAME BUG THE ANOMOLY ENGINE TO FIX REPAIR/VIERIFY FILES says missing stuff when I'm not missing anything i am correctly catching the anomaly's it wont let me beat day 3 keeps failing its not me i can tell you that 110% pisses me off when dev don't test there own game and pay attention they just want money so i cant beat this game cuz of the devs not actually correctly making a game 2/10 game! AFTER THAT THE GAMES ASSETS AND ENGINE ENDED UP WORKING CORRECTLY ! 7.7/10 GAME

Even though I am not a big fan of anomaly games, this one was different. The atmosphere was creepy and I was scared a couple of times even when the same thing happened for the second time. Also enemies are awesome with great design and sound when they suddenly appear. Another great thing about this game is that it has story/lore. In the first game there were little hints about what is happening but in this sequel it has many parts with dialogs and emotional moments. The first game was good but this one is one of the best anomaly games I have played. So if you are hesitating about buying this game, YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Criminally under recognized game. One of the best in the genre. 5/5 stars