[h2]County Hospital 2[/h2]
[h1]Outlast But Not Really….[/h1]
I am sure everyone knows the game “Outlast”. Well, if you don’t, it’s basically a pretty popular horror game that became popular since it involves heavy usage of a camcorder and the built-in night vision it has for navigation. This was a pretty unique mechanic. This game uses the exact same concept.
It’s obvious that this game is a sequel to another game. County hospital (this is the prequel) is also a psychological horror game. But there, you don’t have to use a camcorder or anything, just the classic flashlight. I think the devs wanted to take a different approach for the sequel which is actually good since it will give players a completely different experience!
[h1]About This Game [/h1]
[h2]Storyline [/h2]
This game’s plot is actually connected to its prequel. The story isn’t immersive or unique in any way. If anything, it just seems like the story exists for the sake of existing. But yeah, I appreciate the efforts they put into it. Anyways, the plot goes something like this:
[code]A paranormal detective named Kelia visits another haunted hospital for some investigation. She barely managed to escape with her life during her visit to the previous hospital. She now comes with the intention to restore power to the building for some reason and then burn it to the ground. Will she succeed or will she be consumed by the dark entities wandering about in the Hospital?[/code]
So yeah, as you can read, the plot doesn’t sound very interesting. It’s actually confusing since Kelia’s intentions make no sense. Why will she want to risk her life to restore power and then just burn down the whole building? Plus she wants to “Investigate” this hospital but I saw nothing related to investigations tbh. You just have to search for a fuse to restore the power and then set fire to the whole building. If her end goal was to burn the structure down, she could just have done the same from the outside instead of putting her life on the line. So yeah, the story is kinda nonsensical.
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
Like most horror games, this is just like a walking simulator. It mostly revolves around you exploring the hospital building in search of the objective. There are very minimal interactions involved which are mostly finding keys, opening doors, messing with valves, etc. It’s pretty okay if you ask me. After all, this is an indie game made on Unreal Engine.
When I first launched the game, I had an issue with the main menu. Although I like the minimalist approach they took, I felt there was an interaction issue. The “Play” button felt very "uninteractive". I thought that the game wasn’t working or something so I immediately tried hitting “Quit” which actually worked almost immediately. This means that the game takes a while to recognize the Play input or there is no loading screen hence why it takes a while for the game to shift to the main game scene from the main menu. Who knows? I hope they look into it.
Moving onto the gameplay. The overall movement mechanics are pretty decent. They’re not exactly smooth but they’re not that bad at the same time. Where I had an issue was with the Camera your player carries. You have a few options which allow you to enable/disable night vision, hide the camera, zoom in/out or go into camera view. So, when you go into camera view, you are asked to hit the RMB to enable/disable the camera. This felt quite unnecessary and clicking RMB again to disable the camera didn’t work. I also felt that the hand holding the camera moved a bit too much. I mean, I know they did it to try to make it realistic but the sway just felt a bit too much.
I was surprised to find out that this game had no “Settings” option. You literally can’t change anything be it volume levels, graphics presets, screen resolution, etc. This also means that the keybinds cannot be changed so you’re forced to use the game’s original keybinds. This is annoying since you’re not allowed to have a bit of flexibility. On top of that, the game is horribly optimized. I couldn’t get more than 60 FPS so I presume that they put an FPS limit for some reason. 60 FPS sounds cool but the problem occurs during the many FPS drops. The game also heats up my laptop like hell. I’ve not faced this problem even in some heavier games like GTA V or Forza Horizon 5. So yeah, try to optimize the game, and please add a Settings tab.
[h2]Visuals and Sound[/h2]
Since it’s a horror game, most of the gameplay takes place in the dark. This means that the quality of the props used doesn’t matter a lot. But surprisingly enough, the game uses actually decent props. Although the story and the gameplay aren’t very good, they at least manage to create an actual horror setting using the right visuals and playing with the player using sounds.
I have an issue with the UI though. First of all, when the game launches, the cinematic that reveals the game’s logo is very low in quality. I don’t know why they couldn’t just make a 1080p intro. In the main menu, the dev’s name’s position isn’t exactly centered above the logo which triggers my OCD. On top of that, the text used for the “Play” button stands out when compared to the other buttons. I also didn’t like how they added “load checkpoint” in parentheses after play. It’s not hard to make 2 options for “New Game” and “Resume”. I mean, they already have a “Restart” option, why couldn't they just do what other games do. Finally, in-game, I don’t like how the controls are displayed like some console message on the bottom left of the screen. It also has some typos like Objective is spelled as “Objetive”. The pause menu is literally the main menu but without a background. I hope they re-work the UI.
[h1]Pros[/h1]
[list]
[*] The gameplay is decent. It’s very similar to Outlast.
[*] The game’s visuals and aural are pretty average. They did manage to create an eerie setting.
[/list]
[h1]Cons[/h1]
[list]
[*] The UI is horrible.
[*] No Settings option.
[*] No customizable key binds.
[*] Poorly Optimized.
[*] The game is a bit buggy.
[/list]
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
After all, this is an indie game so I can’t be that harsh. They might not have a huge budget and probably a huge team. If you take these two into consideration, this game is actually decent. Gameplay-wise, it’s pretty decent. I am sure it would be way better if they fixed the issues present in their upcoming updates! But as of right now, I don’t recommend paying $7 for this game unless you have that much money to spare.
[b]Reviewer:[/b] Midplayz
This game’s idea of a jumpscare: A telephone turns into an Oni mask upon interaction…..
[b]Rating:[/b] 5/10
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