[h1]First of all:[/h1]
The game may not work "out of the box" you will most likely encounter several game-breaking bugs and errors unless you tweak and adjust some stuff. [b]I highly recommend you see my guide on fixing the frame rate, since it solves many bugs[/b].
[h1]CURSE EYE OF ISIS: I wouldn’t call this a survival horror.[/h1]
Many reviews here compare Curse to Resident Evil, and I think that’s not the best comparison. This game draws heavy inspiration from Alone in the Dark, grandfather of the genre. The style and tone, the type of confrontation and the style of puzzle; all this resembles ‘Alone in the Dark’ much more than it does Resident Evil, and the genre this game belongs to I believe to be more accurately described as ‘Action Horror’ rather than ‘Survival Horror’.
[h1]Tutorial:[/h1]
[b]There is none.[/b] As many games did back then, they expect you to read the manual before playing. Inside you will find controls, basic mecanics & HUD, biographies and a bit of backstory. You could jump in without reading but I’m inclined to suggest to do so.
[h1]Graphics:[/h1]
Graphics look fine for a game this old. The characters are unique and the style is lovely, but the enemies are lacking in originality. Many animations are half-baked and certainly show the game’s age. A delightful detail in the game is how Victoria's hair mesh and sleeve ends move when transitioning from idle to aim stance.
[h1]Music and sound design: [/h1]
The sound design is problematic. Bad music choices that are too loud for the inventory. Music frequently overpowers dialogue, making it difficult to hear characters' voices. The music is mainly used for danger and solved puzzle notifications, lacking tension-building or suspenseful elements. Otherwise, the game remains silent.
[h1]Controls:[/h1]
The default controls are HORRIBLE and you can’t change the bindings. Forget the keyboard and mouse and use a gamepad. There are some community made control templates that directly copy the PS2 control set, I strongly suggest using this.
[h1]Gameplay & mechanics:[/h1]
The combat against humans feels clunky and lacks in fighting mechanics. It features an underused aiming mechanic where you can target specific weak points, it is a lock-on system. However, this mechanic is rarely necessary in the game and I only used it during boss fights.
The enemies tend to grab onto you and you have to shake them off but no clue how, so i ended up smashing all the buttons furiously – In the manual, nothing is said about this.
The game lacks a clear "mission indicator" or "objective", relying on subtle hints for the next steps to take. It encourages exploration and attentive listening to dialogue since important information might be mentioned briefly and never repeated.
The map SUCKS. It only shows the current room and a small part of nearby rooms with no option to explore or see room names. The game manual also lacks any information on how to navigate the map.
As in many horror oriented games, the inventory is designed with limited slots for documents, weapons, and general items, categorized by type. Abdul can hold items to free up space, functioning like a "Resident Evil Chest," with his last known position being crucial to the player. You can also exchange items between the two playable characters, allowing you to access items you may have forgotten on the other character.
The game uses “fighting music” as soon there is danger so it is easy to recognize when a threat is made against the player.
The “normal” difficulty setting is rather tranquil compared to other games of this genre, at no moment was i in a struggle with ammunition or health items. The most difficult thing may be locating the objective within the environment since the map is so messed up.
The game uses a mechanic where doors and access ways are randomly closed to prevent aimless roaming. Though it may not align with the game's logic or lore, it serves as a helpful feature to prevent unnecessary backtracking when the player is lost.
Map truly sucks, but once you get to know the place it is quite satisfying to play around the scenarios.
[h1]Variety of Foes & bossfights:[/h1]
Very limited enemy variety. When the game wants to make you work for your life, it throws more enemies at you rather than changing enemy types, just more of the same reskinned units. Towards the end of the game, the amount of enemies you can accumulate is unreal. This only makes more noticeable the lack of variety. Either a guy with a shotgun or a running zombie-type guy.
The boss fights are fun and not just bulletsponges, there is a puzzle in every bossfight which I won’t spoil. If you don’t get the right idea the boss simply won’t die. But the final boss is highly underwhelming and pretty boring.
[h1]Story & storytelling:[/h1]
Most of the lore exposition happens through in-game notes and files, which means you will have to read a lot to get the whole story.
The player's helper character, Abdul Wahid, possesses an unrealistic trait of knowing everything the player knows, including newly found documents. This all-knowing aspect feels out of place, and the lack of interaction or dialogue between the main character and Wahid is disappointing. Wahid's role seems limited to being an "info-box", explaining stuff in great detail without any justification for his seemingly omnipresent knowledge. The game does not even try to explain his all-seeing-eye.
[h1]Environment & Setting:[/h1]
The environment, how the scenarios are set, the atmosphere in general and the characters’ style and visuals seem to be a voluntary throwback to the grandfather of Survival horror games, and this I love.
The environment is quite lovely in design and makes me think this game would make a really good book. The major problem i find in the game’s environment is that many rooms are simply empty, no recognizable or caracteristic feature to define them..
Some camera angles and how it follows the player, like the narrow corridors, are just majestic, love how it conveys the sensation of being observed, our character is not alone in those scenes and you can clearly feel it. At that moment in time, is not a “camera”, is a pair of unknown eyes.
[h1]Characters:[/h1]
The characters basic design might be one of the weakpoints of the game. Both main characters are just a vessel for the player, a bit flat IMO. Abdul Wahid is just an info-box. The baddies are “the baddies”. Other NPCs are irrelevant since they are “one use only npcs”. I only liked the Ninja thief's plot, but unsufficiently unexplored.
[h1]Bugs and tech notes:[/h1]
The game didn't work at first and wouldn't launch.
To use a controller and have the Steam overlay you need to fix some stuff.
For some reason the language option doesn’t work from Steam so I had to manually change it in the game config files.
You can improve the game resolution, follow a guide.
I played both in English and Spanish; the spanish translation is mediocre and not dubbed.
There's a gamebreaking bug that wont let you finish the game, I've created a guide to fix this bug (no-one else did).
You can’t aim downwards, only upwards (or at least I couldn’t). Funny enough having the highground is punished in the game.
“[i]It’s over Darien, You have the highground!”[/i] [b]*shotgun blast*[/b]
Sometimes, Wahid will just T-pose there trying to intimidate the player.
One specific cutscene was bugged for some reason, probaby FPS overload.
Some ‘trigger boxes’ or ‘triggers’ are messed up, like when you want to pick up an item and you have to look in a completely different direction to actualy interact with it.
[h1]In conclusion:[/h1]
The game doesn't work out of the box, you must fix stuff.
The ingame controls are absolutely UNUSABLE. Must use a controller.
No tutorial. The game throws you in without explaining a thing, so go read the manual.
Graphics look fine with resolution changes, follow a guide for this. Underwelming final boss. Lovely story. I'd read this as a book.
