Hegis' Grasp: Evil Resurrected

[strike]Perfect Great Decent[/strike] [h1]☑☑☑ Painfully Average ☑☑☑[/h1] [strike]Garbage[/strike] [h1] Could be good game if devs waren't lazy, this game is 1 big bug[/h1]

Not to sound like every other Average Joe and Joette but Hegis' Grasp is one of those games that continues to make me wish there was a "neutral" rating button on Steam. I'm going to give this game a very light recommend. I've plowed through a decent chunk of ground in 2 nonstop hours of the game and I feel informed enough to review it. As a history and altered history buff, I love when survival horror games try to tackle older periods such as these. Unity assets about in this one but there's something oddly endearing about the atmosphere and setting. It reminds me of the colonial themed chapters of Gamecube's massively underrated Eternal Darkness along with the budget but solid 3rd person horror thrills of the also underrated Curse; The Eye of Isis, along with the isolation/wartime style vibes of a movie like Ravenous or even the lonely, downer shootfest that was Betrayer (another solid game well-worth playing)...Hegis' Grasp feels a bit influenced by all of these kinds of games and movies. You play as journalist Henry Wood who goes to investigate otherworldly rumors in the small countryside villa of Hegis. You and your party stop your carriage at the locked gates of Hegis and it appears as if the place is deserted. Your compadres decide to hold down the fort as you load up gear from a RE-esque inventory box and try to find a way to penetrate the town's extensive outer gates and fencing. Before you even get back to your group you are besieged by villagers gone mad, poisonous tiny spiders (by far the most obnoxious enemy I've encountered in a game as of late), wolves, mutant infected (again stolen from RE 4's playbook) and other hostiles who stop at nothing to mow you down. Right off the bat the experience is awkward but somehow interesting enough that I played for 2 interrupted hours, which is a rare occurence when taking a chance on a cheap, indie horror title. It's cool you can switch from between 3rd and first as fighting in third person is a penultimate pain in the rearend. I wanted to play in 3rd person initially but found myself getting stuck on half of the scenery, unable to shoot the broadside of 60 story tall and 60 story wide building and I could barely control Henry the Town Idiot's choppy sprint. I settled into first person and found that I stood a fighting chance through the first fairly frequent enemy encounters. First person isn't smooth but the aiming works well enough that you can take down your foes with relative ease. They're not the brightest bulbs in the box but they do some vicious damage and can smash you fast if they get around you or on your flank. Sometimes the villagers and wolves get stuck in place and you can mop up the opposition with cheap hits. It actually does matter where you aim your weapons as I found head shots to do triple the damage on a lot of the varied beasties and since your melee weapons can break and ammo is scarce, it does pay off gaming that hit box. The combat is rather wonky like another forgotten Gamecube game that I'm reminded of called Geist but once you learn the quirks in the AI and hit detection you can face 'em down pretty good. Otherwise, you can run. By far the most annoying feature is the lack of your character's ability to crouch which makes the itsy bitsy spider b*stards that you fight the most rotten yet ridiculously weak enemy in video game history. Get a pack of them on you and yourself in a corner and you'll die fast if you've been through a tough fight. They're simply reprehensible but overall I had a fun time with the combat. Also, the slimy, infected demons will suck your weapon supply dry as I figured out fast that even when you kill them, they get back up again. It doesn't appear you can SH stomp 'em or burn 'em like RE, so these guys are best to avoid or you'll have 2 or 3 of them on your tail for a whole map. Speaking of combat and tools you get to fight with, Henry can keep 2 weapons on deck and more on backup . You can't dual wield but a simple button tap makes for fast, easy switching in the fight. So far I've found pistols, shotguns, machetes, hand axes, pitchforks and torches. Each weapon has range variances, a meter showing how much damage it can take before breaking and its own pros n' cons to weigh which I found refreshing. While not huge in their impact, they get the job done and are satisfying to use, especially the melee stuff. Mind numbingly irritatingly enough the torch is your best friend. Even with full gamma the nightfall sections are still sometimes PITCH BLACK. It's one of the game's worst offenses in presentation and combat. I found myself often switching quickly to the torch to see/line up with an enemy and then switching to a gun or axe and going bonkers. There are healing items, items to boost your adrenaline for fighting and stamina for running to help you, as well as save stations in the form of books and health stations where you can completely recover. I've died a few times because I can't friggen see, but I seem to be able to handle the challenges so far. Gameplay revolves around exploring the town, fighting/fleeing to the next location, reading notes and tons of key fetching. The story's a bit generic but the notes are proofread well enough and have some entertainment value that's making me try to seek them out. I highly doubt I'll find everyone because the night sections are so damn disorienting, I constantly feel like I'm missing something, even though I try to explore as well as I can. There's also money to be had but I haven't found a merchant to buy anything off of and I'm just about to head into Chapter 4. Be warned that if you're looking for a brand new gameplay experience in the horror genre, this is not what you're after but those into the survival horror basics will feel at home. Graphically the game is way out of date and somewhere between a PS1, PS2 or n64 game. Visuals aren't everything but there's environmental clipping aplenty, a decent amount of pop up when you use the beefier graphic settings (I gave these a shot because I have an Alienware), fairly bland textures and so/so characters. The monsters are lo-fi but kinda cool and it works for the setting, though animations leave something to be desired. Where the game makes up for it is with the locales which are cool and well-done. I'm a sucker for period horror. The atmosphere is there and because of the old rustic feeling of the game's major areas, the meat n' tater visuals are par. Sound is rather lousy but "ok enough." The voice acting seems to glitch and play at random; certain notes are delivered with speech and others you read yourself. As far as voice actors go, ouch. It's pretty bad, so I'm actually happy that not all of the notes are blurted out. It may sound like I'm ragging the game pretty hard but there's still something oddly enjoyable here. The premise, place in time, haggard battles with archaic AI, old time weapon selection, classic survival horror homage and the ability to fight in 1st or 3rd person are what will make me play more of the game after this review. I highly doubt I'll hunt down all of the achievements due to the insane lighting issues (and the game's already frustrated me wildly a few times) but I'm enjoying the throwback feel and ambition here. It's way better than attempts such as say, Back in 1995, the abysmal Husk or Evil Dead's infuriating Hail to the King. There are way worse titles out there but there are many that are A LOT better. I won't return it though, look forward to finishing it and hope the developer continues to make small upgrades to Hegis while developing more titles in the future! Update: After nearly finishing the game and enjoying several rounds of money grinding in survival mode I've raised the score. This is a fun but flawed throwback horror game. I'm quite enjoying my time with it. 7/10