Pseudo-Haunting

Somewhat frustrating at times (I'm pretty sure I finished the game without ever actually understanding the combat system), but oppressive and atmospheric and engaging and about as unique as you'd expect an ApeHardware game to be.

Pseudo-Haunting es un survival-horror con potencial en su trama pero que cojea en varias cosas que hace que el juego se sienta un poco cuesta arriba. Tened en cuenta que esta es mi propia experiencia y tal vez tú tengas una diferente. [h1]Historia[/h1] El juego nos propone una historia donde los fantasmas existen y normalmente nos borran la memoria para que nosotros creamos que nunca están en nuestro entorno. Aquí empiezas como un paciente que tiene algo conocido como "Agente" los cuales son fantasmas que usan tu cuerpo. El caso es que tú eres una persona que puede sacar este Agente a voluntad para poder resolver los puzzles del juego y poder defenderte de los demás fantasmas del entorno. Tendrás que escapar de "la casa encantada" un entorno que usan para experimentar con estos fantasmas debido a que parece haber una alta concentración de ellos aquí. Asimismo, conocerás los secretos de esta investigación. [h1]Jugabilidad[/h1] Tendrás que moverte por La Casa Encantada obteniendo objetos que te recuperarán salud y cordura, stats que te irán quitando los fantasmas poco a poco. A su vez, tendrás que resolver los puzzles que te irán saliendo, y que algunos tendrás que descubrir con tu Agente. El problema de esto, es que el personaje es extremadamente lento cuando camina, teniendo un diseño de niveles totalmente repetitivo. Teniendo en cuenta que a veces los fantasmas, aunque parezca que no, dañan al personaje incluso cuando intentas defenderte, esto hace que cuando hay varios fantasmas en un respawn de pasillo la curva de dificultad aumente demasiado. Por otro lado, el juego acompaña con sonidos de fondo, que cuando pasa una hora suele hartar un poco por su repetición. [hr][/hr] Creo que la premisa puede llegar a ser interesante, pero al título le falla mucho el apartado de entretenimiento dentro del género. Tal vez algo más tipo visual novel le hubiera venido mejor. [code]Sigue al mentor Nightmare House para estar al tanto de todos los juegos de Terror, Thriller y Survival-Horror. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41412151/[/code]

I don't usually review games that I didn't finish, but I felt compelled to because of how tiresome this game is. First off, play the demo. That will tell you far more about how well this game will click with you than I could with mere words. I made the mistake of buying it outright because it looked cool and it was only $2.79. The concept and presentation are neat, and there is something oddly compelling about this game, but the unbearably slow walking speed turns the experience into a chore. The enemies weren't scary, they were an annoyance I was constantly dreading because I don't entirely understand how the combat even works, and if you die it means you'll be slowly lumbering your way back - which became extremely tedious very quickly. Sometimes you'll walk for what feels like minutes only to find a single piece of paper with some vague lore that doesn't help you, and may actively hinder you if enemies decide to spawn. As far as I could tell, you can't escape an encounter entirely unscathed, as your mental or psychic energy (I forget what it's called) seems to drain as you damage enemies (I suppose it's like ammo in other Survival Horror games). I assume that if you run out, you can't fight back anymore, but unlike Resident Evil or Silent Hill, you don't have the option of running away or avoiding some enemies entirely. When they spawn, the exit locks until they've been dealt with. If you plan to give Pseudo-Haunting a chance, play it on the Easy setting. Normal and higher uses a Resident Evil-style resource system for saves, meaning that if you die, you'll have to redo the last 15-minutes of incredibly slow walking as you trudge through large rooms collecting all the items again while trying to get back to where you were. The game is also littered with spelling errors, with even the difficulty selection spelling "Nightmare" wrong. It's not a bad game, but it's definitely a niche title that won't appeal to most people. Perhaps I would have given it a little more time if I didn't have 1000 other games to choose from across numerous platforms that I could be playing instead.

Ape Hardware’s attempt at survival horror is a complete success. In Pseudo Haunting you are an old person, so you can’t move very fast. But you have this strange ability to astral project, allowing you to move freely (but only on one plane), which makes the puzzle solving and combat a bit tricky, though not impossible. I’m still not sure if I fully did the combat “correctly”, but I had fun the way I did it. They’ve fused their signature grotesque art style, an eerie dream-like atmosphere, and unique story ideas with what others have called “obtuse” gameplay that doesn’t hold your hand. The lack of understanding what’s going on and then figuring it out is what makes the game great. This can be said of all of the dev’s games. I did not find the game to be scary at all, so in that way it’s a stretch to call it horror. But I understood the framework, and if you’ve played survival horror games, it fits into the genre just fine. It was a bit creepy, I guess – and honestly that’s all I’m ever looking for in a game, personally. Creepy. Anyway, if you’ve never played an A.H. game before and you’re unsure, I implore you to please try Psuedo Haunting first. I believe it’s a good entry point. It won't hurt your wallet and it doesn't waste your time at only about 4 hours to beat on normal difficulty. Side note: I love the more dream-like atmosphere and paranormal subject matter going on here. If the dev ever decided to make a super long game that had this ~vibe~ I would play the **** out of it.

Auuugh. This game has a bunch of really interesting ideas - psychic projection, ghosts as data collections - but g♥dd♥mn if the traversal isn't a SLOG. The player character has been weaked to the point where they're forced to use a zimmer frame in order to move around - and I think that's an interesting condition that can be treated sensitively within a videogame. But if that gameplay loop is based around exploration, puzzle-solving and backtracking, man, that traversal just delivers irritation. I had to stop after three or four levels, so please bear that in mind for the following commentary. Apologies if the game vastly improves after these levels, but really you want to hook the player during the introduction... Art is minimally functional but with very little that impresses. Audio has some nicely characterful grunts and ghostly groans, but is largely forgettable. Combat consists of flailing about and trying to ward off irritating ghost attacks. Story, as stated, has some interesting elements, but is delivered at a wandering snail's pace. I do like some of the puzzle design but I don't believe that there's enough there to keep players engaged despite the constant psychic attacks this game will make on their will to live. Sometimes the strongest mental defence against etheric parasites is just not to play Pseudo-Haunting. This game has a demo. If you're interested despite my moans, don't be an idiot like me, just play the demo.

An incredibly unique game with the most original and terrifying concept of ghosts and haunted houses I've seen, and a pretty fascinating story, to boot. Also just brutally difficult on the normal difficulty. Combat is all in the spacing, and sometimes you can't help but get swarmed and overwhelmed. I'd recommend starting on one of the 2 easier difficulties.

an aesthetic treat with an interesting twist on ghost stories

A very odd game that feels like you aren't supposed to be playing it. [spoiler]found it in an arguably odder way but I'll save that for later[/spoiler] I'm not all too sure if I like it or not. While it's atmosphere is quite terrifying, the gameplay is arguably more terrifying at times. The people saying it's a slog aren't entirely wrong. Your character is limited to a very slow walk speed, which is important for the overall plot and vibe of the game, buttttt it isn't quite great for making it engaging. It's slow gameplay is fine initially but after getting a bit farther into the game you'll start to wish your ghost form was more helpful for your main body. This feeling is especially accentuated in an end segment where you're meant to be running away from something but you move at the same speed as the rest of the game. But honestly I get the purpose of it, the game has a very unique identity because of the juxtaposition through the 2 forms you can play as. There was also, what I can only assume, was an issue at the end portion of the game where the enemies in certain rooms were completely invisible which was very confusing and left me scratching my head on if it was intentional or not. Honestly if you can look past how slow and feeble the player character is the game is pretty solid and has an ambiance that actually made me have to put the headset down and check if I was alone or not. But it's hard to recommend unless you're really willing to play a game that's gonna push you out of your comfort zone. [spoiler]Finally for how I found the game, the Steam Summer Sale was nearing it's end and I was thinking of getting a certain indie game that also has pseudo in the title and this game popped up and it completely took my intrigue and I decided to buy and play this one first lol[/spoiler]