Unknown Tapes

As much as I wanted to like this game, this game wasn't what I wanted it to be. BTW, this is my personal opinion on the game. I know others would like this, but personally, I didn't really like it. Before I go on a rant, let me go over some things I liked: - The dinosaur designs were great, as well as the variety. - The VHS-style camera was unique, and it gave a really nice atmosphere to the game. - Every screenshot I took in the game looked semi-realistic, and as if it were taken by a real camera. - The lore was interesting, all be it not the best at "hooking" me. - I must admit, some jumpscares were pretty fire. - Moments where I felt genuine fear. - Peak audio design sometimes. - Short story, an average person could beat it within 2 hours. Now, what I disliked: - Dinosaurs feel neglected; an afterthought to justify the lore (especially the big hitters like Therizinosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus Rex. - Dinosaur AI sucks - I got used to the jump scares. - There's really only one main dinosaur you have to worry about. - It feels boring at times, more of a walking sim (no hate against them) - Story-wise, I wasn't that interested in the main character or his justification. - Should have dove deeper with the "journalist" idea. Now for the yap: I love dinosaurs, and that was the reason I got this game; to experience a dinosaur inspired horror game, but the horror aspect of this game is overplayed time and time again. It's more of a walking sim with lore sprinkled throughout the map, which I do not hate, but the dinosaurs feel neglected, as if they were only added to the game to add some difficulty to the game. I feel like it's the developer wanted to share his interpretation of dinosaurs living amongst us in the modern day, inspired by Jurassic Park, but the way it was demonstrated really wasn't the best. Like if they had focused on the mechanics of the game, levels, and made the dinosaur AI more interactive, I feel like it would have been a better experience. Talking about the dinosaur AI, it really wasn't the best. You could get past the Velociraptors (which were the main dinosaurs you had to avoid), and the other dinosaurs were just added to the game just to say "oh yeah, we have a variety of dinosaurs in the game". SPOILERS beyond this point: As I said, the Spinosaurus and Therizinosaurus were probably the most underused dinosaurs in the game. They aren't even a real threat, they jump scare you and then go into the background. Like they physically cannot kill you, there's a part where you walk past a helicopter and Spinosaurus, and you can't interact with it, it's just a thing that happens. The Therizinosaurus really pissed me off because it was only a jumpscare and a cutscene. There might have been a moment where it could have killed me, but I was crouched, and I didn't know it was in the game until after the cutscene happened. Like the developer could have added it as a threat to the game, but they'd decided to limit it as a background dinosaur. And the thing is, the design looked pretty good, all be it most of it was the darkness, but they had the model. I must admit, the idea of merging dinosaur DNA with that of humans was really unique. I really haven't seen that other than that one concept art from Jurassic Park 3 I believe, but that creature near the end of the game was honestly pretty fire. I genuinely felt fear when I first heard it chopping on some dude, which was pretty good environmental storytelling, but once it killed me, all of that fear went away. I guess that's the sad thing about horror games, once you know what happens, you no longer fear it. The end was single-handedly the thing that made me write this review. The entire game has you exploring the map, the facilities, and the lore, and eventually, you have to create a virus that kills the dinosaurs and stuff. That was pretty cool ngl, but then (BIG SPOILER), the main character sacrificed their life, and before getting mauled by the human-dinosaur hybrid, throws the camera into a train or subway leading away from the facility. Damn, they're dead, but at least they sacrificed themselves to kill all the dinosaurs. No. The character's sacrifice isn't there, it ends, it cuts to a random guy picking up the camera and then getting mauled to death by dinosaurs, SAYING that THEY survived. That literally ruins the whole sacrifice of the main character, and everything we as the player did. Literally one of the worst endings, it would have been way better if it had stopped after the camera got thrown into the train. If you've gotten through that entire rant, thanks for reading, but remember this is just my personal opinion about the game. Don't base everything on this review; go try it out, but make sure to form your opinion and come back and share your experiences with others or something.