🏨 Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel Xbox Series X Review 6/10 “A case of metathesiophobia” 🏨 @transvaalgf @PulsatrixStudio #GameDev #IndieGames

I’ve had a bit of a problem with budget horror titles in the past few months, every game I have played is just trying to be like its predecessors - mostly Resident Evil -  which is fine in small doses, but when every game is mired in the past, it just feels dull.

I’ve really wanted a game to shake up horror and be bold and try something completely new. 

Enter Fobia-St Dinfna Hotel, I had seen the trailer and had my reservations - and on playing through the game, yeah, it falls into the category of titles just described. It’s not a bad game - though for me and a few others it does have one major problem which I will go into later - it just feels like we’ve been here before and not just bought the T-shirt but also the mug, commemorative plates, and snow globe.

You play as amateur journalist Roberto Leite Lopes, chasing a potential lead, you enter the hotel trying to work out what has been happening. After being at the hotel for some time there is a disturbance that causes it to become less hospitable; creatures roaming the halls; a mysterious girl in a gas mask; and a hulking monster trying to hunt you down.

The overall story has its moments with some interesting developments but as time goes on, it ends up feeling dragged out and loses steam, which is a shame as it had real potential. One of the best things about Fobia is the hotel itself - it’s a great, contained setting that drips a wonderful atmosphere. Though you can easily get lost, I was never bored exploring, and without a map, I can tell you that you will explore every nook and cranny.

You obtain a camera that lets you time travel, so you see the hotel in various stages, this was a nice game mechanic, it was used well and its application with certain puzzles was creative.

Being a survival horror game, there is the typical formula. You pick up various weapons and items to help you navigate through the hotel, various areas are blocked or require a key or puzzle to solve etc… it’s a standard affair.

The puzzles are more difficult than your average survival horror, which can be a good thing, it’s nice to piece things together yourself, and I took to having a notebook and pen with me, combined with the fact that there is no map or way to track your current goal, it doesn’t hold your hand at all - here’s the hotel… you figure it out. 

The combat feels unnecessary, there aren’t many enemy types, and you are armed to the teeth so it’s never a struggle. As combat is really not the game’s forte, Fobia probably should have stuck to being a creepy non-combat survival game more focused on the puzzles and exploration, its best moment are the slower, subtler scares.

One of the enemies that can get in the bin is the small spider-like creatures which hit you and cause you to stop… then another hits you… and another… tedious, and deeply infuriating. I mentioned earlier that there was a hulking beast chasing after you, if you have played any classic or recent horror game you will be very familiar with this, when it was Nemesis or Pyramid Head, it was novel, now I’m just tired of it. 

The biggest problem I had with the game may not affect everyone, but I suffer from migraines and certain games can cause terrible migraines if I play them for too long, for example - certain games with intense motion blur I can’t get through at all. The camera in this game was constantly moving, when you walk, the camera bobs up and down to simulate movement, it was horrific. I could only spend about 30 minutes before I had to stop and take medication. I went on Steam and noticed there are several comments highlighting motion sickness and headaches, so it isn’t just me who struggled with the camera motion. Hopefully, this can be patched out - but if you struggle with motion sickness, I’d advise you to be very careful here.

Fobia isn’t a bad game, the hotel is atmospheric, and the puzzles are interesting, I liked how the time travel aspect is baked into solid gameplay, it’s just a lot of what it does has been done several times before, and a lot better.