📸🔪 Dreadout 2 Xbox Series X 4/10 “Less is more” 📸🔪 @dreadoutgame #IndieGames #GameDev

I have spent my last few reviews lamenting over the horror genre, all the games had similar flaws and each of them seemed to languish in generic plots without a hint of originality, so going into Dreadout 2 I was hoping for a big kick up the butt, with a horror game filled with new ideas and an amazing plot.

Nope. within the first twenty minutes, I could see where we were heading, except it now included technical problems. Now, this game is obviously made on a budget, so I do cut it some slack, but it does things that make you think, “if you’re on a budget… just don’t do it, horror is the perfect genre to scale back and subscribe to the motto less is more”.

The story takes place sometime after the events of the first game. Linda has assimilated back into her regular life, but a strange evil has arisen. She now must battle a variety of ghosts and monsters to find answers and gain her redemption. Luckily if you haven’t played the first game, in the menu is an option to view a short video highlighting the plot of the first game.

The plot isn’t great in all fairness, mostly just an excuse to have ghosts and monsters about the place. I finished the game and it fell out of my brain, if I had to give a short presentation about it, I don’t think I would need more than one slide.

On the subject of storytelling, the one big plus is the lore for each ghost and monster, this is one of the most interesting aspects of the game - once you face either ghost or monster, you get an app that has the lore of each of the enemies that you faced, it is detailed and very interesting.

The gameplay has two components; your phone, camera, and sharp items you find. You use your phone to take pictures of the ghosts and the creatures, and then you use your phone to stun them, and finally - use the various sharp items to stab them. It’s clunky at times, but not the worst combat I’ve experienced in a horror game. 

Imagine a technical problem in gaming. You might think of an unstable framerate, or visual glitches, or maybe stuttering? Well, folks, this game has it all, it might even be the true horror of the game. I talked earlier about it being created on a budget, but it’s really unstable, and really dampens the game.

I also mentioned the game not helping itself, it keeps throwing multiple enemies on the screen at once - if the game can’t handle it, why would it do something it knows is going to make the situation worse?

The last third of the game becomes almost unbearable, so many things are on the screen that it just ramps up and up, I wish every horror game didn’t feel the need to ramp everything up near the end – the recently covered ‘MADiSON’ also struggled with this problem.

What you realise whilst you are playing Dreadout 2 is that it does have some good moments, but they come when the game slows down and lets the visuals and wonderful sound design take over. one of the tensest parts comes in a hospital sequence, as you are being wheeled on a gurney, very little happens - but the tension is high.