Reviews
‘DreadOut’ Review: Let Sleeping Ghosts Lie
Written by T. Blake Braddy, @blakebraddy
The hook for DreadOut is that it is Indonesian-developed. We don’t see many games out of Indonesia or the neighboring countries, so it should be a welcome change, a fresh take on survival horror from a part of the world with a storied and complex history. Even Japanese-developed games often play to an American audience, and so a push for different stories to be told is well beyond welcome.
This game’s problem is that it doesn’t feel fresh or new or even particularly tied to the region’s cultural folk legends. DreadOut is a kind of one-note mixture of Outlast and Fatal Frame, with simplistic mechanics, outdated design, and an anemic storyline that give the impression that the game is incomplete.
In DreadOut you play as teen Linda, who gets separated from her classmates in the school of an abandoned town. Inside are ghosts representative of Indonesian folklore that stalk the dark corners of the building, just waiting to torment the protagonist. Linda can sense them and, using her smartphone, battle it out with the supernatural beings by taking pictures.
If she waits until they get close enough, she can injure them and make them disappear or run away so she can explore various parts of the school. The purpose seems to be to find the building’s exit, but a clear goal is never really expressed. Also, her friends disappear within the first few minutes, never to reappear or impact the story in any way, so let’s hope that they return in some form in the second act. It is the weird solitude and lack of meaningful storytelling that give it a humdrum, rather than horrific, tone.
If it sounds familiar, it should. DreadOut has the basic game mechanic of the Fatal Frame series, kind of mashed together with Outlast’s approach to first-person camera work. I can’t mention those games enough, and though it undoubtedly sounds like a cool mixture of two seminal games from the genre, a lack of complexity, mechanical or otherwise, prevents DreadOut from being something singular and interesting. It feels like a spiritual contemporary to other PS2-era survival horror games, without adding anything to an already rich tradition.
In addition to the rudimentary battle mechanic, Linda will collect a few items – mostly notes and posters – in order to solve some basic puzzles. It was like I played an early build of the game, one without all the fighting and combat. Beyond the handful of enemies and puzzles, there’s just not much to do in DreadOut, and the overwhelming monotony is probably the most severe criticism I can level at the game. There isn’t enough fighting for the mechanics to change, and the game isn’t long enough to establish interesting puzzles.
Oh, and speaking of mundane, there’s also Limbo. Dying in-game sees the player transported to a dark, candle-lit purgatory, from which she must emerge by running toward a distant ball of light. That’s it. Also, each time you die, you are placed farther and farther from the light, and so, at one point, I clocked myself and found that I was running for nearly two minutes to get back to a boss battle. Such an odd design choice ruins any sense of rhythm the game builds, especially in the more difficult, tense scenarios later on. This purgatorial walk of shame only highlights the game’s monotony.
I get it. DreadOut is a survival horror title, so it shouldn’t be about all the fighting. It should be about the world and the environment and the sense of fear. Okay. Fair enough. In that case, there just needs to be more of the game. A fleshed-out story. More enemies. Longer sequences. Better puzzles. Mechanical variety. DreadOut has none of that.
For the record, the game looks okay, but it has a samey-ness that pervades all of the hallways, both upstairs and downstairs. The perfunctory collectibles highlight some historical aspects about the building, but a sense of place never descends upon the player the way it does in games that consider the environment more closely. A really cool and unsettling story could have emerged from the setting but it never does. There’s plenty to work with here, but the circumstances of the ghost encounters appear to be merely coincidental, and out-of-context of the world that’s been built here.
The last third of the game does some things that would otherwise be worth checking out. (Scissor Lady, for example, is one of the creepier things I’ve seen in video games this year.) Not only that, but the ghosts are well-designed and interesting to look at, and the sound effects that accompany each are equally disturbing. In that way, DreadOut comes close to redeeming itself, if not for the lack of storytelling.
If only the reasons for all of these weird obstacles had been relayed to the player, perhaps the game would make for a worthwhile few hours of gameplay. The problem is that the whole thing is over before its best argument for itself can take place.
Play the Fatal Frame games. Play Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower and Amnesia and Depths of Fear::Knossos before you play DreadOut. It just isn’t a very full or satisfying experience, and I’m a fan of this genre. I even like short games. For me, a good five or six hour experience is well worth its price tag, if the game is fun, the story compellingly told, and the horror elements interesting or new. DreadOut unfortunately, feels dated and not in a hip, retro-y sort of way.
The good news is that the developers are actively working on the game, so perhaps they will make some interesting design choices in the run-up to the release of the second part of the game. Adding more combat, enemy types, and collectible lore would be a step in the right direction, I’m convinced.
My final take on DreadOut is that it has some interesting ideas but never quite builds the narrative up enough in the first act to warrant anybody care about it. The second act will be released at some point in the future, and so part of me thinks this review might be premature, but unless some major changes happen, I’d say pass on DreadOut.
Books
‘In Search of Darkness’ Book Review: A Must-Have for ’80s Horror Fans
In 2019, the documentary of 80s horror In Search of Darkness became an instant hit with horror fans. Now, a beautiful coffee table style companion book is available and is a must-own for all fans of one of horror’s greatest eras. The book is a walk down the horror aisle of the best mom and pop video store in the heyday of VHS, featuring full color photos, poster art, insightful essays and more. More than just a nostalgic throwback, In Search of Darkness is the kind of book I wish I’d had back in my years as a burgeoning horror fan but is also satisfying for the film fanatic I have become in the years since.
The format is beautifully and simply laid out, with at least a dozen (usually more) movies from each year of the decade presented in order of release accompanied by informative and insightful essays by the authors Heather Wixson and Patrick Bromley. Both authors have been mainstays of film journalism, specializing in horror, for many years. Wixson began her career in 2007 with Dread Central and has spent the past ten years as the Managing Editor of Daily Dead, from which she recently retired to focus on books and other projects. She has devoted the past several years to interviewing and writing books about the Make-up and Special Effects wizards that have brought so much to film over the years, specifically the horror genre.
Bromley is a film journalist and critic whose work can be found all over the place including right here on Bloody Disgusting. He recently provided the commentary for the Vinegar Syndrome release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and is known as something of a Tobe Hooper expert. He is also the founder and editor of F this Movie!, an eclectic film website, and host of its accompanying podcast. So, to be clear, the authors know their stuff.
Wixson and Bromley divide writing duties roughly in half and though each has a distinctive voice, their writing styles dovetail beautifully into a cohesive whole. Each author plays to their strengths. Being familiar with both their work I didn’t even have to look at the bylines to know that Heather covered Christine and Terror in the Aisles and Patrick took on The Funhouse and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Wixson’s passion for make-up effects is clear and comes through in many of her contributions. In general, Wixson takes on the “big” titles, the movies that defined the decade the most, and Bromley covers what the more cynical among us might call schlock, but he would likely call pure cinematic bliss. There are exceptions and surprises, of course, as there should be (Patrick covers The Shining for example). Each essay dives into the history behind the film, the major players involved, the reception, and legacy with often surprising aspects drawn from interviews with the filmmakers from various sources and insights from the authors.
For all their in-depth explorations of each film, in general the authors keep their critics’ hats safely stowed, keeping in mind that every entry on the book has its fans. In fact, they may well have sold me on finally hitting play on some of the schlockier offerings of the decade like Evilspeak, Nightbeast, and Blood Diner. Hell, I may even give The Beast Within a spin for shits and giggles. The point is that this book is a celebration through and through. The authors are honest about the critical receptions of the films, which were often unkind, and sometimes let their own opinions shine through, but recognize how beloved even the schlockiest films can become given time and availability. And that is an ongoing theme of In Search of Darkness. What may have been dismissed in its day often becomes revered as the years pass. Variations on the phrase “the years have been kind to…” referring to various maligned projects like The Thing, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Blob and many, many others, can be found throughout the book for good reason.
Each chapter of the book also includes a rundown of the top horror movies at the box office for the year as well as the top movies of all genres for context. The final page for each year highlights some of the major news and pop culture events including the top songs, albums, and television shows. There is a large central section that pays tribute to the talent involved with the greatest horror films of the 80s including directors, actors, effects artists, and more. This section includes brief biographies of John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Stephen King, Tom Savini, Barbara Crampton, Robert Englund, and many others presented in a dynamic and engaging fashion.
One of the beauties of the book is that it covers so much ground. Sure, you’ll find Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, and the Halloween sequels in it, but you’ll also find deeper cuts like The Changeling, The Being, and Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I was happy to find the same love given to Frank Henenlotter and Larry Cohen as to George A. Romero and David Cronenberg. In other words, In Search of Darkness is extraordinarily eclectic, highlighting the diversity that truly defined what is often viewed as a homogenous decade. The authors make the case that the 80s was horror’s greatest decade, and with what they lay out throughout this book, it’s tough to argue against that. I even came across a film or two I hadn’t even heard of before, which has become increasingly rare as the years go by.
At just shy of $85, the cover price may give some horror hounds pause, but believe me, it’s worth every penny. This is a beautiful volume that every fan of 80s horror will want on their shelf or prominently displayed on their coffee table. Filled with favorite titles, hundreds of full color photos, insightful and informative writing, this is simply a must own.
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