Lengthy gone are the times of the top-down, RPG Maker-style Corpse Occasion horror video games. Whereas the sequence has flirted with 3D prior to now, it caught with its the standard viewpoint and gameplay model. That is all altering with Corpse Occasion 2: Darkness Distortion, a daring new take for the sequence primarily based on my latest hands-on expertise.
It’s unsure if Corpse Occasion 2: Darkness Distortion is said to Lifeless Affected person, nevertheless it does additionally happen in a haunted hospital. Throughout the 15-minute play session I skilled at Anime Expo 2024, I performed as Haruka. Haruka and her two classmates, Nemu and Maria, are searching for a method out of the hospital and to security.
Proper out of the gate, I seen two intriguing components about this recreation. The primary is the third-person standpoint. As an alternative of a top-down perspective, this recreation takes place behind the shoulders of Haruka. This offers a it a extra Silent Hill-like method. I felt this all through the sport, and the gameplay supported it as nicely.
You wander the flooring of the hospital with just a few motion choices at your disposal, comparable to a splash and work together button. The third-person perspective provides this recreation a distinct vibe in comparison with previous video games, making it really feel even scarier in my preliminary session. It didn’t assist that the sport had a tiny draw distance, no less than on Change, so I barely noticed just a few toes in entrance of me.
Corpse Occasion 2: Darkness Distortion additionally has a way more mature artwork model to it. This particularly got here via in precise 3D character fashions and environments, from what I noticed. The elimination of the extra chibi-like points of previous video games made this immediately far more terrifying. It virtually felt like it’s within the vein of different Japanese horror titles like Deadly Body.
The opposite key change I instantly seen in Corpse Occasion 2 concerned the character designs. Throughout the extra visible novel-like cutscenes, the 2D character portraits look plucked from an anime. The characters pop far more with colour, particularly within the case of Nemu. This helps the characters to face out a bit extra, making them extra memorable.
Whereas I am keen on the visible model of Corpse Occasion 2: Darkness Distortion, I’m not fairly certain in regards to the gameplay but. Positive, it has some similarities to Silent Hill and different likeminded horror video games. Nevertheless, this specific title is sort of complicated, particularly in terms of exploring the hospital.
The hallways and rooms are fairly empty more often than not and look precisely the identical regardless of the situation. It grew to become exhausting to inform the distinction from one grey concrete hallway to the following. I bought misplaced fairly early within the demo and this continued right through. It doesn’t assist that the work together button was fairly unresponsive. I needed to completely stand in entrance of an object, comparable to a door, and goal at it excellent for the sport to register my enter.
This grew to become fairly annoying fairly quick, particularly because it took up valuable time within the preview. Since I wandered across the hospital rather a lot, I didn’t get to expertise a lot of the story or motion. The majority of the plot I skilled needed to do with a mysterious cellphone name. On a facet observe, the audio design on this recreation is sort of spectacular no less than. Although I had no thought of my location, the sensible use of the cellphone ringing and its audio guided me to its location with ease.
Answering the cellphone revealed a tease of a sure character’s potential destiny within the close to future. This added some ominous potentialities for what is going to occur in the principle story. As well as, I noticed one ugly half relating to maggots however the recreation kept away from exhibiting an excessive amount of there.
Sadly, I missed out on working into any monsters or ghosts. This meant I missed out on seeing how working away, hiding, and surviving works on this new gameplay model.
That mentioned, there may be plenty of potential for exploration and puzzles from what I noticed. I nonetheless have plenty of questions on this recreation however I admire what I previewed. The solid seems to be to have some stable characters I wish to know extra about. As well as, Corpse Occasion 2: Darkness Distortion’s new 3D model already feels a lot scarier than any previous recreation. I simply hope the complete expertise isn’t as complicated to navigate as this brief demo.
Corpse Occasion 2: Darkness Distortion will launch for Nintendo Change, PS4, and PC in Fall 2024.
