[REVIEW] Dreadout 2: A Horror Change That Pays Off!

It is undeniable that the horror of Dreadout as a horror game has succeeded in giving terror to gamers through the story, gameplay, and elements offered. Besides being successful in realizing horror through video games, Dreadout itself has also managed to spread its wings to the big screen and release comics, which are intended to explain some parts of the story from the game. Departing from the success and popularity of the first series, Digital Happines continues Linda’s adventures through the game Dreadout 2.

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Since the trailer was first launched, Dreadout 2 has managed to seize attention, through the existing gameplay changes. As if to get out of his comfort zone, the developer added a melee combat mechanism that is more intense, and full of gore action like the Silent Hill game. Then what changes will appear in Dreadout 2? Is it more gripping than the previous series? Let’s further language.

Story : Slow But Scary!

Dreadout 2 itself will take the story after the events of the first series, where Linda will be faced with a new threat that comes from a woman in a black dress who gives terror to Linda through strange events that make her have to go back to dealing with supernatural things. The supernatural incident affected the supernatural beings to act aggressively and began to attack Linda by possessing the people around her. Then who is the woman in the black dress? Who is the mastermind behind the chaos in Dreadout 2? Is there a role for Mrs. Siska, the main antagonist of the previous series? You can find out for yourself by playing it yaa!!

In terms of the story itself, Digital Happiness deserves thumbs up. Because the story presented in Dreadout 2 is presented quite neatly. This is evidenced by the mysteries that are spread in each chapter, and will be answered one by one as the game progresses. For those of you who haven’t played before, Dreadout and Dreadout Keepers of Darkness, there’s no need to worry, because the developer has been kind enough to provide a “Story Before” feature that will recap the entire story in the previous two games.

In addition, some small details were also given by the developer to reinforce that the Dreadout 2 timeline takes only a few days after the events in the first Dreadout. This is evidenced by the dialogue between the NPCs explaining why Linda cut her hair short, and the impact that happened to Linda after the events in the first Dreadout. Overall the story of Dreadout 2 itself is interesting and makes you curious about the story presented in each chapter, even though there are shortcomings where the developer does not provide backstory to several characters who have important roles in the story.

Visuals: Significant Improvement

Visually, it’s not only Linda’s appearance that has changed to become more beautiful with short hair, but the world in Dreadout 2 has also experienced a significant improvement compared to the previous series. The developer’s decision to offer a semi-open world supported by Unreal Engine 4 has succeeded in presenting a typical Indonesian urban environment and its activities. Some of the location designs and NPCs themselves are described in detail, such as the school environment, hospitals, villages, to graveyard areas that are supported with details that bring the world to life in Dreadout 2. Digital Happines can be said to have succeeded in building a miniature Indonesia in Dreadout 2. So many NPC activities that describe the lives of Indonesian people, such as the chaos of narrow alleys, the dynamics of boarding house life, to the activities of NPCs looking for pesugihan buried. Everything is beautifully presented and makes you feel as if you are walking around a city in Indonesia.

In terms of the appearance of supernatural beings, Digital Happines also seems to have taken a pretty bold decision, where they prefer to display enemy designs such as zombies to women in black wedding clothes. This seems to be aimed at targeting the western market, which is more identical to the appearance of monsters such as zombies and butchers like in horror games like Silent Hill or Outlast. Even so, traditional Indonesian ghosts such as Pocong and Kuntilanak, although their appearance has been shifted to monsters such as zombies, which are more dominant.

The change in the battle system which previously only focused on the irisphone camera to a melee battle with sharp weapons, also gives an appearance that makes this game more alive. During the fight itself the blood from the monsters you kill will give a bloodstain effect that makes Linda look even more badass! Lighting is also placed appropriately, so its role is quite important in describing the environment and the horror situation that exists. Visually Dreadout 2 has managed to provide a significant and charming change through the location design, lighting, to small details, which make the environment and the horror it offers.

Audio : Mixed Horror

Atmosphere audio gameplay Dreadout 2 manages to build the horror through the sound effects that are generated when you explore. Such as screams, sound effects during battle, and amplify the atmosphere of horror. However, for the voice acting of each NPC, it seems that Dreadout 2 has a bit of an inconsistency problem which is quite annoying. In total there are 3 languages used in this game, Indonesian, Sundanese, and English. The developer may aim to build a miniature of Indonesia, while still using the local language, but the problem is there is a change in cutscenes. Almost every character in this game will use English voice acting during the cutscene. For example, Mrs. Siska and Nini Tetty, where they have different voices during gameplay, and cutscenes.

Even though there is an inconsistency problem in terms of voice acting, it seems that the developer is still maintaining their old tradition, namely, presenting bands from Indonesia, as music performers in this one game. If in the previous two games, we were presented with songs from Mocca, Koil, and Sarasvati, in this Dreadout 2, you will be presented with a song from Kuburan Band entitled “Saredona”. Interestingly, this Saredona song will be in the background during your exploration, and indicates that you are not in danger.

New Elements Every Chapter & Consistent Difficulty

With the release of Dreadout 2, of course, there are some new elements that are tried to be injected and will improve the playing experience for the players. One of the most striking changes is the semi-open-world system and the addition of a more intense battle system through slashing action. These two elements are the main strengths of Dreadout 2. The locations that are opened each chapter provide a different experience with a challenging level of difficulty. Unlike the previous game, where you were only tasked with finding the key to open a door, in Dreadout 2 the developer started adding some puzzle elements to it. So that in one level, your skills in aiming the camera and swinging the ax will be the deciding factor in completing this one game.

Unfortunately, behind the addition of the new battle system, Digital Happines forgot to provide a significant upgrade to Irisphone. Irisphone itself is still described as a powerful weapon that you can always rely on without having to fear running out of power. In addition, the “charge shoot” function in Dreadout 2 seems useless, because it gives the same damage to the enemy. According to my experience while playing, the skull monsters summoned by the woman in the black dress will still die as much as 2 irisphone shots, whether you use charge shots or regular shots. Even so, Irisphone has a new feature, namely “stun” which is intended to show when the battle turns into melee combat. Interestingly, if you manage to trigger a stun effect on your enemies, Linda can issue a brutal attack that is shown with an animation.

Balancing itself is also an issue in Dreadout 2, because Linda is described as more immune to attacks than the previous series. It takes several attacks to make this one high school girl really enter the dying phase which is shown by turning the screen dark. So that in some melee battles alone, you only need to swing your ax in a barbaric manner regardless of enemy attacks that hit you. If Linda is described as being immune, it is in contrast to the enemies in the game Dreadout 2, where they are relatively easy to kill. It only takes a few slings and swings of your ax to defeat them. Even so, these monsters give a new touch to Dreadout 2, compared to the previous series. The reason is that in the previous Dreadout series, Linda’s adventures in each location seemed cool and calm without any disturbance from the monsters.

In addition to Linda who is more immune to attacks and monsters who die easily, balancing issues also attack the bosses in Dreadout 2. Although Dreadout is indeed known as a game that has bosses that provide extraordinary stress levels, due to the movements of each boss. , but in this Dreadout 2 some bosses still have bugs that make no sense. Some bosses themselves become unreasonable moves because they can penetrate several objects and have movements that are too fast as if they can appear from various directions, causing frustration. Based on experience, if the bug appears like when fighting the boss in the prologue chapter, then the only way is to press the “retry to last checkpoint” feature.

Behind all the existing balancing issues, Dreadout, seems to still maintain their characteristics as a horror game with “lack of information”. Like the previous series, Dreadout 2 is still reluctant to present maps, health bars, or certain clues in finding urban legends in this game. Players are forced to use their instincts to survive without any health bar information from Linda or the enemies. Instead of being a drawback, none of these features seems to be the identity and hallmark of the Dreadout franchise.

Another feature that is also present in this game is the side story feature, which also provides color in Dreadout 2. There are a total of 3 side stories that you can play which will be supported by an interesting cutscene. The absence of clear information about the side story, makes you have to be diligent in collecting information from the NPCs so that the existing side story can be triggered.

Conclusion

The changes offered by Dreadout 2 really pay off sweetly, this is shown by the addition of several new features such as melee combat, a beautifully illustrated semi-open world, and side story features that also add depth to the story in this game. Even so, that doesn’t mean Dreadout 2 is without gaps, because issues such as inconsistent voice acting, balancing and bugs are enough to disturb the horrors offered by this game. Fortunately, some of these shortcomings are technical problems that can be saved by the developer through a patch update.