I quite enjoy a decent survival horror game. I tend to lean more towards actual survival horror rather than psychological horror, but with the two sub-genres walking such a fine line, it can often be difficult to distinguish them from one another. Remothered: Tormented Fathers houses elements of both, but it appears to lean more heavily on survival horror rather than the latter. Its release date was only announced last week and with it coming to Xbox One later this month, I swiftly took to learning more about it. Safe to say, it’s got a lot of potential. So, what’s the premise?
Rosemary Reed reaches the house of a retired notary, Dr. Felton, who is affected by a mysterious disease. The woman is greeted by Ms. Gloria, the nurse who takes care of the old man. When Rosemary reveals her true intentions, the nightmare begins. Rosemary’s investigations will bring her to believe that the disappearance of the man’s daughter, Celeste, hides a massacre. Dr. Felton and his wife, Arianna, could be the only ones to know the truth, including the secret behind Celeste’s real identity and a fanatic cult of cloistered nuns in red.
Sounds creepy, right? Your aim is to discover the truth, but you have to survive in order to do so. Your enemies are like obsessed stalkers, always following in your steps. The game appears to offer up quite a bit of choice. For instance, you can either react and fight or deceive the stalkers, but (there’s always a but) they will never give up or die. I don’t know about you, but for me, enemies like this have always been the scariest kind. Think Nemesis or Alien Isolation. Foes that you cant defeat and will never stop hunting you down. So far, this game seems to be ticking the right boxes.
The game takes place within the confines of a mansion. There’s no loading times whatsoever and everything occurs in real time. This means that you can freely explore each and every room of the mansion, but regardless as to where you are situated, the game continues to live on elsewhere. This design choice relays a great deal of tension, ensuring that you never truly feel safe, no matter where you are. Remothered is said to serve up pure realism. As such, your body is the only way to know how you’re doing and on top of that, there’s no health bars to endure.
According to the game’s description, players will need to study the behavior of the enemy whilst utilizing stealth and finding a way to use retrieved items and objects. Though, if you get seen, despite the fact that you can fight or flight, running will be your best chance to survive. However, with that being said, you will indeed need to be careful. Noises can be heard after all and nothing hammers a hallway quite like the heavy flip-flopping of your mud-slappers. Again, I’ll reference Alien Isolation, a game that used this mechanic wonderfully.
Speaking of the visuals, I’ve taken a deep dive through some footage and screens. Remothered: Tormented Fathers looks gorgeous. There’s a heap of well detailed, dark, freaky and utterly fascinating environments to traverse. Hell, even the character models look great with some decent voice acting to back that up. From what I’ve seen and read, and for the record, I’ve read and watched quite an extensive amount, those that have played this game have commended its pacing, its story and its constant tension from beginning to end.
I don’t want to go too deeply into the game’s story or its mechanics, because I think it’s something that needs to be witnessed first hand. However, what I will say is that going off the reviews for the PC version, fans and critics alike state that it’s one of the best horror games in recent memory. We’ve included the announcement trailer above if you want to catch a sneak peek at what lies within. I certainly recommend it giving it a look over, especially if, like me, you’re a fan of the genre. The developer has recently stated that:
First of all we really want to thank you for the great support you have shown us in the last few months. It really meant a lot to us here at Darril Arts and Stormind Games. We’re thrilled to announce that the Remothered family is ready to take one step forward… If you are a passionate console player we come bearing great news! So, the big question is: when will the big day arrive? Well, we’re almost there! You may just start counting down the days to its release: July 25, 2018.
So, there you have it. Will Remothered: Tormented Fathers stand tall as one of the best horror games of the year? It’s definitely shaping up that way. Looking at the likes of Agony, the most recent (and piss poor) release the genre has seen so far, I could very much do with something deeper and richer to sink my teeth into. What about you? Have you checked out the trailer? Did you already play the PC version? Or, is this perhaps the first time you’ve heard of it? What do you think? Sound off in the comments below to get in on the discussion.
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