Past Cure Review
Past Cure’s story revolves around Ian, a former secret agent who was kidnapped by an unknown organisation for three years. Not only does he have no memory of this time, but he now suffers from both PTSD and painful psychic abilities. His brother has helped him get back on his feet as much as possible, and now with his help, Ian is going after the only link to his missing time, a mysterious drug ring. On paper it sounds like the plot of one of the most interesting games this year, so where did Past Cure go so far wrong?
Release Date: Feb 23 2018
Platform: PC
Developer: Phantom 8 Studio
Price: $29.99
There are many problems that I can put up with for games that have an interesting story, bad graphics and minor technical glitches included. Sometimes though there’s just too much wrong with a game to make it feel worth finding out what’s around the next corner. Unfortunately, that’s definitely the case with recent release, Past Cure.
Past Cure’s story revolves around Ian, a former secret agent who was kidnapped by an unknown organisation for three years. Not only does he have no memory of this time, but he now suffers from both PTSD and painful psychic abilities. His brother has helped him get back on his feet as much as possible, and now with his help, Ian is going after the only link to his missing time, a mysterious drug ring. On paper it sounds like the plot of one of the most interesting games this year, so where did Past Cure go so far wrong?
I suspect a big part of it was overreaching what was possible for such a small indie developer. Past Cure combines a lot of different mechanical ideas; there’s stealth sections, there’s shooting sections, there’s puzzles that need to be solved with your psychic abilities and there’s areas that combine all three. As a result of this lack of focus, individual areas either feel monotonous or have glitches that make them incredibly difficult to play. The game has also tried to look relatively photo-realistic and ended up looking like a game made five years ago, both in terms of graphics and design.
One of the stranger issues I had with Past Cure was constantly getting lost as many of the areas I was in felt like they were a copy of one room recreated over and over again with minimal changes to create a larger environment. In most of the areas I explored, it all felt so similar that as soon as Ian died and respawned I would have almost no idea where I was until an enemy appeared to give me an idea of which section I was replaying. It’s particularly disappointing as the other two areas, particularly the beach house where Ian lives, are quite beautiful and very interesting to look around. The sound mix is pretty bad as well. The music is often so loud that it was impossible to hear any of the dialogue and some of the dialogue from the side characters is weirdly stilted as if their performance was cobbled together from different takes. However, I could easily overlook both of these issues while chasing such an interesting plot, but I couldn’t ignore some of the big problems with gameplay.
There are many issues with Past Cure’s gameplay, it often feels tedious and convoluted, but the problems I encountered with the stealth mechanic were the worst. I would be sneaking through the parking garage level, only to be spotted when standing directly behind the only enemy with no idea why they could see me. There is no indication at all of when the enemies can see you, until they start running towards you or open fire. Not only that, using the astral body mechanic you can see enemies’ cones of sight, but frequently they wouldn’t be pointing in the same direction as the character model’s eyes, often coming out of the side or back of their head after the character moved. This made the stealth only section literally impossible to get through for me, and after many attempts, trying to push through it for the story no longer felt worth it.
The sad part of it all is maybe with a lot more time, or with a lot more focus, Past Cure could have been a really good game. It definitely has a story I would have liked to see more of, but with so much wrong with the look, sound and gameplay, I found myself constantly pulled out of the game’s world. In the end, no matter how good the story, other elements of the game have to be there to back it up, and without them, Past Cure just isn’t worth playing.
Pros
Interesting story
Cons
Almost unplayable stealth mechanic
Repetitive, copy-and-paste environments
Bad sound quality and mix
Thank you to Phantom 8 Studio for providing us with a review copy of Past Cure. The screenshots in this review have been provided for the reviewer and as such are not necessarily representative of her experience with this game.
Omensight Review
Omensight is a game that has the player talking to animals, offering amber to the Tree of Life and meditating. It would be pretty chill, except for the giant serpent slithering forth from the Void trying to end the world. In reality, Omensight’s world is filled to the brim with betrayal and political intrigue where your character, the Harbinger, fights her way through active battlefields and prison riots alike. Basically, it’s a game that contains pretty much everything I love about the medium.
Release Date: May 15, 2018
Platform: PC
Developer: Spearhead Games
Price: $19.99
Omensight is a game that has the player talking to animals, offering amber to the Tree of Life and meditating. It would be pretty chill, except for the giant serpent slithering forth from the Void trying to end the world. In reality, Omensight’s world is filled to the brim with betrayal and political intrigue where your character, the Harbinger, fights her way through active battlefields and prison riots alike. Basically, it’s a game that contains pretty much everything I love about the medium.
As someone who delights in games that tell fantastical stories, I found Omensight an absolute joy to play. At the beginning of the game, your character is plucked from the jaws of the apocalypse at the last second and given a day to save the world. This day can be spent with different characters on both sides of the final battle for the world of Uralia. When the end inevitably comes at midnight, your character is once again saved and given the same day to live over again, this time with knowledge of the previous day’s exploits. The pattern then repeats itself again and again. It’s a concept that has been seen before, but Groundhog Day has never been this dark or complex.
Omensight was developed in a mere eighteen months by indie developers Spearhead Games, a truly incredible achievement given its depth. The story is not only brilliant but contains branching choices; it is always your choice who you spend the day with and how you react to the characters you encounter. Each character is also fully voiced, and has their own backstory to be uncovered along the way as you discover memories by exploring off the beaten track. The graphics are beautiful too. An original and stunning world has been created in Uralia, even if it sometimes it feels like it would be nice to see more of it.
While Omensight is a brilliant game, it isn’t without its flaws. About halfway through the game, I began to find myself slightly frustrated by the repetition of the scenery. Even though the Harbinger’s companion will change depending on the choices made that day, too often I ended up running through the same bits of dungeon again and again to get new information, particularly towards the endgame. Although they were always framed by different stories, eventually running through similar bits of levels and fighting similar battles, even if it was against different enemies, began to feel a bit stale.
Despite that, for the most part, the gameplay is one of my favourite parts about the game, which makes its repetitive nature much easier to swallow. I love combat that is easy to learn but hard to master, and Omensight has it in spades. It introduces compulsory skills slowly at a basic level, with the chance to improve them based on player choice. This means I could always upgrade what I was using, but was able to change up my combat if I got bored. Different abilities (including the abilities of your companions) can always be combined in a variety of ways, so I was constantly learning new ways to improve my fighting style throughout the game. The platforming is heaps of fun as well, and if you don’t like jumping across broken bridges, particular companions will give you a way out.
Omensight is one of those few games that I’d recommend for most people as there’s not much it gets wrong. It’s heaps of fun to play, beautiful to look at and has a wonderfully dark and interesting story. I would only avoid it if you have a tendency to get bored playing through similar levels, and even then, the mastering the combat and uncovering more of the story might be enough to get you through what would otherwise seem tedious. Ultimately Omensight, despite being quite a sinister game at times, has a lot of heart and I came to really care about my companions and I defy anyone who plays the game to not end up feeling the same about at least one of them.
Pros
Fun, easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master combat
Intriguing story with interesting characters and likable companions
Beautiful design and graphics
Cons
Levels can feel repetitive
A huge thank-you to Spearhead Games for providing us with a review copy