DreadOut 2 Review (December Man)
DreadOut 2 is an ambitious game from an indie developer with a small budget where they tried multiple new mechanics and features, including a hub area a ’la Persona or Yakuza, side missions, a second combat system, more voice acting, and a new aesthetic. It’s scatterbrained. Unfocused. None of it is fleshed out.
The hub area is barebones with few NPCs you can interact with and is supposed to be the connective tissue between main missions and side missions, except in the second half the game drops it completely and just teleports you from location to location.
There are only 2 side missions and a collectible mission. You can finish them in an hour, tops.
Melee combat was added, which is used against pseudo zombies. Stun with a flashlight on the phone, hit with melee weapon, rinse and repeat. That’s it.
Voice acting: some NPCs are speaking English, some Indonesian, some are mute entirely, and bosses are speaking Sundanese. It’s a mess.
DreadOut 2 goes for an Evil Within aesthetic in its horror sequences with blood, guts, and rust frequently encountered. At first I thought they were going for Silent Hill, but near the end you are knee high in blood, so it’s much closer to Shinji Mikami’s creation.
There’s a mechanic introduced in Act I, wherein you are required to use your flashlight to dispel a fake wall. This type of wall is never used again. Just beyond that wall is a ceiling tentacle enemy which reappears only during the final boss fight.
Other notes:
Final boss fight is incredibly poorly designed in an attempt to make it hard. Without going into too much detail: you are being constantly stunlocked. The fight requires you to… stunlock enemies yourself with your phone’s flashlight. You literally have to outstunlock the monsters. I couldn’t even be angry at that point, just amazed at the stupidity of it all.
Act VI is arguably the best part, as you are wandering around a mansion and its basement solving the only puzzles in the game. Too bad it ends on an awful boss fight.
DreadOut 2 has sponsorships like in Yakuza, i.e. it advertises real life products (e.g. food, drinks). If done properly, like in Yakuza, it can actually help with worldbuilding. Not so much here. During one of the main missions, you are blocked by a cop possessed by a ghost obsessed with coffee. You need to bring him 5 cups with 5 different coffee products for him to finally let you pass. Five. It takes around 10-15 minutes to do and brings the pacing to a screeching halt. Why would you do this, dear devs?
Surprisingly, despite everything, it’s not a bad game. It’s ok. However, I recommend the first one, though, not DreadOut 2.