izigame.me

I've been in love with Supermassive Games since I first played Until Dawn, and I've played all of the main games they've released since. Unfortunately The Devil in Me is a major nosedive in quality compared to the rest of the series.
I've seen a lot of people complaining about bugs, but I didn't have many of those, probably because I waited 7 months after release to play the game. But just because they fixed most of the technical issues does not mean the game is good.
The biggest problem with the game is the shift of emphasis from character, story and choice towards platforming, "puzzles", and exploration. The whole reason people love these games is because they let the player be the star of an interactive horror movie. That's what makes these games unique. You are in control of how characters develop, who lives and who dies, how different characters feel about one another. The emphasis of every single prior game has been on long cutscenes, dialogue, and important choices. Not so in the Devil in Me. With this game, Supermassive have ditched character development and meaningful choices in favor of turning the game into the worst platformer of all time, the worst puzzle game of all time, and the worst exploration game of all time, all in one!
The majority of the game is spent wandering around dark environments with a shitty flashlight (if you're lucky; most characters don't even get one of those), pushing crates, jumping across chasms, solving monkey brain puzzles, and getting hopelessly lost because everything looks the same. The pacing would suck even if these sections were taken out, but with them in the pacing is just nonexistent. Any small amount of tension that could be had is mercilessly killed when you have to wander around an endless series of dark corridors looking for some shitty puzzle you have to do to progress.
Characters now have inventories also, which is completely pointless and only serves to make the game longer and more boring. In one of the previous games, if you found a cabinet, you could open it. It's the same in this game, unless you're playing Charlie, in which case the cabinet will always be locked, and you'll have to use your "special ability" to unlock it. Fuck off.
Immersion is also nowhere to be found in the Devil in Me. In all the previous games, regardless of their flaws, you always felt like you were in a horror movie. Your characters felt like actual humans and (for the most part) behaved like normal humans. In the Devil in Me, within five minutes of getting past the prologue you're jumping across chasms, climbing up cliff faces and crawling through caves, all wearing just casual clothes. Utterly breaks immersion, right from the start. Every single one of the platforming sections does absolutely nothing other than waste your time and remind you that you're playing a (shit) video game. And it's not even fun or challenging either, just boring. So. Fucking. Boring.
I haven't even mentioned the story because frankly it's not worth mentioning. The concept is... acceptable at best. Everything past that is a joke. Most of the characters suck; they also aren't clearly established in the beginning like in the other DPA games. In all the previous installments, you were introduced to each character one by one, which made them feel distinct from one another in the early game. Not here. All the characters are introduced at the same time, making them all blend together. The writing and acting is at a low point too. The only actor who seemed like he even kind of gave a shit was Charlie. Everyone else acts totally chill and calm while their friends/lovers are getting murdered. Oh, that reminds me, the romance is fucking awful. There are two romances that happen, and both reach their peak in the same scene that they're introduced.
Also, the choices suck for the most part. There are only three real Saw-esque traps in the game, and the solutions to two of them are stupid and really just require you to get lucky. The third gives the illusion of a choice, but doesn't actually have one.
I really hope this was just a fluke in the Anthology, and they take their time with the next game. House of Ashes showed the potential that this series has, but man. This is a low point for sure. The only explanation I can think of for why they pushed this horrible platforming/puzzle solving shit is to pad for time. Either that or the game director didn't have a clue what makes these games special.
Here's to hoping Directive 8020 can redeem the series.
P.S. Rereading this review, it is very, very negative - as it should be. But it wouldn't be fair to say that there's no fun to be had in the game. There are a (small) handful of cool scenes. Charlie is cool, and I liked Kate alright as well. Sometimes it does venture into the realm of "so bad it's good" which makes it fun to laugh at. And there was one scene that definitely got my heart rate up.