In the muddy stream of indie horror films that have recently filled Steam, every now and then you can see glimpses of, if not real diamonds, then certainly more or less precious stones. Remothered: Tormented Fathers – just one of those. The game, which had been in Early Access for a long time, immediately attracted increased attention. Third-person view, emphasis on the plot and intense exploration of a richly furnished mansion, excellent direction, an abundance of videos and atmospheric music – all this revealed the desire of the authors to make a game in the spirit of classics like Resident Evil And Silent Hill, and not another variation of “Slenderman”. And overall, they succeeded – even if not everything is perfect in the final version.
Damn old house
Young woman Rosemary Reed, the main character Remothered: Tormented Fathers, arrives at the ancient mansion of a former notary, Dr. Felton, to investigate the case of the disappearance of his daughter, Celeste. It turns out that Felton himself suffers from a mysterious illness – his body and mind are being devoured by parasites, strange moths. From conversations and newspaper clippings, Rosemary learns that experiments with certain substances and medicines that were carried out on the family farm of the doctor and his wife are to blame. And the disappearance of her daughter is directly related to all this.
In the mansion, the main character pretends to be an employee of the hospital where Felton was treated, but after the deception is revealed and it turns out that she is mainly interested in the disappearance of the girl, and not in the health of the former notary, a real nightmare begins for Rosemary. She finds herself locked in a gloomy mansion alone with its crazy owner, walking around without panties with a sickle in his hands, and an equally aggressive nurse. Then a nightmarish-looking nun and a strange girl with hair covering her entire face will appear – they all scream terribly and try to kill the uninvited guest.
Questions and answers
On the one hand, a lot of things are typical here – forbidden experiments, strange medicines, terrible diseases that devour the body and mind. On the other hand, the script has its own interesting moves and intrigues. Who is this scary nun? And this girl with unwashed hair is Celeste or someone else? What happened to Felton’s wife and why does he keep calling his daughter Jennifer?? The answers are not exactly shocking, but a couple of times during the game they will definitely make you raise your eyebrows in surprise.
In addition, the authors Remothered: Tormented Fathers tried to keep their promises and did a really good job on the characters. At some point you even begin to sympathize with Felton, when you realize that this is just a person who was ruined by his upbringing and uncontrolled use of dubious medications.
However, there are still questions https://senatorcasino.co.uk/ for the scriptwriters. The image of the main character is frankly poorly written – her motives are covered in fog. Some plot twists seem forced. As well as the scene where Rosemary lies on the grass for half an hour with a dying nurse, who just wanted to kill her, and now has soul-saving conversations, makes some confessions and almost hugs the main character. This looks extremely far-fetched – they say, look at what deep psychologism we have here, how blurred the boundaries between good and evil are, how ordinary and humane the villains are..
Cat and mouse
The gameplay is about the same situation. On the one hand, everything is familiar. In nervous tension, we explore a large old mansion, read texts, look at photographs and periodically hide in closets and under the bed from those who are trying to hurt Rosemary. We also solve simple problems – basically we look for various objects necessary to move forward, door keys, batteries for a retractable ladder, batteries for a projector, we clean out the bathtub with a plunger to get to an object stuck there, and everything in the same spirit.
But at the same time in Remothered: Tormented Fathers has its own twist. This is not a survival horror, but a kind of stealth horror. All we do all the way is play hide and seek with Dr. Felton. He has excellent hearing, so running in his heels on the parquet is strictly not recommended. It’s another matter if there is a carpet under your feet that completely muffles your steps.
The sound can be used for your own purposes – throw objects or turn on some devices and music boxes to lure and distract Felton. As he approaches, the music gets louder, and the doctor himself loves to mumble or hum something. But even in this case, it is often difficult to understand where it is. Therefore, you can hang bells on the door to know exactly when he will enter that door.
For self-defense
Rosemary doesn’t know how to fight. She can pick up sharp objects like scissors or a screwdriver and even improve them, but uses all this only for self-defense when Felton grabs her. At such moments, a QTE-style mini-game is activated, and if we do everything correctly, the heroine will plunge a sharp point into the villain’s shoulder and immobilize him for a while.
In general, QTEs are used here often, even when we are hiding in closets or under the bed. Sometimes Felton comes up to our hideout and tries to see something. At this moment, while Rosemary’s heart (and ours too) is beating wildly, you need to keep the cursor in a given area so that the heroine does not panic and give herself away.
At the same time, not all game mechanics are Remothered: Tormented Fathers work as they should, but in some places there are simply not enough of them to maintain the necessary variety. I completed the entire game without throwing any object to distract the villains. Why improve self-defense items is also not entirely clear. Constant hide and seek gradually tires and ceases to be as frightening and stressful as at the very beginning. Well, in the last third the authors clearly went too far – instead of thoughtful game design, there are continuous QTEs, reaction tests, running around and the constant death of the main character.
However, if not all, then many complaints about Remothered: Tormented Fathers are offset by one simple fact – the game is really capable of scaring: a couple of times I naturally jumped up in my chair from fear and surprise. In addition, an interesting plot, competent direction, atmospheric music and high-quality videos (even despite the crooked animation) create the desired cinematic effect. Well, the fact that the game needs improvement is normal for an indie project designed for a trilogy. Yes, so far we have only seen the first part – we will believe that the authors will listen to criticism and work on the mistakes.
Pros: fascinating plot; well-written characters (though not all of them); scary villains; interesting horror-stealth mechanics; excellent work with sound; good picture and environment detail.
Cons: not all game mechanics work as they should; there is some monotony; there are questions about some plot moves and images; crooked character animation.