In Sound Mind, the tried of a new cassette of this intriguing psychological horror
In Sound Mind
When you think of a modern first-person horror game, what immediately comes to mind? Usually the protagonist is alone, unarmed and often completely helpless in the face of the dangers that await him. Each time he is killed, progress is lost and one is forced to redo large sections, always without being able to defend himself. Apart from rare hybrids such as Resident Evil Village, which range from pure horror to seamless first-person shooter, these titles usually offer very specific gameplay, made up of slow explorations of very dark and mysterious areas (with iconographic references to the generally put in plain sight), of continuous jolts due to some noise coming from who knows where and sudden escapes when identified by the monster on duty.In Sound Mind it is partly like that, that is, it is in its first part, but the material we got to play highlighted a completely different side of the game, much more action.
Find out everything in the In Sound Mind trial.
What we're talking about
The lighthouse is the protagonist of the second cassette The title of We Create Stuff, developer born creating mods for Half-Life 2 (his is Nightmare House 2) is structured in a very simple way: in the role of a psychologist we have to enter the memories of some patients, recorded on tapes, to be able to find out what happened to our city, completely submerged, and who he is the mysterious type who telephones us giving us words full of contempt and unleashing us against terrible monsters.In the first trial of In Sound Mind we had the opportunity to play with the first cassette, that is to follow the first case, which actually responded to all the stylistic features of the genre listed briefly in the previous paragraph. The second box, however, completely changes the cards on the table, partly reversing the vision of the game.
The second cassette
The protagonist wakes up on a beach with a gun in his hand. This already makes us understand that sooner or later we will have to shoot. Without any delay, we begin to walk the only road available that leads us to a fisherman's hut, located in front of a small pier with some boats running aground and a very disturbing full moon. Inside the hut is a large lamp that we can not help but collect. How to use it is immediately clear to us: once the object is grasped, a lighthouse for ships is activated on top of a cliff and begins to patrol the entire area. Whenever its red light beam hits us, we lose some health. The main objective of the cassette is therefore to replace the headlight light. Easier said that done.We go up a short slope, hiding from lethal gaze, and we reach a parking lot full of car wrecks. Here we get to know the first enemies: monsters with a single sparkling eye that we try to dodge, also because we are not in the best conditions to fight. The stealth system is elementary: while being lowered you must avoid ending up in the field of vision of the enemies. So no running and no noises. The area we are in is full of strange sewage, which creates hallucinogenic effects to the touch and damages us.
When you can shoot it is harder to be afraid The tension is palpable, unless we are discovered and instinctively we fire ... killing an enemy. The others are attracted by the sound of the shots, but we manage to escape by running towards our destination and after a few seconds we are no longer chased. Unfortunately, shooting killed not only the monster, but also the tension, as we no longer perceived our opponents as invincible. Besides, the types are not even particularly tough, as we will discover in subsequent meetings, and they go down quite easily, so much so that trying too hard to avoid them, if you have enough ammunition, is almost useless. And we have had plenty of ammunition: exploring the various environments, in fact, it is not uncommon to find small deposits of consumables, to be collected to replenish our stocks. From this point of view, much of the second cassette of In Sound Mind reminded us more of a shooter, in which not to exaggerate with the gusts, rather than a real horror.
Shadow creatures
The sewage returns, who knows where it comes from. However, we soon make the acquaintance of the second enemy of the area: creatures that live in the shadows and that suck up everything they touch. Actually we had already seen them in the video material shown to us to write a preview of the game, but now we have had the opportunity to face them. Also in this juncture, more than a horror title, it seemed to us to play an action, since we ran from one side of an area in front of the lighthouse to the other, looking for objects to use to solve a puzzle, while avoiding being sucked into the creatures. Here the gun was of no use, while the flashlight came in more than useful, since light is the only element that scares the shadow creatures. Despite the low overall tension, the section turned out to be quite spectacular, given the effects related to the sucking of the objects of the scenario, with trees and cars that disappear in the shady pools created by the monsters.After this section, the cassette has become more traditional and has gone a little deeper with the story linked to the patient, relying more on puzzles and a classic horror grammar, made up of visions and other puzzles.
Lovers of horror puzzle games will love In Sound Mind In the preview phase we had identified a greater versatility in the use of objects, but in reality with the direct test we verified that it was basically an impression wrong, since the puzzle solving process is really straightforward. Sure, you go back to using an item from the previous cassette in a slightly different way, but that's it. We will see if in the finished game there will be more space for the player's expression, but we would not count for much. From this point of view In Sound Mind appears more and more like an adventure with a strong direction, in which there is little room for digressions whatsoever.
In Sound Mind is a game with many souls, as it has unveiled this new evidence. After a very traditional section, like that of the first cassette, we expected something similar, but we were amazed. Whether positive or negative, we will be able to tell you when we have the complete picture of the game. The second cassette is not sorry as a whole, especially for some implications which it is better not to mention in order not to give too many previews, but we must confess that we have seen and experienced little horror. At this point we expect that the other cassettes, which we will probably have the opportunity to see only with the finished version, will further change the cards.
