DreadOut Remastered Collection sees you putting your smart phone to work taking pictures of ghosts to banish them before they get you.
Linda is a high school student on a trip with some kids from school. Somehow, this high school adventure leads the gang to an abandoned town, and like most teenagers in horror media, they decide to go explore instead of turning around and heading back the way they came. When night falls, they find themselves under siege from disturbing phantoms and creatures from Indonesian folklore. Thank goodness most of them hate having their picture taken or you’d never have a chance of surviving.
Linda’s only weapon is the camera on her phone (and a better camera later on), which she can use to damage the ghosts by snapping a quick picture. The difficult part is that you can’t always see the ghosts coming unless you look at them through the camera, so you need to be paying attention to sounds around you. The game also provides an aura around the edge of the screen if a ghost is getting close, so you do have some clues that you’re in danger. As you won’t know exactly where the ghost is until you aim the camera, though, it creates this sense of deep dread when you hear something or see that aura. You just have to hope you can find the ghost in time, which creates a powerful sense of terror and near-panic in each encounter. It lessens once you can keep an eye on the ghost, but it hits wonderfully hard when encounters start.
DreadOut Remastered Collection takes clear inspiration from Fatal Frame (And not enough other game do), creating some interesting and uniquely chilling ghost encounters. Staring right at these apparitions as you try to take pictures of them just adds to the unsettling atmosphere. Also, there are many ghosts hiding in places you may not expect, so if you’re really paying attention, you can find some compelling, horrifying secrets hidden throughout the game’s world. While it can be a bit clunky and frustrating in places (not being able to see ghosts in time can make some difficult battles more irritating than scary), it weaves an unsettling atmosphere far better than most of the big budget horror games I’ve played lately.
DreadOut Remastered Collection is available now on the Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store.
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