Those Who Remain

by Aethyna Jun 10, 2020 | 1 Votes | 13 Played | 0 Reviews

7 rate

Genres:

Adventure

Graphics:

Labels:

Horror

Platforms:

Publishers:

Wired Productions Those Who Remain is an atmospheric horror game that features an adulterer who was trapped in the town of Dormont as he is on his way to break things off with his mistress. Things took a turn for the worse when he realized that everyone’s missing and there are shadowy figures with glowing eyes blocking his every path… Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Community Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Those Who Remain is an atmospheric horror game that features an adulterer who was trapped in the sleepy town of Dormont as he is on his way to break things off with his mistress. Things took a turn for the worse when he realized that, for some reason, everyone’s missing and there are shadowy figures with glowing eyes converging on him, blocking his every path…

Plotline

In this game, you play as an adulterer named Edward. He was on his way to a motel just outside the sleepy town of Dormont to meet with his mistress, Diana, one last time – he has finally decided to break things off with her and be faithful to his wife.

However, the nerve-wracking trip was made even worse when he realized that things are amiss at the motel – everyone’s missing, including Diana. His car was then promptly stolen and he had no choice but to travel to Dormont on foot to seek help while being stared at by shadowy figures with glowing eyes all around him.

Gameplay

Like most adventure/horror games, the gameplay in Those Who Remain is pretty similar to what you’d expect from a walking simulator, except that there is some puzzling involved. I’m not really sure you could call some of these puzzles though, but basically, what the game expects you to do at certain points in the game is to find randomly hidden items, much like in a hidden object game really.

For instance, there’s one point in the game where I needed to find a key and after spending more time than I’d like just going over everything again and again, I finally found it underneath some random cardboard boxes. This is very different from the start of the game where the key to the motel room door is deviously hidden underneath the mat rather than hanging on the key holder in the office. In this case, there’s at least some logic to it.

Due to this, the puzzles aspect of the game ends up feeling more frustrating than entertaining for me most of the time, and well, if you do get stuck and have spent enough time just wandering around trying to find that one missing piece of the puzzle, the game ends up feeling rather boring.

Another part of the game that I’m not a huge fan of is the “gotcha” deaths. Three hours in and I’ve already encountered two of them – one involving a suddenly broken light bulb in a room; and second involves an intentionally built dead-end which made me feel like I’m a cattle driven to slaughter by the monstrous creature that’s stalking after me. It would have been nice if the player is given more heads-up about such events, such as having the light bulb flicker a bit before popping, and hence, give them the chance to react and not die needlessly.

And this actually brings me to my third negative point about the game – the checkpoints. Those Who Remain saves your progress via fixed checkpoints and if you die even after you’ve completed a puzzle, you’re expected to complete the puzzle again. It ended up feeling more annoying than not, though frankly speaking if the puzzle is simple enough to solve, I wouldn’t mind solving it again.

Now, negatives aside, I really like how the game utilizes an alternate dimension for you to solve puzzles, which are the better parts of the puzzles presented in the game. I also like that the game doesn’t fall into the black hole of horror game tropes and has managed to avoid using jump scares to surprise and frighten players.

Community

Those Who Remain is a single-player game but you could reach out to the community to discuss anything about the game via its Steam discussion board.

Graphics/ Sound

As an atmospheric game, Those Who Remain really nailed it in the head when it comes to its graphics and sound. The lighting is brilliantly done here and I really like how creepy the game can feel. However, there are some times when an area seems well-lit enough but in reality, you’ll die if you walked into it, which is the direct opposite of what the game advises you to do, that is to stay in the light.

Conclusion

So, in short, Those Who Remain may have a horrifying journey of a story to tell, a great atmosphere, and it doesn’t have jump scares which are the boon of many horror games, but because of the many frustrating puzzles that felt like unnecessarily-massive concrete walls in between story segments, the game ends up falling flat. It’s probably decent if you don’t mind the negatives and can buy the game at a discount, but I wouldn’t recommend the game at its full price.

New Game Added: Those Who Remain

by Aethyna Jun 10, 2020

Those Who Remain is an atmospheric horror game that features an adulterer who was trapped in the town of Dormont as he is on his way to break things off with his mistress. Things took a turn for the worse when he realized that everyone’s missing and there are shadowy figures with glowing eyes blocking his every path…