Recensione: Remothered Tormented Fathers

Finally released from early access Remothered Tormented Fathers, indie horror español for PC - will be released later Xbox One and Playstation 4 - written by Chris Darril - pseudonym of Christopher Valenti from Catania - and developed by Darril Arts e Stormind Games. The title looks like a survival horror like Outlast, where you play a normal character and you have to survive circumstances beyond our possibilities, without the aid of particular weapons other than some makeshift objects. Even Italy, albeit a few years late, begins to get noticed in the videogame world, after The Town Of Light and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, developed with the collaboration of the Milanese studio of Ubisoft.

We will play the role of Rosemary Reed, a journalist in her thirties grappling with an investigation into the disappearance of Celeste, the daughter of a wealthy lawyer, Richard Fenton. Now old and sick, he lives locked up in his villa together with the nurse who takes care of him during the day. Rosemary, after an initial interview with the elder, decides to stay in the room to find out more and from here begins her efforts to survive Felton's efforts to kill us, naked except for a filthy apron which, armed with a cleaver, wanders around the house trying to stop us. We will uncover deadly dramas and intrigues that have unfolded within those walls and outside in about six hours of gameplay that will keep us constantly on our toes.

A tribute to horror

Remothered Tormented Fathers is, by Chris Darril's own admission, a tribute to the world of horror, be it literary, cinematographic or videogame. The references to the cornerstones of the genre will be innumerable, scattered both along the plot and in the environments and characters. It is enough to look more carefully at the face of the protagonist, which is very reminiscent of that of Jodie Foster at the time when she masterfully interpreted Clarisse Starling in The Silence of the Innocents, or to notice how one of the enemies who will chase us around the house refers to one of the cornerstones of horror español, or the involvement of religious bodies. You will also notice several references to the works of Hitchcock and Argento.

Are we therefore faced with a title made only of references or purely quotations, therefore devoid of any substance? No not at all. Remothered Tormented Fathers is indeed a title that pays homage to the genre, but not only.

The story, which begins in an almost banal way, gradually becomes more and more captivating and above all disturbing, as in any self-respecting good horror. As for gameplay, although it is absolutely nothing new, it is not tired and not even in the long run, so much so that you could find yourself completing the game in a single session.

Good technical sector

Technically speaking, a good job has been done however, being an independent title, we can't expect who knows what. Despite this, we are still dealing with a respectable graphics sector, especially as regards the settings. The development team has worked very well on the optimization of the title, which even pushed to the maximum manages to maintain a stable framerate even at high resolutions.

On the other hand, the sound is clearly better, both as regards the audio effects and the music, composed by Nobuko Toda, known for working on the likes of The Evil Within and Metal Gear Solid, and Luca Balboni, Spanish musician who is part of Hans Zimmer's students at his Remote Control Production. In addition to being really beautiful and atmospheric, as if they were conceived more for an ambient music album context than for a videogame, they come in handy during the game, because they allow us to understand how close the enemies are.

Good controls, both from keyboard and mouse and from pad. In this regard, however, we have a small problem, which is that if, for example, you start the game with the pad and for some reason you switch and switch to mouse and keyboard, the prompts for commands and QTE could sometimes be displayed as input with the keys of the pad. , which is not very pleasant especially if it happens to you in a certain sequence towards the end of the game.

Small flaws not too obvious

While Remothered Tormented Fathers is a very well done title, it does have some problems. The aforementioned misunderstanding with pad and keyboard is the most striking, to name one, but we are still faced with a limited title, in several respects.

The first of all is the graphic sector, which is more than acceptable, but it is visibly dated, especially as regards the models of people and the small details that serve to make the characters more human, which in certain situations look more like dolls. of porcelain. Nice animations though. Furthermore, Remothered Tormented Fathers can be completed in no time, a player accustomed to this type of games could complete it in scarce four hours. For example, we have put five of them, but the intention to replay it is practically nil, so as a title it does not shine either for longevity or replayability.

Don't be intimidated though, because the experience is well structured and still enjoyable. Basically we are facing an independent but very ambitious title, the first of a trilogy that we can't wait to play, both to know how the plot continues and to see how Darril Games will improve in terms of development skills.