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Those Who Remain places you in an up-close, psychological horror story set in the sleepy town of Dormont – a town in a spiralling split from the fabric of reality, warped by darkness and the deeds of the Citizens who reside. Confront the uncomfortable horrors reflected by the darkness and survive the night of Dormont as Edward is confronted ...
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- Imperfect dark.
- What We Redo in the Shadows
- Atone in the Dark
- Verdict
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By Tristan Ogilvie
Updated: Oct 22, 2020 8:50 pm
Posted: May 28, 2020 1:00 pm
Many of us have felt afraid of the dark at some point in our lives, but Those Who Remain takes that irrational phobia and imbues it with some tangible menace. A creepy psychological thriller that will kill you should you so much as set one foot into its shadows, Those Who Remain forces you to seek solace under streetlights and puzzle your way to illuminate new paths through your shady surroundings, sort of like the inverse of a standard stealth game design. It’s an intriguing horror premise that Those Who Remain uses in some fairly creative ways, but control shortcomings and a disjointed flow to its narrative prevent it from being a consistent thrill for its full six-hour duration.
You play as Edward, a guilt-ridden man making his way to a discreet highway motel with the intention of breaking things off with his mistress and getting his failing marriage back on track. However, he’s soon forced to make his way on foot through the small town of Dormant, where he’s haunted by dark demons that lurk both in his present surroundings and emerge from the events of his past. Despite his prior indiscretions Edward is a likeable enough character, and Those Who Remain did a good job of drawing me into his torment over the first few hours, even if the story never delivered a substantial payoff.
Those Who Remain cultivates an ominous ambience, with each location you visit shrouded in a darkness that’s only pierced by the glowing blue eyes of the malevolent silhouettes that lurk within it. The first few times I flicked a light switch on and off and watched a horde of stationary shadow people blink in and out of existence was certainly a chilling sight to behold.
Not everything works as effectively as it should, though, and that leads to frustratingly regular checkpoint restarts. Those Who Remain features a pretty streamlined control setup, so it's particularly galling that its main interactions frequently fall down due to their inherent fiddliness. Clearing a room of dark-dwelling demons is as easy as flicking a light switch, or at least it is in theory. In practice, inching through a doorway sideways while waving the reticule over the switch in an attempt to make the hand prompt appear all too often ends in an instant death as you accidently nudge a toe into the black and become consumed by the murderous mob. To make matters worse, light switches have a glowing red LED whether they’re on or off, so it’s not always clear whether they need to be flicked or not.
The inability to crouch, lean around corners, or create any kind of distraction meant I felt about as cloaked as a naked ninja.
“
I felt a similar sense of feebleness anytime I encountered Those Who Remain’s recurring main monster: a hulking harpy with a car’s headlight for a face. Unlike the rest of Dormant’s sinister yet static residents, this beast is both mobile and unhindered by light, meaning you’re powerless to stop it and forced to adopt a stealthy approach in order to evade it. Unfortunately, the inability to crouch, lean around corners, or create any kind of distraction meant I felt about as cloaked as a naked ninja, and the monster’s movements were so erratic that I often found myself suddenly snared even when it seemed like I was in the clear.
At a handful of junctions throughout the story and at the behest of a mysterious masked stranger, Edward must gather evidence to either forgive or condemn a Dormant resident who’s trapped in purgatory for a crime they’ve committed. According to the developers, the half-dozen or so fates you determine along the way contributes directly to which one of three story endings you receive; however, in practice I played through Those Who Remain twice, making an opposing series of decisions – one totally benevolent, the other wrathful – and both times I ended up with the exact same total bummer of an outcome. I’m not sure if it was a bug specific to me or a general fault with Those Who Remain – perhaps appropriately, I’m still completely in the dark – but I’m certainly not compelled to play through again to find out if the third time’s a charm.
Part of the reason I don’t wish to return is that there’s an abruptness to the end of each level in Those Who Remain that shatters any sense of place for its small town setting. As a result, Dormant feels a bit like a theme park where every ride and attraction is a haunted house, and every loading screen is the roped-off line you’re forced to stand in before you get on. You’re at the Ghastly Gas Station then suddenly you’re at the Distressing Diner and then the Chilling Church, but they all feel like they exist in isolation as opposed to inhabiting the same contiguous sprawl. It’s even worse when these jarring jump cuts between areas impacts the continuity, like when a handy zippo lighter you use to illuminate a path along a darkened highway early on is suddenly absent from your inventory when you’re shunted from that level to the next, only for it to be conveniently explained away by Edward saying, “I guess I must have dropped it”.
Those Who Remain features an eerie atmosphere, inventive puzzles, and some moments of genuine tension via its shape-shifting world, but fussy controls, one-dimensional stealth, and a narrative that lacks cohesion prevent it from stepping completely out of the darkness and into the spotlight.
A horror game that challenges you to survive the dark and solve puzzles in a haunted town. Read IGN's review of the game's atmosphere, story, and gameplay, and find out if it's worth playing.
Those Who Remain is a wave-based survival shooter game developed by Peak Development Studios, and publicly released on December 21, 2018. It includes a wide variety of weapons, perks, skins, maps, and gamemodes. The objective of the game is to survive waves of infected while looting for items to keep yourself, and other players alive.
May 28, 2020 · Those Who Remain is a first-person adventure game set in a cursed town where a demon lurks in the darkness. IGN provides news, reviews, trailers, and gameplay videos for this horror title.
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May 28, 2020 · Those Who Remain is a horror game inspired by David Lynch, but critics and users are divided on its quality. See the metascore, user score, and critic reviews for this indie title on Metacritic.
