A surprisingly great story that continues from the first game. The game ties the first and second game together to make a better story which hits close to real life.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Point and Click
Developer: Jesse Makkonen
Publisher: Jesse Makkonen
Release date: 14 Nov, 2018
Intro
DISTRAINT 2 continues its story from DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition (our review) as Price suffers from his deeds, unable to forgive himself for everything that happened. Will he able to find hope to forgive and possibly forge a new path in his life? Although it has some horror elements in it, the game mostly tells about how to cope, forgive, and redeem yourself. It has a great story for those who are troubled or simply those who are looking for a good story.
Graphics
DISTRAINT 2 uses 1/3 of your screen, making you focus more on the characters rather than the environment. Characters are expressive and minor facial expressions are shown to make us immersed in the story. Although there are times when the game has full, vibrant colors in it, the game was mostly represented in black and white with colorful lighting effects. The use of colorful lights work perfectly due to the nature of the game; the game can turn dark all of a sudden with a glitchy-looking screen or spooky environment to make it creepy.
Story
People who haven’t played the first game still can enjoy the story since the game offers a short recap of what happened to the first game. The story tells us about Price, who did a terrible deed in the past and living in guilt, anguish, sorrow, and other negative emotions and was forced to find hope to escape. Although the game has its share of slight horror and gore elements to surprise you, the game mostly tells us about life lessons on how to move forward. I was moved by the ending that I almost cried.
The Game
Exploration
The game is a side-scroller point-and-click game with linear progression. Items are easy to find and solutions are easy to figure out, especially since you can just examine most objects to figure out what you need to do with them. There’s an exception for episode 3 though because 2 solutions are quite vague. However, there aren’t many places that you can interact in this game so you won’t find yourself stuck in a place for too long.
Horror elements will shift into the game from time to time, making everything looks creepy and strange. The loud SFX that follows with it will sometimes leave you surprised, as an otherwordly presence comes out and chase you to death. Dying is inevitable if you touch them and this can be avoided by hiding in a closet. Although the same formula was applied a lot of times in a single playthrough, I wasn’t bored because of the varied execution.
Saving can only be done in certain spots. As you move to other places, a new saving spot will be available for you to use. The game still retains the first game’s feature with one saving slot, although it won’t be a problem because of its short playtime.
Puzzles
The new addition from the first game aside from the colorful visuals and better-looking text is the addition of puzzles. The game has simple puzzles from time to time that you must solve to proceed. Although some might leave you stumped at first, it will become easy once you know how to solve them, especially since some puzzles have similar mechanics.
Length and Replayability
The game can be finished in ~2 hours with no replayability value unless if you miss some achievements in your previous playthrough and aim for 100% completion.
Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Verdict
People who have played the first game will notice some references and explanations in the first game while people who are new to the game will still be amazed by the presentation. Dialogues are executed perfectly and flow smoothly as everything becomes clear as you finish the story. The atmospheric visuals and horror shift also work perfectly for the game and people who are not good at horror games will still enjoy the game due to it being a different type of horror; it’s not scary, it’ll just surprise you for a bit. I highly recommend DISTRAINT 2 for everyone, especially those who have trouble in their life. However, the price might be too expensive for some people compared to the playtime, so feel free to buy it at a discount if you feel that way.
