Apart from the main plot, I especially loved everything to do with the very pettable cat – she’s a constant source of reassurance and positivity in an otherwise lonely-feeling narrative, and I thought they brought that mini-arc to its natural end-state beautifully.Įven though the review goes downhill from here, I hope I’ve convinced you of the strength of its story enough that you consider picking it up, because, despite all of its problems, I honestly found the story underneath to be brilliant, and can definitely see this being a cult classic. Speaking of the writing, it’s consistently great throughout and definitely one of the high points of In Sound Mind – campy and touching in equal measure, and really brings the fantastic story to a satisfying culmination. Some of the dialogue with the talking cat is also pretty light-hearted and humorous. Then there’s the fact that the protagonist literally says ‘Nom’ upon eating food (health re-ups) which I found hilarious – I mean, imagine stopping to eat a Snickers bar while being chased by a ghost and gleefully going ‘Nom’. For example, there’s a mysterious (though ultimately predictable) character who follows and inconveniences you throughout the game and punctuates each level with campy taunting phone calls. The tone overall is pretty serious but permeated by standout moments of just pure fun and campiness, which I found to be a good mix. Even the few scary aspects of the plot quickly become almost fully ineffective after a while, so if you’re in it for the scares, you might just be disappointed (though there are a few fun jumpscares spread throughout the narrative). This is an essential point that I want to make very clear: though the first couple of hours may be unsettling and the first level is definitely a classic horror trope, the other levels and overall narrative is much more about the puzzle-solving and overarching mystery. And as such, though it is definitely story-rich and boasts a compelling, original narrative that’ll keep you playing despite its flaws, In Sound Mind is by no means ‘scary’. The keyword here is ‘mystery’, for that’s what the game is, for the most part, a mystery with horror elements as opposed to a straight-up horror story.
Each one of these is a sprawling sandbox level with puzzles to solve and lore to ingest, all of them reflecting that particular patient’s story and their disorder represented by a sometimes-uniquely designed boss, and each providing you with another piece of the conspiratorial mystery afoot. There are weird fluorescent puddles of poisonous goo everywhere, not a soul to be seen, portals leading to your patients’ inner psyches, and oh yeah, an incredibly fluffy talking cat.īy going through portals that somehow lead to their homes and finding a tape of their therapy sessions, you gain access to four of your patients’ psyches. You play as Desmond Wales (thank gods it’s not Miles), a psychiatrist who wakes up to find himself in the basement of his apartment building, only, everything’s definitely not normal. To put it more precisely, it’s the overall vibe and mystery-unraveling aspect, as well as some similar game mechanics and level design of Alan Wake, combined with Psychonauts’ exploration of people’s psyches through levels.
In sound mind alan wake plus#
In any case, with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get this thing going, shall we? A Fascinating Mystery-Horror NarrativeĪt the risk of an overly simplistic comparison ( Far Cry with guns hah!), In Sound Mind is basically Alan Wake meets Psychonauts, plus a healthy dose of puzzles. It stands to reason then that a few of my frustrations with the game may just be an outcome of my inexperience of the genre and may not be applicable to genre veterans. So, how soundly (heh) does In Sound Mind manage to pull off its lofty ambitions? Before I give the game a piece of my mind (heh) though, I feel compelled to divulge that I’m not the biggest horror-puzzler aficionado – in fact, I’ve only ever played a few ( Resident Evil 7, Little Nightmares come to mind) and completed even fewer. Not content with just being story-rich though, the game also has FPS and platforming elements to boot. Would you look at that, it’s already October! Obviously, you know what that means… only a quarter of the year remains to be devoured by the unrelenting ravenous all-consumer called Time and I’m going to turn 24 soon and they say 23 is the physical and mental peak of the human body oh crap we’re all gonna die what is life’s purpose?īut also, on a lighter note, it’s spooky season! And what better way to kick things off than with a review of the latest offering of the psychological thriller genre, In Sound Mind ?ĭeveloped by We Create Stuff and published by Modus Games for the PC, PS5, XSX, and Switch, In Sound Mind is a story-rich psychological horror-puzzler much-anticipated by horror fanatics everywhere.
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