Living in the middle of a folklore can be interesting or magical. But in DreadOut 2, Linda will experience horror.
Ghost stories are nothing new in the world of gaming. It is how they’re told that matters. In DreadOut2, old stories are the backdrop for this chilling tale of the supernatural. The protagonist, Linda, finds herself at the center of stories she and other students have only heard of. The young student must make an effort to stop the darkness that’s overtaken her town.
No good ghost story is good without proper inspiration. Drawing from Indonesian folklore, the creatures of Dreadout 2 are seldom mentioned in major media. It is said that many restless spirits exist around the lands of Indonesia. At the center of her own ghostly story, Linda must summon spiritual powers she had once before. Developer Digital Happiness blends the drama and stress of school with old legends to bring a nail-biting third-person horror game. Prepare to fear the shadows in DreadOut 2.
By default, the game is set to Japanese. This is pretty easy to solve and takes a quick Google search to find the right characters. Choose the third option in the list on the game screen. Highlighting the second selection, scroll the option all the way to the right. Now, the game’s language is English. If you can read Japanese, though, it gives you more power.
The story starts simple enough for an indie game with horror elements. A school student has come back from a trip where terrible things happened. The horror isn’t over yet. And DreadOut 2 has her taking on even more than the tales of the dead hide. You can control Linda’s back, forward, and side-to-side movements using the left analog stick. The right analog stick moves the camera across the ghost-infested environment.
While general movement for DreadOut 2 isn’t what you would call ‘broken,’ it can occasionally be very frustrating. Simply moving around the prologue area, the simple controls are slowly introduced to how Linda deals with the ghosts and demons surrounding her. Moving around the world is the easy part here. It is fighting the ghost creatures when things become difficult to handle. At Linda’s disposal is what a game entry refers to as a cheap and reliable prepaid phone.
Using the camera, you bring up the phone’s camera to Linda’s perspective using the right bumper. At first glance, it looks like any other camera. Linda’s powers, though, are what make the phone special. It becomes something more when wielded by her. Hitting the right Z button will take a photo using the phone’s camera. In DreadOut 2, this is the method Linda must use to combat disembodied spirits. Depending on the spirits, two or three snapshots usually rob them of their power. Those with a physical form, in addition to their ghost form, can take as many as 7 or 8 snapshots to defeat.
One of the most common entities is the Pocong Radja, a spirit depicted as a corpse bound at the legs, hands, and neck. It seems more of an annoyance than the other creatures that exist throughout DreadOut 2. Despite it killing one student, once it’s not overtaken by evil energy, it tells Linda it didn’t mean to hurt one of the students. What draws these monsters to the town if simple haunting spirits are being affected?
Eventually, Linda is able to wield weapons to fight the Dreadlings, Indonesian zombies depicted as missing skin and muscle on various parts of the body. These are some of the only creatures in the game that can be physically harmed. The first melee weapon obtained is a Santoku knife, the right Z button controlling the strike in whatever direction the camera’s perspective faces.
As clunky as the camera and snapshots are at times, the melee combat draws major frustration. Stand in the wrong area, and a Dreadling may block off your only means of escape from the room where the fight is taking place. It feels a little embarrassing being stuck in a classroom and being beaten to death between two desks. Aside from simply reloading the last checkpoint, the only solution to stopping this is to wait till Linda’s heartbeat reaches zero.
There is a way to combat this. Pressing and holding the Y button will charge the phone’s camera flash. Doing this will stun Dreadlings and cause them to stumble backward. This opens a much-needed space for landing a melee attack.
The large Ogre spirit and the corrupted tiger guardian spirit are far more dangerous and frustrating than the Drealings of DreadOut 2. During the game’s third act, it becomes necessary to cross the street while the large ogre creature stalks the main road. At first, it’s unclear what needs to be done until Linda drops into a crouch behind a sign. The way things are laid out, it’s partially implied going across the street is the route you should take. DreadOut 2 ensures this is one of the most frustrating events in the whole game. Going across the street means certain death, of course.
Going along the same side as the alley Linda came from, you can sneak past whenever the ogre creature is looking away. After about nine or ten failures, it becomes painfully clear that the only way past is the long way. Using the same side the alley is on, you must ‘hop’ from cover to cover until another alleyway is within sight. If the item at the end of this alley is picked up as soon as contact is made, the ogre creature will send Linda to oblivion. As frustrating as it is, it is a hilarious ‘wtf’ moment to experience while playing Dread Out 2.
Even harder than the ogre is the Tiger spirit guardian, corrupted by the evil plaguing the town; this spirit begins attacking people. This could be an incredible encounter if not for the wonky controls and painfully slow turning. Dreadout 2’s controls make this encounter the most frustrating one anyone can experience. Fighting a ghost tiger is a tremendous idea. But taking a snapshot takes a finesse that is almost impossible to pull off.
Linda’s cellphone camera needs to snap a shot when the creature charges. This will wear down the creature’s spirit energy. However, with the tiger’s insane speed compared to Linda’s, it is an unnecessarily challenging encounter in DreadOut 2. If the aim is to provide motivation for continuing to play DreadOut 2, this event feels like it may work against that goal.
It is never really clear where you must go. While a map exists, it only shows the major locations within the town’s borders. No compass exists to clarify where DreadOut 2 will trigger its subsequent encounter. If there isn’t going to be a compass, part of the environment should be highlighted to help give some direction. With another layer or two, you might make better use of the map they’re given.
Exploration is the name of the game in DreadOut 2. But getting completely lost and moving in circles occurred on more than one occasion. You must constantly take note of the environment when stuck in dark areas in The Beyond. Many Dreadlings exist in The Beyond, and Linda is their only target. Some encounter spots are very narrow and can make it extremely easy to stay trapped against a wall.
The Ghostpedia is a useful tool that should be consulted occasionally while playing DreadOut 2. It provides objective information on spirits’ details such as origin, appearance, motivation, and possible weaknesses. It also provides an in-game snapshot of the initial encounter with each monster. Unfortunately, there is no going back to take another photo of a ghost, which would be really cool to get better shots of them.
Dreadout 2 is surprisingly detailed for a game appearing on the Nintendo Switch. Making use of the handheld device’s hardware, players are treated to a game inspired by early 2000s third-person horror games. Admittedly, the graphics are not the “spectacular” visual show most gamers have come to expect from anything in the horror genre.
A good majority of DreadOut 2 is in English, with the right setting selected. During the course of gameplay, though, characters may occasionally speak in Indonesian when speaking with Linda. Seeing the English subtitles with this audio might be useful to anyone looking to learn a diminutive Indonesian. A few side characters have both spoken and non-spoken dialogue.
Despite Linda being the main character, we don’t really hear her speaking. That being said, the voice acting in DreadOut 2 is good. Whichever actor chose to take on Henny must be applauded. She’s supposed to be in an extremely agitated state, with a thirst for blood. The spoken dialogue here sets the overall game’s scene and feel. It would be great to see a handful of people acting like this through.
Each of the spirits and creatures in DreadOut 2 has sounds and groans. Out of all the sounds that exist within the game, the Kuntilanak can strike fear into anyone with a hint of it. Kuntilanak takes the form of a woman, shrouded in white, with long black hair and razor-sharp nails. Her screams are enough to make a person’s hair stand up.
DreadOut 2 can be fun once everything is understood. From the beginning, though, very little is clear on how to play. Aside from being told how the camera works, Linda has to wander around to find anything. In the darker portions of this horror title, this serves against working towards the main objective. With a map that shows only the main areas of interest, it feels like its only purpose is visual aesthetic. It’s also a shame the white cat cannot be interacted with and given a few pats on the head.
DreadOut 2 is short and can be completed in one short afternoon. It is great as its own thing, but in its current state, there is no way it can compete with more mainstream horror titles. Certain sections are frustrating, others are simply odd, and some can be downright scary. Many ‘nuh-uh’ moments can be found while playing. But as short as the game is, I am unsure if the content justifies the price.
