The rise of wanting the feeling of nostalgia is growing in all forms of entertainment, and no form of art is demanding nostalgia more than the gaming industry for both creators and players. Though not a bad thing, it can be an issue when it comes to making a game for the modern player. I’ve encountered this while checking out Red Soul Games and Raw Fury’s Post Trauma, which seemed to have blurred the line of originality, and memberberries.
Post Trauma is played out in different acts featuring Roman and Carlos, who both seemed to be caught up in a twisted world in which they’re trying to escape the gloom, which is full of horrors that baffle the mind!
Now, onto the game itself. When it comes to the controls for Post Trauma, they’re easy to learn, and players have the option to have modern controls OR old school tank controls. The one thing I wish were possible is to turn off controller vibration.
Graphics are decent as well as the art itself for the game, I think some improvements could be made, though, as it seems the shading/lighting is a bit rough for console versions. The soundtrack is good as well as the ambient sounds, but for the most part, the acting is good; it’s just a bit confusing with the character Roman, who looks to be an old white guy, but has a heavy Japanese accent. I know Togo Igawa plays Roman, I’m just a bit lost as to the voice and character design not matching.
When it comes to gameplay, this is where I feel the game falls off a bit for me. Post Trauma is very heavy on puzzles, great if you love puzzles and solving them, bad if you just want to play the game, get spooked, and unravel the story. There is a lot of back and forth with the puzzles and trying to figure them out, which could turn off many players. This is where I feel that line of nostalgia in survival horror games is getting blurred. Post Trauma feels like a slightly more boring version of a Silent Hill game (hence the title of this review). It’s a decent game, don’t get me wrong, but after a couple of hours of back-and-forth solving puzzles (some quite complicated), I had to stop and walk away.
Overall, Post Trauma is a good game if you’re a puzzle gamer, but if you want to be spooked and feel a bit of dread as you play, you may want to avoid this one. On my scale of 1-10, Post Trauma is a 6/10 as I feel it was trying a little too much to be like a Silent Hill game, but its attempt to be more puzzle-focused left a sour taste.
Post Trauma is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
