Post Trauma is an indie survival horror game that was very much inspired by classic titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil among others. It comes equipped with all the familiar trappings for fans of said titles; Isolating, mostly abandoned environments to explore, limited resources like health and ammunition, a handful of melee weapons and firearms to dispatch the nightmarish enemies the player encounters, puzzles to solve and clues to be found, and a grim and at-first complex story that unfolds in interesting and often unforeseen ways.
Uniquely however, Post Trauma switches not only characters as the plot progresses, but also camera angles and even genre from old-school style survival horror to a more modern puzzle horror game. The majority of the game is played in a semi-fixed camera angle perspective, but at times the game will switch to first-person exploration and third-person over the shoulder to not only provide some variation in gameplay, but also to seemingly represent a change in the level of control and point of view exhibited by the game’s few characters.
The game features three main playable individuals that are so varied that it’s surprising they even exist in the same story. For the bulk of the game, I took control of an elderly and out of shape metro station employee named Roman. I noted his age and fitness as they play a factor in his stamina when running and using melee weapons, as well as having an impact on his overall speed and ability to effectively handle more powerful weaponry. I found this to be a pretty cool feature as each playable character had different access to areas, movement speeds, and capabilities that were tied to their mysterious backgrounds and overall physicality.
As not to spoil the plot I will refrain from going into much detail about the characters or story other than to say that they all feature notably different playstyles and objectives, and all intertwine within the story of the others. One of the characters, as noted before, is controlled entirely in first-person puzzle solving sections that felt more like Layers of Fear or Amnesia. These sections were cleverly interlaced into the narrative in such a way that provided breaks from the previous combat encounters and scares from Roman’s perspective.
With that said, these first-person sections aren’t exactly what I would describe as peaceful breaks, as they are stilled packed with plenty of disturbing imagery, dark dialogue, and frightening monsters that had me wide eyed and squealing from time to time. The puzzles and plot development in these cutaways always left me more intrigued as to what was unfolding before me and what was to come.
It’s important to note that both the semi-fixed camera angle sections and the first-person camera angle segments featured puzzles. The folks at Red Soul Games really came out swinging on their first title as a studio, as I found the puzzles to be some of the most enjoyable and engaging that I’ve experienced in a horror game in years.
They weren’t the type of puzzles to hold the player’s hand like in many modern remakes of classic survival horror games, but they weren’t exactly as complex and time consuming as the classics either. These were quality puzzles that utilized a clever blend of imagery, mathematics, and pattern recognition in a way that left me feeling accomplished and excited as I typed in a correct code or nailed a combination on my first attempt. For the first time in years, I found the puzzles not to be unnecessary due to their simplicity, nor a hindrance to my experience due to their difficulty; They were right in the sweet spot.
Much like the aforementioned classic titles, the game took me to a handful of places I’ve been a dozen times before in survival horror experiences. I found myself wandering through the dimly lit corridors of a school in shambles, a crumbling metro station filled with ominous mannequins, a dilapidated hospital where death was its only business, and a few other all-too familiar locations.
All of the environments seemed to exist within a realm only referred to as “The Gloom”, which felt like some type of purgatory for its inhabitants to come to terms with the sins of their pasts and find some redemption, which felt like an homage to James’ experience in Silent Hill 2.
Along with the homage came a great deal of Easter Eggs that referenced the classics as well, such as some audio cues from the Silent Hill series, a handful of nods to the Resident Evil series through objects and interactions and more that I’ll leave you to spot on your own. As I said, even the environments themselves felt referential in their execution.
Though passable and well-suited for the story, these environments were nothing new or innovative. The music was also greatly lacking compared to the absolutely timeless soundtracks from the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles, with most of the score being comprised of subtle, ambient instrumentals that left me feeling underwhelmed and disinterested in the scenario during which the track was playing.
The sound design outside of the music was top notch though! The game was dripping with not only gore, but with an expertly crafted eerie ambience as well. I found myself constantly on the move as standing in one place too long would have my ears ringing with distant slams, worrisome wailing, disembodied voices, grotesque moans, and various other monster noises and mysterious frights that chilled me to my bones. Speaking of ringing ears, another awesome feature of the sound design was that when firing guns, Roman’s ears would ring accordingly with the volume of the weapon and location it was fired.
Along with the ear-ringing gunfire, the firearms featured varying recoil based on the type of ammunition the weapon was chambered in, while also accounting for Roman’s age and physical strength. Firing one weapon would leave Roman vulnerable for a moment as it would strongly kick and knock him off balance, while another would fire smoothly and much more consistently, though Roman’s marksmanship was clearly not his strong suit.
I think factoring in the characters’ ages, physical fitness, and prior life experiences where combat and puzzle solving were involved was a relatively unique and excited thing to see in a newer title. The last time we really had something like that in a game like this was the difference of strength, proficiency, and carrying capacity between Chris and Jill in Resident Evil.
The combat also felt much like those type of classic survival horror games but with even less control as you could only attack and dodge but couldn’t aim your strikes or shots. The enemy design and variety however were really great for such a short indie experience. Each area seemed to showcase at least one new fleshy monstrosity to eliminate or avoid, and the game even featured a couple of boss fights that varied in execution. The monster design was one of the stronger points of the game as each creature was creatively crafted to thematically fit the tone of the area they inhabited and evoke a certain emotional response whenever they revealed themselves to the player.
With all of that said, my biggest complaints are with the length, direction, and presentation of the story. I found the voice acting very hit or miss, with some performances feeling inspired, while others felt like someone poorly attempting to read a script after a few afternoon acting classes.
The narrative left too much to the imagination without filling in gaps that the story created for itself and even though there were multiple endings, they didn’t need to exist. Both endings were so similar that they felt unnecessary, and since they were both achievable based around a single decision at the end of the game, they didn’t provide any replay value.
With that said, there wasn’t any replay value outside of the two endings and difficulties. That was the most noticeable aspect of most classic survival horror games that Post Trauma lacked. There were no unlockable weapons or difficulties after completion of the game; No costumes, no infinite ammo, no randomizers, nothing! It was a shame because the game was so short. I wanted another scenario to learn more about some of the characters.
I wanted more enemies to fight, more weapons to use, more fun to have, because even though it was way shorter than I had hoped for, it was a very fun game. Unfortunately, I was left without fully grasping the entirety of the story due to intentional holes in the characters’ memories and their status as unreliable narrators. There were also far too few enemy encounters throughout the game, though the variety was great, the amount was incredibly limited.
I went into my playthrough of Post Trauma hoping for an indie that hearkened back to the survival horror classics it was attempting to emulate, and in some ways that is what I found. I just wish a little more time and care had been spent crafting the story, refining the combat, and improving the performances. The game needed a few more hours of runtime to allow the plot and characters to fully develop, and to give the player more enemies to fight and puzzles to solve.
However, for a new indie studio’s first game, Red Soul Games put out an encouraging first entry into what may perhaps evolve into an incredible franchise. All the pieces are there; They just need to be assembled properly. I look forward to seeing what they do next.
