Part 2
Previously, Linda is bullied at night. The bullies throw her table and bag later burn them! One of the bullies is possessed by evil spirit and it's up to Linda to exorcise it. After exorcised the evil spirit, Linda goes home and crying. On the next day, Linda helps her friend Kim finding her shoe and later rewarded with backpack. Now, Linda sits on her chair and wait for class to start
So the class is finally starting but suddenly Linda's phone is ringing! Really? You should set that thing in silent mode, friend! I always keep my phone in silent mode. Just saying.
But luckily as the phone ringing, Linda is whisked to the dark room where the (presumably) recreation of first meeting of Miss Siska, created. Doni, Yayan, Shelly and Ira also here. Ok, perhaps this is not lucky circumstance because this is quite scary. The room is so dark that i have to increase the brightness setting to the maximum otherwise i can't see everyone here.
After hearing Miss Siska self introduction line, she disappears and Doni, Shelly, Ira turn dead. As Linda witness such horror, she passes out. Here's what happens in the previous game: One of the main antagonist demon break Doni's neck and he died. Ira is possessed by another main antagonist demon and depends whether the player know her phone number or not, she's either get her neck snapped or alive but still possessed for eternity. Meanwhile, Shelly is found dead hanging on ceiling beam. She's killed either by other ghost or Miss Siska, the teacher. While Yayan is stuck on the toilet as seen on after-credit blooper in bad ending. He's basically alive, but getting trapped inside of toilet in haunted building, is bad experience nonetheless.
As Linda wakes up, she is on different dimension. It's brownish, lots of dead bodies and scum. Kind of like Jason Voorhees' bathroom. This dimension transition most likely adapted from Silent Hill. Strangely, in this dimension i can't use my phone at all except for lighting. Scout_sf12_badmagic04.wav
There's no one here, except this teacher in other classroom. He told me to sit down and he start babbling about star's position cause certain polarity or thingamajig. I'm pretty sure it's not in my curriculum back then. Suddenly, he grabs my phone and he accidentally flashes himself!
I learn that i can unleash stunning flash by holding flashlight button (default "F" key). When flashed, the teacher is revealed that he's fleshy skeleton! Demoman_sf12_badmagic05.wav
With the ability to flash, i can make a root wall to disappear by flashing it then i can go further. Suddenly a tentacle stab my shoulder. Rude! Luckily, i can repels it by using flash.
I meet the white cat again! This time they brings me a knife! Sniper_meleedare01.wav
As i reach the exit door, this ragged bastard drags me the ground by using their wicked sickle. Ouucchh!
How do you like getting knife stuck on your torso, huh? That's what you get for stabbing my shoulder with that sickle of yours. I like this context-sensitive attack, it's satisfying and more powerful than regular attack. To trigger it, you have to flash the enemy first and then press attack button in close range. Nice and simple.
So that evil schmuck runs away into thin air and summon some fleshy skeletons. Like i said before, you should stun enemies first and then strike them with the animated strike. You can only execute 1 enemy at the time but the flash will stuns more than 1 enemies. It goes without saying that while executing an enemy, you're invulnerable during the process. Flash and execute tactic ensure you to deal enemy in safest mean. If you do the normal attack, there's high chance enemy will also attack you and you're end up in unhealthy damage race with your enemy. Speaking of health, Linda's health will regenerates overtime if she doesn't take any damage after some time.
If you execute the special animated attack on dying enemy, there will be additional finishing strike after the usual animation like here where Linda stab the skeleton through their jaw after stabbing them in the abdomen. Heavy_cheers03.wav
I can't use my phone to disintegrate ghost, but i can still access the Ghostpedia. It's revealed that the fleshy skeletons is called dreadling and they live by eating egg. That's barely scary to me.
Anyway, there's no one else between me and the exit door. Here i go...
...uhmm. I can explain. Luckily, the knife is disappeared as i enter the classroom so their suspiciousness toward me, is decreased by 60 %. I hope. Also only a teacher and a pair of student in front row that pay attention to me. The rest is fixated to the empty whiteboard, their empty desk, or their deskmate.
Anyway, Mr. Mamat kindly take me to my flat. So i get official day off! Then the landlady tells me to wear jacket to hide those bloodstain and go to hospital as soon as possible.
Then, i report my finding about Mr. Gepeng in previous walkthrough to Professor Mona. Supposedly if you can find all the urban legend clues and reports them to this girl, there will be cutscene where she invites you to cafe and having lively chat. Also you get special badge from her. It's for achievement/collectible. But she doesn't acknowledge my findings perhaps because i use "chapter select" to discover all the evidences. Probably large bug, but it's not detrimental to main quest. Professor Mona also gives you hint about Indonesia urban legend that you missed.
Here's she said about scandal in hospital. How nice! [whether this is sarcasm or not it's up to your interpretation]
By the way, Linda's wear reminds me of Ryougi Shiki from Kara no Kyoukai which is anime movies that mostly bloody violence. Well, except Chapter number 6. It's pretty peaceful ones. If only Linda still carries that knife, she will resembles Ryougi Shiki by 80% at most. Whether is it true that Digital Happiness thought to parody Ryougi Shiki or not, is quite debatable.
The only hospital that exist on the fast travel is this Cageur Hospital. Cageur is healthy in Sundanese. However, if people ask you if you're "Cageur" or not. They may mean "Are you sane?" as mocking rather than honestly asking your health condition.
I found bloodstain that can only be seen through camera in the main door near lobby desk. It's evidence of the famous Indonesian Urban Legend: Suster Ngesot. Ngesot is unofficial/sub-standard Indonesian term to describe crawl while dragging your leg thus you rely solely on your arms to move around. While suster is nurse. Suster Ngesot is ghost from nurse that either raped by doctor or killed by angry mob because of her evil deed. Because of that brutal treatment, her ghost can't stand with her leg so she have to ngesot.
I reckon the photo on the top-right corner is a screenshot from first game. You can't fool me, Digital Happiness!
Ok. Time to take queue number. I got number 205. The current number is 105! I have to wait for 100 patients! Now you know why patient is rhythmic with patience.
Finally, my number is called and i'm told to go to Dr. Sukmadi here. But, he doesn't treat me immediately! He just go out of the room. What a professional doctor! [average hospital-sized sarcasm]
It's not like i have critical wound or something, anyway.
Suddenly, there's scary hallucination going on. Body bag on examination table. The mourning photo on top of the medical shelf. The scariest thing is black-faced Ira coming from behind that door and suddenly teleport inside of this room. That's it! I will rate this hospital 1 star out of 5!
As the ghost approaches me, it turns into Miss Siska! She consoles me in rather unnerving way. She hold my head as if wants to snap my neck and her thumb is very close to my nose. Gross! Then she whispers something to my ear and the screen turns dark.
The hospital becomes empty and scary. Everyone is gone and replaced with this faceless monster. There's tutorial that wants me to walk (by pressing left shift button) to reduce noise. I try to walk pass this bastard but he can detect me anyway. Now, i'm stuck while this jerk keep clawing my body like ragdoll. Naturally because the freak doesn't have eye, i can't blind him with the flash on my camera. So i have no other choice than run away from him.
So i restart from last checkpoint and this time i run pass the monster. Walking is useless! I saw Ira's ghost in front of that elevator but suddenly disappear and replaced with these 2 mongrels. I activate the elevator but it takes very long time before it arrives and i have to juke these monsters left and right while waiting for the elevator.
Eventually, i get into the lift safely and the act 2 starts. It is going down until the floor sign said "Error". Heavy_sf13_magic_reac02.wav
Finally, i arrive at this scary floor where this naked surgeon currently sawing a body with buzzsaw! So i have to hide into a gurney that later pushed by the surgeon's daughter and i arrive at this room. This time he knows that i'm in the gurney and drags me out of it!
I don't like this miserable crook. He wields buzzsaw and that's very okay to me. But other thing on him is not sensible for horror setting. Why he's on "naked apron" fashion??? This is not R18 anime setting! Not either moe or cool. It's disgusting! First time, you get out of the lift, your position behind him and you most likely can see his butt crack! He doesn't wear anything but apron and rubber sandal, not even an underwear! Rubber sandal gives comedic impression to this horror character. He should wear high boots, for God's sake!
But he wears medical masker though. He doesn't want any of his friend recognize him with such outrageous fashion.
Not only i have to run away from that sick freak but also from the faceless monster along the corridor and i arrive at the lower floor. For some reason, the surgeon freak can't be blinded with the flash. So i have to either run away or hide in some certain place like in this pile of dead bodies (Yuck!), gurney, or cadaver storage.
Warning: If you dislike body horror like make you want to puke upon seeing it, well this game is not for you. There's lots of pile of dead bodies in this game. Especially in this section where there's lots of fleshy wall and hanged (presumably) human meat.
So i get owner's key that allow me to unlock every door in this floor except exit door. How unconvenience! I hate and fear horror game, especially if there's pacifist stealth section like this. But upon seeing this bug, i laugh for quite long time. He's partially clipping through that door and he keep trying reach me while ignoring the idea of opening the door first. Medic_laughlong02.wav
Finally Linda manage to muster all her courage and decide to fight the surgeon monster by throwing pack of bottle full of acid one after another. She throws it in general center of the camera so adjust her aim by moving the mouse. But the monster can get hurt from the acid remain on the floor where you throw the acid. After getting enough beating of Acid, the surgeon will go down and the entire floor is filled with yellow acidic air. That can't be good.
But that's not the end of the surgeon. He will turn into more grotesque form and grow head on its body which presumably his wife. However, i get fire axe that i acquired from hanged meat on hanging conveyor (which i need to make it run by activating contraption that get entangled and i can free its binding by using another jar of acid on shelf). As i have said before, execution strike after stunning the enemies first is the best melee method and this boss fight is no exception.
Due to excessive acid in the air, Linda passes out after the boss fight. Later she ends up in cadaver storage. As she wakes up, a mortician looks her in fear and ends up passes out. God bless him. I think that's about my playthrough.
But wait! I manage to finish the game! If you played the first game, you should recognize the large shiny thing on the distant whenever you enter limbo (if you died). It's revealed to be that giant eyeball on the good ending. In this game, it's the final boss.
You have to excuse the lack of screenshot at this point because i didn't plan to review so far and i don't feel like replay the final chapter (which is chapter 8) because the lag is so bad (most likely because my laptop is too weak). So i have to retell the experience with more dozens of word instead of picture. Sorry. -_-
In this chapter, i'm in Maung (tiger in Sundanese) District, the district where my flat is along with that line of painting, statue of tiger, postal office, etc. However it's in Dread dimension where it's filled with flood of blood and pile of dead bodies. After battling the lesser monsters, i enter a building where the final boss resides. This giant eyeball is the first phase of the final boss. Dreadlings and tentacles will be spawn here so you can't simply fight the final boss. The tentacles will spawn at spots with open ceiling and you can minimize encounter them by traveling on the sides of the map. The giant eyeball can only be harmed with the stun flash and it will teleport to random spot everytime after taking hit.
After taking enough flashing, the giant eyeball become slippery cocoon that eager to bump you. As for this one, you have to swing the magic keris near the thing without stunning it first because it doesn't have eye, flash camera doesn't work at it. I forgot to mention that you will get keris at chapter 7 that miraculously turn bigger and longer, like the same size of long sword. It's the best melee weapon in the game. Each successful hit, you get health boost. The weapon is supposed to be excellent for damage racing against most enemies. Sadly, it can't be used against tentacles and they're the most annoying enemy.
After taking enough damage, the cocoon reveals a lady serpent that doesn't wear anything to cover her nipples. Luckily, some of her hair cover them otherwise the game will be rated R-18, probably. As per usual the method of flashing and special animated strike is the best way to defeat her. I saw someone playthrough that at some point the serpent lady will steal Linda's phone and break it thus disabling Linda to stun the final boss. However in my playhrough, that doesn't happen perhaps i stun and special strike the final boss very often that she doesn't have the chance to grab my phone.
Anyway once the final boss get enough stabbing of the magic keris, she will strangle Linda and about to stab the keris into the heroine in cutscene. But, Miss Siska interrupts. When the serpent about to kill her the screen goes black and she's found dead and impaled in the roof of a shrine like in this screenshot then Miss Siska brutally kicks and stomps her. Then she offers you to cooperate with her. If you accept it, you will go back the time when Linda was freshmen. Doni, Ira, and Shelly also there well and alive. It looks good and fine until Linda meet Miss Siska for the first time again and cutscene from the first game play, implying that the tragedy happen all over again thus bad ending.
So i think the right the decision is to refuse to cooperate and stab the keris through her abdomen. Just like that. Uh-huh. She's unlikable anyway. First she's the one responsible for all of this madness and second she's pale like demon. Never trust pale person. They most likely evil and not righteous. But beware that after the credit roll there will be extra boss fight that none other than fighting Miss Siska that turn into demon with big eerie face. If you're lucky like me and able to keep the phone, the fight will go easy because you can keep your ability to stun enemy. If you lost your phone to the serpent lady, well the fight will go harder. Siska monster moves very fast from any direction and the stunning flash really helps you in this extra boss fight.
Again, i apologize for the lack of screenshot. -_-
If you manage to kill Miss Siska again, Linda return to the world of living. As she exit the building, you will see the current Maung District littered with pile of bloody dead body due to dread dimension manifestation in Linda's perspective. But Linda prevents it from going to worse, just in time. (Fairly) Happy End!
Digital Happiness' DreadOut 2 (2018) is not well received by some people and i can understand why. The direction for this game is kind of mishmash. The game isn't focus on ghost-banishing photography unlike in previous game. Although there's more interesting thing that you can photograph, ranged from landmark or people in Maung District to either optional or mandatory enemies. The real problem comes from the sudden direction in combat on the alternative dimension or i like to call it Dread World. Linda's phone become useless except for flashlight and stunning enemies. Because the enemies is tangible and corporeal, Linda has to resort on physical attack in Dread World. Understandable. But the melee combat is clunky. Linda can't roll or dash to dodge enemy's attack. All she can do is move out of away. Later when there's monster that can spit projectile, she can't dodge it at all. Except when using knife (which only happen once in 2nd chapter), Linda's attack animation is slow and requires some time to recover from it thus making her vulnerable for quite long time. You can only make combo up to 2 attack (or 3 if you wield the magic keris). But if you consistent using the "flash and special animated attack" method, the combat becomes enjoyable and i think the developer wants you to rely on it instead of using normal melee attack. The animated melee is akin to Nioh or Sekiro. It looks satisfying and great. Unfortunately whether in melee or photography combat, i feel like the hit detection still inaccurate and requires bit of repair. The story is kind of acceptable even though there's some plot holes or other thing that left unexplained like who's the white cat or how the transition between the world work. The music is more like ambience and it's atmospheric and fairly good. Although in the bad ending, there's music by Mocca: Lucky Me which also played in the first game. Other music from other Indonesian music group is nowhere to be found in this game, though.
Peoples wish that DreadOut 2 (2018) is more consistent in
photograph exorcism like in first game or Fatal
Frame and i kind of agree with them. I think the developer is too ambitious
to put the undercooked melee combat system into the game. But i can't hate the
game that has parody of my hometown along with some Indonesian and Sundanese
terms. It's still good as it is although there's some bugs. It's acquired
taste. Play the game if you like to explore some part of Indonesia and photograph
them. The urban legend and the ghost are also interesting to tale picture too.
But there's some enemy, that are badly design in my opinion because they're too
sexualized. Then there's pacifist stealth section and i hate it. The walk mechanism doesn't work well in stealth element.
So the main review stops here. But if you are curious about some other interesting part in the game, you can see the special part that i will publish later. Thank you.
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