Judgement: Recommended
View review on Steam
In Sound Mind is a first-person, story-driven, psychological horror game. It also mixes shooting, puzzle, and platforming elements.
The setting and the game design are quite impressive. Some of the locations gave me the vibe of H. P. Lovecraft's world. However, I believe it is heavily influenced by Half-Life 2 (which is not a bad thing).
There is a main location (a building). You must explore this location in order to unlock four other locations (or maps), namely a shopping mall, a lighthouse, a factory, and a forest. After that, there is a small end section. Each of the four major locations explores a missing piece of the story and gives you a unique ability and a weapon. It has standard weapons that serve their purpose quite well. Every map has a particular theme associated with it, and they have done the narration around it. I liked this way of story-telling. It becomes more action-oriented towards the later part of the game.
The story is told through telephonic conversions, tape recorders, and notes and files scattered throughout the game. The voice-overs are excellent and gripping. They may have gone overboard with the number of tape-recorders. They could have cut some of them to provide an uninterrupted gaming experience.
The soundtracks are very enjoyable and complement the environments.
The sound design and graphics are serviceable.
There isn't much variety among the enemies. But each location has its own boss and presents varied challenges. So, it didn't feel boring and kept me hooked.
Some of the platforming section may feel off (which is expected as it's a first-person game).
And a few puzzles felt quite absurd to solve. But, difficulty-wise, they were easy to moderate, and it was quite satisfying to solve them.
It may take 10 to 12 hours to go through the entire game. But I took my time exploring the locations, plus I was aiming for 100% collectibles (I'll recommend keeping a guide open in a tab to hunt for the collectibles if needed). Thus, I spent a significant amount of extra time. The ending hinted towards the potential sequel.
Overall, it left me with a good feeling at the end.
I'll recommend getting this if it's available in a bundle or on sale.
My verdict: 7.5/10
The setting and the game design are quite impressive. Some of the locations gave me the vibe of H. P. Lovecraft's world. However, I believe it is heavily influenced by Half-Life 2 (which is not a bad thing).
There is a main location (a building). You must explore this location in order to unlock four other locations (or maps), namely a shopping mall, a lighthouse, a factory, and a forest. After that, there is a small end section. Each of the four major locations explores a missing piece of the story and gives you a unique ability and a weapon. It has standard weapons that serve their purpose quite well. Every map has a particular theme associated with it, and they have done the narration around it. I liked this way of story-telling. It becomes more action-oriented towards the later part of the game.
The story is told through telephonic conversions, tape recorders, and notes and files scattered throughout the game. The voice-overs are excellent and gripping. They may have gone overboard with the number of tape-recorders. They could have cut some of them to provide an uninterrupted gaming experience.
The soundtracks are very enjoyable and complement the environments.
The sound design and graphics are serviceable.
There isn't much variety among the enemies. But each location has its own boss and presents varied challenges. So, it didn't feel boring and kept me hooked.
Some of the platforming section may feel off (which is expected as it's a first-person game).
And a few puzzles felt quite absurd to solve. But, difficulty-wise, they were easy to moderate, and it was quite satisfying to solve them.
It may take 10 to 12 hours to go through the entire game. But I took my time exploring the locations, plus I was aiming for 100% collectibles (I'll recommend keeping a guide open in a tab to hunt for the collectibles if needed). Thus, I spent a significant amount of extra time. The ending hinted towards the potential sequel.
Overall, it left me with a good feeling at the end.
I'll recommend getting this if it's available in a bundle or on sale.
My verdict: 7.5/10
Review posted on 20/11/2022, 21:32:00.