How did I know this game?
One of my friends told me that there is a new game that will make the players feel psychological fear, both because of its art style and the content. As it is not a typical horror game that I think I will never play, it really piques my interest.
He also told me this is a game developed by the same company which developed the cube escape series, I've played a little of that series and I'm quite familiar with the art style, which is simple and somehow abstract. As I result, I played this game yesterday.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515210/The_Past_Within/
Length of the Game
It's a two-player game, I and my friend finished choosing the butterfly story and spent about 2 hours to complete. It's quite interesting that it has the choice of past and future when we enter the game, in which one player chooses the past and another is the future. After completion, I only got 8/12 achievements in the past section (I chose the past to play). Roughly estimated, this game would take around 4 hours to complete, which is a little short among games but okay for a puzzle game.
Game Art
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515210/The_Past_Within/
This is the view of the past player (which I played). The art style is similar to the escape series and some of the objects are really scary if you look at them in detail. The overall colour theme is dark and weird.
Novel experience in the double-player mode
At first, we thought this is the same with other multi-player games, one of us create a room and wait the other person to join. Surprisingly, this game doesn't require that and we don't even need to connect to the internet. It's more like a two-individually played game and one side needs the password or the answer from another player to enter the next puzzle. In general, this game uses password- liked information to connect the two players.
Game Story & Player's Goal
One player is responsible for reviewing the past and another is responsible for looking into the future. They work together to solve puzzles and help Rose fulfil her father's plan. Somehow, the story itself is scary because Rose's father is dead and the player of the past need to open the coffin and take bones, blood and human flesh to transfer to the player in the future and resurrection Rose's father.
The goal is simple, two players cooperate and help Rose's father to relive.
Game Mechanics
The mechanics are really simple. Two players are trapped inside a cube room and need to solve many puzzles. In other words, it's a game in which 2 players are interacting with the game system.
There are passwords in different forms (see images below) that normally are from the other players. Those passwords are mostly directly shown in the scene and are not hard to find. Others are some integrations with the scene, player only uses their mouse to click on the interactable objects.
https://www.appunwrapper.com/2022/10/14/the-past-within-lite-walkthrough-guide/
https://www.reddit.com/r/rustylake/comments/ylzpt9/the_past_within_scrolls_and_symbols_and_how_to/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.RustyLake.ThePastWithinLite&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
https://www.027down.com/gonglue/32742.html
In the last half of the game of my past role, the cube-shaped room changes into a 3D puzzle box, there are different puzzles and mechanisms on each side. This is not seen in the previous designs of the games of that company (image below).
https://www.g2a.com/de/the-past-within-pc-steam-gift-global-i10000337303001
Some Good use of Props in Scene
The whole scene is inside a cube, as a result, I can feel that the designer really considered this scene in detail and here are some points I want to show.
The use of Mirror
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.RustyLake.ThePastWithinLite&hl=en_US&gl=US
https://www.eurogamer.net/the-past-within-review-rewarding-co-op-teamwork-with-a-fascinating-spin
If the player doesn't click on the mirror and enter the close view, they couldn't see anything. After I put on a face mask and I clicked on the mirror, I saw 'myself' with a scary mask through the close view, it really scared me. There is also one time that I clicked the mirror and saw a large black bird at the back of 'myself'. By using a mirror, the game can tell the player some hidden information. For example, I know I'm a girl with red hair and I'm wearing a weird mask.
The weird gesture of the soul of Rose's Father
https://macresearch.org/play-the-past-within-mac/
This is the scene where one player opens the coffin and successfully took out his blood, bone and flesh. In the scene of the coffin, after the player clicked on the black ghost, it will disappear. When the player uses the little triangles on the two sides to move to the other sides of the room, they will find this shadow hanging on the chimney with a strange pose.
Conclusion
Overall, the game mechanics and contents have a strong relationship with the double-player setting where one plays the role of the past and another is the future. The game gives me a new experience in puzzle-solving games and I would like to play the other mode (the bee). At the same time, there are some points I found not that good.
During the game, especially after 1 hour of playing, I gradually get used to these puzzle-solving methods because there are many puzzles that are reused within the same time period. It kind of makes the player bored with the puzzles and for the last half, I always have nothing to do, just wait for my friend to tell me the password and I keep entering them into my scene. What makes this game interesting is more about the game art and the horror story setting. It's really a tough problem how to improve it because the game itself is a puzzle-solving type and all the puzzles are basically following the same pattern.
If I need to improve this part, I would add some story clips into the scene for the players to find and whenever they are waiting for the passwords or they have nothing to do, they can select and watch or hear the story clips. Use this time to understand the game story better. From my experience, I wasn't too sure about the story and the background when I was playing and only have the idea that I need to find the puzzles.
Also, I found the audio can be improved. Although it already has many audio effects, I think it could be better to add more sound that will make the player feel tense. For example, use the alarm clock ticking, the sound of dripping water (there are blood elements in the game, so players can hear it as dripping blood) and a child's laugh (there is one scene that the player needs to use a needle to cut open a doll, when putting the needle inside, a child's innocent laugh can be played).
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