Leave that cat alone, Ayumi!
The obtusely named Re:Turn 2: Runaway is the side-scrolling puzzle-adventure-horror sequel to Re:Turn One Way Trip. And, reading the synopsis for the prequel, the story hasn’t changed or moved on much in this second outing.
Baring in mind the fact that the first game has so few reviews and overall, only a Mostly Positive overview, it is a wonder why this sequel was made at all.
The story follows Suki, a woman who went camping on an island with her friends. Unfortunately, all her friends were killed by a ghost and in this second game, Re:Turn 2, she tries to save them.
The trouble with the story is that it doesn’t build much on the narrative of the first
And that’s just for starters. For example, the story just isn’t very engaging. It is not written in a way that brings the world alive or immerses the player.
The general quality of the story, which is from Red Ego, a developer that makes only narrative-driven games, is poor.
What also doesn’t help is the overwhelming presence of every horror trope imaginable. Blood rain, scary little ghost girls and dark, ominous wells make the narrative feel like fan-fiction, rather than a commercial video game.
And the way the story is delivered is not helped by the voice acting.
The game feels like it may have been created by a Japanese team
This is due to the art style and many Japanese influences. For example, the Torri shrine statue Suki finds, as well as a few different Japanese dolls, and statues.
And yet, for the Steam version of the game, there is no option to listen to a Japanese voice acted version. So the player is provided with American voice acting, which is melodramatic and irritating.
At the beginning of the game, the acting appears self-aware and humorous to listen to. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the actors are taking themselves and their roles very seriously.
This makes the whole experience descend into an irritating aural stew of generic voice actors who are punching a little above their weight for the task at hand.
Visually, the game is not much better than the voice acting
The pixel art format used does not increase engagement whatsoever. There are one or two well-painted still images that flash on the screen and these are far more evocative than the pixel art style.
It is easy to see here why the most popular horror games are never pixel art side-scrollers, but either of the First Person Walking Simulator or, when budgets are lower, point-and-click genre.
These are much more effective ways to engage a player in a horror world, as they can either offer a great amount of hand-drawn detail, for point-and-click games, or the first-person perspective, giving a higher level of immersion and genuine scares.
At times in Re:Turn 2, especially when the player is supposed to focus on a scary image, it is impossible to see the object or scene. For this reason, the developers would have done better to have chosen a point-and-click genre approach, allowing for more detail.
Gameplay is not much to shout about either.
Quests are unimaginative tasks to get boring items for uninteresting reasons.
The gameplay loop is very restricted and not at all varied, making it very hard to enjoy the game.
Despite these countless drawbacks, the game offers a few elements to enjoy
But these all come with severe caveats. There is a UV filter that Suki attaches to her flashlight to make secret messages appear.
This is an underused but clever device that works fairly well in Re:Turn 2. Although, in the end, the messages the protagonist uncovers are stilted and uninteresting.
The other positive is that there is a cat! But due to the lazy way it has been drawn, it looks like an orange rectangle with green squares for eyes. And let’s not get into what happens to that poor animal toward the end of the game.
The sound design is okay. But not really adequate for a game where the visuals are so simplistic. It relies on high volume for jump scares, rather than convincing voice-acting and subtle layering of creepy sounds that get right under your skin like a cold winter chill.
Overall, not a positive picture
The only saving grace of this title is that it only takes the amount of time to watch a movie, a couple of hours. After you’re done you can then play a game that will really get your bones jangling and your pants wet with fear.
Re:Turn 2: The Runaway is available on Steam.
