Post Trauma Review – Old Time Horror Scares

Post Trauma Review

Just like in the movie industry, indie horror projects like Post Trauma offer the best return on investment. This is especially true if the creative team, Red Soul Games, has an honest, deep appreciation for the genre. It is often amazing how high of a quality the final product can be if the creators have a true understanding of the details for the genre they are working in. The Post Trauma survival horror game is the proof.

Post Trauma has excellent production values. The graphics, audio, voice acting are all top-notch. Gameplay is overall very good with just a wee bit of a stumble when switching from third to first person view. The game is very reminiscent of the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games. In third person view, it employs a fixed camera angle. This approach allows the game to control the viewing perspective of the gamer. By doing so, it allows the devs to amplify the mood and tension.

Another retro gaming chestnut Post Trauma employs is the save mechanism. There is no instant saving. So, if you go on a stretch of gameplay without finding a save room and die, you die. This type of progress saving won’t sit will with today’s gamers. They either won’t have the patience or the time to replay game sections. However, such a mechanism is the best way to build tension and dread. You become very self-conscious about entering a new section of the game.

The game builds tension with the locked down camera angles because this allows a small creative team to really flesh out environments. They can really build out the world in a way that not only provides highly detailed scenes but also tailors them to be the most effective at filling the player with dread. The world detail is a major part of the gameplay too. It goes hand in hand with the major puzzle solving element of the game.

Puzzle Solving Is The Thing

The developers trumpet how the environments support the puzzle focused nature of the game. To get as much detail as possible, the devs have gone with Unreal Engine 5. They knew, with their limited resources, they couldn’t make an action based game. Instead, their game design requires you to examine the surroundings carefully. They even go as far to recommend you pull out pen and paper.

So puzzle solving is the core of the game. Whether you like scanning every nook and cranny for a clue is a personal preference. With the fixed camera angles, it makes the search for clues onerous at times. There is a heavy focus on puzzle solutions via visual cues. In that respect, the puzzles range from good to obscure.

The game does not restrict all puzzles to the third-person view. Occasionally, the game shifts to a freer first person point of view. Such a transition should feel freeing, yet the decision to include them is questionable. It breaks the carefully built up tension. A tension ratcheted up by those fixed camera angles where what you can’t see is beyond the edges of the screen is more impactful.

Action junkies fear not. There are some sections of the game where you can engage in combat. However, like its predecessors, the game limits weapons and ammunition. Dependent on the foe you face, flight or stealth may be the better choice. If you decide to fight, you’ll not only have to combat the enemy, but the fixed camera angle, too.

Roman – Unique Protagonist

What makes this game unique is the main protagonist. You play as an older man named Roman. He is a subway worker and the bulk of the game takes place in subway levels or on subway trains. As an elder gent, Roman is no action hero. He has limited physical abilities. The game begins with him waking up in an empty subway car. The only occupants are the old horror trope standby, mannequins.

Roman’s goal is to escape the underground but to do so, he must overcome obstacles be they locked doors or gates or fighting or eluding the occasional enemy. He comes equipped with a flashlight, vital for those darker sections of the game. Especially those empty and dark stretches of the subway tunnels.

For the most part, Roman is alone on his journey, but from time to time will meet up with other people. Not always face-to-face but sometimes over radio or intercoms. These people help flesh out the mythology and provide the gamer with story context. The voice actor lends Roman personality. The creators have been careful in delineating Roman’s interior dialog from audible speech. He won’t say things out loud that a normal person wouldn’t. As Roman moves about the environments, his head will turn to show there may be something you should check out.

If there is something to investigate, an eye icon will pop up. When it does, a button press becomes available that allows a closer look. The object in question may be a clue. It could just be something that adds atmosphere or it may be a red herring. Roman may comment on the veracity of a clue by saying he doesn’t understand one.

Fight or Flight

Creature and other antagonists have designs that range from nightmare fueled organic ones or ones based on common horror tropes like the aforementioned mannequins. It is up to you to find out whether combat or flight is the best approach. Remember, because of the fixed camera angles, you will find combat clunky.

Post Trauma is a loving tribute to those early generation survival horror games. It contains the best and worst attributes of said games. Thanks to today’s technology in terms of computing power and game engines like Unreal 5, Post Trauma has high production values. The creators’ respect for the genre is clear in all aspects of the final product. For veteran gamers and horror aficionados, this game will be a wonderful trip down memory lane. Post Trauma is available on platforms.

***Post Trauma PS5 Review key provided by the publisher.***