PC Review – The One We Found

The One We Found was officially released on 31 October 2018, thereby celebrating the horror genre on Halloween. It was developed and published by Loveridge Designs. It is first person survival horror game set in a terrifying mental institution.

AIR Entertainment obtained a digital copy of the game for review purposes.

If you are subscribed to AIR Entertainment’s Youtube Channel, you can catch a glimpse of AIR Entertainment’s gameplay videos along with some other game videos. For convenience, we have included in our review below.

STORY

James Ledgewick is a psychotherapist finding himself investigating the Whisperwood Mental Institute. A cave network has been discovered under the institution, which has released all sorts of juicy evil upon the building. And it is the player’s job as James to figure out all the secrets these entail.

When the player starts out, the mental institute stands before you. Much like the start of Resident Evil 7, the task is to find a way inside. Not much reason is giving as to why you are there at first, but as one plays through the game the secrets and reasons become increasingly clear.

More focus is on the horror element than the story in much of the game. When the story evolves and is uncovered, it provides more suspense and mystery, which keeps it interesting. However, there is always a fight or flight decision. I’ve not really been sure if I was meant to fight a monster. Sometimes one needs to simply find a way to avoid detection and find the clues than actually fight a monster.

GAMEPLAY

I don’t know if I’m just growing more impatient with games as I grow older, but I am getting to the point where if something takes too long to work out and I have died too many times, then I want to switch the game off and never return.

Even though there was a growing sense of this in the game, I still wanted to know what was coming next and continued. I love survival horror, and I intend to survive as much as possible. Players may find themselves dying on purpose just to work out how an enemy works. Sometimes there are clues that tell you how to deal with them, but even by using these clues I have found it hard to dispose of certain enemies.

That does not mean that I haven’t enjoyed it though. It just means that many others out there might not. If players have the same sort of resilience as playing through every Silent Hill game, even though some of them were really bad, then this game is for you. The gameplay is much smoother though, and objects are easy to interact with thankfully. Players just need to be careful to inspect as many items as possible, making sure the white circle used to identify items turns red for anything important.

There is also an emphasis on item management, as is much of a trend in survival horror. What will you throw away, what has more value to keep than others. Very strategy inventory management is needed towards the later parts of the game.

SOUND AND GRAPHICS

As much as Story and Gameplay lends a hand in making the game more enjoyable, Grapbics and Sound is what really brings the terror in survival horror. And The One We Found does this in the sound department very, very, very well. When you start the game up, it is very clear that immense amount of research went into what sounds are the most terrifying. As a matter of fact, the game spells it out and tells you to where headphones for optimum enjoyment.

And so I did. And so I was terrified to hell and back and to hell again. Before the game even starts, some of the sounds are already quite horrifying. In the game itself, sounds alert you to hidden dangers, and even the soft singing of siren type demons is pleasant to listen to. There is sweet beauty in the horror of these noises. Having said that, there are times where it feels like the noise is raping your audio senses. If you are sensitive to such sounds, it is recommended that you stay very far away.

As horrific and terrifying as the sounds were, I was disappointed slightly at the graphics. I suppose the sound and prologue and suspense leading me into the game made me expect superb high quality graphics that we see in all the latest games. However, I would say the graphics are similar to anything from Silent Hill 2 to Silent Hill 4. The polygon rate was kept low, despite me picking the best resolution and graphic settings for the game.

Having said that, the graphics are still good if not compared to the latest games out there. Much foreshadowing is in play of things to come, and this creates more of the suspense that sends chills up the spine. Many of the cutscenes and corpses you will come across are filled with gore and sick imagery. It’s enough to give you bad images in your mind before you go to sleep, and keep you up still for some time after that. Lights and shadows play a great role in the game, especially the use of the flashlight.

All in all, if anyone were to remake any of the old Silent Hills in first person view, this developer has a great chance of making that a success.

FINAL VERDICT

The One We Found takes us back to survival horror at its roots. It provides all the right atmosphere, especially sound, to terrify even the most veteran horror players. The only thing that can improve this game is for it to one day be upgraded to modern graphics, but the graphics of old for this game almost makes it feel perfect for the genre. The next step would be for it to come to Virtual Reality, and I would personally love to adapt this game into a novel.

With all the horrifying elements and the correct strategic survival horror aspects to it, the game receives 8/10.

Disclaimer: AIR Entertainment obtained a digital copy for reviewing purposes. This review is the author’s own opinion and not influenced by the developer in any way, as per our reviewing Code of Ethics.

SHAUN M JOOSTE

Author, Poet, Screenwriter, Gamewriter, Journalist,
….and Elemental Mage Supreme in his spare time