Let me pull back the curtain a bit on the review process. When I go to review a game, I try my hardest to avoid reading other reviews or seeing too many opinions on Twitter. Normally this is pretty easy, since a lot of the games I'm reviewing tend to be smaller and ignored by most critics. But in the case of Past Cure, it couldn't be avoided. Between the scathing reviews and a PR meltdown by the developer, I went into Past Cure expecting the worst. What I ended up getting wasn't some fiery train wreck that I would classify as the worst game of the year, but rather a thoroughly mediocre action game that falls short of its target in almost every way.
This is the story of Ian, a former soldier who is still suffering the effects of going through years of torture and experimentation. He's a broken character who suffers from debilitating nightmares and lives with his brother at a beachfront safe house. Convinced that his dreams are trying to tell him something, he sets out to unravel the conspiracy and use his powers to take revenge on whoever left him like this.
Oh, did I not mention that Ian has super powers? After about a half hour of disorienting cinemas, we find out that all of that experimenting has turned our hero into something of a superhero. He's able to slow down time in order to get the upper hand on the guards, as well as astral project in an effort to destroy security cameras and manipulated hard-to-reach keyboards. The only downside is that using these powers will drain Ian's sanity, making it hard for him to differentiate between what's real and in his head.
As somebody into both science fiction and super powers, I was immediately intrigued by the setup. Between Ian's mysterious past, the sanity meter and those pesky nightmares, I was initially confused why everybody was so down on Past Cure. And then I got into my first shootout and the hate started to make sense.
To say Past Cure is unfocused would be an understatement. It starts out as a science fiction game, morphs into traditional horror, veers into action and even tosses in a bunch of stealth missions for good measure. The problem is that it does none of these things well. This is a hodgepodge of perfectly good ideas done horribly wrong.
As a third-person shooter, Past Cure has more in common with games from fifteen years ago. The moves are largely limited to crouching and sneaking up behind bad guys for a surprise kill. You can incorporate the astral projection and time manipulation into the combat, but it's not as helpful as you might expect. There's almost nothing to interact with in the stage and the game doesn't even give you snap to cover. It all feels terribly dated.
Click For the Full Picture ArchiveThis problem is only amplified during the stealth sections, which show off just how bad the computer AI is. These missions go a long way to highlight the boring and predictable level designs, often dragging things out two or three times longer than they should go and repeating the same backgrounds and obstacles every step of the way. It also throws you into stealth missions that defy all logic. For example, there's a bit where you are literally hiding from an enemy in a dark room while holding a lit flashlight. Why not just turn it off so you don't arouse suspicion?
But even if the third-person action and stealth gameplay was handled properly, it wouldn't change the fact that every part of this game feels entirely inconsequential. We keep getting thrown into these big set pieces, but when you get to the end, you realize that none of it really mattered. It's either a dream or you get knocked out or something equally unsatisfying, usually unwinding any momentum the game may have generated up to that point.
The whole thing culminates in this horrible boss fight that only works to highlight everything bad about the gameplay. But even if the action was better, you would still be left with this horribly unsatisfying story that is both clumsily executed and ultimately pointless. Like so much science fiction, this game has more fun posing the questions than answering them. What we're left with feels like a squandered opportunity that should be a teaching tool for everybody involved.
We also need to talk about the voice acting, or whatever you want to call it. It's one thing to cast actors with little to no voice work under their belt, but the people here don't even sound like they want to be actors. Everybody mumbles their lines so quietly that I had to crank up the volume to dangerous levels. And even then, it's nearly impossible to make out what Ian is trying to say half the time.
Click For the Full Picture ArchiveYou would think that this wouldn't be an issue, since there are subtitles right there on the screen. But this game somehow manages to even get the subtitles wrong. The proper text will pop up long after Ian mumbles it, often at comically inappropriate times. I get it, this may seem like a minor problem, but it's indicative of the lack of polish. The fact that I wasn't all that surprised when entire parts of the background disappear into nothingness for extended amounts of time is a telling sign.
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but even with all the technical problems, the terrible writing, unsatisfying story and the laughably bad voice acting, I didn't hate Past Cure. It's far from a good game, but I can see the tiniest glimpse of something interesting hiding in there somewhere. I think the setup is interesting, the cinemas are often well done and Ian could have been a compelling character. Unfortunately, it squanders the potential and never comes together to become a game you'll actually want to play.
