Publishers Modus Games and Stormind Games have just released the prequel/sequel for the Remothered series called Remothered: Broken Porcelain, which is one of the highly anticipated horror survival titles this year. Ever since the game’s announcement trailer, the new title in development already showed a lot of promise with its new psychological story that first takes you back to the past and then the events after Remothered: Tormented Fathers. I got an early review copy of the Remothered: Broken Porcelain for PC, where I fully got to experience the game, its shortcomings, and everything that can be made better with updates.
Whether you are new to the Remothered series or are a returning player, the game will instantly attract with its horror elements and story plot. One of the main reasons for this is because of the award winning the first title in the series, Remothered: Tormented Fathers. The first title garnered a lot of fans back when it was originally released in 2017. Having no difference with any new player, I too was excited for my first Remothered title after being introduced with its trailer announcements over the course of this year, and the success of the first title in the series. Having said that, and after playing the game, I wish I had a lot of good things to say about them which frankly feels hurried and filled with issues. But let’s talk about it in detail later on in the review.
Newcomers to the latest title shouldn’t worry about the events of the first game and how things panned out in it. This is because even before you begin a new game in this survival horror adventure, the game recommends you watch the recap of the first game, Remothered: Tormented Fathers, and its events. That I thought was a good touch which will help both new players and returning players to refresh their memory. Not that the recap is anything nice to talk about, and the gruesome events that unfolded in the first game only indicate what is to come in the new adventure.
Although the first gameplay section and its events in Remothered: Broken Porcelain are set before the events of the first game, it is always a good idea to understand what you are heading into, how the plot is linked to the first game, and of course, the sheer curiosity that will drive anyone to find out the source of these unforeseen circumstances and how they began in the first place.
When you start a new game, choose the option to recap the events of Remothered: Tormented Fathers and its tragic and horrific story, also understanding where it left off. Once you get familiar with the plot, you take the role of Jenn, the protagonist, and the playable character of Remothered: Broken Porcelain. After being expelled from the Flemmington Girl’s Institute, She has been sent to Ashmann Inn to serve as one of the maids in the hotel. The game wastes no time introducing you to the reality of the hotel’s dark secrets and how its inhabitants turn into monsters lurking around to hunt you.
In the mere few minutes of my first gameplay, I was instantly reminded of titles like Resident Evil: Biohazard and its survival horror and its survival horror elements that force a player to head into the dark corridors, and face the inevitable that may or may not be waiting for you around the corner. If the setting of Tormented Fathers and the manor that you played in wasn’t scary, Broken Porcelain is equally if not darker, gloomy, and haunting with its Ashmann Inn. You are also introduced to Porcelain, the stalker who roams around in the corridors looking around for you. Unfortunately, the soundtrack and the music are the only good things to talk about the game.
Now for the issues that I had with the game, starting with the awkward, slow, and clunky movement controls that felt laggy, inaccurate, and honestly annoying to control any character with. At times during the enemy chases, I would either run into a wall or an object and the camera would get stuck in one place. If I was caught by either Andrea or Porcelain, the camera would fixate on them rather than allowing me to turn around the view and the character to evade their clutches. The clunky movement is not even something that you can get used to and I certainly imagine that it needs a quick rework. As a survival horror game that wants a player to be stealth, the awkward movement is far from encouraging anything stealthy or even allows the player to do so.
In any case, the biggest issues that I experienced right from the start were the bugs and glitches that seem to more frequent than any enemy encounter. Pair the bugs with the awkward movement and you have a perfect recipe for rage quitting. Some of the bugs I encountered were pretty early in the gameplay, where I couldn’t even pick up the items from drawers, and neither was there any interaction button that showed up. At first, I thought that there may be nothing useful to pick up, but that soon turned out to be a bug where I couldn’t pick up bottles from shelves nor drawers. Some other worthy mentions for bugs are the awkward camera angles that had me staring at a wall instead of where I was supposed to be heading, and the abruptly ending cutscenes that either bugged out the character in between the dialogue or made me feel like I may have missed something or misclicked somewhere.
Remothered: Broken Porcelain is far from being a complete game right now that needs a massive improvement patch right away, or needs some more time to be further polished. Remothered is a promising series and the game itself has a lot of potential that the developers could have utilized. The only good thing I can talk about is the music, which is beautifully integrated into the game, builds up and pops out of nowhere to add to the jump scare, while the enemy chasing music is harrowing and adds to the feeling of being chased and being grabbed from behind any moment.
Final Verdict:
Remothered: Broken Porcelain seems to have been a hurried title with its release and have been a better game if it was given additional time to be polished and clear of bugs prior to launching it. The game needs a quick update that immediately fixes the bugs and glitches that are killing the experience for new and returning players. As I said before, the game has a lot of potential, backed by the success of the first game, Remothered: Tormented Fathers. If anything, I would suggest you to wait for the first few patches before you purchase the game or dive into it. I would like to see how the developers can improve the game, especially considering the current state of the game.
Final Score: 4.0/10
