REMOTHERED: BROKEN PORCELAIN Review: The Story Filling Chapter

PC Review Code Provided by Stormind Games

The second title for the Remothered series is finally here and Darril Arts made sure that this chapter answers so many questions about the story. But with focus on the story comes the possibility of some damage to the gameplay itself. While I think Stormind Games did a great job with Remothered: Broken Porcelain, just as they did with Remothered: Tormented Fathers, there were definitely some issues I had with my playthrough. Simply put, while it was entertaining, fun, challenging, and clarifying, it was also frustrating at times.

Story

After finding herself calling the Ashmann Inn home, Jennifer quickly finds herself in the midst of a strange mystery. In order to get to the bottom of it, she will have to learn the truth that is buried beneath and intertwined within the people who reside at the Ashmann Inn. This truth may be more dangerous than she could imagine though as it is one that she will learn that it is an ongoing threat, devised by corrupted families that are linked more closely to her than she could have known.

Gameplay

While we are greeted with plenty of familiar gameplay, such as crouching, sneaking, hiding, collecting both defense weapons and distraction items that can be either thrown or placed, we are also introduced to new gameplay in this playthrough. You will end up spending the first part of the game learning, or possibly re-learning if you played the first game, how to utilize all the sneaking tools, including throwing bottles at approaching enemies, hiding in a closet and maintaining your calm when the enemy investigates, and the classic crouch and slow movement to sneak without being noticed.

Some of the new gameplay is introduced at the beginning and then more of it is brought out later on in the game progression. First, you learn that you can collect items that can be combined in order to make specific distraction items, making it so you don’t have to purely rely on finding tools to use and can sometimes make what you need. Later on you are introduced to a form of fight sequences, each time being slightly different than the last. The first time you are in a fight sequence, you learn to throw an item at your target to temporarily stun them so you can run behind them and use your defense weapon in an offensive way. There will end up being other moments, each differs in their own way to present a challenge of its own.

If you are ever unsure what to do in the game, you can listen for auditory clues. It isn’t uncommon for Jennifer or another character, ally or foe, to say something that will help guide you along the lines of where you need to go. Just bear in mind that you may need to use the environment to find your way, which could be using a note with a hint on it or remember the paths available so you can maneuver as needed.

The most unique element that was added to the game is your all-new moth power. This power lets you go out of the body and sort-of fly to a nearby object or enemy to interact with. One way to think about it is that it is like a telekinetic power, but with the added bonus of messing with an enemy’s mind if you interact with them. This power is explained through the story, so I won’t spoil the reasoning behind it, but when you are using it you can also find collectibles that can only be grabbed with the moth power. They may be a bit hard to find because the controls take a bit to get used to, but it isn’t too much different from a car game where you hold down the right trigger to move forward and let go to slow down to a stop.

Visuals

I liked that they kept the game aesthetically similar to the original title. It makes it truly seem like the following title to the first and makes playing through the series, start to end, very aesthetically pleasing. There wasn’t anything wrong with the level of realism they used before, so it was a good choice to keep it the same in this new title.

Sounds

A lot of the music style was similar to the original game as well, just like the visuals were. There was definitely some uniqueness to it and the signature whistle tune that is used in the trailer and throughout the game when Porcelain is near, but otherwise the mixture between silent moments and music included moments did well to maintain a similar atmosphere to the first game.

Replayability

There is a split decision at the end of the game, but neither choice really changes the way the game ends. Other than wanting to find all the collectibles or experience the story again, perhaps a bit deeper than your first playthrough, there isn’t much reason to play the game again.

What Could Be Better

What I found frustrating about the game was that they forgot to do a very important player guidance step. This step is showing us where certain hidden passages are so we know where to go once we finish whatever the current task was for the area we were in. You guys did such a great job at hiding these pathways that there is no visual queue’s that they are there, meaning you need to know that the pathway opens there. I ended up finding some of these pathways by chance, but it should be shown in a cutscene briefly where the secret path we need to take is located.

I know they were trying to do a sort of sequel and prequel thing with the story to provide answers, which they were definitely successful in clarifying multiple aspects of the story, but I feel like they may have jumped around a little too much. Going through a load screen just to see a cutscene that is no more than a minute long and get thrown back into a load screen to reach the next part is never ideal. It would have been a better fit if they were able to share certain story elements at different times, making the small cutscenes bigger and not pulling the player away from the game for too long.

Conclusion

Remothered: Broken Porcelain was both fun and challenging while successfully clarifying many details of the story. I think it is possible that they may have been a bit too focused on the story and thus ended up hurting the gameplay just slightly in the end, but the whole game was just a different experience than the first one provided. While I enjoyed my playthrough of this chapter, I hope the next game feels similar to the first one and this chapter of the series remains known as the story clarifier.