A lot of horror games that come out are looking to present a new scenario and a deep understanding of the purpose behind it. Camel 101 tried to have players looking at themselves in moral lighting with their latest title Those Who Remain. While I definitely have to say that they did a good job creating an interesting and new scenario for players to venture through, I’m not so sure they did the best in executing the game itself.

Story

Taking on the role of Edward, you find yourself going through one of the darkest and most telling nights of your life. After starting things off by pulling into a motel to meet your latest affair, albeit, with intentions of making things right, you find yourself venturing into the darkness in the town of Dormont. Can you make things right for not only yourself but those you come across as well?

Gameplay

Starting the game off you quickly end up figuring out that this game is based on reaching trigger points, finding notes or items that help you progress forward, and searching for whatever you need with subtle-to-no hints on what you’re looking for. Whether you need a key to get into an area, a piece of information you can find on a note, or some random tool that applies to the section of the game you are in, you are mostly left to find this out on your own.

Boundaries in this game are set in a creative way as you have to stay within the light. A lot of progress will also involve whether you can turn a light on for an area or need to figure out how to light it up. Stepping into the darkness will get you instantly grabbed by one of the many shadow people that stand along the darkness’ edge, watching every move you make.

Occasionally you will come across an enemy that you have to avoid or run from. These moments change based on the creature that you are facing. Encounters with the different beings should all be handled accordingly and will require both quick thinking and stealth; unless you are forced to run from them, of course.

Each main checkpoint of the game will have you make a decision on the fate of a different person. You can find notes that describe whatever it is that this person did, but in the end, you will have to choose to spare them or damn them. Leading up to this you will speak with a being that almost mockingly tells you to make a choice and talks of how decisions we make have consequences.

The strangest segments of the game revolve around what I consider the “mental domain.” I call it that because in here you can find pieces of your character’s memories that make him look back at those he is hurting with his bad choices, such as his wife and child. This domain has a bigger role than just finding memory markers as it also allows you to interact with the game’s regular world as well. You can use this to help your progress by doing things such as turn on lights you couldn’t otherwise reach or move objects that are too heavy typically.

Visuals

The graphical choice that the developers went with do this game justice by providing the type of visuals needed to pull off the effects they are going for. They aren’t anything too spectacular, but definitely provide that eerie atmosphere this game utilizes.

Sounds

Majority of the game has simple sound effects to indicate everything going on and it all matches well, but the music they use when certain segments are taking place definitely help drive the chill down your spine. Especially the sounds that are in the music and atmosphere of the “mental domain” had me uncomfortable every time.

Replayability

There are two endings that play directly according to whether you chose to spare or damn each person. Of course, this is easily separated by giving you one ending for sparing everybody and giving you the other ending if you damn even one person. Other than the choice segments and the ending, there isn’t much reason to play the game again though.

What Could Be Better

There is almost no player guidance in this game. Most games use things like lights to indicate where the player is to go next, but since this game requires you to turn lights on to increase your boundaries it can’t use this. Unfortunately, they didn’t use anything else to pull off the guidance factor and I constantly felt lost and like I was guessing my way through sections of the game. This quickly became frustrating and a hindrance to the game’s overall enjoyment.

Every section of the game didn’t feel like it was presenting something new to the player either. Sure, there was often a different puzzle type to figure out and the memory domain stuff was slightly changed around, but for the most part the formula for each section was the same. It gave the game a sense of repetition, even when it wasn’t repeating anything.

Conclusion

Those Who Remain is a game with a solid concept but has a few things lacking in its execution. I liked what they were trying to do with the story, but had trouble pushing myself to keep interested in the gameplay itself too many times. Hopefully, we will see better versions of games like these in the future from this team.