Past Cure Reviews
I've read scarier issues of the Beano in this clunky, buggy mess of a wanna be Deadly Premonition.
Past Cure is many things: technically infuriating, a slog, and thematically inconsistent. While one can appreciate the effort of a small team trying to craft a game that does many things, it can't seem to do any of them well enough to warrant any attention. With a glut of better games that tackle similar elements on the platform, it's very difficult to recommend Past Cure to people, even as a quick diversion.
Past Cure isn't going to be for everyone. It's a budget title from a group of first-time game developers and that's prevalent throughout the game. From odd mechanic changes and tone shifts between Ian's nightmares and reality, to the often confusing story, it feels like Phantom-8 had a lot of different ideas for how they wanted the game to shake out. It just didn't quite weave them together as seamlessly as they had hoped. On the flip side, they definitely have the potential to crank out an amazing horror game as their blend of puzzle-based gameplay and environmental work made for some both satisfying and eerie moments. Navigating through Ian’s nightmares were some of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with a horror game since Resident Evil 5. There’s a delicate balance of tension that many horror games can't seem to find, but Past Cure felt just right in this regard to me. I just wish there were more of this aspect throughout the game. If you don't come in expecting The Evil Within or Resident Evil and keep your expectations in check, you’ll likely find something about this budget psychological action flick that you'll like.
Don’t think that Past Cure will become the next cult classic, like Deadly Premonition. This is a whole different level of bad. Past Cure attempts to be too many things at once. The developer’s ambition outweighs their ability to execute it effectively. The game’s lofty aspirations are commendable and, at the very least, it is playable. Still, it is a shame that Past Cure doesn’t amount to the titles from which it poorly borrows so many of its ideas.
Without a central idea to fall back on, Past Cure is just an unorganized mess.
A flawed production that, despite a few interesting ideas, fails to engage the player with a boring campaign and one of the worst uses of the Unreal Engine that we've seen in this generation.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Broken plot and bad controls combined with long and boring stages spoil the overall impression of the project, which could've been the next good adventure in style of Dontnod Entertainment and Quantic Dream games.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The team at Phantom 8 should be proud of what it has achieved in terms of atmosphere and core gameplay. Past Cure, similarly to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice before it, is a testament to the idea that small indie developers can produce a quality of content matching that created by blockbuster studios. However, the excellence of these aspects makes the flaws in design, audio, and storytelling more glaring. What looks like a sterling experience feels amateur. Past Cure is ambitious, which can be a fantastic quality, but the developer's effort is misplaced, leaving the game incapable of surviving its own confusion.
Past Cure is a hodgepodge of stealth, action, and drama that reaches for the stars and falls somewhere far below.
Past Cure really wanted to present itself in the best possible light, but the opposite happened. An interesting idea, but many technical imperfections pull the game down.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
There's no denying that Past Cure is born from lofty ambitions. Regrettably, those ambitions are not joined with the necessary skill or understanding needed to make Past Cure anything close to a competent, coherent experience. A messy bore of a game that vomits its incoherent nonsense on your shoes as it rambles on mindlessly for ten minutes about why that's important.
Past Cure wants to be something great, and that ambition is the only thing it has on its side. This is a game that is flawed to its core. The mangled story and shoddy design prevent any single aspect from ever sticking out as something special. Don't even risk taking a bargain bin flier on this one. You'll only end up frustrating yourself.
It's not the worst game of the year because it's not broken, it all works fine and there is an interesting concept of a show here, even though we may have trodden these boards before. I found the combat sluggish and uninspiring, and some of the nightmare levels can be very generic compared to other games in these genres. But I think Past Cure is probably worth a punt as long as you can grab it in a sale and fancy trying something a bit unusual.
Past Cure never does anything special. Every time it tries to do something interesting, it immediately forgets about it and does something else. Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad thing to include a number of genres within one game. In fact, it can help keep it fresh if they serve as a breather from a strong central idea. The problem is that Past Cure has no strong central idea to take a break from or return to. Whether it's the initially compelling yet convoluted supernatural story or the interesting gimmicks that never leave the tech demo phase, it's a disorganized bundle of ideas that are never given a chance to develop into something out of the ordinary.
One of the worst games of the generation, but at least it's an interesting failure – with almost comical attempts to mimic everything from Max Payne to Silent Hill.
We were promised a unique, "award"-winning storytelling experience. Instead, we received a convoluted mess that isn't sure what game it wants to be.
Past Cure is a game that seems to be excellent, but ends up being bellow average. If you start playing it, you will want to play it until the end as fast as possible in order to give your suffering a quick end.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Past Cure is a game that tries to do too much at once to the extent that it ends up doing none of it well.
Phantom 8 Studio shouldn't be discouraged from future attempts at delivering a cinematic experience of a game on par with triple-A output, because they still have some neat ideas and directions to take.