Those Who Remain Reviews
Those Who Remain doesn't have jump-scares, it has jump-yells. Yelling at the game for its clunky controls and puzzles. A new one around every corner.
Those Who Remain is rife with frustrating puzzles and illogical scenarios, which greatly dilutes its horror experience.
From storytelling to game design, Those Who Remain's tepid approach to its overabundant tropes made me want to leave Dormont as soon as I arrived. My best advice to horror fans: ignore the exit—even if your tank is running low.
Although it has a clever premise and features nifty abstract scenarios, Those Who Remain is little more than an annoying adventure.
Those Who Remain is choking on its own mediocrity.
Review in Russian | Read full review
This is not a game that I would recommend to anyone other than really hardcore horror fans with a penchant for point-and-click style gameplay. While it has a nice little story going on throughout it just doesn't captivate or craft a memorable or original experience. I understand that it is inspired by classic supernatural films and TV series, but frankly, it just doesn't work to make Those who Remain an enjoyable game.
Those Who Remain is a psychological horror experience completely lacking in scares and atmosphere. Its uninspired gameplay loop has already been done better time and time again, resulting in a dull, unnecessary title.
Those Who Remain is another trip to a bloody past, but this horror game just is not good enough.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Through the eyes of an exasperated protagonist, Those Who Remain borrows from better games to tell a by-the-numbers horror story with the illusion of morality. Rife with puzzles so simplistic they become tedious, its delivery may leave players in the dark.
All of these problems turn the game from something promising into a mediocre experience that's less psychological horror than it is torture. There are better horror experiences out there.
It is a pretty bad work within the genre that is compromised by various weak points. Although it might seem like it has an interesting premise, it won't take long to dilute like an effervescent tablet in a glass of water.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
According to the developer, there are three different endings depending on how you decide the fates of our subjects. I played through the game twice and made totally opposite decisions in both playthroughs, but still ended up with the same ending. It is entirely possible that there is a certain combination of decisions that need to be made to achieve a different ending, but there is absolutely no indication in the game to say what you “should” do. The team behind Those Who Remain clearly have a love for psychological horror. While I believe they have a good starting point, this entry may be better left in the dark.
Despite some inventive ideas, Those Who Remain is just another generic horror game, albeit one that offers little in the way of suspense or scares. While its puzzle design is at times inspired, disjointed storytelling, inconsistent visual design, and gameplay that often resigns itself to tedious busywork make for a frustratingly unfulfilling experience.
Those Who Remain is a Frankenstein of cool concepts lifted from other horror games and shoddily reconstituted into a mishmash of mediocrity. It’s got some of the ingredients of a good horror game, but they mesh together like pizza and ice cream. Though the game doesn’t deserve to be cast into hell for eternity, it definitely has some mistakes that are hard to forgive.
This isn’t one to just rule out if you decide to go for it, the adventure itself is creepy, unsettling, and truly one I wish I could have enjoyed more than I did. Ultimately, it was let down by performance issues, a lack of variety in gameplay elements, and its overreliance on “search and obtain” mechanics. While there are a few amazingly designed puzzles, this is not one I can say will really pop out and draw you in.
Those Who Remain certainly won't be for everyone and there will undoubtedly be a good portion of players that take one look at the early, clunky mechanics and outdated character models and turn this off. That's a shame though because if you can get past some of the initial jankiness, Those Who Remain opens up to produce a pretty enjoyable (albeit flawed) Indie horror experience. The sound design is great, there's some nicely placed jump scares in here and the story is engaging enough to actually answer the numerous questions raised early on about what's going on and why this town is blanketed in a nightmarish veil of despair. This won't win any awards for being the best horror of the year, nor is it likely to be a title you return to in a hurry when you finish it. For £15.99 though, if you can look past some of the graphical issues and bugs and take to the story being told, there's enough here to make for an enjoyable enough play-through that's actually worth experiencing despite its flaws.
Those Who Remain won't stay with you for long, but with some good scares and a story that twists more than I expected, it's a decent horror story for an evening.
With two different endings, Those Who Remain is worth playing through all the way at least once to find out how the story ends. But with so many issues, it’s hard to find the motivation to jump back in to reveal that second ending. There’s a small bit of horror and well-crafted atmosphere on offer, but it’s short lived – and there’s definitely better games to play in the genre. Maybe give it a miss, at least until the technical issues have been (hopefully) fixed.
Those Who Remain deserves major points for creativity of ideas and premise.