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PC | PS5 | XBOX SERIES |
HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with a physical copy on an LG C1 with AirPods Max headphones.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Right out of the gate I was bothered by the voice acting. It was impressively bad. I switched to Portuguese which is the other option and this helped get back and focus on the game again but also worked with the lore.
Fobia opens with a short intro section which sets up the main story. You get the idea pretty quickly of what the rest of the game is going to look like: heavy on the exploration, opening lots of drawers and piecing the story together through notes and letters.
Taking into consideration that this is an indie title I still felt like the graphics left a lot to be desired. There were moments where I felt like I was playing a PS3 game.
The lighting was also distracting in an immersion breaking way. I had to adjust the gamma multiple times and it still never looked right even with the inclusion of a flashlight. It was either washed looking or way too dark. This was especially noticeable in the opening hours of the game and did improve as more areas became available to explore but overall the lighting wasn't dialed in.
WHAT WORKED
Fobia was pretty mechanically sound. It had a good flow to it and the puzzles were challenging yet still accessible. It very clearly borrows from the likes of Resident Evil most notably. You've got limited inventory space, healing items are sparse, there are safe rooms with a looping melody that plays and you can stash extra loot and gear in a storage container. Puzzles are abundant as are keys, codes and items that can be combined together to make new ones. And the rain is hammering against the windows the entire time.
The most notable mechanic comes in the form of a camera thats acquired early in the game. It works very much like the lens of truth in Zelda; you look through it and see things that are normally hidden in plain sight. Fobia put a unique twist on this idea but it was still the lens of truth at the end of the day.
The game had a really noticeable atmosphere that kept me engaged and interested in the world. It had a feeling and I felt genuine curiosity about the haunted hotel I was trapped in. It was awesome.
Fobia makes a point to show how the main character is stressed and bothered by what is happening to him. he's not OK with it. Something that I find is missing too often in horror games. I related and connected with his struggle. It made it matter so much more than if he was just going through the motions like a fucking robot. I started to care about this dude and wanted him to get out safely.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
The audio and sound design were very weak. A lot of things that should have had a small sound effect like confirming you've made a choice in the menu or basic interactions with your surroundings were just completely absent. It just goes to show you how important small things like this are. They make a huge difference when they're missing. Firing the weapons didn't sound particularly satisfying either.
Combat was janky as hell. I tried to look at it from the perspective of working in the game's favour to heighten the sense of stress but I think I was just trying too hard to like it. It was just bad. Enemies close the distance on you way too fast also and there's a real lack of any feedback when you land bullets. I never felt like I was damaging anything. In Fobia I felt like I was just shooting at giant sponges. Oh yea, speaking of sponges, the enemies take way too may hits to kill and theres no melee weapon so when you run out of ammo you're fucked. To make matters worse, the gun would often just not fire at all even though I had ammo. Nice.
WORTH CONTINUING?
Things were actually going really well despite my ability to find flaws in nearly every single aspect of this game. I was invested in it, I wanted my man to escape this hell hole and even with the lack of a map I was focused and making progress in St. Dinfa Hotel. Then I came to a boss that broke the game for me. For anyone else who's played this, it was the spider. Someone in the comments of a YouTube video guide for this boss said it took them 30 shots from the handgun and 1 from the shotgun to take it down. This would basically mean I couldn't miss a single shot. During my attempts it was also glitching out and teleporting from the floor to the ceiling as I was shooting at it, and to top it off my gun kept freezing on me. Obviously some major glitch. I could only get 2 shots off before it just stopped working altogether. I had seen enough.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can put up with sub par graphics, graphics are not a deal breaker for me; unoriginal mechanics and some janky combat: not the end of the world but a completely broken and insufficiently tested boss early in the game is unacceptable. Its a real shame because I thought Fobia had potential. It was a vibe man and I was really surprised I stayed in this thing as long as I did considering all its flaws. I kept thinking to myself that this game just felt like it was made by real gamers who really love the art form and the culture. People who care. But despite all the best intentions there just wasn't sufficient talent or resources or maybe both to really bring this thing home.
TLDR:
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