This game does a great job of transforming the essence of Resident Evil 1/2 into a 2D game. The major difference is that there is no storage box and you get unlimited saves. The enemy variety is done well and learning the pathing over multiple playthroughs was a lot of fun. Much like Resident Evil, you're encouraged to do multiple plays with different challenges in mind. I did 4 (normal, hard, easy for speedrun, commando) and each one felt engaging in their own way. Overall, highly recommended if you're a fan of RE type games.

This game might just become a yearly October tradition for me.

This game borrows a lot from the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. However, it doesn't strike me as being an actual horror game. More like a horror-themed action game. You'll get the occasional scare, but no more than that. The isometric perspective is unique to the game, giving it a new spin on this genre and seems much more combat oriented to be a true survival horror game.

However, where this game makes itself unique is that your knife is probably not only your best friend to save ammunition but is also incredibly powerful. Silvia's knife swings hit a relatively large area and lunge her forwards, helping to create distance by pushing her targets back. Running also does not cost stamina while the extremely useful dodge does, creating an ebb and flow to every encounter where you need to know where a dodge is fine but running is the better option. Many enemies can also be taken down solely with the knife, even without being skilled with it, allowing the player to save ammunition for tougher encounters.

The game even has a few unlockables, like Commando difficulty and a new weapon for beating the game on Hardcore. This new weapon was a godsend for Commando; which changes up the formula by being a quasi-randomizer style of game by filling rooms with many enemies that both respawn and get shuffled every time you enter a room. Get a really bad encounter with three Knife Maids and a Vampire? Just leave and re-enter the room until you get a group of enemies that's a little better for you. And if you ever run low on ammunition, enemies will often drop more (only on Commando) to keep you going. It's honestly a really fun addition that allows you to go into encounters guns blazing without a worry. Ran out of AR ammo? Something will inevitably drop more for you. You also start with all weapons, making it very fun right out of the gate.

The game is also compact and doesn't really feel bloated at all. Every room has a purpose, which might kill immersion for some; there's only one bathroom to be found in the entire academy and it's in the residential building? Not a single one in the actual classroom building. Oh, and said bathroom is just stalls. Where do the students shower?

Not important. Because this lack of immersion makes a game experience that's always moving forward. It's hard to get confused on where to go when everything is so compact. And the scaling for encounters is quite good; you often won't even see the really tough enemies until the very end of the game, unless you're on Commando.

And the weapons are all fun to use. The pistol deals good damage and has both good rate of fire and accuracy. The crossbow fires a three-projectile spreadshot, using three ammo per shot, which can all hit the same target at very close range, making it capable of tearing many enemies to shreds. The shotgun is your quint-essential boss killer that tears normal enemies in half; even the toughest endgame enemies die to two or three shots. And the assault rifle is your high rate of fire, low accuracy, low damage weapon, but you get tons of ammo for it; I typically used it for crowded rooms to create some breathing space. Finally, the unlockable weapon, the grenade launcher, is just instant death to just about anything you hit with it outside of bosses. Every weapon has a purpose and they're all useful throughout the entire game; at no point did I feel like even the pistol or knife were no longer useful to me.

If I did have to level one criticism at the game, it's that the game is a little too dark. As someone who suffers from night blindness, where bright lights are too bright and darkness is too dark, it can be very difficult to see in the dimly lit hallways. It was something I got used to, but I wish the game addressed this. Also, Silvia isn't the best when it comes to her character. She's immensely competent and great for a heroine, but she comes off as a know-it-all in cutscenes and seems largely unaffected by the mystery put in front of her. Especially when the story starts to paint the main antagonist not as a vengeful spirit but as a victim that cannot find rest. Even when the full mystery is solved, Silvia seems fully determined to make Violetta move onto the afterlife by force rather than appealing to her in other ways; things she even establishes is possible early on. While she is a good protagonist, she's not the most likable one for the majority of the game.

The game is, however, relatively short. Even on the highest difficulties, I could complete a run in less than three hours. If you know what you're doing, my best time was an hour and ten minutes; I could probably go even faster now that I have the grenade launcher. This makes the issues less of a hurdle and more of a speedbump, though they do exist.

I highly recommend this game for horror enthusiasts, even if you're only interested in the horror theme. It's very fun and immensely satisfying when you figure out little tricks and take on enemies with just your knife and win. It's even fun to challenge yourself with various achievement runs; like beating the game without using healing items or without saving. I wish they had unlockables for doing them; like increasing your maximum health or stamina for future playthroughs, since the no saving one is especially tough. Still, I had a ton of fun with this game and I think it'll be part of my yearly Halloween traditions from now on!