Recent reviews by Mazzagatti

10 years later and still one of the best horror stories there is.

Fantastic continuation of Cal's story and an incredible upgrade in both scope and gameplay from an already very good original.

The bugs suck. It's unacceptable and almost ruins the experience. But...EA has gotten their earful enough, so I will still give the game it's praise where it deserves.

For the devs and writers who put a lot of love into the game. Know that you are seen. Know that you are appreciated. This game, certain moments, and most notably the soundtrack, have all moved me in a way only passionate art has the ability to do. And for that, among other things, I can't recommend this game enough, especially to anyone who claims to love Star Wars.

Can't wait to see where Cal's story goes next!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ 8/10
Until Dawn > Little Hope > Man of Medan
Best mode: Solo

If we are to compare this game to it's predecessors, then Little Hope's story is 1000 times more layered and dark than Man of Medan, and the mystery is on par with Until Dawn's. The gameplay has some really fun new surprises and has even "fixed" some of the common complaints of the last two games. However, some new features are not explained at all despite their importance and unfortunately are also not super intuitive. I'd go as far as to say that the game is bordering on genuis, if only they were able to have more fluidly combined the gameplay to the very intricately thought out story. But the fact remains that a game isn't only as as good as it's story is; the gameplay needs to feel fulfilling as well.

BEFORE PLAYING THE GAME

Here is something the game fails to teach the player that I believe you should know before starting Little Hope. While I don't believe this to be a spoiler, and think will in fact only benefit your playing experience to know beforehand, it is up to you to decide if you want this advice or if you would rather go in blind.

Locked Traits

Little Hope introduces a new mechanic known as Locked Traits. Without spoiling what the relevance of them is, I will say two things:
•A reminder - Every character has about 7 default character traits that you can see when you pause the game. In the last two games, you shape your character into what kind of person you want them to be. If they're naturally rude and you don't want them to be, then you make choices that counter that trait and eventually the "rude" trait will slowly dissappear from their character screen.
•Non-intuitive - "Locked 🔐" doesn't mean what it does in literally every other game (ie. your goal isn't to aquire it by unlocking). Rather, it simply means that those traits are engrained in their personality. What this means for the game is up to you to discover.

AFTER PLAYING THE GAME

If you found yourself unsatisfied with the ending, or even felt that certain things made no sense at all, allow me to give my summary of the story and the genuis behind it's concept. I apologize if it comes off as condescending, I genuinely just think it's really cool.

Major Spoilers Ahead

Anthony's little sister, Megan, murdered her family because she had her own trauma; the local priest was presumably raping her and her parents were the ones sending her to him. Her trauma manifested into dark thoughts in the form of a demon guiding her decisions (already super dark and dramatic and I'm here for it lol) but the supernatural elements aren't real.

While Anthony mostly blames himself for not saving them, he also blames Megan for causing the fire (its loosely revealed through the secrets that Anthony is eventually made aware that the doll started the fire and that the priest was abusing her). So the main goal of the story is for Anthony to forgive himself, but to also forgive Megan as she was just an abused child. This is where the two alt groups manifest.

Upon being forced to detour through his traumatic home town/hitting his head in the crash, he starts to lose it. Anthony creates a story in his head to reflect and express his inner turmoil, where his family are a group of students (presumably because his profession revolves around it), and they're haunted by historical duplicates of themselves who suffered fates during the witch trials similar to their REAL selves house fire deaths (Taylor's is burned/hanged, John's is crushed, Angela's suffocates, and Daniel's is impaled). He presumably utilizes the Witch trial parallels because he grew up with the stories, but game writing wise its just such a clever combination of the history. And because Anthony can't cope with why the tragedy befell his family, the fake school group he created reflect this inner turnoil by feeling helpless to/confused by the hauntings.

It's so interesting though because while the whole story is for Anthony/Andrew, you get to still play the characters he makes up in his head. So your goal as the fake family members is to act/survive in a way that would be therapeutic to Anthony, by 1. Living of course, but also 2. Being heroic / not relying on him or others to save you. That's how you break your locked traits! By going against the negative trait your character is heavily inclined towards!

And this makes sense as a form of mental therapy for Anthony. Because if, for example, John only survived his demon by asking Andrew to help him block the door, then in Anthony's mind this is telling him that he was the key to saving James (his dad/John) and that his death is his fault. But if, as John, you show Andrew that you can fight your personal demon yourself, then it tells Anthony that ultimately John's death was out of his control. This goes for the other 3 members as well.

But the most important part to Anthony's recovery, is that even if everyone fights their own demon themselves and survives the night (meaning Anthony learns to forgive himself for their deaths), he still ultimately has to choose to forgive Megan/Mary or unfairly blame her for everything.

I truly think this game had something great going for it. If only the choices were worded a bit better...No one is going to NOT ask for help when they're trying to survive a horror game. But maybe we would if the wording was different, or if it was more clear that the Clarke family put way too much on Anthony before their deaths. It might've made it more intuitive to put together the parallels and solve the mystery.

I loved this game and am excited to see what Supermassive has in store for the future.

One of the few Star Wars properties that actually understands what makes Star Wars great.

My first playthrough I played single-player. It was pretty terrible. Without spoilers, there is a very important secret you are supposed to catch on to quickly in order to save lives. The gameplay however, literally punishes you for figuring out the right choice sometimes, leaving you even more confused than before. Even then, if you still are perceptive enough and keep making the right choices, you have to make sure not to make these right choices "tOo MaNy TiMeS" otherwise characters will still die for another reason that you have to catch on to. This second secret however, is hinted to you in absolutely horrendous ways that are badly conveyed. On top of all of this, the characters are poorly designed, the dialogue is embarrassingly bad, and the multiple endings are almost all underwhelming.

I then played a 2nd playthrough in theater mode with 4 of my friends. That was actually a really fun experience, but unfortunately I had to witness all 4 of them go through the same revelations I made as the game went on. Dying for dumb reasons, not feeling rewarded for making right calls, and having to endure the terrible characters/story...I ended up feeling bad for making them play the game with me lol.

However...my 3rd and final playthrough was in Co-Op mode with one of those same friends. After finishing it, there is no doubt in my mind that this was the optimal way to play. Maybe not necessarily playing Co-Op first, but suffering through the other methods, learning the game, and then trying to beat it with a friend still despite all its flaws. This time around, the "secret" of the game actually made certain moments incredibly fun. Unfortunately I can't explain why without spoilers, but I will link a video to probably the best moment of this runthrough for those who would like to see afterwards:

https://fb.watch/8YyzwlrnxG/

Additionally, this game has really nicely framed camera shots, decently atmospheric horror elements/tension, and very interesting different scene possibilities dependent on your character choices, making them actually feel somewhat relevant (sometimes lol). It is certainly no Until Dawn, but apparently each entry to the anthology gets better and better so hopefully that trend continues. All in all, I had fun playing this game and each new playthrough felt adequately unique.