I am a pretty big fan of David Cage and his style of games, Heavy Rain was one of my favorite games from the last generation, and I’m very excited for his next title Detroit. I had read some musings about Phantom 8’s Past Cure and was generally curious about the title, it seemed right up my alley. A tale that you have to discover what happened, mind-bending powers and some pretty intense dream sequences, man I thought I was in for a blast; but there was one thing I forgot, no David Cage involvement in this game.
When you first fire this game up you are surprised at what confronts you, I got excited thinking that this game had made a turn toward the survival horror genre of the industry; but I was wrong. Once you complete the first level you are thrown into the real world, and it is almost just as mundane and boring as our real world. You play as Ian, a soldier who is looking for the last three years of his life. His brother is helping him from afar, and it seems that they are close to discovering what happened to him during those missing years. The story is told through dreams and the real world, at some points you can’t decide which one you are in; which is an interesting concept, but one that really does nothing for the story or game.
The controls are quite simple, Left Trigger is aim and Right Trigger is shoot; these are pretty standard now. Triangle is interact with objects in both the dreams and in reality. Circle is punch and you can link combos by pressing it multiple times, then hitting Square for a finishing move. You do get some pretty neat powers in this game though. You can slow time like Max Payne by pressing L1 which helps in killing people. You can leave your body to accomplish other tasks by pressing R2. One caveat though, using both of these powers drains your sanity meter. Your sanity meter keeps you from seeing the Porcelain Men and allows you a clear vision of the game. To keep your sanity meter ticking, you use Blue Pills that you find lying around everywhere. If it wasn’t for the powers you are given this would have just been a third person shooter, but thankfully the developers added some variety. It is much more fun to shoot a person in slow motion than it is in real time.
The game isn’t very pretty. I get that this is an indie AAA game and all that, but the graphics really resembled a later in life PS3 game. You get tricked with the cutscenes that this game is going to be super pretty once you are given control. That is a lie. Once you’re given control you get a bland world to navigate. However, that doesn’t take away from the title in any way, some of my favorite games are VERY ugly, but just know going in that this game doesn’t have the photorealistic graphics that we are becoming used to. The dreams are pretty bland, and the dream villains are also pretty boring. I almost got tired of shooting at albinos in my dreams…almost. The voice acting is actually pretty well done, I enjoyed what the actors did with their characters and the lead voice actor did a splendid accent for Ian. I almost thought that I was watching the opposite end of a Bond film, where we learn more about the villain than we do Mr. Bond.
I actually did enjoy my time with this title, but unfortunately, the time within the game is pretty short. Had I really put my heart into it I could have finished this game in one sitting, but I decided to go through a few sittings instead and enjoy it a bit more. Looking at trophies though, not many people kept going after the second dream sequence, which is pretty sad. The next level you get to let loose with your powers and channel your inner Solid Snake to find those missing years of your life. I wouldn’t go out and buy this game if you expect a jaw-dropping story or narrative, but I would go buy this game if you were a fan of Max Payne or Heavy Rain. While the title isn’t as good as either of those games, it is something new to experience that has aspects from those fan favorites. If you have a few hours to kill, about thirty bucks and want to jump into something strange and slightly original, then Past Cure is the game for you.
An PS4 copy of Past Cure was provided by Phantom 8 for the purpose of this review.