While there are fairly just a few horror video games out nowadays, the style nonetheless maintains fairly a bit of recognition amongst indie sport builders, the place small studios are doing their finest to provide you with enjoyable methods to reinvent the style. The newest such try is Pine Harbor by Imaginative and prescient Forge Group, which in some methods seems like a retread of older concepts, however in different methods, additionally seems like an fascinating new tackle horror video games. It’s value noting, nonetheless, that Pine Harbor continues to be in Early Entry on the time of scripting this evaluation, and can undoubtedly undergo fairly just a few modifications earlier than it hits its last launch.
At its core, Pine Harbor is an extremely easy sport: it melds mechanics that might be extra at residence in a style like survival and even extraction shooters with a heavy dose of horror-based rigidity for its core gameplay loop. As the sport’s description on Steam will aptly let you know, the whole gameplay loop revolves round scavenging for provides and supplies throughout the day, which in flip will enable you out with surviving the next evening. And whereas this core gameplay loop all the time exists within the background, there’s additionally a narrative that tries to offer gamers extra construction with how they go about reaching their targets.
“Shortly after getting separated from Richard, it’s as much as the gamers to attempt to determine what sort of mysterious secret he was uncovering, and why an organization would possibly need to shut him up.”
The setup is quite easy: Pine Harbor is a small city the place some kind of accident brought on a manufacturing facility to explode. This, for some motive, has primarily brought on the city to change into contaminated with zombie-like enemies everywhere, in flip main the city to get deserted by most of its common populace. Gamers tackle the position of Josh, who hitches a bus experience to the eponymous city on the seeming behest of his father. Shortly after assembly his father, Richard, Josh discovers that the letter wasn’t despatched by him, and that darker forces, and possibly even a conspiracy may be at play.
Shortly after getting separated from Richard, it’s as much as the gamers to attempt to determine what sort of mysterious secret he was uncovering, and why an organization would possibly need to shut him up. It additionally doesn’t assist that the zombie-like skinners additionally appear hellbent on taking him, and by extension, you down. All through the plot, you’ll be despatched throughout Pine Harbor on missions, starting from searching for some provides for some fellow surviving people that may be trying ahead to escaping, to following the cryptic directions left behind by your father.
Usually talking, Pine Harbor feels prefer it’s impressed fairly a bit by traditional survival horror titles like Silent Hill. The titular city is continually coated in fog, which does an awesome job in including to the overall ambiance of the sport. The overall nature of the narrative additionally feels prefer it’s lifting a web page proper out of Silent Hill, because of its creepy ambiance, weird-looking enemies, and strange-acting NPCs.
“Pine Harbor feels prefer it’s impressed fairly a bit by traditional survival horror titles like Silent Hill”
Apparently, the NPCs behaving surprisingly would possibly really be the results of the sport nonetheless being in Early Entry. Proper from the get go, it’s fairly evident there’s nonetheless loads of work left to be carried out on Pine Harbor. Amongst different issues, nearly each animation in the entire sport feels extremely stiff, with some standout examples being Richard being extremely nonetheless whereas speaking to you in a shifting automobile, or how enemies have a tendency to behave. The commonly unusual conduct of the NPCs additionally goes past simply stiff animations, and crosses proper over into the unhealthy voice appearing class.
Most quests are inclined to have you ever operating between two distant components of the city on easy fetch quests, and typically taking up some enemies alongside the best way. Whereas this has the nice impact of getting you intimately conversant in the city over a protracted interval of play, sadly, this additionally has the side-effect of constructing the sport really feel extremely repetitive. The quests wanted much more selection in them than simply merely being despatched to a constructing on the opposite facet of city to both speak to a survivor, or to search out some provides that you just then must carry all the best way again.
Whereas the core construction of Pine Harbor reveals {that a} enjoyable sport may be someplace in there, nearly all the pieces else all through your time with the title will show to be tedious, irritating, or outright boring. For instance, there isn’t actually a lot in the best way of fight choices in terms of coping with enemies. You both shoot them when you’ve got a gun, otherwise you maintain spamming a primary melee assault till they go down. This challenge is additional exacerbated by the truth that enemies don’t actually are inclined to react in any fascinating solution to your actions, other than coming to you after they hear you getting shut. This isn’t, for instance, like Resident Evil the place you’ve a ton of choices in fight by selecting to shoot completely different physique components on zombies. Moderately, all you may actually do to cope with them is maintain spamming left click on and look ahead to them to finally go down.
“You both shoot them when you’ve got a gun, otherwise you maintain spamming a primary melee assault till they go down.”
Pine Harbor fairly clearly nonetheless has a protracted street forward of it, and in its present state, conserving it in Early Entry is certainly the correct name. Whereas the background setting is fairly fascinating, the principle story is bland due to the dearth of high quality voice appearing and even first rate writing. NPC characters will typically act like they’re both college students appearing on stage for the primary time, or aliens which might be failing miserably of their makes an attempt to sound like precise human beings. Couple that with the truth that the gameplay is fairly boring, and the missions are simply easy fetch quests, and there actually isn’t a lot right here.
The sport actually begins to come back alive at evening, once you’re shacked up in your home and must make some selections about the way you’re going to cope with skinners that might be gunning straight in your head. Sadly, the unhealthy enemy AI rears its ugly head as soon as once more, and also you by no means actually must make use of a lot in the best way of technique other than discovering place to cover and having loads of ammo to outlive the evening.
Someplace inside Pine Harbor, there may be an intriguing sport. The truth that it’s an Early Entry launch additionally implies that there’s nowhere for the sport’s high quality to go however up. The foundations are first rate, and the overall vibes of the sport is fairly spot-on in terms of instilling a way of horror within the participant. Sadly, the roughness across the edges, the dearth of any actual fight choices, bland quests, and horrible voice appearing maintain the sport again fairly a bit.
Because it at present stands, Pine Harbor isn’t actually value your time, even in case you are a horror fan. There are just a few good concepts there, nonetheless, and with time, there are positively hopes that it goes on to change into a good addition to the horror style.
This sport was reviewed on PC.
