Developer: Devespresso Games
Publisher: Headup Games, WhisperGames
Platform: Switch, PS4, XB1, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS
Tested on: PS4
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters (PS4) – Review
Attention class! Prepare yourselves for shaky hands and a heavily raised pulse with this atmospheric Korean survival-adventure horror. After a phenomenal experience with the first game, developer Devespresso hits us hard with The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters. If you liked The Coma: Cutting Class, you will LOVE this sequel.
Story
When you thought you were out, they reel you right back in. As we’ve seen at the end of The Coma: Cutting Class (recut), Youngho – the protagonist of the first game – has never left the coma state that he suddenly fell into three weeks ago. This certainly worries Youngho’s best friend and classmate Mina. Especially when he is not the first one to have this happen to and also now that Mina keeps having this same strange dream about Youngho being trapped in a dark mysterious place.
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters takes us back to where it all began: Sehwa High School. But this time around, we play as Mina Park. Like the prequel, our protagonist falls into the grisly realm of ‘The Coma’: a nightmarish place that somehow mirrors her daily surroundings. It is now up to us to discover what is going on and find an escape to get Mina out of this eerie situation.
This game has a tense story and it depends heavily through good storytelling which The Coma 2 has no trouble in doing so. Aside from the cutscenes, the player can find out more of the narrative through intriguing notes and dialogues along the way. The story is well written and told very clearly through these methods. It’s very pleasing to have all these different kinds of ways for you to unravel the truth.
Graphics
The art-style used in this horror game is impressive in both gameplay as in cutscenes. The Coma 2: Vicious Sister is presented like a top-tier comic book-like manner with amazing linework, color-use, and details. The use of tints and shadows brings out the creepiness very well, making it a truly scary video game to just look at.
The actual gameplay is presented in 2D front view, as you move from left to right and vice versa in the game. The Coma 2, however, does not look flat as the game cleverly uses different layers of images in the surroundings to create a feeling of depth. The characters do lose somewhat of the details but they can be fully appreciated when in dialogue or in inventory.
The visuals look even much better enlarged in the intense cutscenes that appear throughout the game. Like a printed comic/manga, the cutscenes are shown frame by frame without animation. Some even with multiple windows. The dialogue is shown like cartoon-y text balloons.
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Sound
Not only does The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters look like a proper horror game, it definitely sounds like one too. Occasionally there’s some eerie music playing but it’s the constant creepy sound effects that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The background sound of every location is haunting and the echo of your footsteps can easily make your hair stand up. Especially when those footsteps aren’t yours.
The difference between this sequel and its prequel is the voice acting. The characters now make sound or say full-on words to prelude the dialogue. This does not seem like a big deal and it’s definitely not enough for you to learn Korean from, but it is much appreciated and really brings the characters to life, making the narrative more dynamic.
Gameplay
The gameplay for The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters can rapidly change from a walk-around point ‘n’ click adventure game to an intense run for your life survival game. The game is single-player and reliant on discovering its story. If Mina has to do this alone by herself, then so do you.
This time around, there are many other locations for you to explore besides your high school. Now, you can roam around the Sehwa district to gather items and expose more secrets. The objective here is for you to uncover more of the story, unlock new locations, and progress further so you can escape this nightmarish realm.
If walking around, exploring ghostly Sehwa doesn’t sound scary enough then you are right. It can be scarier. Much scarier. You’re not exploring Sehwa in peace for there are vicious spirits who are hellbent on making you bleed. They are coming from the ceiling, they are coming from the walls, and they are coming after you. Fast. And without any weapons or anything to defend yourself, the only way to survive this ordeal is to run, avoid attacks, and hide in a safe place until they move on – unless they saw you hide of course. These encounters are not always predictable. So the game does keep you on your toes throughout the playthrough. If you’re not careful, you can lose all your health and start back from the last save point (you have to save manually and the save points are found in various locations). This can be immensely frustrating if this happens to you often.
The game sounds simple to play but it simultaneously does not. The controls are easy and clear enough (since most are shown on the screen the whole time) but there’s so much more to keep in mind. You have to be on the lookout for enemies and items at all times and of course, time your dodges correctly so you get away safely. It is, however, best to not get detected in the first place by turning your flashlight on and off at the right times. Other than that, there’s also inventory management, crafting of key items, and healing yourself with bandages and food. The story and navigation are already intense, and with the rest the game throws in your path, it can be a little too much to handle at times.
Conclusion
Don’t expect less from a K-horror with a solid story, amazing visuals, and intense gameplay. The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters immerses you into a haunting world with its on-point atmosphere and sound. This game emphasizes survival/adventure horror and gives you a hard time in doing so, making it a bit overwhelming at times. We can even call it frustrating at some points. Especially when looking at save points to be exact. Still, The Coma 2 is an impressive sequel to an existing game that has a great following cult and it stands out among its peers in the genre.
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters (PS4) - Review,
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