Developer: We Create Stuff
Publisher: Modus Games
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Switch
Tested on: PC
In Sound Mind – Review
We Create Stuff is an independent developer that has a limited background in the gaming world, mostly in the form of making mods that have been well received by the community. Putting this experience to good use, they teamed up with Modus Games to release a bigger title. In Sound Mind feels almost like a homage to Silent Hill in its horror themes, while it plays similar to Resident Evil with its first-person shooter influences. Overall, it makes for a good mix of style and gameplay, with enough creativity thrown in to keep things fresh.
Story
In Sound Mind starts off with the typical horror game set-up: you are doctor Desmond Watts and you wake up in an abandoned apartment building with no idea why or how you got there. A strange man keeps calling you with cryptic messages and you start finding notes and tapes around the building detailing your everyday life, leading you on a quest to uncover Desmond’s story. As a psychiatrist, he has tried helping many of his patients with their personal issues, but the key to solving his own mystery may lie in visiting the deeper subconscious memories of these patients and facing the demons that lie within – both literally and metaphorically.
The story has good pacing and enough build-up towards bigger things, gradually revealing what you need to know as you play the game. However, we’ll be the first to admit the premise isn’t the most original, and if you have experience with this genre, you might be able to see a lot of twists coming in advance.
Graphics
Visually, In Sound Mind does not disappoint. Forget colorless horror games with bleak surroundings that make you squint at the screen trying to distinguish between pixels. This game looks brilliant and plays around with color a lot. Environments change around you as you travel through each dream-like realm, which you visit from a sort of hub-world that is the apartment building. It’s easy to tell the attention to detail the devs put into each location you visit, as well as the monsters that roam within. The creators do a perfect job representing the mental troubles of the minds you’re delving deeper into.
Sound
Another stand-out feature of this game is the soundtrack, provided by the internet-famed band, The Living Tombstone. Their work is well-known for a reason, not to mention it fits the game’s atmosphere perfectly. The songs can be haunting and creepy at the right time, but switch over to something more fast-paced seamlessly when the action picks up. In Sound Mind also has voice acting and while it’s not the worst you’re ever going to listen to, we can’t say it’s always the best either. Sometimes it suffers from over-acting, making scenes that are supposed to be creepy almost funny due to the awkward line delivery.
Gameplay
In Sound Mind is a first-person horror adventure game that plays a little similar to modern classics like Resident Evil. That means that you do have a gun to fight off enemies with, but your ammo is in very limited supply and you’re often better off trying to sneak your way around them. You just have to try and stay quiet, hiding when you can. Most other supplies are also found around the map sparingly, be they food items to heal with, drugs to boost your stamina and speed, or batteries for your flashlight.
The game progresses linearly in the sense that you only unlock one area at a time to travel through from the hub, each representing another of Desmond’s patients. The worlds you find within their minds vary greatly and have unique enemies and even game mechanics you will need to learn to deal with, all while exploring them in an open-world fashion. It does keep you on your toes and adds changes to the gameplay. Your objectives are easy to keep track of and often require you to solve simple puzzles, by finding items and using them in clever ways. Exploring is a main feature of the game, as you can miss a lot of the game’s plot if you don’t take your time looking around.
The game features pseudo-boss fights in the form of monstrous personifications of the patient’s greatest fear or mental disturbance. These enemies can be truly frightening and beating them is the final goal of each area. Taking all of this into account – and assuming you’re not purposefully rushing through things – the game is quite long, totaling over twelve hours of gameplay. The deluxe edition of the game comes with a full soundtrack and digital artbook too.
Conclusion
In Sound Mind has every element that makes this game a great horror title. Once you get over the more cliché story choices and cringe-worthy voice acting, what you find is a unique experience with astounding detail to both the sound and visual design. These two aspects already make it worth your while, but In Sound Mind is also just a genuinely fun game in how it keeps changing things up for you.
No Comments