How to Stay Glued to Your Phone: A DreadOut Remastered Collection Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Today we're going to be looking at a release that has quite a bit of history behind it. Originally releasing on PC back in 2014, DreadOut is a survival horror game that brings together gameplay elements found in games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Fatal Frame. It's an indie release that was created by a small Indonesian development team, and it was also brought to life via a successful Indiegogo campaign. The developer, Digital Happiness, had a hit on their hands, and have been active since its original release. Meanwhile, DreadOut as a franchise has seen sequels, spin-offs, re-releases, and even a live action film adaptation. We're going to be looking at one of those re-releases today. DreadOut Remastered Collection recently arrived on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 by way of publisher SoftSource, and we're going to be taking a look at the Switch version today. There's really no need for further intro, so let's dive right in!

DreadOut places you into the role of Linda, a young girl who is on a trip with some of her classmates, and one of her teachers. Their drive grinds to a halt as a smashed up bridge blocks their way. While the group tries to figure out what to do next, one of the students finds a path through the brush that leads to an abandoned town. The group (somewhat reluctantly) walks through the town, and eventually make their way to a large school. For reasons only known to those who find themselves in an active horror setting, the group decides to split up. This leaves Linda alone with just her best friend, while the others go off exploring. Time passes and the rest of the group doesn't return, so Linda goes searching for them. This search doesn't lead to clues as to where exactly everyone went, but it does bring her face to face with the otherworldly inhabitants of the school, and the town itself. It's up to Linda to fight and banish these ghosts, find her friends, and make it out of the town alive. Things are kept rather simple, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Though the plot never goes too in-depth as far as Linda and her friends' backstories go, it does tell a very Silent Hill-esque story when it comes to the town itself. I won't go into details here for the sake of spoilers, but the school and town truly become main characters by the end of the game. Like most survival horror games, these plot elements are mostly delivered in the form of atmospheric storytelling, but that also means that players can be as involved with the plot as they want to be. One can search out anything and everything that'll reveal more story details, or they can simply go fight ghosts. Speaking of ghosts, many of the ones found in game are unique to the game's setting. Since DreadOut takes place in Indonesia, it makes sense that most of the ghosts and spirits are those found in common Indonesian myths, legends, and folklore. As someone who knows very little about such things, this was a neat touch. I imagine that is the case for many other overseas players, and it's just the first of many reasons why one would want to pick up this game in the first place.

Gameplay in DreadOut is pretty much standard survival horror type stuff. Your main goal is to find a way out of your current dire predicament through force and exploration. You do this by finding helpful items conveniently left for you to find, and you can also uncover additional story details by reading journals, newspapers, and notes scattered about. You can walk, run, and interact with your environment, and you can light up a dark area with your cell phone. This is 2025, so cell phones are very important. Not only is your cell phone your means of light, but can also be used for attacking, as well as a tool to solve certain puzzles. Though finding items is important, most of them simply act as a means to open up new areas. Inventory management is kept to a minimum, and most items are used automatically when needed. I personally appreciated this simplification, and it gave the entire experience a sort of adventure game feel. Sadly, there is no in-game map to help you from getting lost. Exploration is the core of the game after all, and you'll spend much of your time wandering about the labyrinthine school, wondering where to go next. This isn't helped by the fact that there aren't many on-screen indicators as to what you can actually interact with, so getting lost can be quite easy. That one caveat aside, things are looking pretty good. Surely the lack of a map won't hurt the game too much, right?

Unfortunately the lack of an in-game map is probably DreadOut's biggest failure. Much of the game takes place in darkness, with everything being a shade of grey. This makes most area look very similar, and unique landmarks aren't all that common. Linda does have a sort of sixth sense that guides her to helpful items, but it can be somewhat finicky. Whenever the screen glows blue, that means that a helpful item is nearby. I can also indicate that you might want to either turn off your camera's light, or even look through the camera to find a secret. The game never really tells you which it is, and sometimes it isn't even accurate to what you can actually interact with. For whatever reason, Linda's spidey sense goes through walls and floors, so the thing the game is trying to tell you about might not even be in the room with you. The game also saves at random intervals, so you might be even more lost if you decide to quit the game and come back to it later. DreadOut isn't exactly a short game by any means, but it would've been a much shorter experience if I knew where I was going most of the time. Thankfully ghost encounters will usually indicate an area you haven't explored yet, and I guess that's as good a reason as any to move on and discuss combat.

If you came into DreadOut expecting the combat to resemble what's found in the Fatal Frame series, then you'll probably be disappointed. The one aspect of the game that you'd think would be the most similar, is arguably the place where things differ the most. Similar to the blue glow indicating a helpful item, a red glow warns of nearby danger. Some ghosts can be seen with the naked eye, while others need to be viewed through the phone's camera to be seen. Either way, your camera will be your only line of defense. Combat starts with you lifting your phone in front of your face, and you "attack" by taking a picture. Don't think that's all there is to it though, as pictures will only do damage if you've met certain conditions. These conditions usually involve finding a ghost's weak point(s), but you can sometimes simply "scare away" a ghost by attacking them enough times in general until they back off. Weak points are usually clearly marked on a ghost, and you know when your attack will do damage when the phone screen starts glitching out. Struck ghosts often disappear and reappear elsewhere, so you'll want to keep on your toes and find them again quickly. If a ghost grabs you, you take damage. There is no traditional life bar here, but you'll know if you're dying when the screen begins to turn black and white. Death is unfortunately common, but you can respawn by running towards the light in the limbo you find yourself in. This does get you back into battle quickly, though I would've preferred skipping the running to the light thing entirely. Hit a ghost enough times and it "dies". Defeated ghosts get added to your journal, and you can then continue on your journey.

While there is a bit more about combat I could explain, I pretty much just told you all you need to know just now. There are no special skills or items for you to use during battle, you simply point, click, and move if you need to. You do get upgrades for your phone throughout the game, but they're automatically equipped when you get them. There is no shuffling of film, lenses, and other minutiae, you just take pictures and move on. This might sound a bit boring on paper, but I once again found the simplicity to be quite enjoyable in practice. Besides making sense from a narrative aspect, I liked not having to bother with camera preparations. It gave the game something of an old school FPS feel, though one where you only have a single, slow-firing, gun. It also is a very intuitive system to learn, and that's a good thing since DreadOut is pretty lousy when it comes to tutorials. I didn't mention this earlier, but most of the tutorial content is behind a "How to Play" option in the Main Menu. This is so old school it hurts, but can also be a throwback of sorts for those used to actually having to read manuals before playing a game. Even though no aspect of DreadOut's gameplay is executed to perfection, I think it all comes together to be something unique. It borrows heavily from previous games in the genre, but dos its own thing too.

While I understand that this release wasn't called the "DreadOut HD Remake", I still find the term "Remastered" to be somewhat misleading. I know that the term can technically mean a lot of things, but I honestly don't think anything was done to the game beyond simply making it playable on consoles. The graphics still look like something pulled from the PS2 launch library, and the game has quite a few visual glitches throughout. This isn't an ugly-looking game, but it also isn't a modern-looking one. I can definitely appreciate the retro aesthetics on display, but they don't really feel intentional here. I'm sure the developers would've gone for a better looking visual style if they could've, but most likely weren't able to due to budget constraints. Sadly, I played the game in what has to be the least optimized platform: The Nintendo Switch. While I can say that there weren't any notable hiccups or performance issues, things do look very rough at times. Nothing is really smooth, the grain doesn't seem to be there on purpose, and the cutscenes look like they're being ran through a 90s PC using QuickTime. I can once again dig the vibes that sort of thing brings about, but that feels more like a happy accident than anything else. I don't know if things look better on other platforms, but I doubt that's the case judging from gameplay videos I've seen online. Wonky graphics isn't a deal-breaker by any means, but it might put off some gamers who are used to their Remastered ports looking far better than this.

Sound is another area where the game is very hit or miss, though for different reasons. While the soundtrack does a good job creating a spooky atmosphere, there isn't a whole lot to it. Suspense is more often than not built up through silence and sound effects, and often doesn't have a payout in the end. The music is great once it kicks in, but it pretty much only does that during story bits and ghost encounters. Voice acting is another place where the game suffers, as the quality is all over the place. Some of the actors are clearly taking their roles seriously, while others sound like they're just the game staff filling in a role that no one thought to cast professionally. It's sad too, since the writing isn't bad, it's just delivered in a way that feels laughable at times. Keep in mind, this isn't PS1 Resident Evil where it sounds like everyone is acting like they're in a low-budget horror movie on purpose, here it just sounds like the cast has various levels of acting chops and experience. None of this is helped by the fact that the game has a very muddy sound mix in general. It's hard to hear the voice acting half the time, though I guess that can be a good thing too after a while. Just be sure subtitles are on before you start, and you'll be fine.

You might be wondering by now when the "Collection" part of the review comes in, and I guess I've put it off long enough. You'd be forgiven for going into this game thinking that DreadOut 2 would be included, since that's exactly what I thought when the game came into my hands for review. Instead of the sequel, we get the (somewhat) standalone DLC, Keepers of the Dark. Keepers of the Dark isn't really a full game in the purest sense. It does offer more gameplay and the like, but it isn't the same sort of full-on, story-driven experience DreadOut proper is. Instead of another survival horror game, it plays more like a Boss Rush mode, albeit one with added story elements scattered about in the form of notes and the like. There is a hub area, and you travel to various external zones through a series of doors, but there is no real exploration to be had here. Each of the doors in the hub area has a certain spirit behind it, and you have to kill of all them to clear the game. It's not bad as far as DLC goes, but I also feel that the word "Collection" is just as misleading as "Remastered" was. I guess I should say that it's a full-length game that's comparable to DreadOut proper, but it isn't really noteworthy beyond that. The mechanics are the same, and it even uses assets from the main game. Both games do offer about do offer about 10-15 hours of combined gameplay, though DreadOut itself is leaps and bounds the better experience overall.

Even though parts of the overall package disappointed me, I still have to give DreadOut Remastered Collection a full recommendation. It's a great survival horror game, even if it is sort of accidentally retro in execution. It's a must-play for fans of the genre, and is easy enough to get into for the casual player too. The story also features some neat Indonesian cultural elements that do a good job of making the experience feel more original to some in the west. Those looking for a stronger graphical showing might want to stay away from the Switch version, but it isn't too bad if that's you're only option. Get it on whatever platform you can, and thank me later. See you in the next one.

Check Out DreadOut Remastered Collection on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/dreadout-remastered-collection-switch/

---

Story: B
Gameplay: B
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B
Value: B

Overall: B

Pros:
+ Not only a great survival horror game, but it also is a great start to a long-running franchise.
+ Combines gameplay and narrative elements found in games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Fatal Frame, while still retaining its uniqueness.
+ Though the plot isn't all that strong when it comes to the main cast, the setting is explored in great detail.
+ Can be quite creepy at times, and does deliver on its scares.
+ Features several Indonesian cultural references in both setting and specific ghosts and spirits.
+ Though possibly not intentional, the game does have a very retro feel to it.
+ Calling this a "Collection" might be a bit of a stretch, but it does bring together both the original game, and its full-length DLC for a decent price.

Cons:
- Just about everything gameplay-wise is simplified. This isn't the game for those looking for lots of customization and inventory management.
- The lack of an in-game map really dampens the experience. You'll spend a lot of your time lost, or wondering what you're supposed to do next.
- This does not feel at all "Remastered", neither in graphics or audio.
- The voice acting can be quite bad at times, and not in a "so bad it's good again" type of way.
- The Keepers of the Dark DLC is really just a Boss Rush mode disguised as a full second game.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---

There's nothing scarier than answering a call from an unknown number!