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Get Even Review

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I’ve played enough psychological horror games to know what tricks to expect.

Abandoned creepy asylum… check. Broken down wheelchairs that seem to move on their own… check. Dirty children’s toys staring into your soul… check. Old newspaper articles spread everywhere hinting at a conspiracy… check. Make your character question what’s real and what isn’t… check.

Get Even has all of the above in its inventory, but how it uses them is very surprising indeed. Oh and it tells a very fresh inventive story to boot.

Get Even is a first person shooter that comes with a heavy dose of walking sim. Developed by The Farm 51 and published by Bandai Namco, you play the role of Cole Black who wakes up in an old, abandoned asylum after his sole memory is the attempted rescue of a teenage girl with a bomb strapped to her chest. With a strange technology fused to his head – Pandora – used to read and replay human memory, Black travels into the depths of his own mind to discover the truth about his past. A mysterious guide takes you into your own fears, memories and nightmares, before playing with the fundamentals of reality.

It plays like many games of this genre – you have to walk around exploring the space, whilst interacting with certain objects. You can crawl and run, but you cannot jump. But thankfully you have a phone.

Using the camera lens, you can look at and scan certain objects, with a vibration signifying those that need examining. This will allow you to unlock pieces of the story and gather evidence, whilst also unlocking secrets from the game world. The phone also comes complete with a map to scour, some emails to read, and a heat sensor/UV light. It gives Get Even a neat little trick and works very well in the context of the gameplay, with a nice collection of puzzles to explore – some tricky and some simple.

The walking sim side of Get Even is inventive and clever, especially with its examination and distortion of reality. But there is also a bit of combat to get involved in.

Combat is a tricky thing, with some great, and some not so great aspects to it. A corner gun is brilliant fun; whereby you can do exactly what it says on the tin and shoot around corners. It works by looking through a viewfinder on your phone, selecting your target and… bang. There is a normal weapon as well and all this works fine.

BUT the problem with this game is that it encourages you not to engage in combat, and that’s a shame when you have such a great weapon at your disposal. The combat also never feels completely natural and it takes a bit of getting used to. If you do decide to engage and you are found, then, well, you’re pretty much dead. Unless like me you run like the wind. When you put it all into context, the combat side of things is definitely the least enjoyable aspect of this game, but it has to be said that it works and is not broken.

On to the good stuff and the way Get Even plays with reality and distortion, in regards to the gathering of evidence, is inventive and brilliant. There are moments that are hugely enjoyable and towards the end of the game a couple of wonderful twists change the whole mechanics of how things play out. This is what makes Get Even stand out from the crowd.

But then of course there is also the story.

The story is a complex tale of murder, a kidnapping gone wrong, mad science experiments, family crisis’ and mental health treatment. It combines all these moments into a very interesting and grown up package that is written well and, even though some of the ground has been covered before, still very original. The dialogue is well crafted and at times poetic in its description of the human mind and the frailties of loss. It reminded me of an episode of a 1960’s series like The Prisoner or a series of Black Mirror in its execution. It can at times confuse, but the pay off later on when all the threads and twists come together is very rewarding.

The game visuals have a very good tone to them, even though certain environments like the asylum feel like they’ve been borrowed from a million games before it. The outside spaces and the office worlds are nicely drawn and show us something different. The design of the documents and the more dreamy/nightmare sequences are superb, as well as being very effective. I particularly loved the way actual 3D animation of the actors and real HD footage blend in a seamless way.

In the sound department we have a good score that is relentlessly frightening in parts, before being toned down for the more emotional sections. The voice work is nothing short of amazing – one of the best I’ve heard in a game for a while. The British cast sell each line like their careers depend on it.

Overall I have loved my short time with Get Even. If you like story driven first person adventure games, then you can’t go wrong with this. It’s inventive, brilliantly told and designed, with great voice over work. The combat sections are what lets the game down a bit and really could have done with a bit more work; even though it has a brilliant new weapon.

The price is probably about right for a game that has such a high level of quality design in it, but if it was a bit cheaper, perhaps coming in under £20, I might just have been able to find it in myself to add another half star.

Gareth Brierley
Gareth Brierleyhttp://www.garethbrierley.co.uk
I am an actor and a writer. I act quite a bit on stage, a little bit on tv and never on tuesdays. I have had some of my writing published and have written for TV and stage. I have been playing games since they begun and don't seem to be getting any better.
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