Those Who Remain

Those Who Remain leaves much to be desired and never pays off, no matter how many notes you read. Sure, there’s a decent narrative to discover within the game’s dark themes, but that is overshadowed by the sloppy structure and poor control scheme. It’s a shame because I really felt like there would be some kind of pay off at the end of this supernatural mystery, but I was left in the dark.

Those Who Remain is a good horror experience in a genre filled by many similar games. It offers good story and interesting puzzles, and throws some decision making your way, but also suffers from many technical and design issues that prevent it from being good enough for all tastes.

Apart from its frightful visuals and clanky controls, Those Who Remain is a somewhat interesting experience. The protagonist is literally asked to shed the light on its past as he plods through the ominous city of Dormont. Quite short though, the journey of Edward might give some cold sweats to the most fearless players.

There is an awful lot to like about Those Who Remain, but unfortunately, there is also a lot which will leave players deeply frustrated. Its most fundamental problem is that it tries to do too much. The atmosphere and storytelling, particularly at the start of the game is a great start, but the developers felt the need to add elements of survival horror, which ultimately exacerbate rather than scare.

Those Who Remain features an eerie atmosphere, inventive puzzles, and some moments of genuine tension via its shape-shifting world, but fussy controls, one-dimensional stealth, and a narrative that lacks cohesion prevent it from stepping completely out of the darkness and into the spotlight.

Those who remain to the end of this game might find some tidbits of enjoyment in the puzzles, or weighing up some pretty heavy narrative decisions. But Those Who Remain too often forgoes its better ideas, for ones derived from better, more well-executed horror games and doesn't execute those very well.

Those Who Remain is a puzzle game disguised as a survival horror. It fails to deliver a memorable and thrilling game experience and is based on an old game structure with very few interesting moments.

Those Who Remain is a trivial story about corruption and injustice. Trying to seem like a horror game, it is not able to scare even a schoolboy. Pixel hunting and a weak story cause only disappointment. However, from a small company that has not released a single notable project before, it was hardly worth waiting for pleasant surprises.

Those Who Remain is difficult to recommend, but there is an interesting meditation on guilt, redemption, and judgement hidden amongst an unfortunate mass of clunky design and gameplay. It might even be that watching someone else play the game is the best way to enjoy it, so you won't have to fight the controls and frustrating checkpoints. Ultimately, the game itself fails to live up to the potential of its ideas. This is one that should remain on the shelf.

Although it had some good ideas at the start, Those Who Remain feels like the most cookie cutter horror game possible that barely manages to present anything fresh enough to keep you interested across the six hour playtime.

Those Who Remain doesn't add anything relevant to the horror genre.

If you're simply looking for some quick jump-scares, then Those Who Remain is an adequate choice, but there are likely dozens of games on Steam or Itch.io that are better and less expensive than this.

With two different endings, Those Who Remain is worth playing through all the way at least once to find out how the story ends. But with so many issues, it’s hard to find the motivation to jump back in to reveal that second ending. There’s a small bit of horror and well-crafted atmosphere on offer, but it’s short lived – and there’s definitely better games to play in the genre. Maybe give it a miss, at least until the technical issues have been (hopefully) fixed.