Pneumata | PS5 Review

Taking on a Resident Evil, and Silent Hill style of horror survival approach "Pneumata" tries it's best to combine both worlds, but fails without the sense of narrative direction needed to flesh out a more cohesive plot. The game, in question, starts off abruptly with Davide Hernandez waking up at the witching hour of 3:33am. There's a vehicle sitting in his driveway waiting impatiently for his arrival ... 

After shuffling out of bed, and taking notice of his bottle of anti-psychotics/painkillers on his bedside table along with photos of him and his missing wife Jamie hung around the house David heads out to greet the mystery guest. As soon as he does though the vehicle pulls off in a hurry leaving behind a box with a VHS tape inside. Taking it to the basement David does what anyone in his situation would do. He plays it on his downstairs television, and watches in horror as something otherworldly transpires. Showing a lost memory of when Jamie went missing, and the odd encounters with a mysterious entity in a lighthouse there.

This series of jarring events inspires David to revisit the town in which the lighthouse in the video tape resides. This abandoned town in Missouri is known as Milton. Upon arrival he finds the rundown ghost town looking like it's been through the apocalypse. Houses are derelict, and in poor condition with no one around to be seen. Only trails of blood, chopped off pig's heads, darkened skies, and the crackling of lighting litter the landscape. It is purely through forced further investigation and nerves of steel that David begins to slowly piece together a puzzle that seemingly lacks a sensible conclusion. This is done through reading left behind notes, and emails, as well as listening to radio broadcasts. Each of which are kept in their respective logs for reference sake.

Initially armed with a flashlight, a 9mm handgun, and a backpack David sets out on foot shortly after a car accident near Milton involving a crossing deer. All in an attempt to search the locale for clues. As he finds said clues he also finds items of use, and encounters what appears to be zombie-like residents that are out for blood. Seeing as it's now a fight for survival he has to not only cautiously explore the various properties to make progress, but must also carefully navigate while backtracking throughout the maze-like area multiple times in order to find necessary key items, and additional weapons. That, and healing items as well as painkillers to stave off his worsening headache as his health is in dire straits.

Along with the collecting of items, key items, ammo, and weapons you'll find that your backpack space is limited in a Resident Evil kind of way. To offset this you will find save rooms with a cassette recorder and a storage case. The tape recorder saves your current progress whereas the storage case can be filled with unused items for later use. Inventory management is part and partial to gameplay progress.

Surprisingly, with the amount of sleuthing required, "Pneumata" is not as puzzle heavy as one might expect. It combines mostly action based combat, defense, and stealth with interactive exploration and item use. You'll spend a lot of the time in unnerving situations within buildings and darkly lit wooded areas while carnival-like music plays out as you are searching for clues, and a sense of where to go. There's even ambient sounds from the surroundings as well as a soundtrack that adds a heightening, and sometimes lowering sense of dread. At your disposal in this particular plight is a dodge mechanic, a defense mechanic, a kicking mechanic, and the ability to arm yourself with guns that can be shot and reloaded supposing you have the ammunition for it.

The rest of the gameplay focus is on environmental interactions with highlighted items and set pieces that come into view as you look in their direction. This will lead you to key items, limited use items, and notes among other things. There are even highlight prompts for movement transitions, cutscene startups, and boss fight specific weaponry. The end goal in all of these important interactions is to reach a conclusion, and discover why it is David is witnessing what he is. Is it the apocalypse realized? Is it an alien invasion? Is it something supernatural? Is it all in his head? That's for you to potentially find out as you lead the way.

The Presentation ...

As realistic as the developer tries to make this uncanny psychological horror experience with current day console tech there are features within it that come off as being dated, and less than realistic. A lot of the enemies appear as being crudely made, and stiffly animated while the environmental set pieces and buildings do a better job in adding to the game's believable fear factor. 

The buildings, in particular, give off a sense of having once been lived in. This with the environmental sounds, and the added soundtrack or musical devices really gives character to this otherworldly experience. Voice overs as few and far between as they are also add to the game's personality. The main character, himself, often times grunts and groans in pain as his chronic headache returns to whittle away at his heart health. Something that only a painkiller help. Even the creature grunts, and staticky interactive recording sessions add something of value to the overall presentation.

The Verdict ...

Pneumata suffers from what I'd like to call an identity crisis. The story, what little of it there is, makes no real sense even at the end of it all. There is no real sense of conclusion, nor a sense of objective. It left me scratching my head wondering if David was suffering some kind of psychotic episode or was actually experiencing all that he did. It's not clear cut enough to point in either direction. The sad thing is that the story is what seals the deal with these kinds of games, and there is a lack of cohesive storytelling, unfortunately. 

The action, combat, and exploration is also a bit of a mixed bag. Weaving from one twisted set of circumstances to the next in a somewhat patchwork fashion, that in itself, does nothing to help the player understand what the hell is going on. It's like an inside joke that you weren't a part of. Those in on it know, but you don't. It's for that reason along with the long drawn out pacing that I cannot recommend "Pneumata" as a buy worthy game. I just felt that it started off as one thing, and changed multiple directions up to the end. Leaving us baffled and unfairly confused. Even with the context from journal logs it makes little to no sense.