The Haunted Hoard: Remothered: Tormented Fathers (PS4)

Remothered: Tormented Fathers is a game I went into with zero expectations on how it might play and with the only bit of information I had on it being it is a horror game. There’s a certainly a case to be made that some games are superior when you’ve done little research beforehand or read up on what to expect, but while this could have been an interesting experiment, Remothered: Tormented Fathers ends up being a game that seems to benefit very little from my approach, since its nature as a mystery game means it would already be relying on an unraveling narrative that I wouldn’t have found much on in my usual pre-play research.

 

Remothered: Tormented Fathers has you assume the role of Rosemary Reed as she heads to the mansion of the elderly Richard Felton under false pretenses. Quite early on the game immediately jumps into the real conflict, Rosemary grilling Richard right out of the gate about the disappearance of his daughter and leading to a heated exchange that gets her kicked out of the estate. Unfortunately, the facial animation of the characters is fairly poor, making it hard for them to sell the intended emotions at many points and Rosemary’s voice actress sometimes fails to carry the emotion in its stead as well. However, after sneaking back in, Richard at least proves able to show his emotions better, because he quickly becomes a rather terrifying stalker hellbent on keeping you from the truth. Navigating the detailed and hauntingly beautiful mansion in search of the truth, the story undergoes some surprise twists that could have been built up to better but also introduce terrifying new foes who begin to pursue you through the halls as they have their own reasons for trying to bury the truth.

Remothered: Tormented Fathers ends up having a story that does have enough to it that it makes finding the next pivotal piece of information enticing, but some of it does feel like its swerving for the sake of surprising you or going for an interesting visual just because one was concocted by the creators rather than it being justified by the plot. Moths are given a large role in setting up some strange sights and situations but their inclusion feels somewhat arbitrary and help pads out the game’s unusual title with additional layers of meaning. It certainly feels more like a case of a narrative that comes together decently enough once all the pieces are together, with the extra details easy enough to accept without feeling entirely inexplicable. The personal narratives of Rosemary, Richard, and others tied to this strange situation follow enough of a logic and wrap up what they need to before the game decides to leave certain things to be better explored in a sequel. It’s not a particularly deep story and it can be gratuitous or trite in parts, but it feels like it falls into a comfortable middle ground of horror stories where the developments are meant to raise stakes, set up scary scenarios, and hit the player with something unexpected without it being absurd.

 

Almost the entire game takes place in Felton’s estate, and for most of the game, you will be avoiding at least one violent pursuer who will try and track you down and kill you. As such, Remothered: Tormented Fathers is very much a horror stealth game, and the way it balances that approach to horror definitely feels somewhat uneven. Moving around the three floor mansion with some bloodthirsty foe skulking about is properly terrifying, the game’s use of sound excellent for making you worry when you hear footsteps grow closer and relieved when the ramblings of your foe start to become more distant. Turning a corner and suddenly seeing one of the killers does inspire a moment of terror as you know you are truly outmatched, Rosemary Reed’s options for defending herself fairly simple and often ineffective. You are able to collect items around the mansion to help distract your foes, but the odd thing about them is they are variable in their effectiveness. You might think tossing an object will make the stalker nearby investigate it, but they seemed equally as likely to look at the possible source of the throw, something that is fairly interesting until it happens when they hear the sound of the thrown object from another room, come running to investigate it, and bolt to your hiding spot even though they never had a chance of knowing where the item was thrown from. Hurling the items at them can be a bit more effective at least as it briefly stuns them, and noisy things like a radio or baby doll can bait them into an area if you can clear it before they magnetize to your hiding spot.

Some hiding spots are better conceived, Rosemary able to hop into cabinets or hide under sofas for something far more effective than crouching behind furniture or hiding behind support pillars. When the enemy is close, you even need to do a minor control stick game to keep your character calm, although for some reason this isn’t introduced in a tutorial so you might get sussed out before you understand how it works. When the enemy does grab a hold of you, it is an instant death unless you happen to have one of the defensive items on hand. Able to carry one of these at a time, items like a knife or sewing needle must be activated in time to prevent your untimely demise, the player then needing to grab another before they have a chance of surviving being caught again. Since the foes are persistent and fairly fast it is quite possible you can be caught again before finding another sharp item, and the lethality and capable nature of these foes is what makes avoiding them appropriately tense and sometimes even terrifying. Mirrors that serve as save points and the only place you can heal from stalker attacks, and they are spaced out just right for the enemies to remain threats so your pursuers still have some bite to them even without being overly frustrating to die to.

 

However, the stealth can wear on you for a few different reasons. Rosemary’s movement is incredibly slow. Her crouch walk is practically a tiptoe and her regular walk barely a step up from that, and while you do have a run, the enemies are able to hear it from practically anywhere in the mansion. Sneaking around at tense moments is appropriate to the situation of course, but the game has you backtracking around the mansion to solve sometimes vague progression puzzles and having to do it at a snail’s pace makes it more tedious than it should be. It’s clear sometimes the stalkers will teleport to be nearer to you as well, especially when you have done something meant to reveal your location such as trigger a loud trap in trying to complete a puzzle. Once you do get running they provide a decent chase, but it’s quite likely you’ll develop a single safe spot or two where you can shake them every time. Once you find some secret areas later in the game though the stalkers start stepping up their game, such as one who now walks on a grate above you and stabs through and one who fires at you from afar with a nail gun to make the chase harder on your part, but these are handled better since they aren’t using the entire mansion and thus slow travel and available hiding places are better controlled. The game’s short running time also means that the pace isn’t agonizing despite its flaws, so Remothered: Tormented Fathers avoids being a slog because of its mix of being properly concise in some areas and more linear in the sub areas.

THE VERDICT: The horror plot of Remothered: Tormented Fathers has the backbone and startling twists it needs despite its odd performances and somewhat weak narrative. It does its job when it comes to framing the stealth gameplay is the important thing, and sneaking around the Felton estate is an appropriately tense and atmospheric experience, the stalkers out to kill you a threat that will keep you on edge even as some of the game mechanics feel a little flimsy or slow moving. Because the story isn’t all that captivating and the stealth system can be a little rough it can’t quite get a clean recommendation, but it’s a compact horror experience that has quality where it counts if you’re searching for something scary to play in the span of a night.

 

And so, I give Remothered: Tormented Fathers for PlayStation 4…

An OKAY rating. One of the best things I can say about Remothered: Tormented Fathers is that I am interested in playing the sequel, and not in a “maybe they’ll do it better next time” way. The stealth systems, while having a few little snags in how it is executed mechanically, understand how to make the stalkers terrifying and threatening, and the mansion’s shape is well-realized for the task of trying to outmaneuver them. Speeding up the pace of your regular walking feels like it wouldn’t sacrifice this tension at all, and the distraction objects could probably be reworked so that they’re more useful and reliable tools, but your opposition doesn’t feel brainless or too capable. You can avoid trouble but you have to either bolt for your safe spaces or think on your feet to get away safely, the danger palpable because the mirrors are spread out quite well. Had the plot been a bit more involved and delivered better then the gameplay wouldn’t be relied on so heavily for the interesting parts of play, but its swerves and shocking sights still pack enough of a punch that you won’t be bored when the plot reenters the picture.

 

My approach to picking up and playing Remothered: Tormented Fathers with little knowledge of what was in store ended up feeling like plucking a random horror movie off a rental store shelf or clicking on one on a streaming service. It’s not perfectly put together, but it satisfies the reasons you seek out a horror game well enough without overstaying its welcome. It has enough scares and is held together by a plot that adds interesting curveballs, so while it won’t really impress like a finely tuned game or one with a deep plot, it fills the evening you spend with it just fine.