Past Cure Review

"This is Past Curable"

Campaign

Past Cure is a game that comes across ambitious, yet fails to execute on that goal. It's a narrative driven experience with cumbersome stealth spots and aspects of horror. It really doesn't make too much sense coming across as disjointed and that's disappointing as there's some real potential here. Past Cure feels like an experience that really doesn't know what it wants to be. One moment it's action packed, the next it's stealth only and then all of a sudden I'm in a survival horror. They actually did a really good job with their dreamscapes, but it all just seems underdeveloped.

There are plot points that don't make sense, random characters that pop in and it feels like they just gave portions of a plot instead of the whole thing. This creates an incomplete feeling once you finish it off while still having some sense of conclusion. There are some neat aspects to the game and they just mostly didn't come together in a cohesive way. You're working as this man that's having an extreme break down of mental psyche. This somehow comes with special powers to manipulate time to some degree. There are other characters that are teased, yet never developed and even close allies don't have much of a role.

Gameplay

I thought the visuals were fine, I didn't even mind some of the repetitive scenes. There was enough variation within the world and they used their selection of enemies well. The ending section did seem a bit overwhelming as the characters lacked variation there though for the most part it was fine. The stealth was damn cumbersome and honestly, they could have went for a more fun style as the AI would instantly know where you are at all times.

This made shooting them faster than attempting any stealth. To follow that, the checkpoints were terrible. The melee battles were fine and the gun based combat was alright. I liked the addition of the powers, though they could have been implemented better. I did come across a number of glitches and sequences where things didn't work as they should have. The puzzles were alright, simple enough that they weren't annoying. The end boss could have used some tuning. A final mention is that I didn't like the widescreen style, seemed odd though I won't add any negatives based on it.
Past Cure Xbox Wallpaper Screenshot

The Conclusion

Past Cure had some great ideas, they just weren't executed in the best of ways. I liked the style of the game, it was dark and had some fun parts. The stealth wasn't good and the narrative wasn't at all cohesive. The horror aspects were cool, but didn't make much sense and that was a theme throughout. I'd actually really like the developers to maybe do a pure horror title, I felt they got the theme there right. It wasn't however integrated well into what was happening. After a full completion I'm not sure what happened, what my goals were or even if I dealt with whatever I was supposed to be tackling.

I think they went for one of those shock type stories where you're not sure what's happening, but it wasn't established enough that I was taken by what was going on. Past Cure definitely had a number of issues including smaller bugs, mix that with cumbersome gameplay and a plot that doesn't make sense for an overall fine package. I'd maybe like to see more from what they set up, but they need to re-work some of the story as it was confusing to the point of coming across as pointless.

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Past Cure Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by ÜberStrategist

Rating Overall: 5.7

Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner