Weak Dreams
Game Info: (Box Display)
- System: PS4, PC, Xbox One
- Publisher: Phantom 8 Studios, Gadgy Games
- Developer: Phantom 8 Studios
- Release Date: Feb 23, 2018
Past Cure is a new IP from developer Phantom 8 Studios. Those who enjoy games with both an interesting story and 3rd person shooting gameplay will possibly enjoy Past Cure. Plus, Past Cure will be releasing at half the price of a normal game. With interesting ideas and a unique premise, Past Cure aims to deliver a fun new title. If you need a title that mirrors games like Max Payne, then you might enjoy Past Cure.
Past Cure is a 3rd person stealth/action hybrid with psychological themes and concepts. Players assume the role of a man who has recently begun to seek answers for what happened to him to give him powers no man or woman should have. Along the way, players will be bombarded with various themes such as human experimentation, psychological hallucinations and tons of movie-like narration. Are you ready to dive into the world of man losing his grasp on reality? Then enter the world of Past Cure.
Ian has found himself in a terrible state. While Ian can harness strange but powerful psychic powers, he equally has no memories of how he obtained these abilities after his military service. However, Ian doesn’t wish to do anything and asks his brother—Marcus—to lend him aid in searching for his past. Ian’s journey into his dark history will lead him to confront secret organizations and medical experiments that may have led to his current state. With time ticking on Ian’s sanity, it’s a race against the clock to find a way to remove these powers and once more become sane.
Several weeks ago, we here at Honey’s Anime got a hold of the demo for Past Cure. Developed by Phantom 8 Studios, Past Cure seemed to be a rather unique take on melding 3rd person gunplay with psychological tension wrapped in a movie-like story. We had some worries about Past Cure after playing the hour or so demo but finally we have gotten our hands on Past Cure’s final product to see if those worries were just us panicking or if they were indeed warning signs. Here is our review of Past Cure for the PS4!
Past Cure has players controlling Ian who is beginning to have side effects after gaining psychic powers from an unknown source. Allying himself with his brother Marcus, Ian begins to look for clues to see if there is a way to regain his mind and remove these strange abilities. This in turn begins the main story of Past Cure by giving it a thriller narrative with moments of drama and psychological themes. Unfortunately, Past Cure has a swarm of problems and they begin with the gameplay.
The main thing players do in Past Cure is sneak around various environments or shoot baddies all while occasionally solving simple puzzles with your psychic abilities. Ian has two main powers: the ability to project his spirit which can possess enemies—specific ones only—to solve clues or to hit switches inaccessible by foot. Ian’s other ability is time manipulation which allows Ian to slow down time—similar to Max Payne—to use in both combat and stealth sequences. Both of these powers are needed for progression in Past Cure but neither of them get enough limelight. Often you’ll find time manipulation to be the go to power and will only ever use projection to bust cameras down—which in turn shocks or stuns guards—or to press buttons. Past Cure could have given players tons of other puzzles to solve with their abilities but in the end these powers feel gimmicky and underutilized.
Another poor element to Past Cure is the actual combat. Players will get a hold of several weapons—machine guns, pistols, desert eagles with sights and a shogun—but all of them handle poorly and usually pistols are the best options thanks to their accuracy. Combat in Past Cure feels terrible with melee being clunky and not smooth—even countering attacks plays this way—making for an overall weak experience. Stealth sections of Past Cure don’t fare much better as often they are repetitive and just annoying with AI being sometimes overly aggressive—they once found us while we were in cover—or so dumb they will see you and then look away.
However, Past Cure’s flaws don’t end with the gameplay itself but also are seen in the level design and graphics. At times Past Cure feels like a horror game and not because of the story but because, of the repetition of environments. The first major mission has players running around in a parking garage for at least 20-30 minutes as it loops with only slight changes in car location and room designs. This applies to all of the several chapters of Past Cure—it’s a short game—as they suffer from bland designs and ho hum graphics. The dream sequences are solid enough with a nice emphasis on being creepy sometimes or just bizarre but in a good way. As we mentioned, graphically Past Cure looks terrible at times and okay at others. Character models can be sometimes okay but often—namely with enemies—lackluster and very weak.
Finally, we wish to talk about Past Cure’s biggest issue and that is the story itself. The writing in Past Cure is pretty lackluster as dialogue feels cheesy at times and underplayed in other moments. The voice acting doesn’t help as it’s usually pretty weak, but we’re not sure if that’s the written dialogue’s issue or if it’s the voice actors. Regardless though, the story isn’t helped with technical issues where subtitles don’t appear but equally things skip around. There were times where a cutscene would end abruptly and the voices would still be talking. Some cutscenes even had odd technical glitches or motions that ruined a moment. Past Cure has an interesting premise but it just doesn’t deliver.
Developer Phantom 8 Studios clearly put time and effort into Past Cure but in the end, it didn’t pan out the way we hoped here at Honey’s Anime. Past Cure has a slew of interesting ideas and gameplay mechanics but ultimately collapses due to weak elements all around. The action is mediocre, the story is pretty weak—as with the writing and voice acting—and even the psychic powers players can utilize in Past Cure aren’t given enough room to shine. However, Past Cure still had some neat ideas with the mixture of using psychological dream sequences and action elements—akin to Max Payne—but these aren’t enough to save Past Cure. Did we hate Past Cure? No, but we suggest thinking long and hard about buying Past Cure even at its budget price of $29.99.
When new game developers create new IPs we here at Honey’s Anime are always ecstatic to try them out. The problem with new IPs in new developer’s hands though is that often ideas—while amazing in conception—tend to play out poorly in execution due to time constraints or lack of funding. Past Cure is definitely a title that with some more time, money and love could have been an excellent 3rd person action title. Unfortunately, we didn’t particularly care for Past Cure and thus we can’t recommend it. What are your thoughts on Past Cure? Will you still buy it and hope for the best or are you going to save your money and wait for a potential sale someday? Let us know via the comments below and for all your gaming reviews and article needs be sure to stick to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.
Hey everyone I’m Aaron Curbelo or Blade as I’m called by my YouTube Subscribers. I’ve been an anime/manga fan since I was a young kid. In terms of anime I have watched nearly a thousand shows and have read hundreds of manga series. I love writing and honestly was so happy to join Honey’s Anime to get a shot to write articles for such a wonderful site. I’m a firm believer in respect in the anime community being the most important embodiment we should all have. We all love anime and we have varying opinions of series but we should respect one another for those differences! Life is too precious to spend it making needless arguments in a community that should be the shining example of loving an amazing medium. I hope as a writer for Honey’s Anime I can bring you folks some amazing articles to read and enjoy!
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