There is so much to explore but you can also roleplay the survivor and not go for all that and it will not give you a crappier ending. Sometimes it’s as simple as explaining why a vending machine is blocking a door, other times delving deep into the inner machinations of this place. It’s there for you to offer more flavour should you so choose to indulge. You never NEED to read the lore to progress, it will just make you understand these people as persons. and what drove these people to be how you see them today.
What is this Wallrider thing? What does Nazi Germany have in common with this institution, what is actually happening in this place and could there be more?! Why did they start this experiments? Through filming certain areas or pieces of dialogue with your camera you can trigger Miles thoughts on the case while throughout the Asylum there are plenty of files to collect giving you insight what is going on here. The overarching story and mythos is quite interesting. In the sewer you will have to crawl through narrow spaces to avoid being caught and thus there is quite a bit of variety as you play. while in the narrow basement area you will need to exploit dark corners and other hiding spots. In the big open wards for example you will have to run and dodge enemies more. It’s an effective method of keeping you engaged in the adventure and each area plays a bit differently than the other.
Finally escaped that monster and you see the door?.Well you are in bad condition so someone manages to overpower you and drag you to their lair where the new expedition starts. and so you manage to get yourself captured into the next stage of your adventure.
However when there it means you are staring at a screen for a bit. During the intro you notice things have gone bad and you want to escape so you’ll have to reach a guard office to open a door so you can bail. The game also does a fine job to keep you “inside” the Asylum or the areas below like it’s sewers. “shit they will find me because I am so out of breath” it’s all ponderings i had with this game. the damage you take while fleeing does not impact the story but still as we make progress rather than getting stronger we get weakened a bit and that is very pleasant way to play trough a horror game. those are the scripted injuries that do that. He gets put trough torture sequences and he never FULLY recovers, he always struggles a bit more with his new injuries weighing against him… that being said. He never says a lot to keep the immersion high, if he has anything to say he writes it in his camera log where you can see him getting angrier but also more scared as you progress in the game. You can sometimes even just hear him swallow as a reaction to his fear as if you are really running yourself. The voice acting of the main character is also done quite amazingly! Miles has trouble breathing when he is scared, he winces in pain if he jumps while injured, his breath becomes more and more loud if he runs for a long time. Looks like the hallways of my flat after midnight! These guys are insane and everything in the game tries to convince you of that and it succeeds well. where the backtracking makes actual sense, and where the status quo can ever shift. they don’t care about escaping, they just want to make sacrifices to their god, the voices in their head or simply because it tickles their funny bone.This weirdly creates a cohesive world. you aren’t sure all the pieces of them are there! Most of the loonies are in some kind of cult, repeating some prayers to something called the Wallrider. Only some employees have the keys.but there is no one to simply call them for you. Which is a great location for more than one reason! Something or someone here killed most of the staff, so moving from A-Block to B-Block or even trying something as simple as an elevator can be quite an arduous task. or shouting to get the bugs out of their head feel genuinely spooky! At several times I felt like I genuinely was navigating through an Asylum. The whispers of the NPC’s just repeat a certain phrase over and over. What this game does really well is build and atmosphere! There is great voice acting from both the NPC’s and the main character. Sounds like God must be an emo-kid in these times then! Surrounded by Madness