The crazy part about PT being so influential is that it was never a complete game. It was just a demo before the project got tanked, and yet it made such a huge impact.
For better and worse. Some took the ball and kept it rolling, whereas others simply imitated. It's no different than any other subgenre, like survival horror, where there are many imitators and very few innovators. Here's hoping this game goes places.
I think the cancellation is part of the reason for its influence in indie horror. People were clamoring for a new actually spooky game at the time. Silent Hills' PT was a promising looking entry in a beloved franchise that hasn't had a good entry in quite a while, and then everything is ripped away.
@@siegwardinspirit Well it was Hideo Kojima's game where he hired good actors AND his game always have tons of hidden contents along with convoluted albeit amazing story. I am sure his story in PT would've been great but KONAMI corporate didn't see that... Common sense: A guy who made one of their best game and one of the best in gaming history: metal gear solid franchise, if he wants to make any game, let him. But nope! Just fire the guy.
@@mindsoulbody yeah they had lots of very influential creatives on the project. Him, Del Toro and Ito probably would have managed to recapture the feeling of the original trilogy, but who knows. Konami's decision to cancel it after the demo's huge success was bizarre.
I feel you on your Resident Evil vs PT influence take. Resident Evil might have set the gold standard for the time, it was inevitable that people would make games about shooting zombies and monsters with a convoluted and kinda dumb plot. I don't think we would have endless games about walking down a hallway repeatedly without PT.
Protagonist: My wives wedding ring! Oh, Hi Zohan! Oh I love this circus games! Yay a fun house! Also Protagonist: *Absolute silence* during doors being open and closed with unholy light and incredible speed along with things teleporting
Are you sure that was the intent? I just read it as Re - Veil, as in veiling something again, with possible wordplay on "reveal". The only relevant info I can find is that the developer is based in Germany.
Time is our most valuable asset. I have stopped reading books if I don't like the first 30 or 40 pages, and stopped watching shows if I don't get into it within the first three or four episodes, because there is so much else out there I could be putting my time into. What harsher criticism is there than dropping a game completely? I think these games survive and keep spawning by draining the souls and lifeforces from people willing to check them out and praying they aren't Bloober adjacent.
i love when john just does whatever he wants and plays whatever he wants and pronounces things however he wants. because it makes things more realistic and to be frank as a half french woman, i had no clue what upside down triangle letter could be. it could be an o or an inverted delta symbol. of a period oohhh fancy.
i have a strong opinion against grading as someone with a disability; for most of my life i never knew that i had dyscalculia (or that it even existed) and grades are incredibly stressful and its very scarring to not understand why you have more trouble with something and you keep being expected to keep up. i don't think kids should be put thru the grading system honestly... also i agree this game seems pretty boring so far, hopefully it doesn't get worse than this
The game looks great but there's just nothing to do. You walk around listening to a guy talk to himself and get teased by the distant voices of his wife and daughter, play mini games that fall just short of decent, and go through various psychological "horror" tropes. I wouldn't be surprised if our protagonist was a Bad Dad (TM) with a hearty helping of villainized mental illness. I'm 100% invested if only because I have a feeling this is either going to get dramatically worse or dramatically better and catch all of us by surprise
That's why I follow Genuis Krazy Man Kojumbo and all his wacky antics. This is a meme, im talk about Kojima and Kojima productions stuff cause even if you don't like them, they are weird and interesting like P.T. was supposed to bem
@@TheMrrccavahis new game O.D or whatever it's called looks weird and pretentious, atleast the trailer from the game awards does. But damn it if he's not good at capturing our attention. Can't wait to see what that game is all about.
The gameplay itself remains pretty constant all throughout, but the concept becomes way more interesting as the game progresses. (In my opinion) There’s some more cool interactivity coming up but I think people mostly praised the story for how unexpected it gets.
What if the big tweest at the end of this game that has everyone begging John to play it is that it's revealed you've been a horse the whole time, Goosebumps style? "If you go back, you'll notice Walter never actually SAID he was a human, foreshadowing that he was, in fact, a horse! 🤓"
What is with that shit, how can you get footsteps so wrong, I thought at first he had a bucket or something caught beneath his feet, but no, that's the actual footstep sound design, pretty odd.
The problem with games drawing from PT is that the novelty is completely gone and besides that, because it was a demo, it was meant to be short, punchy, give you the bullet points for a full concept that never ultimately got released, so even its worth as a demo (to tantalize a larger game) never got to be tested for its actual purpose. Its brevity made it good, it conveyed the ideas it wanted to introduce you to something larger without having to delve too far and even if could be heavy-handed in presentation, it didn't matter because those sins are forgiven (as it's a demo). When a game tries to take a demo concept and execution and stretch it out into an entire game, unless the writing is fantastic, conveying the story no longer becomes a slow-burn story that's fed to you clue by clue and leaves you ever-wanting more because you're compelled by the story. The pacing becomes plodding with sections that stretch on for eons or goes by so fast it feels like a Mario Party minigame. And it doesn't give the weight and nuance to the "dad bad, family dead" story it usually presents. The only exception that comes to mind is Devotion, but that was clearly a labor of love with tons of historical and cultural research.
@@UniversalControl-13 Yep, and it's such a shame that's gone, but things from Bloober team that're basically rip offs are kept and lauded online. Devotion did it right, with a nice balance of gameplay and story. It wasn't afraid to make it a bit weird and ambiguous and despite how heavily-rooted it is in a specific time and culture, it spoke universally about a lot of issues people felt reflected in their personal lives and the darkness that comes with it.
@@ellyqueen296 That's good to hear. The game was a labor of love seeing how much effort and plus it was has some Taiwan culture. Very different style from "Detention" for sure but at the very least the theme is on point.
Looked it up in case anyone cares. Réveil is french for "awakening" or "alarm clock". So either this game is about something waking up, or the inner workings of alarm clocks. 😉
@@brendonflores5361 Wrong on all three, actually. SPOILERTOWN AHEAD --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- __ __ Circus never existed people that died weren't real dad was brainwashed and then gaslighted
I don't hate games like this, but knowing that you're not having any fun while playing is unfair to you and makes me sad. I know my comment is just a drop in the bucket, but I hope you can feel empowered to drop this game if it's totally draining you!
"It's everything I expected and nothing I wanted". It's really remarkable how fast this falls into all the most boring and overused indie psychological horror clichés. There's no buildup at all, no normalcy to break from, no sense of pacing. We're just a mysteriously troubled dad with a broken family and conspicuous amnesia getting Bloobered in a surreal funhouse with red fog lights pretty much right out of the gate, all voiced by the most bored VA of all time, chasing our mysterious troubled daughter, who makes ominous crayon drawings and talks like a 27 year old woman. We've seen all this before, over and over and over. The straight-from-PT hallway, complete with the same exact bend and door placement, is downright uncanny. Just wanted to say I've been really enjoying all the variety content, both long and short form, and I'm sorry you got dragged into another Bad Dad Simulator.
With regards to the education system, i get what John is saying. In south African schools you need a score of only 33% to pass. And we are suffering as a country due to how low our standards are.
God yeah when you mentioned the Adventures of Mark Twain I immediately knew what you were talking about. A completely out of nowhere scene with "Satan" who just is like, creepy about claymation people. its wild lol.
(At 13 mins) The exams in different countries are more difficult than the ones in America. However, their grading systems are not the same as America’s grading system. So, 59 in one countries can equal an C in America. For example, in Japan, an 80% is a A, while in America 92-100% is A. America does offer easier tests than any other country. In a documentary I watched for a comparative education. In a documentary I watched for a comparative education course, students from America, China, and India were interviewed about their different schooling experiences. While the high school students in India were studying physics (which is basically college physics in America), the students in America were either hanging out friends, working, or doing sports. However, this is because America holds different education values than other countries. I’ve been dying to finally use this information. I wanna make sure I’m getting my money’s worth from my courses😂
The Asian education system can also be extremely brutal on mental and psychological health. It contributes to a lot of self-esteem and self-worth issues, and people are basically pushed into a rat race very early in their lives. Suicides from stress or shame are also not unheard of. As an Asian, as easy-going as the American education system is in comparison, I'm really grateful I didn't have to study in Asia. I saw my cousins and some friends stress and suffer over whether or not they'd make A's, and they were often pulling all-nighters throughout middle and high school for basic studying, not even including finals or exams.
I know psych horror isn't John's favourite genre anyway, but there's so much work clearly put into this game - nice visuals, extensive voice acting, cool little moments like seeing his daughter and chasing her - this could have been great. They're doing themselves a huge disservice by halfassing the storytelling - not everything needs to be Layers of Fear. Make the Protagonist more human and less of a walking exposition - have him interact with someone in a likable way. And add small, easy to miss but unsettling things from earlier on so there's an element of suspense / sense of danger.
I didn’t know high schools even had a 7-point grading scale. Back when I was in school (almost 10 years ago) we had the regular 10-point grading scale.
Which means none of you experienced a switch to 5 point nonsense. Where you get 4.8, start to freak out, and then realize it's actually 9.6. Almost gave me a heart attack.
I don't understand American systems, being a Brit, but it makes sense why you're so stressed all the time if 70+ is E upwards. The way I understood it was 30-39 or below - F 40-49 - E 50-65 - D 66-80 - C 81- 90 - B 91+ - A. I dunno what our schools actually used, not being a higher level student (it's been a decade since I was last in school, I forget what it's called where you can do A-Levels and actually achieve As) I couldn't get anything higher than a B in my highest score and that was for English Literature. Everything else was C/D.
i feel called out for having empty pill bottles strewn around my entire house now. listen, guys, i'm just lazy i'm not a protag of a psychological horror. sure half of them are Prozac, antibiotics and allergy meds, but i am fine.. XD
John how about you do a video reaction on fonts? or a tier list? a tier list would go well with the Think Critically moto. If you guys think this is a good idea, like and comment so that John sees it.
So happy you're playing this I'm excited to hear what you think at the end. If you haven't finished the game yet my only advice is to continue reading everything and I do mean everything especially as you get toward the last episode I promise it will suprise you!!
I just kept waiting for it to get better but it never did 😭. The movement feels weird too. Im wondering why this was so hyped, It seems like such a slog to play. I wouldn't blame you for not playing the rest. At least we got still wake the deep, that was amazing.
I agree with your Ending thoughts its been a rebranding of a game we seen before also the movements are making me have a headache to ( not your fault ) just game mechanics
I'm about at the halfway mark and I love that Walter is just having the time of his life so far. He's like hoo boy what a dream amirite? Oh look darts!
John's excitement when he thought of "finding Dorie" lol. I do enjoy the circus level backdrop and little circus games you can play, those things are neat, but yeah otherwise it's just very much a psychological horror game. Not BAD, and some of the visuals are cool as you go through the funhouse, but so far in terms of horror and the loop it's like many other games out there. Maybe it does something else really cool though, we'll see!
I started laughing so much when i saw the video title! Half an hour into the video, i looked at the title again to remind myself what you were playing, and started laughing again 😂 That's too funny, even if i dont remember exactly from which game that was. I agree these games make it feel as if youve been going at it longer than you actually are. I thought this vid was 2 and a half hours long when you were already sharing your thoughts about it. I still like your playthrough! Would watch more of this. (Lowkey wish the MC didnt talk as much so that you'd have more chances to say remarks here and there hehe)
I had to look it up because I've never played this one so I didn't recognize it but it's apparently from Silent Hill 1 if that helps 😂 Harry talking about Cheryl, I guess
I definitely get what you're saying about these types of psychological horror games. For me, it's just, I don't know, nobody would act like this? I want them to panic, crawl away in fear, say, "I'm not going in there!" and then don't, or even just try to reconnect with reality-something! Give me some indication that you're a human with any real emotions or reactions. Do everything right and still have your mind torture you with failure. But this unwitting, dream-hazy character is actually aggravating to experience since it's so hollow. Still, Wakes the Deep did a great job of feeling human, even if sometimes it came off a bit cheesy. I wish more time would be spent asking, "What would I honestly do/say if this crazy shit started happening?" That's my penny to throw, anyway. I'll still stick around to support the playthrough though ✌️
Hey John. Just finished watching - and your take on things make perfect sense to me. I'm just kind of confused by the game so far... like there's no "oomph" to it - just feeling somewhat hollow, which is a shame. So you feeling bored with the game already is almost a given - you're an hour in, and you have walked around and completed a few mini games and some story "puzzles". I will be watching the next part, and I just hope that something more interesting happens, because as of right now, this brings nothing new or exciting to the table, I feel like.
I never had an issue with FOV until I played The Witness. Then I understood completely. That game triggered my migraines and vertigo really badly, I could only play it for 30 minutes at a time and never finished it despite really loving puzzle games.
John, I teach high school in the states and my county just made the change to a new grading scale that allows students to pass a class with a D if they earn a .5 average (on a 4.0 scale). This means students can completely fail 3 quarters and earn a C during a single quarter and still pass the entire class.
I don't think you'd be blamed for just dropping the rest of this playthrough. The game looks impressive but its dull and lazy with its storytelling, just makes all the "scary" moments fall completely flat. Loved you're recent playthrough of still wakes the deep!
Please believe me when I tell you that this game is so worth playing to completion! There are some really great and unexpected moments that I think you'll enjoy, especially towards the later half.
I feel PT had such an impact on horror games due to its status as practically lost media since Konami wiped it off the PS Store making it completely inaccessible to legitimate users. It makes it a "you just had to be there" moment in time that cements its cult status, and its up to those who experienced it firsthand (or secondhand) to continue its legacy via memes in its literal definition (an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture) - thus resulting in the many games that vehemently copy PT's themes. Even though a majority of them are slop, they are memetic slop.
Zohan’s tip was just to play the game since it’s rounded. Play it, get token, open door. It seemed like a little “get item” quest just to make you Explore
I was looking at that bike game you were playing so intently it made my eyes go funny, like when you stare at a waterfall then you look at something still 😂…. It was funny when you were chasing Dorie, your dad was showing 😂
So! I apologize in advance for my level of English... ! I'm French and although I understand English, I write and speak it very badly... Indeed, as you said at the beginning of the video, the word “réveil” is the French translation of the word “awakening”. Do what you want with this information :D I rarely leave comments under your videos, so I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you for all these years on TH-cam!
74 was F when I was in grade school. So you needed 75 min to pass. When I graudated high-school they had dropped it to 65 and the year after 60. Wonder why we have the orange-menace around?
'Are we, FINDING DORY?' BOOOOOOO! Also, lol, tell us you're a dad without telling us you're a dad. I think I saw IGP play this not too long back and, if it is that game, the audio at the end was kind of brutal. It could've been how he had the settings, but man it gets loud and constant. OK game though. Is PT thst influential? All I really remember about the game was the compilations of people playing it and screaming in terror. I'm not a massive horror fan, so I'm genuinely wondering was it that influential. I remember people liking it because it released at a time when RE had gone more action heavy and there'd been a few flops and the horror genre seemed to be struggling, so was it really THAT good, or was it partly that it was good, and partly people were ready for something to actually be worthy of being called a 'horror game'?
Horribly influential. The amount of games that literally use that same hallway is nauseating. Then just so many aspects of the game play were repeated over and over again in a ton of indy horror since. To the point where it's predictable and boring. This game, imo, takes that and subverts that expectation. It's worth sticking through.
P.T. was a genuinely great game with novel concepts at the time it was released and led up to genuinely good scares. It was also a teaser for what was going to be the next installment in the Silent Hills series. People were hella excited for the full game (which was going to be directed by both Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro), and the fact that people are _still_ angry and disappointed at Konami for cancelling the game tells you how much of an impact it had on audiences. Soooo many indie horror devs since then have taken aspects from P.T. and released their own games, and some of these devs got their big break from their P.T. clones (like Bloober Team for making "Layers of Fear", and have been given the reigns to develop the Silent Hills 2 remake). Even big names like Capcom took some influence from it for Resident Evil 7.
I've seen another playthru of this, took me a few minutes to realize it! I'm really interested to see what you ended up thinking about the plot, since it doesn't go in the usual expected direction of these sorts of premises. that doesn't mean it's *good* necessarily lol but I do at least give it credit for being more than a "bad dad" game
I feel bad, because my enjoyment of these walkthrough first-person types is super reliant on how well it’s voice-acted or how the dialogue is written… and the voices in this one are grinding me down 😭 I esp can’t stand weird cutesy child voices that the adult actors default to. Takes me tf out!
This game looks boring as hell, man. Good on you for sticking with a game to the end but damn. Thanks for the video regardless, always happy to have a new John Wolfe video to watch!
The only thing I like better than watching John play a good game is watching him play a bad game. Can't wait to see how this generic mess turns out. Hahahaha. Sorry it drains you, John.
1 minute into the game, 3 minutes into the video which I skipped forward and: wakes from a dream - "my head hurts, I need to get this headache under control" 1 word for ya - SOMA!
in england, you could probably still pass with 59% on an A-Level exam however just because you passed doesnt mean that youll get all the benefits a person with A's would get, also i guess it really depends on the difficulty of the exams too, i may be wrong but im fairly sure exams here are harder than in the US
I knew I recognized the name of the game's publisher from somewhere, so I looked up their other games: imagine my shock and horror upon finding the Gollum game in their library 😬 It's weird, too, because almost all of their other games have pretty positive reviews! Crazy
As soon as the game started with the look for you daughter thing I knew this would be something John wouldn't be into, the same mundane shit he's played a bunch of times
Maybe they can switch it up in games next time. Happy family gets caught in Silent Hill like place, parents disappear and the son is the one who searches for them. Or maybe a grandfather loses his fishing buddies while on a fishing trips and collects old men throughout his search. Or a woman divorced from a Lovecraftian entity loses her son while visiting his father when another rival entity steals him and she comes in guns blazing for her son. 😂😂😂
@@samwisegamgee1243 that's how media works, nothing we make is ever truly original because we as humans lack the capacity to come up with new concepts. It's still more interesting and original than other indie horror games and should imo get some recognition for doing something bold PT heads might not appreciate.
I completely agree with all your complaints at the end there tbh. I personally have no interest in playing these types of games, and more often than not I struggle to stay engaged with let's plays of these types of games too. Not because I think the commentary or anything like that from the content creators is boring, the games themselves are just horrendously boring. PT was an interesting demo, and fun when it was new, but I personally never understood why everything in indie horror has to be the next PT Bad Dad game now. It's a boring and predictable plot, and none of these games ever do anything unique. I do like the circus theme of this one, though. It is an interesting background for the characters, and it's nice not to have to just perpetually wander around a trashed house for notes the entire time. Although notes are still the main storyteller, which is disappointing. I don't see the point of giving the main character a voice if notes are going to be used to tell the plot. So beyond the theme, there's nothing else I'm enjoying about the game. I don't know, this just isn't for me. I'd much rather watch you play 5 hours of Elden Ring rather than 5 more minutes of this. However, I will watch the other parts of this just to see your reaction and if there will be a surprising twist at the end. Thank you for the video!!
![Womp womp... [REVEIL - Part 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FAxvwkKs5Sg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Womp womp... [REVEIL - Part 2]](/img/tr.png)
![Is this horror game of the year 2024? [Crow Country - Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EIvXmZOu8e4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Finally playing the watch tower home invasion game [Fears to Fathom - Ironbark Lookout]](/img/n.gif)
The crazy part about PT being so influential is that it was never a complete game. It was just a demo before the project got tanked, and yet it made such a huge impact.
PT was finished as is.
For better and worse. Some took the ball and kept it rolling, whereas others simply imitated. It's no different than any other subgenre, like survival horror, where there are many imitators and very few innovators.
Here's hoping this game goes places.
I think the cancellation is part of the reason for its influence in indie horror.
People were clamoring for a new actually spooky game at the time. Silent Hills' PT was a promising looking entry in a beloved franchise that hasn't had a good entry in quite a while, and then everything is ripped away.
@@siegwardinspirit Well it was Hideo Kojima's game where he hired good actors AND his game always have tons of hidden contents along with convoluted albeit amazing story. I am sure his story in PT would've been great but KONAMI corporate didn't see that...
Common sense: A guy who made one of their best game and one of the best in gaming history: metal gear solid franchise, if he wants to make any game, let him. But nope! Just fire the guy.
@@mindsoulbody yeah they had lots of very influential creatives on the project. Him, Del Toro and Ito probably would have managed to recapture the feeling of the original trilogy, but who knows. Konami's decision to cancel it after the demo's huge success was bizarre.
I always love a Font John appearance
I feel you on your Resident Evil vs PT influence take. Resident Evil might have set the gold standard for the time, it was inevitable that people would make games about shooting zombies and monsters with a convoluted and kinda dumb plot. I don't think we would have endless games about walking down a hallway repeatedly without PT.
Yeah exactly! I was too concentrated on the game at the time to elaborate on the point, but you verbalized it
I agree too
Medication.
Notes.
Missing family.
Swinging lights.
Radios and phones.
It's not looking good, guys.
I wish one time in a game it would be “I have to take my pills…” but it just ends up being like medicine for indigestion or something.
Or just the daily birth control you've been taking for a decade.
1:47 - Oh! Our very first "red means scary, y'all" in so very long! How I missed it, John.
there was one in the still wakes the deep playthrough
Pink is "Watch out! Scary up ahead." and red is "The scary is here now."
Signs that your indie horror game didn't land quite right: "this reminds me of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode..."
I'll never get tired of John's criticism's towards indie horror games.
Protagonist: My wives wedding ring! Oh, Hi Zohan! Oh I love this circus games! Yay a fun house!
Also Protagonist: *Absolute silence* during doors being open and closed with unholy light and incredible speed along with things teleporting
It's a French word for "to awake" - Pronounced rave-ey (as in the end of "hey")!
Love to see more horror games playthroughs!
It also means to cover with a veil.
Thank you!
I was about to write the definition. lol thanks!
Are you sure that was the intent? I just read it as Re - Veil, as in veiling something again, with possible wordplay on "reveal". The only relevant info I can find is that the developer is based in Germany.
Walter reacting to jump scares and John just like .. "pathetic" is peak
@@pwnagecakes8934 also Walter panicking and hollering, "Wake me up!" and John just monotonously being like, "Yes, please do". 🤣
Time is our most valuable asset. I have stopped reading books if I don't like the first 30 or 40 pages, and stopped watching shows if I don't get into it within the first three or four episodes, because there is so much else out there I could be putting my time into. What harsher criticism is there than dropping a game completely? I think these games survive and keep spawning by draining the souls and lifeforces from people willing to check them out and praying they aren't Bloober adjacent.
i love when john just does whatever he wants and plays whatever he wants and pronounces things however he wants. because it makes things more realistic and to be frank as a half french woman, i had no clue what upside down triangle letter could be. it could be an o or an inverted delta symbol. of a period oohhh fancy.
i have a strong opinion against grading as someone with a disability; for most of my life i never knew that i had dyscalculia (or that it even existed) and grades are incredibly stressful and its very scarring to not understand why you have more trouble with something and you keep being expected to keep up. i don't think kids should be put thru the grading system honestly...
also i agree this game seems pretty boring so far, hopefully it doesn't get worse than this
"cheryl, is that you?" woops sorry, wrong missing daughter game
The game looks great but there's just nothing to do. You walk around listening to a guy talk to himself and get teased by the distant voices of his wife and daughter, play mini games that fall just short of decent, and go through various psychological "horror" tropes. I wouldn't be surprised if our protagonist was a Bad Dad (TM) with a hearty helping of villainized mental illness. I'm 100% invested if only because I have a feeling this is either going to get dramatically worse or dramatically better and catch all of us by surprise
PT still lives in my head rent free after all these years. Still not over Silent Hills being cancelled! 😭
That's why I follow Genuis Krazy Man Kojumbo and all his wacky antics.
This is a meme, im talk about Kojima and Kojima productions stuff cause even if you don't like them, they are weird and interesting like P.T. was supposed to bem
That's such a great sadness that I try not to think about it 😩
@@TheMrrccavahis new game O.D or whatever it's called looks weird and pretentious, atleast the trailer from the game awards does. But damn it if he's not good at capturing our attention. Can't wait to see what that game is all about.
The gameplay itself remains pretty constant all throughout, but the concept becomes way more interesting as the game progresses. (In my opinion) There’s some more cool interactivity coming up but I think people mostly praised the story for how unexpected it gets.
yes! ive watched a different playthrough and it at least visually it gets really creative
The footsteps sound like a horse's when you sprint.
Or like he’s wearing huge clompy shoes it’s annoying.
What if the big tweest at the end of this game that has everyone begging John to play it is that it's revealed you've been a horse the whole time, Goosebumps style? "If you go back, you'll notice Walter never actually SAID he was a human, foreshadowing that he was, in fact, a horse! 🤓"
What is with that shit, how can you get footsteps so wrong, I thought at first he had a bucket or something caught beneath his feet, but no, that's the actual footstep sound design, pretty odd.
The problem with games drawing from PT is that the novelty is completely gone and besides that, because it was a demo, it was meant to be short, punchy, give you the bullet points for a full concept that never ultimately got released, so even its worth as a demo (to tantalize a larger game) never got to be tested for its actual purpose. Its brevity made it good, it conveyed the ideas it wanted to introduce you to something larger without having to delve too far and even if could be heavy-handed in presentation, it didn't matter because those sins are forgiven (as it's a demo). When a game tries to take a demo concept and execution and stretch it out into an entire game, unless the writing is fantastic, conveying the story no longer becomes a slow-burn story that's fed to you clue by clue and leaves you ever-wanting more because you're compelled by the story. The pacing becomes plodding with sections that stretch on for eons or goes by so fast it feels like a Mario Party minigame. And it doesn't give the weight and nuance to the "dad bad, family dead" story it usually presents. The only exception that comes to mind is Devotion, but that was clearly a labor of love with tons of historical and cultural research.
Devotion is unfortunately gone I think from Steam. At least archive of Let's Player we can still watch
@@UniversalControl-13 Yep, and it's such a shame that's gone, but things from Bloober team that're basically rip offs are kept and lauded online. Devotion did it right, with a nice balance of gameplay and story. It wasn't afraid to make it a bit weird and ambiguous and despite how heavily-rooted it is in a specific time and culture, it spoke universally about a lot of issues people felt reflected in their personal lives and the darkness that comes with it.
@@UniversalControl-13 Devotion can be bought from the developers online, last time I heard. It's not dead.
Reveil is not PT clone, it has reasons behind the seeming resemblance.
@@ellyqueen296 That's good to hear. The game was a labor of love seeing how much effort and plus it was has some Taiwan culture. Very different style from "Detention" for sure but at the very least the theme is on point.
Looked it up in case anyone cares. Réveil is french for "awakening" or "alarm clock". So either this game is about something waking up, or the inner workings of alarm clocks. 😉
First 3 mins of the game trying to make me deaf and blind 😂 Ty for another fantastic video John! ❤
I'm only 11 minutes in, but I'm calling it now that this game is about how Dorie's parents pushed her too far
Knowing these kind of games, the circus probably caught fire, people died and the dad (because you play as him) was an asshole or something.
@@brendonflores5361ahh the cheap PT-imitations' favorite formula.
@@brendonflores5361 Wrong on all three, actually.
SPOILERTOWN AHEAD
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Circus never existed
people that died weren't real
dad was brainwashed and then gaslighted
@@ellyqueen296 welp just reading your spoiler without playing or watching it... seems pretty meh
Slight spoilers but the game is more than it seems in the final act XD
I love your sarcastic, clever comments! Thanks for sharing.
I don't hate games like this, but knowing that you're not having any fun while playing is unfair to you and makes me sad. I know my comment is just a drop in the bucket, but I hope you can feel empowered to drop this game if it's totally draining you!
"It's everything I expected and nothing I wanted".
It's really remarkable how fast this falls into all the most boring and overused indie psychological horror clichés. There's no buildup at all, no normalcy to break from, no sense of pacing. We're just a mysteriously troubled dad with a broken family and conspicuous amnesia getting Bloobered in a surreal funhouse with red fog lights pretty much right out of the gate, all voiced by the most bored VA of all time, chasing our mysterious troubled daughter, who makes ominous crayon drawings and talks like a 27 year old woman.
We've seen all this before, over and over and over. The straight-from-PT hallway, complete with the same exact bend and door placement, is downright uncanny.
Just wanted to say I've been really enjoying all the variety content, both long and short form, and I'm sorry you got dragged into another Bad Dad Simulator.
@@GolemCC "like a 27 year old woman" 🤣
With regards to the education system, i get what John is saying. In south African schools you need a score of only 33% to pass. And we are suffering as a country due to how low our standards are.
It gets better as the story unravels!
No it doesn’t
@@Laney.R00 Well, it did for me, when I got to the end. Though I must admit, it got to X-Files level of ridiculous, but that's why I liked it.
I'm with ya, something about the FOV and movement in this game makes me feel icky sicky
Was literally just scrolling to see if anyone else was getting kind of motion-sick from this game. Same boat! :(
Me too and i don't even get motion sickness!
Postwatch: Thank you for giving this a shot. Hope you see this to the end! If not, I'm sure I'll also enjoy the next game you upload.
Thanks John!!
God yeah when you mentioned the Adventures of Mark Twain I immediately knew what you were talking about. A completely out of nowhere scene with "Satan" who just is like, creepy about claymation people. its wild lol.
I love when John talks about fonts, it tickles my brain just right ❤❤ 10:42
(At 13 mins) The exams in different countries are more difficult than the ones in America. However, their grading systems are not the same as America’s grading system. So, 59 in one countries can equal an C in America. For example, in Japan, an 80% is a A, while in America 92-100% is A. America does offer easier tests than any other country. In a documentary I watched for a comparative education. In a documentary I watched for a comparative education course, students from America, China, and India were interviewed about their different schooling experiences. While the high school students in India were studying physics (which is basically college physics in America), the students in America were either hanging out friends, working, or doing sports. However, this is because America holds different education values than other countries.
I’ve been dying to finally use this information. I wanna make sure I’m getting my money’s worth from my courses😂
I appreciate this information 🙏🏽👍🏽
The Asian education system can also be extremely brutal on mental and psychological health. It contributes to a lot of self-esteem and self-worth issues, and people are basically pushed into a rat race very early in their lives. Suicides from stress or shame are also not unheard of.
As an Asian, as easy-going as the American education system is in comparison, I'm really grateful I didn't have to study in Asia. I saw my cousins and some friends stress and suffer over whether or not they'd make A's, and they were often pulling all-nighters throughout middle and high school for basic studying, not even including finals or exams.
"69 was a fail" -John Wolfe
Never a fail in my book
nice
I know psych horror isn't John's favourite genre anyway, but there's so much work clearly put into this game - nice visuals, extensive voice acting, cool little moments like seeing his daughter and chasing her - this could have been great. They're doing themselves a huge disservice by halfassing the storytelling - not everything needs to be Layers of Fear. Make the Protagonist more human and less of a walking exposition - have him interact with someone in a likable way. And add small, easy to miss but unsettling things from earlier on so there's an element of suspense / sense of danger.
I had that same 7-point grading scale in HS. Was shocked when my coworker told me that her kids are on a 10-point now.
Ours switched over from 10 to 7 when I went into high school. I was so mad lol
I didn’t know high schools even had a 7-point grading scale. Back when I was in school (almost 10 years ago) we had the regular 10-point grading scale.
Which means none of you experienced a switch to 5 point nonsense. Where you get 4.8, start to freak out, and then realize it's actually 9.6. Almost gave me a heart attack.
I don't understand American systems, being a Brit, but it makes sense why you're so stressed all the time if 70+ is E upwards.
The way I understood it was 30-39 or below - F
40-49 - E
50-65 - D
66-80 - C
81- 90 - B
91+ - A.
I dunno what our schools actually used, not being a higher level student (it's been a decade since I was last in school, I forget what it's called where you can do A-Levels and actually achieve As) I couldn't get anything higher than a B in my highest score and that was for English Literature. Everything else was C/D.
i feel called out for having empty pill bottles strewn around my entire house now. listen, guys, i'm just lazy i'm not a protag of a psychological horror. sure half of them are Prozac, antibiotics and allergy meds, but i am fine.. XD
Right there with you lol
Same, mine are transplant and blood pressure meds. My life-based video game is more likely to be an endless cleaning simulator than a psych horror lol
@@tropezando yeah but see why clean when you can just meh
John how about you do a video reaction on fonts? or a tier list? a tier list would go well with the Think Critically moto.
If you guys think this is a good idea, like and comment so that John sees it.
So happy you're playing this I'm excited to hear what you think at the end. If you haven't finished the game yet my only advice is to continue reading everything and I do mean everything especially as you get toward the last episode
I promise it will suprise you!!
It was like "The Adventures of Mark Twain" It was pretty creepy. The claymation was awesome, yet disturbing.
I just kept waiting for it to get better but it never did 😭. The movement feels weird too. Im wondering why this was so hyped, It seems like such a slog to play.
I wouldn't blame you for not playing the rest.
At least we got still wake the deep, that was amazing.
Our schools used the exactly the same grading system, it was a private religious school I hated every second of it. Thanks for the video!
I agree with your
Ending thoughts its been a rebranding of a game we seen before also the movements are making me have a headache to ( not your fault ) just game mechanics
He hasn’t got to the twist yet
I got a headache watching too. Wish I had time for a nap lol
@@slim.quaidy I just woke up from a nap lol 😂
@@jdphillips7539I think he got the twist in ths first 5 minutes lol
@@jdphillips7539the game sucks lmao
I really like seeing how differently John reacts to stuff now that he’s a father! Really shows how perspectives change as we do.
these type of games make me so sleepy too i can't stand them i could get through it because of your commentary though
Your face after making the Finding Dory joke lmao.
Adventures of Mark Twain. Where the kids meet Satan?
Yes, that one. I saw the whole puppet show stage version once. it was gorgeous, no clip can compare.
Fun haven't heard of this! Hopefully it will be awesome for you to play and that you enjoy it too!
Thank you! You rock John 😊😊😊😊😊
OMG guys, can you believe John doesn’t know how to pronounce the name of the game? How embarrassing!
It's so pathetic! How does he consider himself a REAL GAMER? 🙄🙄 in this economy!?
@@yikesyourchunkyhostilityha2321 This must be raised at the next shareholder meeting!
Everyone, quick, point and laugh, point and laugh!!! 🤓
Right? I've already informed the police.
Blunder of epic proportions!
All the indie horror fans are frothing at the mouth rn
This is a golden era
I'm about at the halfway mark and I love that Walter is just having the time of his life so far. He's like hoo boy what a dream amirite? Oh look darts!
John's excitement when he thought of "finding Dorie" lol. I do enjoy the circus level backdrop and little circus games you can play, those things are neat, but yeah otherwise it's just very much a psychological horror game. Not BAD, and some of the visuals are cool as you go through the funhouse, but so far in terms of horror and the loop it's like many other games out there. Maybe it does something else really cool though, we'll see!
I love John playing new horror games ❤
I just realized that I can listen to John talk about the consistency of poop for hours.
bruh, it's clearly re-triangle-eil
5/10 is pretty generous I would say...) well at least John can mock this game finally after so many good games😂
I've watched the full play through of this game when it came out, and it's like a fever dream from hell, but it's so good.
I started laughing so much when i saw the video title! Half an hour into the video, i looked at the title again to remind myself what you were playing, and started laughing again 😂 That's too funny, even if i dont remember exactly from which game that was.
I agree these games make it feel as if youve been going at it longer than you actually are. I thought this vid was 2 and a half hours long when you were already sharing your thoughts about it. I still like your playthrough! Would watch more of this. (Lowkey wish the MC didnt talk as much so that you'd have more chances to say remarks here and there hehe)
I had to look it up because I've never played this one so I didn't recognize it but it's apparently from Silent Hill 1 if that helps 😂 Harry talking about Cheryl, I guess
I definitely get what you're saying about these types of psychological horror games. For me, it's just, I don't know, nobody would act like this?
I want them to panic, crawl away in fear, say, "I'm not going in there!" and then don't, or even just try to reconnect with reality-something! Give me some indication that you're a human with any real emotions or reactions.
Do everything right and still have your mind torture you with failure. But this unwitting, dream-hazy character is actually aggravating to experience since it's so hollow. Still, Wakes the Deep did a great job of feeling human, even if sometimes it came off a bit cheesy. I wish more time would be spent asking, "What would I honestly do/say if this crazy shit started happening?"
That's my penny to throw, anyway. I'll still stick around to support the playthrough though ✌️
Hey John.
Just finished watching - and your take on things make perfect sense to me.
I'm just kind of confused by the game so far... like there's no "oomph" to it - just feeling somewhat hollow, which is a shame.
So you feeling bored with the game already is almost a given - you're an hour in, and you have walked around and completed a few mini games and some story "puzzles".
I will be watching the next part, and I just hope that something more interesting happens, because as of right now, this brings nothing new or exciting to the table, I feel like.
It feels like a slog
I never had an issue with FOV until I played The Witness. Then I understood completely. That game triggered my migraines and vertigo really badly, I could only play it for 30 minutes at a time and never finished it despite really loving puzzle games.
John, I teach high school in the states and my county just made the change to a new grading scale that allows students to pass a class with a D if they earn a .5 average (on a 4.0 scale). This means students can completely fail 3 quarters and earn a C during a single quarter and still pass the entire class.
Everyone keeps saying “wait for it” but like… it’s draining to watch and looks draining to play!!! John I don’t blame you for dropping it
I don't think you'd be blamed for just dropping the rest of this playthrough. The game looks impressive but its dull and lazy with its storytelling, just makes all the "scary" moments fall completely flat.
Loved you're recent playthrough of still wakes the deep!
Please believe me when I tell you that this game is so worth playing to completion! There are some really great and unexpected moments that I think you'll enjoy, especially towards the later half.
I feel PT had such an impact on horror games due to its status as practically lost media since Konami wiped it off the PS Store making it completely inaccessible to legitimate users. It makes it a "you just had to be there" moment in time that cements its cult status, and its up to those who experienced it firsthand (or secondhand) to continue its legacy via memes in its literal definition (an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture) - thus resulting in the many games that vehemently copy PT's themes. Even though a majority of them are slop, they are memetic slop.
Let’s be real, how many were waiting for John to make the “Finding Dory” joke lol. I finally died when he said it. 😅
Desk at the end of the hallway Instant PT flashback. I agree
Zohan’s tip was just to play the game since it’s rounded. Play it, get token, open door. It seemed like a little “get item” quest just to make you
Explore
Loving the playthrough, just hang in there, John. I think you will like this as it continues. I'm looking forward to part 2. Maybe take a nap now..😂.
I was looking at that bike game you were playing so intently it made my eyes go funny, like when you stare at a waterfall then you look at something still 😂…. It was funny when you were chasing Dorie, your dad was showing 😂
So! I apologize in advance for my level of English... ! I'm French and although I understand English, I write and speak it very badly...
Indeed, as you said at the beginning of the video, the word “réveil” is the French translation of the word “awakening”. Do what you want with this information :D
I rarely leave comments under your videos, so I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you for all these years on TH-cam!
I love when we get Typeface critic John.
Prewatch: Soooo excited!! Chris's playthrough was great! Can't remember if Gab played.
Postwatch comment in an hour.
Spoiler Gab did play 😄
Keep going it's a good game, i promise.
Sincerely,
Evil ❤
Except it isnt
@@Laney.R00shhh trying to be evil here 👀
74 was F when I was in grade school. So you needed 75 min to pass. When I graudated high-school they had dropped it to 65 and the year after 60. Wonder why we have the orange-menace around?
3 mins in, game does a symbolism montage into a load screen. I'm like, 'How exciting', and then John says the same thing :)
I agree with everything you said about the game. And I can say watching it is still draining haha. The only redeeming thing is you playing it
I fell asleep midway through and had to rewind.. sorry Reveil xD
'Are we, FINDING DORY?' BOOOOOOO! Also, lol, tell us you're a dad without telling us you're a dad. I think I saw IGP play this not too long back and, if it is that game, the audio at the end was kind of brutal. It could've been how he had the settings, but man it gets loud and constant. OK game though.
Is PT thst influential? All I really remember about the game was the compilations of people playing it and screaming in terror. I'm not a massive horror fan, so I'm genuinely wondering was it that influential. I remember people liking it because it released at a time when RE had gone more action heavy and there'd been a few flops and the horror genre seemed to be struggling, so was it really THAT good, or was it partly that it was good, and partly people were ready for something to actually be worthy of being called a 'horror game'?
Horribly influential. The amount of games that literally use that same hallway is nauseating. Then just so many aspects of the game play were repeated over and over again in a ton of indy horror since. To the point where it's predictable and boring. This game, imo, takes that and subverts that expectation. It's worth sticking through.
P.T. was a genuinely great game with novel concepts at the time it was released and led up to genuinely good scares. It was also a teaser for what was going to be the next installment in the Silent Hills series. People were hella excited for the full game (which was going to be directed by both Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro), and the fact that people are _still_ angry and disappointed at Konami for cancelling the game tells you how much of an impact it had on audiences.
Soooo many indie horror devs since then have taken aspects from P.T. and released their own games, and some of these devs got their big break from their P.T. clones (like Bloober Team for making "Layers of Fear", and have been given the reigns to develop the Silent Hills 2 remake). Even big names like Capcom took some influence from it for Resident Evil 7.
I've seen another playthru of this, took me a few minutes to realize it! I'm really interested to see what you ended up thinking about the plot, since it doesn't go in the usual expected direction of these sorts of premises. that doesn't mean it's *good* necessarily lol but I do at least give it credit for being more than a "bad dad" game
@@secretxxstars yeah I was glad it didn't go that route or vilify mental health, but I still wasn't very impressed with the actual reveal 😅
I feel bad, because my enjoyment of these walkthrough first-person types is super reliant on how well it’s voice-acted or how the dialogue is written… and the voices in this one are grinding me down 😭 I esp can’t stand weird cutesy child voices that the adult actors default to. Takes me tf out!
I'm kinda confused as to what these kind of games are about. Still fun to watch you play it and then talk about your experience at the end.
This game looks boring as hell, man. Good on you for sticking with a game to the end but damn. Thanks for the video regardless, always happy to have a new John Wolfe video to watch!
John, I think you will like Loreli with Laser Eyes. I'm loving it (promise not to backseat)
Good morning, what better way to start the day than watching John play a psych horror game!
John forgot that a lot of schools have the "no child left behind," which is why things are a bit easier.
[Circus] Tent of Leaves
The only thing I like better than watching John play a good game is watching him play a bad game.
Can't wait to see how this generic mess turns out. Hahahaha. Sorry it drains you, John.
I was watching finding Dorie not to long ago and laughed at the reference 😂
first thing that came to mind was the painting The Acrobats when I learned they worked in a circus😳
1 minute into the game, 3 minutes into the video which I skipped forward and:
wakes from a dream - "my head hurts, I need to get this headache under control"
1 word for ya - SOMA!
in england, you could probably still pass with 59% on an A-Level exam however just because you passed doesnt mean that youll get all the benefits a person with A's would get, also i guess it really depends on the difficulty of the exams too, i may be wrong but im fairly sure exams here are harder than in the US
we also have a similar grading system here, below 75 is a fail and you'll either repeat that year or take an irregular class.
Watching this kinda made me feel dizzy too.
I knew I recognized the name of the game's publisher from somewhere, so I looked up their other games: imagine my shock and horror upon finding the Gollum game in their library 😬 It's weird, too, because almost all of their other games have pretty positive reviews! Crazy
I loved Daedalic during their point-and-click days, and it kinds of hurts to see how far they've fallen 😕
This isn't a random indie team??? Eek. How is this better than Gollum??
As soon as the game started with the look for you daughter thing I knew this would be something John wouldn't be into, the same mundane shit he's played a bunch of times
lmao what
It changes up and gets original towards the end
Maybe they can switch it up in games next time. Happy family gets caught in Silent Hill like place, parents disappear and the son is the one who searches for them. Or maybe a grandfather loses his fishing buddies while on a fishing trips and collects old men throughout his search. Or a woman divorced from a Lovecraftian entity loses her son while visiting his father when another rival entity steals him and she comes in guns blazing for her son. 😂😂😂
@@interestingusername306 it's not very original, it just mashes things from a bunch of other media together
@@samwisegamgee1243 that's how media works, nothing we make is ever truly original because we as humans lack the capacity to come up with new concepts. It's still more interesting and original than other indie horror games and should imo get some recognition for doing something bold PT heads might not appreciate.
I completely agree with all your complaints at the end there tbh. I personally have no interest in playing these types of games, and more often than not I struggle to stay engaged with let's plays of these types of games too. Not because I think the commentary or anything like that from the content creators is boring, the games themselves are just horrendously boring. PT was an interesting demo, and fun when it was new, but I personally never understood why everything in indie horror has to be the next PT Bad Dad game now. It's a boring and predictable plot, and none of these games ever do anything unique.
I do like the circus theme of this one, though. It is an interesting background for the characters, and it's nice not to have to just perpetually wander around a trashed house for notes the entire time. Although notes are still the main storyteller, which is disappointing. I don't see the point of giving the main character a voice if notes are going to be used to tell the plot. So beyond the theme, there's nothing else I'm enjoying about the game.
I don't know, this just isn't for me. I'd much rather watch you play 5 hours of Elden Ring rather than 5 more minutes of this. However, I will watch the other parts of this just to see your reaction and if there will be a surprising twist at the end.
Thank you for the video!!
This is a game I'm enjoying more on my second watch, particularly so because it's John playing.