Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Developer: Supermassive Games
PS4 Review
I've been so excited to play this game and because of this I received it as a birthday gift in September, yes it's taken me since the 12th of September to finish it but that's because I wanted to record gameplay of it for my Youtube channel which I will include at the end of this review. You're going to have to bear in mind that because this game has several different outcomes I'm only going to be talking about the one that I experienced otherwise it wouldn't be fair to pass judgment on the game as a whole. Man of Medan comes from the same developers as Until Dawn which is what drew me to the game so much, if you haven't played Until Dawn yet I highly recommend it as it's pack full of twists and turns, you can read a review I did for my blog on it HERE.
I went into this game with the mindset that I would be jumping out of my skin not long after the game began but this wasn't the case, in fact, it was over an hour before anything really happened but this was due to introducing characters, the back story and the build-up over what would come. There are a good few characters within this game and the first lot you're introduced to are from the first act of the game, you're sailors floating in the pacific ocean on god knows what mission when suddenly the crew are murdered, from this point on I had my suspicions over what was causing the deaths but wasn't made clear so you could make up our own mind.
The sailors began to see ghostly scary visions which later killed them and the ship had been floating untouched since WWII took place, it wasn't until a group of divers found coordinates to the boat from a sunken plane (they weren't supposed to be exploring nor touching this plane without calling it in) that we revisit the ship again to find out more about its secrets. Unfortunately in the run-up to this one of the characters (Conrad) pisses off a group of men who later come back to the boat they're on and find the coordinates to the ship and decide to take the 4 divers (Julia, Conrad, Alex, Brad) and the captain (Fliss) of the boat prisoner to find out what exactly was on this ship. I found the build-up to this took up most of the game and the scenes were too long, personally, I would have loved to skip some of the cut scenes but realised they were important to build on the characters traits.
Much the same as Until Dawn each choice you make has consequences so you can either try to play it safe or not, me personally I tried to play it safe and I still was none the wiser when it came to answers instead I made my own judgment based on what was happening around me. I was disappointed that I didn't have the same kind of connection with Man of Medan as I did with Until Dawn, in fact, it felt like it was lacking on the story side and events happening around me compared to Until Dawn, I know it's wrong to compare but I was hoping it would be on par with its predecessor until Dawn. Besides this, the atmosphere that surrounds you is very dark and eerie which is a huge red flag for anyone who wants to go and explore a floating ship.
Talking of floating creepy ships this game reminded me of the movie Ghost Ship which I actually really enjoyed especially when it plays tricks with your mind much like Man of Medan. The main characters in this game are Fliss, Julia, brad, Conrad, and Alex, I found Julia and Conrad to be the most annoying they're siblings and come across and spoilt moany people who I just couldn't click with. My favourites would have to be Brad and Fliss, they seemed to have their heads screwed on a bit more than the others and ask the important questions. I tried my very best to make sure all the characters live but it's not as easy and you would think due to the fact that each choice has a reaction later on in the game and if you don't press the correct button in time you can be killed.
I managed to get Fliss and Julia killed in this run-through, I was aiming to make sure everyone lived but the more I progressed the more sluggish I got at concentrating on doing this which I beat myself up about at the end of the game play. I want to have another crack at playing it through when I have some more time due to how slow the game progressed on my first run, and in all honesty I did check out some other gameplay videos after I finished mine to see what theirs were like and they were far more intense and exciting than my playthrough. Not everything is as it seems on the shop, you will see ghostly images of people who are still alive in your play through which messes with your head but I later came to think it was the green gas causing them to hallucinate and see things that aren't there.
This game does have QTE (quick time events) so there is no waiting about when it comes to certain parts of the game, for example, there are bits where you have to press X in time with your heart rate and every single time I was far too slow which made the game a little less enjoyable for me and added to me being less enthusiastic and sluggish with my gameplay. The best part of the game for me was being able to see snippets into the future if I wanted, these snippets weren't set in stone and only would happen if I chose a certain path so I had the anticipation of whether or not what I saw would happen.
I hope to do a proper review of this game once I have had the time to play through a few times, It's not fair basing my overall thoughts merely on one playthrough but what I can tell you is that the voice actors did a brilliant job portraying their personalities and showing their fears throughout the game even though a lot of the movement can be stiff and frustrating at times. Below I have attached my playthrough videos I hope you enjoy them!
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