REVIEW : Roots of Insanity (PC)
With excellent recent entrants like Resident Evil 7 and Layers of Fear bringing the genre to new bowel-evacuating highs (or lows? ), the horror game is experiencing something of a Golden Age. In that vein, Roots of Insanity, a first-person adventure set in a lonely psychiatric ward, joins an increasingly crowded field. Unfortunately, the game’s excellent but uninspired narrative and gameplay are more boring than frightening, and it will leave your tighty-whiteys unsoiled.
Roots of Insanity is an Outlast-style horror game in which a lone protagonist, Dr Riley McClein, wanders an abandoned, gloomy hospital investigating mysterious goings-on. The great bulk of your game time will be spent meandering through straight halls and chambers at a slow enough pace to pass for a walking simulator. The required camera with light provides brief moments of illumination, but it sucks up battery life like a milkshake, so you’ll be in complete darkness for the majority of the time.
This creates an unpleasant atmosphere, yet the environments are so strangely empty and unpopulated that they quickly become routine. There are a few encounters with the hospice’s zombie-like residents, which result in small jump scares followed by perplexing melee fighting, but for the most part, you’re alone in the dull, murky catacombs. The boredom is exacerbated by repeating features, such as barrels, gas cans, and surgical equipment.
Despite being built on the Unreal four-engine, Roots of Insanity’s visuals are inconsistent. Some models and textures are well-rendered, but others appear to be lacking compared to more modern games in the genre. Character movements are clumsy, and blood textures have an artificial gloss — this, combined with the game’s monotonous environment, gives Roots of Insanity a low-budget feel that prevents complete immersion and doesn’t appear to warrant the game’s advertised 8GB RAM requirement.
Despite being built on the Unreal four-engine, Roots of Insanity’s visuals are inconsistent. Some models and textures are well-rendered, but others appear to be lacking compared to more modern games in the genre. Character movements are clumsy, and blood textures have an artificial gloss — this, combined with the game’s monotonous environment, gives Roots of Insanity a low-budget feel that prevents complete immersion and doesn’t appear to warrant the game’s advertised 8GB RAM requirement.
The storey unfolds slowly as you walk through the hallways and rooms of Roots of Insanity. Dr McClein, dealing with his history and epilepsy, discovers a very predictable reason for the hospital’s mysterious nature, frequently through delusional images that occur when he enters certain rooms. It’s a familiar and slightly fascinating plot that I won’t spoil, but it’s not powerful enough to overcome the game’s other flaws, and some players may find it challenging to stay committed long enough to see it through to the end.
