BrokenLore: LOW review

An indie horror franchise kicks off with a debut instalment that shows promise but can’t reach the heights of its obvious inspirations

BrokenLore: LOW may share a basic premise with the enormously successful, critically acclaimed, and recently released Silent Hill f, but that’s largely where the similarities end. Perhaps the most notable difference between them is that the BrokenLore series debut is an extremely short, small-budget adventure. Set in a small Japanese village with a supernatural mystery at its center, it’s a variation of first-person 3D walking sim that packs story and gameplay twists into an evening of play, without combat or even much in the way of puzzles. It's impossible to miss the “indie” restrictions here, the experience feeling rough around edges. Yet there is plenty that makes its developer worth watching in the hopes that lessons will be learned from LOW's too-frequent frustrations.

It is worth making it past a rough opening that suggests less than the game actually has to offer. Initial impressions are particularly underwhelming when the language screen throws up both an awkward font and the clunky, explained need to press a couple different buttons to select a language. The opening of the game proper starts with the sense of cliché: the camera pans around a car as it travels down a lonely road, a woman speaking to her "love" to reassure him about a sketchy-sounding meeting she's attending in a remote village. The rushed establishment of the set-up and romance feel unnatural, especially given that both opening characters are aware of how threatening a scenario this is. For a modern gamer, this fumbled opening suggests something that perhaps isn't worth investing in against the array of more competently made indie horrors.

The plot itself feels initially as if it's moving in an inevitable direction. Naomi, the protagonist, is looking for an opportunity to get signed as a musician; an aspiration within Japanese drama that has often been shown to be fraught with greed and its attendant perils, and is once again presented as such here. Getting a deal means having the aforementioned suspicious meeting with a producer who does indeed project immense creeps, giving off a vibe that seems like a cross between Simon Cowell and Half-Life’s G-Man. Even creepier is that during your stay, the village starts to reveal unusual things, whether it's doors that were never there before or pregnant statues tracking your movements. And then the appearance of a menacing jealous competitor, Erika, though she is undermined a little by the conveyor-belt nature of the plot. None of these elements work compellingly together, at least early on, given that they feel part of such a familiar picture.

These first twenty minutes of storytelling are enmeshed with a lack of engaging gameplay, beyond picking up a few notes. The "village" turns out to be one repeating street, albeit with slight variations on journeys up and down; perhaps in an attempt to explicitly ape the famous P.T. That game was set entirely in an L-shaped corridor, but it had Hideo Kojima at the helm of its infamous scares and tight design. This street can’t match P.T.’s but it, too, has a level of atmosphere thanks to the ambient sounds. They’re something between wind and ghostly whispers that lift the experience beyond feeling like a pre-made corridor, and prevent the too-long stretches of walking from feeling like effort for nothing. The interesting visual effects, such as the purple glow of a seedy club or the foggy streets turning rusty red, bring in at least a little variety.

Thankfully, after about a third of LOW's one-hour play time, it starts to offer more than a little atmosphere. Pre-release material has already teased all of the game's most enjoyable turns, but the first is a more free-form, scare-focused sequence that has you step back in time and into the shoes of the village ghost, dropped into a sizeable house and its grounds. Music is again one of the most important elements in setting the scene, moving between melancholically arresting to sparse piano music, punctuated by chilling screams. The gameplay evolves, too, from walking sim to a take on Slender: The Eight Pages, having you evade the violent spirit of your mother whilst trying to collect glass shards. It's a breath of fresh air, at least compared to what precedes it.

Story remains at the center of the experience here, so thankfully there is no sudden roadblock of difficulty as the horror ramps up. Being a ghost, there's little punishment for getting “killed” apart from respawning and then having to once more face an uneasy atmosphere and a fearsome villain's pursuit. This lack of punishment carries over into later sequences, too, which return to Naomi after that surprise perspective swap. The rest of LOW's more gameplay-focused sections involve being chased, but none of them feel too taxing. They avoid the mistake of too many narratively interesting horror games that become hokey and tired thanks to strict stealth requirements. Here the experience only becomes more compelling the deeper it goes, given that you don't need to fear repetition upon repetition before hitting the next story beat.

BrokenLore: LOW

Genre:	Horror
Presentation:	Realtime 3D
Theme:	Escape, Paranormal
Perspective:	First-Person
Gameplay:	Survival, Exploration
Control:	Direct Control
Game Length:	Short (1-5 hours)
Action:	Stealth
Difficulty:	Low
Graphic Style:	Simulated realism

The story does start to somewhat weave itself together, too. It seems to be a tale about the expectations made of women, here represented by the historical ghost and the pressures on the aspiring modern-day pop stars. It's this comparison that feels compelling, and expands what initially appears simplistic into a narrative with a much broader scope. The creepy nature of the manager, then, starts to seem fitting for an exploration of the familiar-yet-crushing injustices suffered across time. This structure challenges our presumption that clawing for ambition is such an obvious idea that it's not worth interrogating.

It's easy, as the game progresses, to give it the benefit of the doubt. One key superficial issue is the unusual marionette quality to the characters, both in their staccato movements and plastic-sheened skin. Such an uncanny aesthetic, after its initially jarring vibe, starts to enhance the sense of shared destinies. Things like the ever-watchful pregnant statues, too, seem less clichéd as part of a bigger plot and the variety introduced by a couple of yokai. It all starts to feel not so much like a grab bag of horror than an experience that just needs more polish.

One of the particularly strong areas is in sound and voice-over performances, which makes sense given that the developer is headed by musician Sebastiano Serafini. The acting has life and energy, even if sometimes the mixing feels off, sounding as if you're hearing line readings in a studio. The most distinctly memorable and impressive performance is by Frankie Taylor-Scott, playing the role of Naomi’s fiercely determined rival Erika. It's a brief role, given that it's a very brief game, but Taylor-Scott injects the character with plenty of venom in her first appearance and a believably histrionic desperation in the next.

There's plenty here that works, so it’s unfortunate that these woven threads become undone towards the end. Plot threads don't come to a neat end and, whilst the final moments are striking, they lack the power that comes from understanding the motivations of key characters. The ghost is wrapped up in a story of village scandal. The manager and Erika, however, all but disappear in the last act as symbolism seems to overtake the need to create a coherent story.

The attempt to balance gameplay variety and welcoming difficulty, too, leads to a final chase sequence with a particular odd mechanic bundled in. Your task is to light four differently coloured points outside a shrine, but this means passing an enormous, menacing yokai to get the four candles found on the street. What's bizarre and irksome is that moving too fast causes them to blow out, and yet it's simultaneously very easy to avoid the yokai. There are a couple of different entrances to the shrine, which means you're rarely in the yokai's vicinity for longer than mere moments. It's a sequence that could be terrifying with streets and hiding spots to scurry around, but in its simplicity and linearity, it is just an exercise in trudging back and forth four times. The game does close with a memorable final image, but also slight bafflement at the clunkiness of the gameplay that leads to it.

The disappointment is exacerbated by the fact that LOW is not presented as entirely standalone: collectables reveal a secret ending that seems to refer to the protagonist of another franchise instalment. Is it a genuine connection between the two games, or just an attempt to keep people playing BrokenLore? It's too bad that the game ends the same way it starts, feeling amateurish. It's particularly disappointing given that it's such a short experience, and can leave the game coming across like a proof of concept rather than a full-fledged adventure. 

Final Verdict

You'll likely feel conflicted coming away from BrokenLore: LOW. Its themes are interesting and relevant today, exploring not just the role of women in society but the systems that keep so many of us functioning in unsatisfying roles. It has some areas of real polish and surprise, too, and as it moves away from its familiar opening there's the potential for it to unfold into something spectacular. But this is a game that ebbs and flows, constantly feeling on the verge of something deeply impressive but never sticking the landing. Perhaps that’s not altogether surprising considering it's only the first instalment of the series (with two more, DON’T WATCH and UNFOLLOW, already released and three more in development). On its own, this isn't a game that can hold itself up to the standards of its more famous contemporaries, so the best way to appreciate the potential it has to offer is by carrying a full awareness that its superlative moments come amidst stark failures.

Ceridwen played BrokenLore: LOW using a review code provided by the game's publishers.