Developed by Stormind Games and published by Modus Games, Remothered: Broken Porcelain is a survival horror game so buckle up and get ready to escape from Ashmann Inn so here’s our review of the game.
What happens in Ashmann Inn stays in Ashmann Inn
Remothered: Broken Porcelain is a single-player horror survival game that is actually not the first game that was developed by Stormind Games, no. Titled under the same “Remothered” series, Broken Porcelain is the prequel(?) sequel(?) to the first game Remothered: Tormented Fathers, since it wasn’t specifically mentioned in the game.
Uncertain timeline asides, the story of the game starts off with the scene of an old lady being interviewed by a guy, which presumably is set in modern day times. The game then jumps back to year of 1973 which will be the main setting of the game.
We are then introduced to the playable character and main protagonist of the game, Jennifer which was transferred in to work in Ashmann Inn after being expelled from the all-girls boarding school Flemmington Girl’s Institute. We are then we introduced with a few more other characters such as Andrea, the head maid of the inn, Ashmann the owner of the inn and Linn which is the best friend of Jennifer.
The main plot for Remothered: Broken Porcelain is to escape from the Ashmann Inn and discover the secrets which lie behind the mysterious Phenoxyl experiment.
Broken Pieces of Porcelain
(Note that this is the first time playing the Remothered series so we’re unable to make comparisons between this game and the previous one.)
The huge chunk of gameplay for Remothered: Broken Porcelain stems around puzzle-solving elements where there are mini objectives around sections of the game that eventually leads to the main objective of the game. Players can explore the mysterious Ashmann Inn by opening stuff such as drawers and cupboards to gain clues used to uncover the secrets of the inn.
While the main premise of the game revolves around solving puzzles, it is still a survival horror game, meaning that the players would need to defend themselves should the situation arises.
Players can protect themselves by being able to store 4 items in total in their inventory: 1 defensive item such as knifes and screwdrivers which can be used to hit enemies, and 3 diversion items which is used as the name suggests to divert the enemies attention so that you can get out of sticky situations.
The game also features crafting where players can combine items to create entirely new items each with different features that can be used for your own advantage. One instant where crafting could be useful would be by combining a cup with insecticide that can be used to deal damage and stun when thrown at an enemy.
The Eerie Corridors
The setting of the Ashmann Inn manages to give off an unsettling vibe which is always good for horror games. The antique hotel feel that’s situated on the snowy mountains really solidifies the haunting allure that the inn gives off.
The dimly lit and narrow hallways inside the inn also makes for a perfect place for a deadly game of hide and seek with the murderous residents of Ashmann Inn. The musical score accompanied with the game is able to portray some of the more intense scenes like the final boss theme.
Although, the eerie environment is short lived as the game wasn’t able to keep that tension up throughout the majority of the game. One of the main reasons that contributed to the break of tension would be the unusual amount of bugs that are found throughout the game. (More will be mentioned in the later part of the review.)
The Refeatures: Broken Porcelain
- Skills
There are total 9 skills can be upgraded in Remothered: Broken Porcelain such as Barrier Skill that improves the ability to block doors to keep stalkers away. The escape skill which increases Jennifer’s sprint duration. Shadow skill which reduces noise when moving and improve proficiency inside hiding spot. Sharpness skill essentially increases proficiency with defense items.
Health skill does what it says and improves health recovery. Tool Wizard skill that improves proficiency in using Diversion item. Survivor skill is used to unlock special abilities when health is at critical. Luck skill adds a chance to obtain special bonuses when picking up items. And lastly. Mother Acherontia skill which improves proficiency when using the Moth Eye.
- Moth Eye
Speaking of this, the moth eye seems to be a new feature in the Remothered series. This feature allows Jennifer to transfer her consciousness to a moth which is a pretty interesting gimmick as players gets to control the moth to solve some potential puzzles.
Fragile Fragile Ceramics
(This section will be filled with the complaints of the game, while patches may have been introduced after this review, this was my experience of the game.)
Remothered Broken Porcelain is filled with a frustrating amount of bugs which all in all ruins the gameplay experience when playing this game. Some of these bugs are really detrimental to the game and sometimes even hinders progress of the story. One of the many bugs would be being unable to upgrade the skills for Jennifer. After the v1.1 update (not sure if they patched this yet), I wasn’t able to put in the points to upgrade the skills even though it was originally working fine for me.
Another bug that was apparent to me was during the first chapter in the laundry room section, during the chase scene with Andrea, Jennifer has to hide away from her. In the PC version there’s a locker available for the players to hide in but in the PS4 version, the locker isn’t where it’s supposed to be located at?
Not only that there’s tons of bugs, part of the games are just super unnecessary and annoying to deal with. One instance of this was shown during the first infamous boss fight against Andrea. The boss fights in Remothered: Broken Porcelain requires the players to perform stealth attacks and to do so, the player will need to have a defensive item available to deal damage to the enemies.
During the fight against Andrea, the whole process felt really clumsy and unnecessarily lengthy. The few issues for this boss fight is the part where you need to collect a defensive item for you to preform stealth attacks needs you to wander around the entirety of the Ashmann Inn and unless you’ve been making mental notes of the locations of said items, you’re going to take a long time finding them.
Where stealth attacks are the only way you can do to deal damage to the boss makes it really tedious at times at how much running around and distracting you need to do and the process becomes extremely stale after a few times.
Verdict
The pacing of the game feels very jumbled up as the plot gets forced back and forth in time while only being loosely cutscenes which felt forced and stops abruptly. While the game was meant to be a horror game, the didn’t really sell the players the horror elements to the game, well besides the horror of the amount of bugs found in the game. The AI movement for the characters felt clunky and the combat mechanics are sloppy. The one redeeming aspect of the game would be friendship between Jennifer and her bestfriend Linn and the exchange of dialogues between one another felt really genuine.
| Pros | Cons |
| Eerie setting | Too many bugs |
| Dynamic of Jennifer and Linn | Unnecessary long gameplay and sloppy combat mechanics |
| Audio at certain times was good | Pacing of the game felt off throughout the whole game |
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