The game relishes in shrouding parts of Dormont in utter darkness, but it also abundantly presents sources of light that Edward can never wield against the specters. In fact, “perplexing” does sum up the bulk of Those Who Remain. The game doesn't tell you why either, and this tremendous responsibility also perplexes Edward himself to no end, who constantly questions why he had to go through this mess. Is he some sort of messiah reincarnate? Who knows. His backstory swiftly gets muddied and crumbles under the weight of the game's bigger and more convoluted plot, which revolves around a teenage girl named Annika and a roster of unsavory characters whose fate Edward will determine by granting them redemption or condemning them to the scorching pits of hell.

But these discoveries are fleeting and bafflingly vague, offering little depth to a man whose checkered, sordid history doesn't seem particularly poignant. Then you'll eventually pay little attention as he makes a brief remark about relating to another father's poor drinking habits. You'll walk with him through otherworldly environments where he would pick up paraphernalia belonging to his family: a photo of him and his wife on a date, his daughter's beloved plush doll, and her first baby picture.

You'll hear him sadly musing over the loss of his wife and daughter. In the end, the impenetrable darkness simply functions as an invisible barrier that prevents you from wandering into places you shouldn't be in just yet, while hardly posing any real, active danger.īut what of Edward himself, and his motivations for skulking around in Dormant? It's not too obvious, but Those Who Remain drops several ambiguous hints. The notion of giving your enemies such a distinct form seems like a novelty in a genre that usually presents them as some wispy, unknowable force, but the ruse soon wears thin after you realize there's not much more to this idea. Even in the midst of looking for these in murky corners, Edward also has to constantly seek refuge in illuminated spots against glowy-eyed specters, which can be seen silently observing him from the pitch darkness of the abandoned town. Like many horror games, Those Who Remain is also draped in shadows, which piles on the growing tedium and frustration of searching for these items. Edward wanders about a lot just to look for things-into a luxurious mansion, the town's post office, the national library-and even traverses through into a parallel, alternate dimension to hunt down more keys, letters, and in one instance, weed killers. To put it plainly, Those Who Remain is essentially a three-dimensional version of a find-the-hidden-object game, where flinging furniture about and peering into every single desk drawer you spot are par for the course. It's not difficult to empathize with Edward's circumstances-and by that, I mean the exhaustion of going through, over and over again, the onerous cycle of looking for the right object to unlock the next objective with, and painstakingly searching for clues that will move the plot along, while eluding a freakish behemoth that's screeching for your blood. Scenes of sheer exasperation in the game are absurdly common Edward routinely shouts variations of “Not you again!” as he scrambles from yet another blood-thirsty demon that's frantically clambering towards him. Despite being unwittingly caught up in the spooky affairs within the sleepy town of Dormont, he seems to regard the scenes of terror and panic unfolding around him with the detachment and fatigue of a man who desperately wants everything to blow over. On the other hand there's Edward, the everyday man you're embodying in Those Who Remain, the type of horror protagonist who is decidedly more aware of the dire situation he finds himself in.

Take, for example, the hapless victim who runs into a dead end when hounded by a machete-wielding murderer, or deeper into the unsettling darkness of the woods where unknown terrors lie in wait. Horror is often bulging with contradictions and illogical deaths.

Those who remain spoilers