I’ll start with the big mistake this throwback to the PS1 era of survival horror makes, because it’s also the start of the game -- its start to zombie time is entirely too long, at roughly 25 minutes. It’s a fault that’s especially baffling given how no-bullshit of a survival horror game Flesh Made Fear is in all other respects, a game that’s high on zombies, low on ammo, controls like a tank, and understands that puzzles were a tool to compliment and complicate survival strategy, not the goal in and of themselves. Fans of the genre will notice nods to all three games in the classic trilogy -- the player characters have the same advantages and disadvantages as Chris and Jill did in the 1996 original, and from RE2, we have slightly different areas seen by the two separate characters as well and a couple of other ideas that it’s probably bad form to spoil in a review.
However, it’s the third game of the trilogy, the one that is often considered a black sheep, that seems to have truly captured Tainted Pact’s heart. Ammo crafting appears in Flesh Made Fear, but the bigger nod is in the overall structure of the game, with the player moving around between smaller buildings planted on overrun city streets. The contrasts between the open streets and claustrophobic buildings are used to strong effect, with the latter featuring the player dodging dense swarms of zombies and sweating through the occasional chokepoint, and the latter featuring claustrophobic and intimate encounters -- most players will probably run away while outdoors and fight while indoors most of the time, but that’s certainly not a hard-and-fast rule, and resources are tight enough here (both ammo and healing!) that choosing well when to fight and when to flee will matter.
Another strength that is created by this contrast in styles is that it, in many ways, allows Flesh Made Fear to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to methods of crafting horror, featuring slow-burn tension and visceral peaks. The exterior areas play on anticipation of known threats the way that backtracking always created tension in Resident Evil -- you will have gut wrenching “oh crap, I have to go through that again...” moments as you know that you need to backtrack through that heavy swarm that is waiting for you to get to your next goal. However, this is set off against some of the bloodiest and most violent combat I’ve seen in a game of this style. Flesh Made Fear wears its B horror movie influences proudly on its sleeve and enemies absolutely explode in blood and gore. The combat’s most unique touch plays into this well -- unlike most Resident Evil style survival horror games, the knife isn’t a waste of inventory space but is a highly valuable weapon, since it can stunlock single enemies to death easily. This, combined with the classic ability for the shotgun to take out multiples at close range, leads to a particularly vicious style of combat that’s very up-close-and-personal, and fits the bloody tone well. At first, I was worried about the knife’s power against single targets taking the edge out of resource management, but that doesn’t happen at all -- Tainted Pact were smart about making the smaller encounters mostly come in twos or threes, frequently leading the player to ask themselves questions like “can I keep these two separate for long enough that knifing them is safe, or do I need to spend some bullets to take one down safely before I knife the other one?”
I guess I should probably mention the puzzles at some point because people seem to think they’re important in these games. Flesh Made Fear, wisely, keeps them mostly humble and serving their purpose of making the player explore the game world -- most of them are simply “bring the funny shaped key to the funny shaped hole”, and the few that have some kind of riddle or puzzle on top of that are typically about as hard as the baby’s toy where you put the right shape in the right hole. You will not make a cat-hair mustache in this game, nor will you deal with water samples1. The flow is largely smooth and uninterrupted, and the focus is kept where it belongs -- on the meta-puzzle of figuring out how to survive the trip from point a to point b while bringing with you the items you need at point b.
In conclusion, aside from the mystifying first 25 minutes, Flesh Made Fear is what it presents itself as and exactly what you want from it -- a blunt force, bloody, survival horror experience done the old way with no pretensions towards being an adventure game, a third-person shooter, or a piece of art. Highly recommended for right-thinking folks who think the peak of survival horror is mechanical stress, not for those who think that the peak of survival horror is an angsty teenaged girl moping around. Grab your pistol, shotgun, and knife (don’t leave the knife in the inventory box for this trip!) and enjoy your trip to Rotwood.
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