The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters (Review)
By Rae
Mina Park is your average high schooler. She stays late tostudy at school, has a best friend to pass notes with, and has to navigate thetricky challenge of turning down a would-be suitor. Just like any high schoolgirl, except… a few weeks ago, Mina’s brother collapsed in school. It wassudden and unexplainable – even doctors can’t seem to figure it out. The onlyhint she has is an old locket with a photo of a mysterious girl inside.
One fateful night, after a late study session and with her brother's locket in hand, Mina happens upon a creepy ritual in the school closet and winds up in a parallel, hellish world called the Coma. Unfortunately, someone – or something – inside the Coma wants Mina very, very dead…
Gorgeous art and vibrant colours bring the game – and Mina’snightmare – to vivid, horrifying life
First thing’s first – The Coma 2 is beautifully drawn. Atfirst, it was even hard to feel like it was a horror game – it reminded me of prettyotome games with its school scenes, gossiping students, and comic-worthydrawings. Cutscenes are visual novel-style, with gorgeous CGs that are surprisinglypretty for a horror title, but don’t compromise its spooky feel. Instead, itmakes the monsters of the Coma – particularly Ms. Song – even creepier. I wassurprised to see such colourful art balance out so perfectly with the darknessof the hallways… but we’ll get to those in a bit.
Be ready to backtrack, backtrack, backtrack… and findlots of lore!
Vicious Sisters is definitely easy to learn. Aside frommovement, you have a single dodge button, and inventory, and absolutely no wayto fight back. Don’t expect to get caught up in weapons and aiming here –instead, you’ll have to take note of your safe spots and run for them when dangerbares its fangs. You’ll have a handful of inventory slots in your smallbackpack which you can fill with vending machine items. Mostly you’ll findsnacks and drinks for your stamina and health, but items such as mace can helpyou escape a tricky situation as well.
Any challenging bits of gameplay – escaping an enemy’s grip,firing up a generator, unlocking a coded door – are handled with fairly simplequicktime events.
Unfortunately a big chunk of your exploration is revisitingareas over and over to find new things. Finally made it to that securityoffice? Too bad – you need a key card from the third floor now! In some areas,it’s interesting to find new secrets and uncover new hints. In others, it feelslike pointlessly repeating the same route over and over again. It might not beas frustrating if every stage didn’t come with 3 or 4 floors to trek up anddown repeatedly, but at times I felt exasperated because I knew that as soon asI made progress, it would be two steps forward, one step back.
At the end of some stages, things get a little moreinteresting when unavoidable attacks (generally in cutscene) permanently loweryour health bar. To be honest, however, if you stay smart and keep stocked up,you should be able to survive.
All in all, it’s not too difficult, and players looking for an extreme challenge might be disappointed. But I didn’t mind the lack of challenge in The Coma 2, because the horror atmosphere was exactly what I want in a spooky game, and the story really caught my interest. Alongside the main story of The Coma 2, your explorations will uncover plenty of lore to keep you engaged. By picking up torn pages along the way, you’ll gain insight into the pasts of several of the characters, and more details about the strange series of unfortunate events that brought you here.
It also made me want to check out The Coma – a game I’ve heard of plenty, but never touched. Fortunately, you can easily dive into The Coma 2 with no real knowledge of the first game, though I’m sure it would be a nice supplement. The story doesn’t really go deep – the only character you really get to know is Mina, and she’s rather unpleasant (and also not quite so savvy when it comes to following instructions or taking the hint that all is not well in the world). Eventually, you'll also learn more about Mina's friendship with Da-hyun, and see some surprisingly emotional backstory. While it wasn't always at the forefront, I enjoyed the several stories woven in.
The Coma 2’s greatest feature is the click-click-click ofyour hunter’s high heels in the distance…
Great sound design can take a horror game from merely spooky, to incredibly stressful. The Coma 2 takes this to a whole new level. The most immediately dangerous moments in the game – immediate chases and jump scares - often are punctuated with shrieks and intense music. But it's not the chase scenes and jump scares that had me the most scared. Somehow, the dark magic happens in the quiet moments. The majority of the game is spent exploring quiet hallways in the desolate, nightmarish world of the Coma. This should be a time of calm and peace for the player. It should set you at ease and make you grateful that – for the moment – the chase is over. Instead, you’re constantly haunted by sounds in the distance. Glass breaking, disjointed background music, and ambient, chilling sound make up your audio. But the most horrifying detail is the sudden click-click-click of Ms. Song’s heels in the distance as she searches for you. You won’t ever feel safe in the corridors of any building. There are no true reprieves.
And since listening for your pursuer is so important, youcan’t turn down the sound to get away from it. The buildup of suspense neverquite disappears.
It’s an addition to an already great atmosphere that takes itup a notch or two. Visually, The Coma 2 is already plenty stressful. Waxfigures line the halls, so that you almost can’t tell whether something is a “living”enemy until it’s nearly too late. Menacing shadows and shades and creatureslurk in the darkness. And by darkness, I mean everywhere. There don’tseem to be any working lights in any of the buildings. Instead, you’re armedwith a trusty lighter or flashlight to help guide your way and spot occasionalitems and secrets. But while your lightmakes it easier for you to see, it alsomakes it easier to see you. As a result, if you want to avoid drawingtoo much attention to yourself, you’ll use it sparingly.
Dangerous enemies actually don’t seem to show up too often(or at least not in my experience), but their presence is always there, and thetension is always high.
All in all, I think The Coma 2: Vicious Sister is definitelyworth picking up if you’re a fan of atmospheric horror. It’s got a perfectlyspooky feel and I loved the constant sense of dread. I also found the lorepretty fascinating. If you’re looking for survival horror with fighting or frequentenemy encounters, you may want to look elsewhere. But if you’re ready to dive intoa creepy nightmare and explore the darkest parts of the city, it’s well worthchecking out.
New from Devespresso Games, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is currently in early access and can be purchased on Steam! Feel free to jump in now, but please note that all save data will reset upon official release on the 28th of January, at which time additional content will be added.