Distraint 2 by Jesse Makkonen and Ratalaika Games is a psychological horror adventure game that sets you on a simple quest: finding Hope. Learn more in our Distraint 2 review!

 

You play the game as Price, a young man who’s signed a contract to become a partner in a company. At the same time, Price feels miserable about his job since it ruined the lives of many and recently of an old woman who died. With all this torturing his mind, Price couldn’t live with himself anymore and ends up putting a shotgun barrel in his mouth. This is the moment his eyes close and when they open back up, Price is on a bench in a park, realizing he shouldn’t be alive. He then meets with Reason, who wants to help him to forgive himself and to do so, he must seek Hope.

The game plays as a side scroller puzzle adventure. You move from left to right in the different scenes you’ll visit meeting with Greed, Fear, Reason and a few others. You’ll be able to interact with doors and objects with the Cross button in order to progress, with some occasional puzzles to solve. You’ll be able to pick up some items from time to times, which you’ll be able to use in some places by selecting them with the Up or Down arrows and then using Cross.

Visually, the game has some great looking pixelated graphics with characters and places seen in a bit of a closeup. Sometimes colorful places, sometimes dark ones, the environment carefully sets the tone to what emotion you are dealing with at the moment. There are some moments where Fear is trying to get you and you have to hide, with the screen becoming full of distortion and overlay to really give you that additional sense of stress in those moments.

I unfortunately didn’t have the chance to play the first game, but there’s a small recap of what happened in the intro, so don’t worry about not having played it. As the intro passed and I was speaking with Reason, I quickly saw the direction the game was taking, tackling all those emotions in order to regain hope in life, so I got hooked to the story right away.

The game had some simple puzzles that never provided a great challenge but still required you to search a bit from time to time. For me the focus was on the story so I was glad the puzzles weren’t complex enough to remove that focus.

From a trophies perspective, we’re looking at a rather straightforward platinum, with only a few trophies that require some attention if you don’t want to start another playthrough. The majority though will simply come from playing the game, which should take only a few hours to complete.

Distraint 2 was a rather pleasant surprise for me with a truly captivating story. It’s definitely worth playing if you want an easy platinum or an incredibly well crafted story about the distress one can feel and how to overcome it.

Disclaimer
This Distraint 2 review is based on a Playstation 4 copy provided by Ratalaika Games.