Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel

My review will be both objective and subjective. I would specify that I've beaten the game, and this review is spoiler-free.
Fobia is a great game. Keeping in account that it was made in Brasil by eight people, it reaches the level of a company product: Detailed graphics, coherent audio, responsive controls and a dense complicated story.
The atmosphere is very well made. The aspect itself sinks the player in an uncomfortable situation, after the introductory part. The player finds himself in a ruined and messed up place, full of fire and collapsed floor. The loud sound of the lift's doors in the almost silent building is unsettling, and the noise of certain environment parts as rain, water flow, fire etc. that can cover a possible enemy's step creates a sense of constant tension.
The game covers action and puzzle elements in a fifty-fifty mix. The puzzles make sense with the environment, and the FPS oriented action doesn't ruin the atmosphere of being almost helpless and alone against the unknown.
Talking about the subjective part, this game wasn’t for me. I like Gothic horror stories, and Fobia just moves far from them.
Its FPS part is what constantly ruined the atmosphere for me. Shooting at the enemies isn't just aim and shoot at them like in many survival horrors, it's aiming at specific weak points also. I'm not an FPS fan, so it was a struggle for me aiming, constantly moving and running away from the enemies. As an old survival horror player, even the camera that could be moved in every direction, included high and low, was a pain for me. Not to mention that aim is almost impossible using the controller implementing the mouse movements in it. Mouse was essential to play fast precise but I found it fatiguing. To be fair, the game isn't that strict, so even a poor aim is enough to kill an enemy, and there's enough ammo to collect, without being unfair or risking an easy soft lock (although it's unfair on the part of the player asking for loads of ammo, it's a survival horror after all). Not to mention that ammo respawn themselves during the boss fights.
Some puzzles can be missed easily, since few of them are almost hidden. That said, they make sense and there are clues for each of them, and - as I said before - only few are hidden but the player could realise which of them where missed just play the game a second time.
Here a part I found strange: Do enemies have weak points? I found it almost ridiculous that they show glowing weak spots. But why do they have weak spots in the first place?
Some characters aren't developed or implemented well. Don't misunderstand me, each character has a place, but some
To end this my review, I'll point to some other general aspects.
There are some bugs, and they become more evident in the final section. These bugs are forgettable, since even triple A games have bugs, and they're a minority, and the game runs smoothly.
There are some interesting options to modify the game and gives a more comfortable experience for certain players.
An interesting option is the one to turn on and off the camera shake. It's particularly useful to avoid that waving movement during walking or running, and useful for people affected by sight problems like me.
There's an option to expand the field of view, in order to avoid the narrow view that feels like the character is wearing blinkers. It avoids to feel lost in labyrinthine parts of the environment, especially during an escape in a frantic situation.
To avoid the risk of soft locks, there's an option for ammo support. During a boss fight, some chests have a glowing green line that indicates ammo are respowned inside them. It makes the game less frustrating, especially the first time.
In sum, I highly recommend Fobia to horror fans, but if some are searching for a psychological Gothic one, this isn't the game for them. Fobia is surely scary, it has actual moments of pure terror, but its FPS focused combat system could heavily affect the player's sense of dread.

Definitely feels like the new RE games. I had the best time. 10/10.
Combat could be better but that's not the point of the game.

Fobia is wonky as hell, but I love it. It's very clearly inspired by RE7.
The negatives, though, I gotta be up front about.
- number one complaint is an incredibly tedious "forest" section of the game that feels like a more obnoxious "ship" section of RE7. It's much shorter to get through than the ship, but it constantly pushes a slow mo effect that absolutely kills momentum. It's infuriating. Even on my first playthrough I started getting ansty, especially when the cut scenes started.
- following up that complaint, the storytelling is infuriating not because it's bad but because it's long winded. Things start off okay, but by the halfway point I was dreading phone calls and story beats. Some sequences near the end are so slow paced I was really considering that I might hate this game. Thankfully you can skip them in New Game Plus.
- some of the puzzles are neat, but a lot of it is "look around for a combination to a safe" and that's not much fun after a few times.
- Some of the really obtuse puzzles feel pretty unrewarding.
- There's literally 2 enemies in the game aside from bosses. This didn't really bother me much, but uh, damn!
- Pretty sure one of the achievements is bugged.
All that negativity expelled, I really enjoyed this game. The exploration is really engaging and having a basic upgrade/currency system to max out over some new game plus runs really helped extend the life of the game. I really hope these guys do another game like this, but with tighter puzzles and storytelling. One of the best indie survival horror games I've played.
EDIT - OH, and the camera mechanic was pretty inspired sometimes!

A surprisingly good survival horror game

Pros

-Cool atmosphere, explore an abandoned hotel while u hear the storm outside the windows
-Peak survival horror, backtracking, clever puzzles and resource management
-A story that can be confusing but its still interesting, lots of documents to find and read
-A time travel mechanic that makes the experience feel unique, and its done in a way that its easy to use and understand

Cons

-Voice acting is not very good , it gets the job done and you ll understand what they are saying though
-Zero enemy variety, you ll fight the same zombie enemy most of the time with the ocassional boss and some small bug like creatures that are very annoying
-There is some jank to the movement and combat but its still very solid

I look forward to replay this later and focus on exploring and doing secondary puzzles that I missed, there is actually quite a bit to do and the game will tell u when u cant go back to the hotel in case u want to backtrack to other areas and look for more supplies before moving on to the final level.

I love this game.

I very often struggle with linear single player games these days because they either fall short or try to do too much and I lose interest. However, Fobia does an incredible job, in my opinion, of meeting many criteria I look for in a game. Freedom of exploration while still guiding you a little so you're not completely lost; hidden/challenging extras to find; and even upgrades. All while scaring the poop out of me :)

Highly recommend.

With "Fobia" you get a great game with a nice story! The graphics are nice, the puzzles challenging enough to not be boring - only one needs to be VERY thorough in looking for weapons to not make the game too difficult for oneself. Just saw it is on sale at the moment - my recommendation: get it, if you like spooky games with fighting in it and do NOT give up if the solution to a puzzle takes a little bit longer. Perfect game for spooky time for gamers who also want a story in their gameplay!

Too much puzzle makes me sleepy, breaks the immersion. Other than that its a solid game