In Sound Mind

The Good
This game was free on the EPIC store this week so, although psychological horror stuff isn't my normal kind of game, I thought I'd give it a go. I'm pleased I did, especially because the game has an easy 'story' mode that cuts out a lot of the fighting.

I play a lot of old games and the first thing that struck me was that this is, to me, a beautifully detailed world, albeit in a dark, grimy, dirty, post apocalyptic sort of way. There was an excellent attention to detail wherever I looked, from the odd apartment numbers to the water effects. When listening to a cassette tape, which involves following a path somewhere, there's a huge cassette looming dim but dark on the horizon.
On a more practical level I really appreciated the way key rooms have their names over the doorway.

The game has music which, to be honest, I've completely forgotten. I remember noticing it and then it just faded into the background as it's supposed to do and did its job. The sound effects do their job well too. There are odd little sounds to be heard as you move around, not all of them can be explained or traced to a source but I came across no superfluous unnecessary scary bangs and screams.
The game has voice acting and it is good too and what pleased me most was that there wasn't that much of it. Most of the spoken dialogue is in the phone messages from someone who calls to taunt / threaten us and the cassette messages that are found throughout the game and very little else. The player's character does have some lines but they don't go into long explanations nor do they make silly comments. If this was real and I was in this situation I wouldn't be talking to myself either, well at least not aloud, so the game played the way I'd live it, if that makes sense.

The Bad
I died. It was entirely my fault and not unexpected, as I was experimenting with (aka taunting) something very bad just to see what happened. Still, dying sucks.

The Bottom Line
This is not 'my kind of game'.
It is a good game but it just didn't hook me. I played for four or five hours and I died. After dying I went to bed and came back to the game the next day and I realised that I was restarting the game not because I was enjoying it, it was more a case of 'I've started so I'll finish'. So I'm pulling the plug on this one.

Would I recommend it? Well, that's a tough one because, as this is not my normal genre, I have no frame of reference to compare it with. On balance I think this is a good, well made game, so if you are a fan of the genre, of this kind of dingy setting and of things that attack from the dark, then I'd recommend this game. If you're not already a fan then I don't see this changing your mind.