In Sound Mind is a psychological horror first person exploration game. Wow that was a mouthful, but seriously it’s a game about exploration and discovery. It’s a game that will scare you in the most subtle and yet frightening ways. Let’s dive into the madness and see if it’s worth it.
In Sound Mind is first person exploration game that showcases the power of sounds and unexpected jump scares. The game starts you off waking up in a basement. Not knowing why you are there and not knowing what’s already going on. All you know is that you woke up in a basement.
The game then takes you through the basic controls of the game. It’s the usual controller setup for a first person shooter. Except they decided to place the reload button on the circle button. It’s always smart to check out the layout controls before you dive into this game because it doesn’t teach you that midway through a fight. Or maybe it did but I was already caught up in the moment.
You start the game with barely anything but your bare hands. As you explore more of the building you are in, you get useful items and weapons like the handgun, a mirror shard and a flashlight. These items will open up new paths for you to explore.
The one thing that I didn’t like about the items is that you can only use them one at a time. You can’t use a flashlight and a gun together like a normal person would do. Or use a gas mask while holding a gun. It seems the protagonist can only use his right hand for everything and forgot that he ever had a left hand that he can use for other things. It just didn’t make sense to me. What’s more is that he can’t even use his bare hands to rip off tape lines. I know the game intended this as a game mechanic but if it were me, I’d use my bare hands to get through things like that.
At first you would think you are just going to explore the building you are stuck in. However, the game takes you to different places whenever you play a tape. The tape belongs to Desmond’s (the protagonist) patients who takes you to different locations.
The game really encourages you to explore. It’s the only way really that you can move forward to the game. It really forces you to be “brave” and just get done with it. It’s such a very evil way for them to make you experience the game. Because you can’t just hide in a corner and hope for the best. You’d really need to explore and investigate every nook and cranny to help you get to areas of the game that you initially couldn’t get to.
The game is laden with puzzles that will test your quick thinking as you avoid being attacked by the many frights. The enemies are actually interesting because each of them are killed differently. I believe this is part of the whole puzzle thing that you need to figure out how to best defeat the enemy that you are facing.
Each area that you go to also has its own unique enemies and has their own weaknesses that you can use against them. For me though, it’s the not the enemies that actually gives you a scare. It’s the eerie sound and the many unexpected sights that jump at you when you’re mind is focusing on the task at hand.
I have to say I had my fair share of jump scares. I really thought I was already prepared going into this game but it did prepare me in the many ways it could scare me. What’s interesting about its scare tactic is that it doesn’t actually rely too much on the sound. A good horror game is a game that can still scare you even without the sound on. And that’s what In Sound Mind has done.
The graphics is not really ground breaking but it does have its moments of beauty. They might have probably gone in that direction to convey a very creepy looking place with an eerie vibe. So even though graphics is not it’s best suit, it will impress you in its scare tactics.
In saying that, it doesn’t make sense for the game to be a PS5 only game when this could still entirely work on the PS4. It really doesn’t utilize much of the capabilities of the PS5. It would have added more layers into the experience if you can also feel the game through haptic feedback.
Overall, In Sound Mind excels into selling it as a horror game. It gives you the right amount of scare that will keep you at the edge of your seat. But in terms of it being groundbreaking, there really isn’t much to make this a cut above the rest. If you’re looking for the next horror game to play, then this game should be worth looking into.