In this part of the mission, you will surely die, and in this case, you will lose all progress from the current level to the next. If you are close to leveling up, level up to the entrance to the Arctic. If there are not enough berries, refill the water supply by the stream north of your base. You don't need a water tank as you should have enough berries by now. It will also be great to replenish your oxygen stores by collecting some oxyte. If you haven't created a complete set of fur garments, do so while you wait for the meat to cook. Build a shelter, place a sleeping bag in there and get at least 10 servings of grilled meat. When you get close to the transition in the Arctic biome, it will be great to set up a camp.
There will be few predators, but the situation will change when you get to the pass at the bottom of the O11 sector. Place a marker in the middle left part of sector O12.
If anything it’s almost surprising how much I like the game despite the fact that up close, it’s made up of a lot of wholly unremarkable components.Now you will have a huge journey towards the third sample. The visual effects also leave a lot to be desired, with a lot of things like debris clouds looking straight out of Steam Early Access. Considering the entire preview of In Sound Mind takes place at night time I’m glad they didn’t just turn off all the lights and call it a day, since it’s actually possible to take screenshots that aren’t just a big black blot. For one the game actually discovered the use of color, as it plays with blue-orange contrasts quite a bit instead of letting everything just be washed out and grey. Some of the enemies use vocal effects, but they’re not anything particularly fancy or memorable.
It’s not offensive or anything, but don’t expect any award winning performances here. The voice acting is also just, well, fine. Like we mentioned before the game doesn’t look bad, but it’s also not exactly pushing the envelope in terms of visual style. The game has a psychiatric overtone, where you play as a doctor who’s somehow in this nightmare world, as you pick up hints that he’s not handling the loss of a patient all-too-well. The ToneĪdmittedly, nothing about the presentation of In Sound Mind is particularly new.
#IN SOUND MIND WALKTHROUGH UPGRADE#
In Tape 2 there’s an encounter that forces you to use the enemy’s behavior to unlock a pill for you, and in a sense the stat upgrade is pretty much the only reward that makes sense rather than doing it all for some concept art. That being said, as collectibles the stat upgrades do wonders for the game. Sure, you’re never actually in danger of running out since the game is pretty generous with battery upgrades- But I feel like the game’s level design is good enough on its own without adding things like battery management to make it seem more dire than it really is. It’s the same thing with your flashlight, which operates on a battery. You can gather items to boost parameters like Stamina and Health, but I feel like the fact that there are rarely any action segments make these feel almost more like busywork than anything else. One thing I’m not too hot on in In Sound Mind is the survival horror elements, which seem almost tacked on. That being said, for what we played this formula of gameplay works pretty well, creating a good sense of exploration. Considering how we only got two levels in this demo, I can’t tell if this is going to continue to be the pattern for later levels. These can be pools of toxic waste which require the gas mask, or barriers you’ll need to cut or shoot your way through. It also does something I really enjoy when games do, which is the “show-you-something-you-can’t-access-yet-but-can-once-you-get-the-necessary-item”. Picking up items and exploring all trigger little pop-ups at the top of the screen, telling you how many pills, etc to pick up if you’re a completionist. The other thing I really like in the game is that In Sound Mind isn’t stingy about telling you your progress.
After PT made waves in the corridor-walking-sim, it’s important that games incorporating these elements think of ways to set themselves apart- and it looks like the developers for In Sound Mind have found a solution that works without breaking the bank on gore or horror to paint over what would have been bland level design. Follow a lot of really clever ideas like this in In Sound Mind, including more crawl spaces.