BrokenLore: FOLLOW Review

BrokenLore: FOLLOW is a slow, eerie journey into your memories and traumas, confronting them as you explore areas that will make you relive the experiences you wish to forget.

When playing BrokenLore: FOLLOW, you believe you will be participating in a horror video game full of creepy monsters and darkness, but instead, you find something far more personal and creepy. From the start, it is clear that this game does not bombard the player with action sequences and threats. The game places you in an eerie environment and makes you feel the burden of what Anne must bear as she escapes.

BrokenLore: FOLLOW shows that this game is not focused on overcoming enemies but on uncovering long-suppressed memories through walking in them. It is essential to highlight that the gameplay consists of a linear plot, which, however, includes decision points that can change the outcome, even giving you a chance to unlock a secret ending.

There is no additional incentive for replayability beyond experiencing all possible outcomes by replaying the story's necessary scenes. It is important to mention that the game deals with such serious issues as bullying, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, self-hatred, and very toxic mother-daughter relations, all of which serve as an essential part of Anne's life story, not as some additional details. 

It is highly recommended to approach this subject matter aware of its intensity. This game also connects directly to BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW, which came out earlier and already introduced you to Anne as someone shaped heavily by social media obsession and emotional damage. Here, you're taken backward, into her past, to understand how everything started.

Right off the bat, you notice that the developers did not take an easy road either.

It was created with assistance from a psychologist named Emanuela Papa, who gave credibility to the issues touched upon, including issues such as eating disorders, bullying, body image problems, and even cases of emotional neglect. The latter is important because it shows that, while the game's subject matter is not light-hearted in any way, it never becomes sensationalized or gratuitous.

BrokenLore: FOLLOW begins in Anne's childhood bedroom, where the player must start exploring their surroundings.

The more you move along, the stranger things around you grow. In fact, the house itself gradually changes shape, creating a very particular atmosphere that seems to have taken on a life of its own. As you play further, it becomes evident that anything and everything is a reminder of something the protagonist once forgot. It all looks a little bit different, like something from another world. 

Hallways elongate, and rooms begin to transform without your involvement. The further you delve, the more the experiences that helped form her identity are revealed. You see how she is tormented by her classmates because of her appearance, and realize that these events do not simply pass but remain imprinted in her memory. Additionally, you get a sense of her difficult relationship with her mother, which cannot be reduced to anything simple.

It's complicated, chaotic, and destructive, sometimes psychologically rather than physically. The impact of her mother is not simply presented as background information either; it feels as if she is still around even when she is not. In addition, there is always that nagging inner voice that only serves to break her down by making her feel inadequate all over again.

As one progresses further in the game, the symbolic elements become apparent, particularly in regard to monster design. They are not simply enemies or obstacles set in your path for gameplay purposes. On the contrary, they correspond to particular emotions or states of mind, which are associated with a person. Thus, some creatures may remind you of feelings of guilt, others of the notion of self-image, and another one, of feeling watched.

It seems that transformation of trauma into an entity which can be outrun becomes an important aspect of the game. When you play this game, even if there are no obvious threats during your journey, you will always get a sense of being watched by someone, irrespective of whether you are under any imminent threat at the particular point in time.

This method is more successful than traditional methods for creating horror, as it works independently of timing.

The setting of the prequel FOLLOW is organized into several chapters, each corresponding to a particular location that evokes Anne's past experiences. Some notes are optional and can be skipped without affecting your overall gameplay experience, but it's more satisfying if you try them out. 

Once you decide to give these sequences a shot, you'll start to see them less as a story-driven experience and more as an assembly of pieces of memory that don't quite fit together. This game features details that contradict one another from an emotional perspective, meaning you won't have a smooth time piecing everything together.
As soon as you start playing, you'll see just how dark its setting is.

Concepts like bullying, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and toxic family relations'll bombard you. There's nothing abstract about the atmosphere; rather, it presents you with these problems head-on and leaves you with no other choice than to face them. That can become a bit challenging, mainly because this game's situations are much more realistic than those in most horror games. 

It may even feel disconcerting at times to realize that what you're witnessing doesn't need any exaggeration whatsoever. In terms of gameplay, the game remains true to its roots, sticking with the first-person, exploratory theme. This means you will mostly walk around, exploring various locations, collecting items, and completing objectives.

In addition to that, there will be no combat whatsoever, and you will not be provided with any means of self-defense either. As such, the whole point of BrokenLore: FOLLOW revolves around you moving slowly in the locations where you need to be extra careful. Simple actions such as opening doors, examining drawer contents, and visually observing minor details are performed at a pace that creates a sense of suspense.

The more you play, the more you realize that a significant part of the gameplay consists of the player's ability to see only certain things.

While initially, you will be exploring well-known areas like the house, the environment later becomes quite unpredictable. It can be argued that the main gameplay mechanism of BrokenLore: FOLLOW is the use of flashlights to navigate. It should be noted that the flashlight consumes a lot of batteries and runs out of power when moving into new spaces. Thus, you will need to collect batteries in order to explore the surroundings fully.

Even interaction with the world itself is limited but purposeful. Objects that you can interact with are indicated by subtle indicators, while other significant objects do not have any such indicator at all. This implies that you need to observe the environment rather than be obviously guided through the game.

By doing this, BrokenLore: FOLLOW creates the effect of forcing you to stop and examine the surroundings carefully, since otherwise you would ignore these aspects of the game. You begin noticing things like lighting changes and furniture arrangements, which tell you how the environment was used previously. Puzzles in BrokenLore: FOLLOW are not meant to be hard challenges for you to overcome.

Instead, they are simple, straightforward tasks that primarily maintain the game's rhythm. You are not supposed to get stuck trying to solve those, nor will they disrupt your experience of playing this prequel as you progress through its storyline. In short, the puzzles found here are not considered core elements of the game; rather, they are transitional elements of it. Intense moments occur mostly during chases and stealth phases. 

In the chase sequences, the player is forced into situations that require them to avoid hazardous environments and find their way through perplexing environments.

The underlying principle when creating such game mechanics is to heighten tension rather than challenge the problem-solving capabilities of the player. Some stealth game mechanics that are found in FOLLOW include hiding from foes while navigating the environment. While this is not very complicated gameplay-wise, it still fits the atmosphere.

If you've played the previous entry, you'll probably notice that BrokenLore: FOLLOW doesn't really try to reinvent its formula. Instead, it builds on what already existed in a fairly direct way. That can feel so familiar as to be repetitive. The structure, pacing, and mechanics don't stray far from what you might expect, which makes it feel more like an expansion of an established idea rather than something completely new.

As far as visual atmosphere goes, there's a lot going for BrokenLore: FOLLOW, even though technical aspects aren't always perfect. New locations are presented in each new chapter, making the game feel fresh and dynamic, as you go from one environment to another, all of them representing various periods of Anne's life.

But despite the good art direction, you may realize that not everything about the texture and the environment looks good enough when turned up high. This psychological horror focuses more on design than on the title's graphics, and most of the visuals rely on how spaces are designed. Sound plays a much stronger role in this game than visuals do. 

In this game, tension is built through sound design throughout, even in quiet scenes where seemingly nothing happens. There are constant sounds that create anxiety in players, and they use effective sounds to signal danger in the game. It also becomes clear that voice acting adds realism to characters and helps to add an element of emotion to the story. 

This game is a testament to the importance of sound design in video game development for retaining gamers' interest.

In analyzing the game against other psychological horror games, we can easily spot what makes it unique. The game is similar to Layers of Fear, as both titles feature structures where a player moves through changing locations that contain parts of the narrative. At the same time, it can be compared to the horror game SOMA, as both create an emotional impact rather than frighten players.

At the same time, BrokenLore: FOLLOW deals with social and personal issues rather than science fiction. In terms of length, BrokenLore: FOLLOW is relatively short. You can move through it in a few hours, and there's not much filler content stretched between major moments. That keeps the experience focused, but it also means you reach the end quickly.

For certain individuals, the length may be considered a bit short, at least from a value perspective. However, it's important to recognize that the BrokenLore: FOLLOW doesn't stretch beyond necessity and keeps to a steady pace throughout the whole game. Having finished BrokenLore: FOLLOW, what you remember about the game is not its gaming systems but rather the feeling left behind by Anne's.

Instead, the feeling will be that of an individual who, through his life experiences, has become who he is now. BrokenLore: FOLLOW doesn't aim to overwhelm you with complexity or systems. Instead, it focuses on showing you a slow emotional breakdown through environment, sound, and memory.

Ultimately, BrokenLore: FOLLOW isn't really a game about horror at all but rather one about psychological pressure, and the game isn't trying to scare you all the time. Instead, it just keeps you under constant pressure, which becomes progressively uncomfortable over time.