Psychopathy Assessment PS5 Review 5.5/10 “A Game of Two Halves” 🥼🩻 @galacticcrows #IndieGame #GameDev

I went into Psychopathy Assessment completely blind, and the first 15-20 minutes deeply unsettled me, the experience made me squirm and feel nervous. The initial psychopathy assessment section really has a creepy vibe to it, the fact there is no explanation for what is happening, no explanation of the controls - it just starts asking you very interesting and thought-provoking questions about morality, justice, spirituality etc. and with only three possible options - yes, no, and unsure - it did lead me to think about them. 

Straight after this, the game moves to an interview between two people and I initially wasn’t sure if this was a design choice or a glitch, but the text for the dialogue was cut off at the bottom, and I couldn’t read some of the lines, the rest of the text is perfectly readable throughout, so I’m assuming it was done to add confusion - it is a really cool touch. The next section (which I won’t spoil here) is really unsettling as well, the music is wonderfully atmospheric and the VHS lines and flickers added to the horror vibe.

At this point I really felt Psychopathy Assessment could be an all-timer, but you then move into a first person section with PS1 style graphics, which is very typical of the indie horror scene. The atmosphere is still impressive as you go looking around your apartment - which is suitably depressing, then something happens which I think will be divisive to players - you have to torture someone. 

You can completely skip over this section if you want, but for me it’s not mainly having to torture someone that's the problem -although I do find it deeply unsettling thing to do - for me the issue was that Psychopathy Assessment goes from almost a kind of a commentary on the relationship between the player and violence, to just a normal video game horror story. 

You find out why you’re torturing the woman (and yes, of course it’s a woman being tortured) and it tries to still make it feel like the player is personally responsible, but with so much story and dialogue being introduced, this aspect really slips away. The story is quite basic, and the dialogue does drag on a bit, in fact, I wouldn't be shocked to find that other players complain about the dialogue throughout, but if I took umbrage to poor horror game dialogue, it would honestly never end. The next part plays out like a really bog-standard horror title that wraps up fairly quickly. It loses all of the early forced introspection to wrap up a story which is sadly really unengaging.

It always seems unfair going at game for what you think it should do, but in this particular case, if Psychopathy Assessment just continued what it had laid out in the initial 20 minutes, the full game would have been amazing and unique, the horror of that first section was so good, it really soaked into my bones and was incredibly effective. 

The first person section was enjoyable as well until you have a formed story, personally I find torturing people with no reason or understanding of the situation at hand is more terrifying anyway and would have kept the perspective more as if the player was torturing as opposed to your character in game handling the unpleasantness. 

It’s only my guess, but the relationship with violence and the user is something I think Psychopathy Assessment is trying to question so having almost no reasons given would force the player to confront themselves, which is what the early part with the assessment section does. Whatever I review next, I hope I don’t have to use the word ‘torture’ as repeatedly as I have in this review!

SUMMARY
Psychopathy assessment is a game of two halves, and it only takes around 40 minutes to complete. 

For the first half, I think it is a wonderfully chilling and unsettling experience which also makes you ask yourself thoughtful questions, the second half however is a lacklustre horror game which makes it hard to recommend. 

But if they ever made a sequel or spiritual sequel that focuses more on the style set out initially - I would 100 percent be excited for it.

5.5/10

🧊MELTING💧