Or maybe the price of Cadence of Hyrule seemed a little steep for your liking. There have been tons of new games this summer so far, so you’ve probably been busy with those. This Welcome to Hanwell review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Nathan Seedhouse.Hey, I know how it goes. It’s not going to win any awards for its graphics, which do the job but are not the highlight of the experience, but if you’re looking for a new horror game on Sony’s console, then you might dig this one. Welcome to Hanwell is a serviceable horror game on PlayStation 4 that will keep you busy for several hours, with an extra hour or two on top if you want to grab any missing collectible. It’s not a difficult list since you can technically look for all collectibles up until the end, so if you invest enough time into this one, you’ll get to add one more trophy to your collection.
The game includes a full trophy list with a Platinum at the end of the road, with objectives that include things such as killing your first enemy, finding the UV attachment for the flashlight, finding each of the citizenship card pieces, defeating more than 10 anomalies in the arena, defeating more than 100 anomalies in the arena, and finding all 100 strands of the doctor’s DNA. This is usually the case when games are ported from PC, where a player would be sitting very close to the monitor as they play, to console, and there is no option to change the text size so you’ll either have to play very close to your TV, or just not rely on them at all.
It’s so small, you need to stand a feet or two away from the TV to be able to make out what they’re presenting to you. Something I have to complain about is the ridiculously tiny text used for the game’s subtitles. There are six pieces of a citizenship card, 100 strands of the doctor DNA, 50 witch eyes and 15 anomalous artefacts to find, so if you want to 100% the game you’re going to have to search every corner of every area you visit to find the elusive items. Pressing down will take you to the collectibles menu where you can see how many of items you’ve found.
You can access your inventory by pressing on the touchpad of the DualShock 4, and you will can scroll through the items you collect by pressing left and right on the D-Pad. The game will quickly allow you to continue from the last checkpoint you reached, but the jump scare and adrenaline rush are certainly not going to go away! Anything that moves is going to come straight for you as soon as it spots you, and if it catches up to you, then you’re pretty much dead. Once you’re done, you’ll realize that the game has looped you back to the room in which you started playing, and it is here that your journey to survive will properly begin. After grabbing a key be sure to look at the floor to grab a flashlight which you can turn on and off with the Square button. The initial area of the game will serve as an extended tutorial, showing you the gameplay basics so that you can get the hang of things. You’ll later pick up a radio you can turn on with the Circle button, and this will allow you to know when you’re close to an anomaly since it will start to play static from the speaker on the DualShock 4. Pressing down on the right analog stick will allow you to crouch so that you can make your way through tight spots. If you hold down the R1 button, you can sprint around at a steady pace, and since this is a horror game, you can press down the L2 button while sprinting to look behind you. Once you grab a weapon, you’ll be able to block with the L2 button and attack with the R2 button. As mentioned, the X button is for interacting with things.
You walk with the left analog stick and move the camera with the right one. You can see a gate to your right, but it’s locked, so you’ll end up making your way towards the only available corridor with no idea of what is going on. Getting closer to it will make a prompt appear, showing you that you can press the X button to interact with things when you see a hand icon hovering over an object. There is blood everywhere and not much to guide you, until you noticed a flashing light at the back of the room. The game will begin after you kick out a door to a container in which you were trapped in what seems to be a morgue… or a torture room.