The Coma 3: Bloodlines Review

A Tense Trilogy Finale Full of Ambition

Concluding a gaming or movie franchise as a trilogy is all the time a large threat. For one factor, you must tie up all of the unfastened ends from the earlier two instalments whereas nonetheless pushing the narrative ahead and introducing recent gameplay components. You additionally run the chance of struggling to draw new gamers to the third entry, because it depends closely on the established viewers from the earlier releases.

Now, The Coma sequence is again, bringing new adjustments, storyline resolutions, and some returning characters who’re just a little bit wiser with The Coma 3: Bloodlines. Does it nonetheless maintain that basic coma magic? Let’s discover out.

Heading again in to the depths of The Coma

Since 2017, The Coma sequence has supplied a extremely profitable 2D survival horror expertise, boasting robust narratives alongside thrilling gameplay. Set in South Korea and closely impressed by native city legends, the 2 earlier video games (The Coma: Recut and The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters), in addition to the spin-off (The Coma 2B: Catacombs) had been primarily set inside a faculty haunted by demons and supernatural entities. It basically featured two overlapping realms occupying the identical location: one regular, and one demonic.

For this remaining story, the franchise reunites its previous protagonists. Nonetheless, as an alternative of enjoying as simply one in all them, you are taking management of all three at varied factors all through the marketing campaign. Every character possesses barely totally different skills, however we’ll get to that later.

A Standalone Story to Conclude a Saga

The story may be loved even in case you are solely new to the sequence, because it capabilities fairly effectively as a standalone story. That being stated, there are quite a few references and returning characters with deep histories, which means you’ll undoubtedly get extra out of the expertise when you’ve got performed the earlier video games. Narratively talking, Bloodlines feels way more formidable in its scope, places, and overarching plot than the primary two video games. It does a implausible job of bringing again established villains whereas offering far more context to the broader supernatural lore. I truly loved this entry’s narrative greater than that present in The Coma 2, and it delivers a satisfying conclusion.

The gameplay takes the established mechanics of earlier than and expands upon them properly. The largest standout function is the flexibility to change between the three heroes, which typically includes replaying the very same state of affairs from a completely totally different perspective. One character is closely into stealth, whereas one other is far more sturdy when absorbing assaults from demons. It doesn’t work as a large shift in total playstyle, however the variations are sufficiently subtle to work effectively and hold the core loop attention-grabbing.

Story telling in The Coma 3 Bloodlines — A narrative to soak up

Mechanically, The Coma 3: Bloodlines nonetheless largely revolves round being pursued by enemies, forcing you to utilise hiding spots or just run on your life. Curiously, there are moments with one particular character the place fight is definitely an choice; a primary for the sequence. Whereas it is a welcome change of tempo, it isn’t essentially the most sturdy system and might really feel a bit scrappy in observe. Moreover, the enemy AI typically feels random; foes have a behavior of popping up illogically from out of nowhere. Then once more, maybe that’s simply me making excuses for enjoying badly!

The Nightmare of Backtracking

Exploration, stock administration, and puzzle-solving stay the strongest components of the sport. You have to rigorously discover your environment, inspecting paperwork and environmental clues scattered throughout all areas. A few of these puzzles are truthful but demanding, whereas others are obscure to the purpose of forcing you to wander aimlessly and have interaction in tedious backtracking.

However the save system may have been way more beneficiant. I died fairly a couple of instances, and was then compelled into repetitive runs that rapidly grew to become annoying; barely simpler checkpointing would have gone a great distance.

The 2D world created in The Coma 3 is full of environmental design, excellent ambiance, and implausible lighting. I cherished the world and this entry feels larger and bolder in that regard. There are additionally some brilliantly drawn animated cutscenes that completely convey that tremendous comic-book really feel to life. The character design is excellent, and the audio design is filled with chilling music alongside extremely efficient jump-scare sound results. The voice performing as soon as once more feels far more concerned than in earlier video games, delivering stable performances throughout the board.

A horror shot from The Coma 3 Bloodlines — An pleasant finish to the sequence

A Worthy, if Irritating, Korean Horror Ship-Off

To conclude, I loved returning to this world in The Coma 3: Bloodlines, taking in how the story ties itself up. I favored how the sport developed, significantly the builders’ willingness to strive new issues, like sharing the narrative load throughout three protagonists to create a a lot bigger story. That stated, a few of the gameplay mechanics had been a bit irritating. The enemy AI sometimes felt unfair, and I disliked the save system, which led to loads of annoying repetition of the identical previous areas.

Total, although, it efficiently retains the allure of the earlier video games, and I extremely doubt that is the final we’ll hear from The Coma franchise.