First Look at Remothered: Broken Porcelain – More Murder, Mayhem, and Moths
When it launched back in 2018 Remothered: Tormented Fathers was heralded as a return to form for those hungering for a classic survival horror experience. In contrast to modern action-heavy horror, Tormented Fathers instead focused on the simple concept of one person trapped in a house with a murderous killer (or two). I recently got the chance to revisit the game, so if you need a refresher you can read my review for Remothered: Tormented Fathers here. In anticipation of the upcoming sequel Remotehred: Broken Porcelain, Dread XP was given an early look at this next chapter of the envisioned three-part series. Presented by Game Director/Author Chris Darril and Producer Antonio Cutrona, the preview showed off a number of exciting improvements gleaned from the community’s feedback for Tormented Fathers. In Broken Porcelain, all kinds of new features await us, both in content and gameplay.
In the preview we saw for Remothered: Broken Porcelain, you play as Jennifer, a young girl trapped within the Ashmann Hotel (a setting reminiscent of The Shining). The demo cut to the chase right away, introducing us to Jennifer as she is tied perilously to a meat hook inside the hotel’s massive freezer. Struggling to free herself, we were soon introduced to the first of Broken Porcelain’s many new features, the Moth Eye.
The Moth Eye is a mysterious new ability that allows Jennifer to take control of a moth. It’s more exciting than it sounds. It basically works as remote viewing. You can use the power to peek around corners and mark enemies. Marked enemies will be visible with a red outline for a period of time, but it’s not permanent. The moth powers also have the added benefit of being able to mess with electronics. It can be used to activate remote distractions, or in this early meat locker example activate a switch to free Jennifer. Expect this mechanic to be a core part of not only surviving, but solving puzzles.
In addition to the new Moth powers, Jennifer is also more nimble than Reed from Tormented Fathers. The gameplay is much faster and more fluid, even during stealth. Being a child, Jennifer can crawl through vents and under tables to sneak by or flee from the numerous “stalker” characters in each area. If all of this sounds a bit too OP for a survival sneaking game, worry not. These new powers are met with equally deadly adversaries. Players of Tormented Fathers will remember the stalker mechanic; many parts of the game had an unkillable assailant roaming around searching for you. Unlike the previous title, the preview we saw showed Broken Porcelain will have two, three, possibly even more stalkers hunting for you at any given time. This may seem like a much more difficult situation, but there are some new features to help make this a fair fight (or rather, a fair flight).
In addition to Moth Eye, one new power we saw is the ability to ambush the stalkers. Unlike the first game, where a weapon was only used while grappled by a stalker, in Broken Porcelain, Jennifer can sneak up behind a character and stab them in the back to stun them and make for a quick getaway. Of course, their cries of pain and wee wee dripping from their pants alerts any other stalkers in the area to your presence. The next new ability is crafting. In the preview, we were shown Jennifer combine a glass bottle and flour to create a sort of smoke bomb in order to make a quick getaway. Presumably this is just one of many crafting combos to be found in the game.
Though we didn’t see a ton of the hotel, what we did see was far more open and diverse than Felton’s Mansion in the first game. What we saw of the Ashmann Hotel was primarily in the restaurant area, where Jennifer had to escape a meat locker and sneak her way past the kitchen staff. After that, she manages to escape the snow-covered balcony outside. We didn’t see much more of the environments of Broken Porcelain, but those we did see were a lot more detailed. Remothered seems to have a much more varied amount of areas to explore. When we asked the developers if we’d be seeing more than just the hotel, they stated that a vast majority of the game will take place there. However, Chris did state that the “hotel” doesn’t just mean the rooms and hallways inside the building. It will be interesting to see if the game features the zones around the Ashmann Hotel, as some outside exploration would make for an interesting change in the game’s dynamic.
At the end of the presentation, we had the chance to ask able to ask Chris and Antonio some questions. My biggest question was how they went about deciding what mechanics to include and evolve. With a game this light on mechanics, it’s easy to overproduce the concept and lose that basic feeling and tension. Chris explained that their goal is to evolve the series along the lines of the titles that inspired it. If Tormented Fathers was resurrecting the Clocktower Style games, then Broken Porcelain is an homage to Haunting Grounds.
However, they were far tighter lipped on the story. I tried to pry some information out of the duo, and they promised that they really did want to tell me. But for now, they are keeping that close to the chest. We did sneak in a question about if the Jennifer in this game is the same as the Jennifer in the first, but the good folks at Stormind are keeping their wizardly secrets. As a fan of Remothered: Tormented Fathers, I can safely say I am incredibly hyped for this new chapter of the story. While we don’t have a set release date, Remothered: Broken Porcelain is slated to be released in 2020. You can read the review for the first game here, and for more information, check out the Remothered: Broken Porcelain website here, or their Steam page here.
