Welcome to Hanwell

[b ]Very slowwww burn. [/b] If slower paces (i.e walking speed) are not for you, then there isn't much else I can say. This game reminds me of Bloober Team in a sense. There are goofy moments all over, but there are also [i] sheer moments of brilliance [/i] to be found in the midst of everything. The residential homes of Hanwell are at times more intriguing than some of the points of interest required for story progression. Very reminiscent of Silent Hill Downpour, where the side quests are truly unique and captivating. Interesting notes and audio recordings fill the large void of the open world this game is ambitiously attempting. Voice acting is fine, but the sound mixing in this game is insane. With no adjustability to be had, your hearing senses will be assaulted. Then when the blaring combat music is over, the jarring silence that follows is strangely peaceful. Some of the weather effects, such as the fog, give this game a moody tone than I was not expecting. The lighting is comically bad in the sense that the blue aura from the DNA containers (one of the collectibles of the game) will seep through the seams of the walls, which is helpful but I'm sure not intended. Lastly…

I don’t really play horror games, so Welcome to Hanwell had me spooked just walking through a door. It’s decently scary with its warning's and only about four different anomaly repeated types and a boss. But after a while, the whole thing becomes rinse and repeat: explore, get startled, grab stuff, repeat until you feel like you’re doing chores in a haunted neighborhood. And the story? I’m convinced it’s hiding in a corner somewhere because trying to follow it felt like reading a book with half the pages ripped out. Overall, yeah, it has spooky moments but I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you enjoy being confused and repeatedly startled. Especially if you go for 100%, because once you kill the boss the anomalies spawn like they’re having a party, and when you leave the final area… surprise, no weapon for protection.

Please do not play this game if you want more from Beyond Hanwell or want to play this before it. Trust me the bossfight at the end and the ending are genuinely terrible and most of the story buildings (and normal buildings) are "protected" so you have to drop your weapon before going inside which is a problem when you have a high damage weapon like a sword. Unless you really like horror games with a bad story please stay away from this.

I played this after Beyond Hanwell and I can definitely see the progression in quality between the two games! While Welcome to Hanwell has it's own narrative and help understand some of the aspects of Beyond Hanwell, it is also much less polished. I really liked the atmosphere inside and out of the buildings. I think movement and pace is much better in BH though. WtH feels more empty and you will be crossing large areas of the map without much happening. The combat feels much more random than BH, there is less audio cues as to what will attack and I felt it was less forgiving, leading to less interesting second crossing of the same section of the map if you fail a combat. It does suceed in making the game tense as anomalies feel more powerful than in BH. Overall, it was still interesing to play but treat it more like a beta version or demo to BH than a prequel you absolutely need to play.

It's cool for free, but looks un finished. I really would like to try the other game they made looks more complete in story and gameplay.

Terrible controls and combat, that alone turns exploration in to pure pain and frustration, sad as the atmosphere feels good.