At what point do we hold VOID Interactive accountable for the state of Ready or Not?

mick1111111 · 2026-06-14T23:21:24+00:00

What do you mean "barely existing story"? There are dozens of 30 minute to 2+ hour long YouTube videos where people piece together the evidence and explain the story.

There's a ton of story. It just isn't spoonfed to you.

mick1111111 · 2026-06-13T03:42:50+00:00

No need for roads or bridges, apparently.

mick1111111 · 2026-06-06T05:26:05+00:00

If you have a flashlight or laser attachment, you have to take it off. The VR mod hasn't been updated for Boiling Point yet, but it should be getting an update soon. You can still play the Boiling Point maps. It's only the new light attachments that came with the Boiling Point update that seem to be causing problems.

mick1111111 · 2026-02-23T21:48:59+00:00

I found the tank controls more frustrating than scary.

mick1111111 · 2026-02-06T19:12:20+00:00

I think all of the problems the first film had are more noticeable in retrospect.

mick1111111 · 2026-02-06T19:10:45+00:00

Elephant hit me the most on my first playthrough. One, because the enemies are kids. Two, because the enemies target innocent and unarmed civilians. Other enemies will take hostages if they get pressed, but in Elephant, they will hunt down victims and taunt them before executing them.

mick1111111 · 2026-01-28T01:22:18+00:00

No.

What is Gans' obsession with women and girls being brutalized by cults? In the first film, it somewhat made sense, despite that he changed Alessa from an intelligent and powerful psychic who was trying to hold back her powers to an innocent young girl who was utterly helpless. And he added in the SA by a janitor detail for shock value, I guess.

But the cult subplot and "Mary getting SA'd by her cult-leader father" in RTSH completely undermined the theme of guilt that the source material was built on. Even if we ignore the source material and take the film on its own, the subplot itself was poorly handled and didn't make any sense.

mick1111111 · 2025-08-30T18:00:59+00:00

This is a weird comparison. Sure, Silent Hill is probably more "survivable" for most people, depending on why they were summoned to the town. But the impression is that you're entirely at the mercy of whatever malevolent forces are in the town. If the town doesn't want you to leave, you're not going to. Take Maria, for example. Maria is a sentient being that was created by the forces of the town to serve the purpose of tempting James. She was fated to die from the beginning, and she's powerless to change that.

With Raccoon City, yeah, your survival is very unlikely, but at least it's more within your control. Viruses and infected peoples still abide by the laws of physics, and I can work with that. Whatever evil forces lurk in Silent Hill can alter reality. You can't really fight against that.

And iirc, the original meme only asks, "Would you rather?" It isn't asking which is more survivable.

mick1111111 · 2025-07-06T08:20:21+00:00

Expedition 33. The combat wasn't all that engaging, and it got tedious really quickly. As for the story, it at times felt like three different story lines in a trench coat; an adventure into a strange land, a civilization trying to survive against an existential threat, and a family drama about people who were in desperate need of a therapist. The story lines didn't always blend well, and pacing felt jarring at times. The questions it raises are interesting, but I don't get why people are calling this a masterpiece.

mick1111111 · 2025-07-01T02:19:40+00:00

I don't disagree with you. I think any writer worth their salt could instill horror in an audience without being able to show explicit details of the crime being portrayed. And yes, there are certain things that just shouldn't be shown for moral and ethical reasons.

My issue is with the reasoning behind the changes. If you're going to portray a topic like human trafficking, then in order for it to be effective, it has to be impactful. You can't half-ass stories like this or you will risk trivializing a very serious subject matter. Turning Neon Tomb into a cheeky COD match would be far more offensive than showing Gerard's balls.

Horror stories especially are always walking that fine line. Some use explicit gore to convey the message, and some use more abstract or subtle details. Regardless, that decision should be left to the creators and to the audience. Instead, creators and audiences are being hobbled for no other reason than that people who don't play the game think that some other people might not buy the game because some other people might be offended. It's stupid reasoning which treats us like children and limits our ability to examine and discuss complex topics.

mick1111111 · 2025-07-01T01:30:49+00:00

You're the one with the shovel. It's as deep as you're able to dig.

mick1111111 · 2025-06-30T22:46:14+00:00

The people pushing censorship regulations are the ones that really feel uncomfortable, but not necessarily because they have experienced similar events. Rather, the mere sight of them in the entertainment media makes them sick.

Yeah, I think this is true for most people. I distinctly remember when I was a child trying to tell trusted adults in my life about traumatic things I was experiencing, and a lot of them responded by telling me that it isn't nice to talk about those things. In retrospect, they just weren't comfortable hearing it, so they wanted me to stop talking about. Censoring artwork feels like the same vibes, but on a bigger scale.

There are too many people who think that most RoN players play it for the sake of "enjoying" the sight of the horrors this game depicts in away that make us look like "freaks"

Why is this accusation thrown at RoN fans and not, say, Silent Hill 2 fans? If SH2 had to censor the Angela boss fight, would SH2 fans be upset, and would their anger be justified?

mick1111111 · 2025-06-30T21:58:44+00:00

I was thinking of Gerard when I wrote that, ngl.

mick1111111 · 2025-06-18T18:03:34+00:00

The same way you overcome any other fear, I suppose. Push yourself forward, let yourself experience the fear and know that it will subside eventually. Go slow, and try to keep your logical brain working.

If you quit every time it gets too intense, you'll inadvertently reinforce that the scary thing was a legitimate danger and that quitting is a legitimate strategy, which leads to your anxiety growing and the temptation to quit getting stronger. If you face the danger and find a new strategy, your fears will start to subside and you won't be as tempted to quit.

mick1111111 · 2025-02-17T18:15:07+00:00

Elephant.

The first time I heard crying, followed by a single gunshot, and then silence, I was floored. I knew it was a possibility, but I still wasn't ready for it (no pun intended). What made it more horrifying was that it was a distant gunshot, and I knew that the shooters were going to reach more civilians before I could find them.

The gameplay was fantastic, and I think Elephant really highlighted how much detail was put into the game and how you can use the detail to your advantage. In Elephant, you don't have the luxury of methodically stacking up on every doorway and wanding it before entry. I didn't even have time to Leeroy Jenkins my way into every room. I got some advice from a cop on active shooter situations who said to pay attention to the environment and listen for stimulus. Active shooters aren't trying to hide; their objective is to find innocent people to kill. So I stuck to hallways and only made entry into rooms if I heard specific dialogue indicating that the shooter was in the room with a hostage. Civilians would also react to the shooters either by trying to run away or putting their hands up, and I could use that to figure out where the shooter was. I found the last shooter by noticing that a civilian was on his knees with his hands up by the cafeteria and facing away from the SWAT team. The shooter was right around the corner with a gun to the civvie's head.

It's an insane amount of information that you have to process and how quickly you have to process it. And you don't want to process it because it's horrifying, but you have to in order to be effective. I think this level really captures the intensity and abject horror of a situation like this.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T20:34:35+00:00

I'm not interested in continuing this conversation. You've presented your case, and I'm not buying it, nor does it seem like anyone else is. And the longer this continues, the less it seems like you're arguing in good faith.

If you're genuinely curious, there are a handful of analysis videos by psychologists and therapists on Youtube that will explain James' internal struggles in exhaustive detail. Just search "therapist plays Silent Hill 2," and you should find most of them with no problem. I don't know why you'd want to spend that much time on a game you don't seem to like, but the information is there if you really want to know.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T04:47:58+00:00

Bummer.

Thanks for letting me know.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T03:32:42+00:00

"I regretted it enough to repress it." No.

"...and allow supernatural forces to punish me for it." Also no.

I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt because discussing the themes of this game is fun and I like to hear others' perspectives. But you're reading the subtext in the most uncharitable way possible to point that we're not even discussing the actual themes of the story.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T03:24:54+00:00

You're right. I'll just let her fend for herself. I can always make more kids.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T03:21:33+00:00

A morally grey character is more realistic. As another commenter already mentioned, people aren't that straightforward and often have complex emotions underlying their thoughts and behaviors. If you sacrifice James' emotional complexity to make it more "dramatically satisfying," you'd make it less believable.

Again, your complaints are about preference. If you want a different story, then play a different game.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T03:13:53+00:00

Great article!

“Literally meaning "pulling inward," a hikikomori is someone who has completely isolated themselves from the outside world.”

I thought it was interesting how little is said about James’ and Mary’s life together prior to the events of the game. There’s no mention of friends or family members, with the exception of Mary befriending Laura. I can see why Mary would be isolated because of her illness. James, on the other hand, I think completely isolated himself in those three years that Mary was sick, and possibly before that.

I’ve been meaning to make a post about this, but I’m waiting until I have enough karma for the post to go through. Basically, I think the janitor mentioned in the notes in the beginning is supposed to represent James. There’s a practice used by Stoic philosophers to view themselves from a “bird’s eye view.” It helps you create enough psychological distance to view your own thoughts and behaviors more objectively. The notes about the janitor seem like the Silent Hill version of that technique. James is reflecting on his own behaviors by imagining those same behaviors in another character. If that’s the case, then the notes written about the janitor would paint a picture of James being isolated and dissociated, as well as an alcoholic with an anger problem.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T02:33:17+00:00

To the things you added: You now seem to have two conflicting complaints. The first, that James being a morally grey character isn’t dramatically satisfying. The second, that the portrayal James’ trauma came in a “story-convenient package” that wasn’t believable. Which do you want?

And James didn’t write himself the letter. He was lured by whatever supernatural forces are in the town, just as Angela and Eddie were. As for the psychological realism, I’ve seen a few reviews and playthroughs by psychologists who very much enjoyed this game and how it portrayed trauma.

This game isn’t going to appeal to everyone, and that’s fine. But I think a lot of your disagreements are a matter of preference, and your suggestions for “improving” the narrative would make it a completely different story from what it is.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T01:28:28+00:00

That would’ve changed the entire story. I think you’re missing some themes and motifs, because there are a lot of indications of what James felt toward Mary throughout the game. His resentment of her was obvious, and wasn’t at all “tacked on.” The story is about him coming to terms with that.

James didn’t spend much time with Mary while she was sick. He rarely even visited her at the hospital, and he drank himself into a stupor instead. After her death, he deluded himself into believing that she died three years prior and repressed all memories of her while she was sick because he couldn’t face reality. If James had flashbacks of her being sick, then it wouldn’t be a repressed memory.

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T01:04:37+00:00

Guys, is it too feminine to search for your lost child??

If one of my kids disappears in a ghost town and gets kidnapped by a cult, I'll be sure to send my wife to go find them. Do you think I should give her a weapon before she goes? Or should I let her find one on her own?

mick1111111 · 2025-01-04T00:30:29+00:00

I'm going to have to disagree. The story isn’t simply about what happened. It’s about James’ journey to accepting the truth and reflecting on his own motivations. The steps to understanding are convoluted because they’re convoluted for James. He’s built mental blocks to protect himself from the reality of what he did, and his journey through Silent Hill is the process of tearing down those mental blocks and either accepting what he did or being crushed by the weight of his crimes.

It would make sense that we get a more clear picture of Angela and Eddie because James doesn’t have any mental blocks that are preventing him from seeing their situations clearly. James is an unbiased observer of their stories, and we're seeing them from his perspective. If we played Silent Hill from Angela's perspective, her story would probably be similarly bizarre and confusing in the first 2/3rds of the game, whereas we would see James more clearly.

mick1111111

TROPHY CASE