Paranormal HK

If you are into horror, Paranormal HK is a game that you simply must play. I had a fantastic time with this, and while I am not sure this would be the kind of game I would play through again. This was a great horror experience and one that, as soon as I finished, I recommended to a couple of friends of mine. I found the whole Hong Kong setting to be very cool, as the majority of horror games that I play are set in America or Japan. Hong Kong lore/mythology/horror is a very prominent theme of the whole game.

Beyond the Invisible

Paranormal HK has a fantastic setup, and right from the start, I knew that this was a game for me. The game takes place in the walled city of Kowloon, and our main characters are part of a ghost hunting show called Beyond the Invisible. They are here for the Hungry Ghost Festival, and they want to try and capture any spooky goings on that they can. This is a very cliché horror movie/game setup, and it is just so very well done, and it lets you know that this is not just some gimmick kind of festival; some real supernatural horrors are happening here.

A Starlet With Some Problems

Before long, Kathy, one of the people involved in the show, starts acting very strangely, and the story and horror of Paranormal HK kicks into high gear. There were some strange things happening, but the decision to keep filming was made. People start missing, and they soon realize that they are stuck in the middle of something, and now they will struggle to get out of it alive. This is pretty awesome stuff, and if you are into horror in any way, I am pretty sure that you will get a huge kick out of the story being told here. You just want to scream at these characters for making dumb decisions, but there are so many great horror movies that follow this trope, so it is a lot of fun.

Paranormal Investigations

As far as the gameplay of Paranormal HK goes, it is pretty standard stuff, but there is something about it that gets you invested. You need to investigate the spooky stuff and then try and make the right decisions. Think of it as a puzzle game, and you will have a good idea of what I am trying to describe here. What I liked about it all was that these puzzles were certainly a bit tricky but never to the point where they became frustrating or anything like that. I always felt like I was moving in the right direction. I did really enjoy the exploration aspect of the game as you could find things that would expand the lore of the game and give you a better idea of what was really going on here.

Talk Dirty To Me!

A nice little reference to iconic 80s rockers, Poison for you there. The thing with Paranormal HK is that the game looks great. There are some awesome jump scares, some pretty horrific and creepy imagery, and it just ticks so many of the boxes for what makes a great and fun horror game. It has voice acting, but it is not in English, and there are some translation issues in the writing, too. I think that they should have done some English voice acting here, even if they could not afford to higher voice actors.

AI voice acting has come on leaps and bounds, so I would have loved to have seen them at least give that as an option. The jump scares that the game threw my way were awesome. Some were pretty obvious, but there were a few that I never saw coming and that had my heart beating out of my chest.

Pros:

• I loved the Hong Kong setting
• Some of the jump scares were awesome and very well done
• The whole thing with Kathy was great
• This is a bit of a hidden gem when it comes to horror games

Cons:

• English voice acting would have really taken this to a higher level
• The story is great, but there are a few translation issues that pop up

Paranormal HK is a horror game based on folk Chinese scary legends, where a young employee of a supernatural TV channel and his colleagues get into a facility to shoot a video, but find themselves trapped in a scary trap.

Gameplay:

• The fortress city of Colune is an infamous location. A camera crew heads there to film a report on the hell that's going on there
• The protagonist, Chen Jiawei, avoids dangerous creatures
• Use a spell, it will help protect yourself, and a stranger on the phone dictates the way