Developed by Devespresso Games and published by Chorus Worldwide Games, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a sequel to their award-winning Korean chilling survival-horror adventure game The Coma. Promised to be an even more terrifying and haunting experience than the first game in the series, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is now available on Xbox One console. This is our review of the Xbox One version of The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters in which we try to evade a demoness from hell that looks like our teacher.
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters follows the story of a high school student Mina who is studying at the Sehwa High School. Everything is going normal for her and she is living the normal school life. The game begins with a normal school life day in Mina’s life where you start playing as Mina while she goes around doing her regular tasks at the school. You take classes, meet with Mina’s teachers and some other students including some of Mina’s friends. You are gradually introduced to the in-game mechanics at this point. The story continues until the school day ends with a Super Blood Moon.
With the Super Blood Moon high in the sky, strange things begin to happen, and Mina finds herself inside the nightmare called Coma where she is being hunted by the Vicious Sister who looks like her teacher from her class earlier. Inside this coma, the whole world is completely changed. Her school is transformed into a nightmare full of deadly creatures and monstrosities. Upon further exploration, Mina finds out that it is not only just her school and her whole town has turned into a nightmare and she must try to find her way out of the place known as the Coma.
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters plays out any other generic side-scrolling title. You can access different rooms, floors, and even find secret passages and rooms where you can find tons of useful items and resources that are vital for your survival. You have basic movement mechanics at your disposal as well such as dodging, sprinting, and hiding from the nightmares. You do not actually kill the enemies in the game, but you can only delay them for a chance to escape them or outrun them. Stamina plays an important role in your escape however it is not unlimited. Both dodging and sprinting requires stamina and you will have to balance your stamina between running and dodging.
The game’s world is dark and eerie, and I loved the art design of the game. While there is not much animation and details in the cutscenes of the title, the animations are brilliant during gameplay and the many dialogue scenes of the title. The character design is good as well. The enemies are vicious, and they look vicious as well while the environment is really dark, and you have to navigate around with a lighter to see around you. However, the enemies can also easily see you while your lighter is turned on, so you must keep a good balance between using the lighter as well. Nearly every useful mechanic in the game comes with its side-effect as well that you must counter in one way or the other.
While there are plenty of different enemy types in the game, your main enemy is the Vicious Sister who is continuously stalking you. As you roam around the maps, the Vicious Sister in the form of Ms. Song, Mina’s teacher, keeps stalking you and will suddenly appear to chase after you. During these phases, you can sprint, enter different rooms, and hide under tables or inside cupboards. While hiding, you also must complete a mini-game to stop your breathing, or else she can hear you even if you are hiding. If she catches you, you are given a chance to escape with a QTE, but you will fail if you miss this particular QTE escape sequence.
Most of the other enemies act more like traps than enemies. Very few of these enemies will actually follow you to attack while most of them will simply stay in one place and strike from the shadow while you are crossing them. Enemies like the Clawing Shadows or Clawing Hands simply stay at the same place and are well-hidden and you will only spot them if you are careful. They will attack you if you get too close to them. Sometimes bodies may fall from the sky and damage you. Certain enemies like the Shadow Stalkers will continue to follow you from a distance and strike when you least expect it so you must always be careful. You can sprint away or dodge most of the attacks in the game easily, but you must watch out for your stamina as well.
While the world of The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters may look empty, dark, and gritty to you, you will still find plenty of helpful NPCs that will massively help you out at each level. You can easily say that you cannot complete certain levels without the help of these NPCs. Some of these NPCs will provide you with various helpful items or introduce you to various in-game mechanics. While you might be losing your sanity in the game world, these NPCs will help you move around and ensure that you survive the onslaught of the Vicious Sister. You can get in touch with some of these NPCs via a communication device called Shadow Telecom as well where they can guide you or give you tips on how to proceed in the game if you get stuck.
Apart from the main story of the game, you will often get plenty of side-quests as well which are not crucial to the main story but are extremely helpful in the game. Some of these side quests if left incomplete can also have dire consequences on your condition in certain locations. is Critical Damage. If you are not prepared for different encounters, Mina will suffer from Critical Damage that will permanently reduce her maximum health. For this very reason, you must complete the optional objectives and side quests that you find in the game for your own good. For example, during a certain chapter, I was instructed to create a taser but it was an option task, I did not create the taser at the crafting deck and as a result of it, I was unable to defend myself at the end of the chapter and I received a Critical Damage.
You can find and collect many resources on each map. You can use these resources to craft a different number of useful items at the crafting table. Crafting is essential for your survival and without crafting certain items, you cannot even progress in the game. Right after I was introduced to the crafting mechanic, I had to look around for resources and craft a Police Taser that would help me in my self-defense. Similarly, you can craft many other items if you find their resources scattered around the map. Each item has its own use in the game and will be beneficial in its own way.
All of the items are stored in your inventory where you can also store four quick use items for your consumption. These items will help you restore your health or give you some quick energy. While you can find some of these items from exploration, you can also spend your money at different vending machines and purchase items from them and store them in your inventory for later use. Since you can only store four consumables, you will often have to make a choice between them. Using Hellion, the in-game currency, you can purchase many items in the game that are mighty useful in various situations.
Final Verdict:
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a great horror experience that not only looks good, but it also plays exceptionally well. The story is filled with small pings of humor but most of the time, it is dark and gritty and you will be on your toes in order to find out what is going to happen next. The environments are creepy and there are plenty of jump scares in the game as well. The continuous hall hunting might get a little tedious after some time but it also reminded me of the classic Resident Evil titles where you sometimes had to backtrack in order to find something useful or open a previously locked door. The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters certainly feels like a solid horror experience with its fluid gameplay and comical visuals and it is something that you should experience for yourself as well. I am sure that you will like the game even if horror is not really your favorite genre.
Final Score: 8.5/10
