DHGF: So late last year, I found myself with a ten dollar PSN card to burn through. I decided to use that money to buy a few Minis. Up until that point, I’d only played ones that I was given to review. I picked up three games that day; Echos, Zombie Tycoon, and Hysteria Project. I’ll spare you the details on the prior two, because they’re unrelated. Hysteria Project was a interesting game. It was as if it were pulled straight from the Sega CD days. It was an FMV game that played almost like a choose your own adventure book. It wasn’t great, but it had some interesting ideas.
As such, when this game showed up for review, I volunteered my services. The first game ended on a cliffhanger, and I was also interested to see what the developers would do to improve the formula. After all, this genre is pretty much untouched by anyone else, so if someone can bring it back, that’s worth looking into.
GB: "Hysteria Project 2 will remind you of Dragons Lair and Heavy Rain, except the latter is a really good ‘game’. There is hardly any gameplay here and requires a lot of trial and error, and has a horror theme, which should have been obvious from the title. It’s comprised completely of cutscenes and has a few puzzles and some interactivity element. Also, it’s one of the worst games I have played this year."
PushSquare: "In many ways Hysteria Project 2 is a step-backwards. In trying to flesh out the ideas established in its predecessor, BulkyPix has crafted a game with more ambition and less polish, resulting in a frustrating mess of trial-and-error puzzles."
ATemporaryDistraction.com: "With the golden age of survival horror ending with the PS2 and the genre’s top franchises either falling off the map (like Fatal Frame/Project Zero, whose fourth entry never officially made it outside of Japan) or embracing action over scares (like Resident Evil 5), next-gen console frights are becoming fewer and farther between. Gaming horror fans sadly have to take what they can get, even if it’s a PlayStation Mini title. But while Hysteria Project 2 has some creepy potential on paper, on PSP it’s a disappointingly inert game burdened by painfully awkward controls and a lack of engaging gameplay."
