SCP: Fragmented Minds Early Access Review – Containment Breach

The SCP Foundation is an astonishing creation, serving as a fan-made encyclopedia that documents peculiar, eerie, and often dangerous entities. It presents these entities by detailing their containment procedures and offering tantalizing descriptions to ignite the reader’s imagination without providing a comprehensive understanding of what they are encountering. Consequently, the SCP Foundation website has grown into an invaluable resource not only for chilling tales but also as a wellspring of ideas for horror video games.

Previously, many video games have taken elements from the SCP Foundation’s fiction and translated them using common horror gameplay mechanics. These games usually incorporate a few well-known creatures from the SCP website, with SCP-173 being frequently chosen due to its ability to create a chilling atmosphere as it can only chase if not observed. However, the game SCP: Fragmented Minds distinguishes itself from other adaptations by emphasizing action gameplay over horror.

Without doubt, SCP: Fragmented Minds intends to be a chilling horror game, just like its earlier versions. You won’t encounter much fight scenes in this game though. Instead, it offers methods to defend against the eerie creatures that you may encounter during your exploration of a Mars outpost following some catastrophic event. To start off, let’s delve into the background first.

SCP: Fragmented Minds still has aspirations of being a horror title.”

As Agent Kovich, part of the security unit at the SCP Foundation, you’re embarking on your inaugural assignment to Mars-based Site-113. Although the site’s objectives remain somewhat enigmatic, you understand the need for potential combat encounters given your intense military training. However, this Mars assignment appears tranquil and comfortable at first glance. Unbeknownst to you, a series of calamitous events is on the horizon.

Fragmented Minds are straightforward, serving as a starting point for you to dive right into the action.

I find only one issue with the game: it takes a while to get going. Although the visuals and overall ambiance are appealing during the first hour of play, the slow pace becomes tedious as you’re mainly exploring and searching for a path forward. There’s virtually no sense of urgency until an hour into the game. Granted, there are tutorials at the beginning, but the rhythm could have been managed more effectively in the final version. Thankfully, it’s still in Early Access.

“The only real complaint I have with the game is that the start is just a bit too slow.”

In this game, which aims to be an action-horror title instead of stealth-horror, the access to weapons is delayed until several hours have passed. During this time, you encounter many instances of SCP-3199 that require sneaking past, and when you finally receive a weapon, it’s only effective against one at a time. This isn’t about conserving resources as much as it feels like the game’s pacing is off balance.

Regarding that topic, in SCP: Fragmented Minds, you’ll find a limited range of adversaries to encounter. Primarily, you’ll be evading or combating different manifestations of SCP-3199. Although this offers an opportunity to explore new creatures within the SCP universe, the scarcity of other types of enemies seems to negatively impact the game’s overall flow and pacing. This is a problem that may be addressed in future updates as more chapters are added to the game.

One standout aspect where the game SCP: Fragmented Minds truly shines is its captivating visuals. The setting of Mars Site-113 has been masterfully crafted, with numerous shadowy recesses, hidden corners teeming with the possibility of unseen horrors lurking nearby. The ambiance is equally impressive, thanks to the game’s skillful implementation of lighting and fog effects that enhance the sense of tension. As an Early Access title, though, it does come with its share of technical problems. For one, I frequently encountered issues where the game would fail to load a room beyond a locked door, necessitating a complete shutdown and restart. Additionally, capturing footage for the game was quite challenging due to frequent crashes during gameplay recording.

“There isn’t really much in the way of enemy variety in SCP: Fragmented Minds.”

It’s unclear whether these problems are inherent to the game or related to my system configuration. In any case, SCP: Fragmented Minds has its share of difficulties, ranging from pacing issues to technical glitches. Despite these challenges, the game seems to have a strong base for evolving into an outstanding action horror title in the future. The ambiance is captivating, and given that it will utilize lesser-known entities from the SCP wiki, we can expect some fascinatingly bizarre and exclusive experiences in upcoming updates.

At present, SCP: Fragmented Minds isn’t typically a game I’d suggest, given its challenging nature. The gameplay primarily involves a lot of running around and evading peculiar-looking creatures due to pacing issues. However, the game’s future seems promising according to its roadmap, and the prospect of multiplayer mode is particularly intriguing for future consideration.

This game was reviewed on PC.

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2025-02-11 21:11