A horror game released in 2004, developed by Hydravision Entertainment. Set in a fictional high school where a bunch of students must uncover dark secrets of their school after one of their friends goes missing. It’s a survival horror game that features some co-operative elements.

There’s a few puzzle’s that require you to acquire and use certain objects present around the school. Since the game starts after school is over, the earlier levels are set in the evening time and are a lot brighter, with it soon becoming night as the game progresses. As the enemies are sensitive to light, this makes the first few chapters easier since light will weaken them, proving you use a melee weapon to smash open the windows.

Whilst the game provides a map, there is no navigation or cursor to help assist you, meaning you must manually locate the objectives to progress the game. This can be frustrating as you will often need to backtrack through certain area’s and its easy to get lost or go around in circles. I would advise to seek a walkthrough if this is your first time playing the game.

The game uses a limited save system, you can only save the game when you collect a compact disc, of which they are limited depending on the difficulty level chosen.
Bullets in the game are also limited, so you must conserve your ammo when possible. The game gives you melee weapons at first which are useful for smaller enemies, and for breaking objects to get energy drinks (that restore a small amount of health), later you are given a pistol and a shotgun, along with more powerful enemies to deal with.
You can also pickup torches (flashlights) which can be combined with guns using tape to increase the visibility in darker areas, of which there are a lot. This is one of those games where you need to whack up the brightness of your TV to see.

There are multiple characters in the game which you can switch between, each has a few perks exclusive to that character:
Kenny: Has the ability to run faster, might be more resistant to enemy attacks
Shannon: Kenny’s younger sister, The most useful for first time players since she will give hints on what or where we should be
Stanley: Picks locks more quicker, could be useful in enemy combat or speed running
Josh: A reporter for the school newspaper, Finds hidden items and clues to them
Ashley: Kenny’s girlfriend who a badass, she’s better when it comes to combat as she has a combo attack

These characters will slowly be rolled out as you progress through the game, but be aware they can die as certain points if you run out of health or during cutscenes if you leave items in a certain way. Up to two characters can be active at a time, one that you controller with the other being controlled as an NPC, you can easily switch between the two but to swap out to the other character you must return to the meeting point. It’s sort of like Scooby-Doo where the gang will split into different groups, thought the other group will just stay at the meeting spot.
From time to time you will encounter some of the teachers within the cutscenes, who will detail what is going on with the school. Many cutscenes will take place in engine if it involves the students since they can have different costumes, scenes involving monsters or NPC’s will be prerendered.

The game was released for the Original Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Windows in 2004, there’s no major difference between them with the Xbox having higher resolution textures compared to the PS2. The Windows version was later released on Steam with achievement support. The console version might have easier co-operative support since you can just plug in a second controller, but they do not appear to be compatible with their successor consoles.

The original release of the game comes with a few extra’s such as a Sum41 music video, and New Game+ being unlocked along with some concept art. There is also some behind the scenes footage which shows the game’s development. Sadly it was never made compatible with the modern consoles, so you will need an original PS2 or Xbox (or an emulator) to play.