Them and Us

 




Them and Us is one of the strangest classic survival horror throwbacks I’ve played in a while. On one hand, it absolutely nails that old-school Resident Evil feeling with fixed cameras, limited saves, creepy exploration, and resource management. On the other hand, it also makes some really bizarre decisions with fantasy portals, awkward pacing, and some mechanics that feel half-baked. But somehow, despite all that, I still ended up liking it a lot.

In recent years there have been quite a few of these new Survival Horror games inspired by the classics. Love to see it actually. Daymare, Tormented Souls, Alisa, and now the most recent one I've played through, Them and Us. I'm a big fan of classic 90s survival horror games like the original Residnet Evil trillogy, Silent Hill, and others. Always interested in more of that kind of fixed angle, resource management gameplay.

The game starts and to my total surprise theres many different camera modes and gameplay control modes, all which completely changes many aspects of the game. You can play Fixed Camera mode with Tank Controls, which is the default. But you can also play First Person mode with alternate FPS controls. You can even play Over the Shoulder mode , like modern Resident Evil titles. It's really cool to see all the different ways to play the game and its impressive they went through the effort to include all that. Although I of course picked Fixed Camera, Tank Controls - classic style. It is the default, and I think the fixed camera adds a lot to the atmosphere and tension to Survivval horror games.

There is also a difficulty selection but thats more straight forward. Easy, normal, and Hard.  "Normal" says for those who wants a basic survival horror experience which sounded good for me so thats what I went with. I think there is also a Professional Mode which unlocks after you beat the game.


There is a brief intro cutscene going over the premise of the game, youre a woman named Alicia and youve been in a mental hospital for allegedly something you didnt do. She also used to work as a medic. She has a daughter who has a disease and something ambiguous happened to her and you don't know where she is. The cutscene is strangely in this comic book style, which I don't really love but I understand its probably just a budget thing.

Then the game starts and before long the main character wakes up in a old creepy mansion bedroom and shes not sure where she is. First impressions are really promising. There is of course an inventory screen, and I rather like how theyve done it, with the portrait, the health meter, its all stylized and cool looking. By default you only have 4 equipment slots which is an interesting design choice, I mean in Resident Evil 1 when you play as Chris you only get 6 so that took that idea even further (at least for the first bit, you get more slots later). Then you have other inventory segments like Files to re-read things youve picked up, and something called Memories which lets you look back at core story progression points as you play through the game.

As expected the game features a Combine system in the inventory just like classic games in the genre, there are no Herbs but instead bandages and Oinments. You can combine small bandages with medium bandages to make Large, and you can also apply Ointment to bandages for I guess more of a health boost. Its a decent enough system, the Ointment stacks and has a percent which is interesting, but I didn't feel like it added too much to the game overall. Really I ended up with so many health items I didn't know what to do with them all, by the end of the game I had dozens of full heals I think they maybe went a bit overboard with how many heals you get, its fine but it took some of the dread away. Maybe I'm just good at these kinds of games now though.

You also use the combine mechanic on many key items and progression items, and usually its intuitive so its a decent mechanic all around.

From there its a typical romp through an old dillapitated mansion, and its quite atmospheric and dreadful (in a good way). Great sound design with atmospheric noises, wind blowing, dogs crying in the distance, zombies moaning out of sight, really sets in to unnerve you as you move through the fixed camera segments always not sure whats just beyond the camera.

It's also an interesting twist how they start you off in a random place inside the mansion rather than in the front hall of the mansion like Resident Evil 1, this makes you feel a bit more dissoriented and even more apprehensive about what to expect since you barely know where you're at in the mansion, I thought that was a neat touch to add to the suspense.

The first segment of the game is even more tense because you don't even get a gun until quite a bit into the game. You just have a knife, and you even start off in Danger health until you find some healing items. This leads to many intense moments up against the first batch of zombies, they slowly shamble towards you , and  the tank controls work well enough, it controls as you would expect in the classic formula, even with a helpful quickturn ability, the controls work good and suit the dreadful atmosphere the game is trying to go for. At times in the early game youre virtually forced to knife some zombies to death which basically results in almost guaranteed health loss, trading health as a resource for zombie kills in areas you keep coming back to. I actually kind of like how its a slow burn to get some real firepower and how underpowered and helpless you feel in the beginning, it has a steady pace and it finally feels satisfying and rewarding when you get that pistol and its bold of the developers to start off the character so defenseless and vulnerable.

Of course the mansion has tons of locked off areas, usually gated behind keys such as Venus key, Neptune Key, Moon key, and so on, which further adds to the wonder of the situation and when you finally find a new key I found myself excited to see where it led, it didnt feel linear it felt like a real connected expansion mansion.

The enemies early on are mostly just slow classic Romero zombies which I really enjoy, they're creepy, haunting, with good animations, models textures and sounds, its not cartoony at all its grim and visceral. You have decision making which zombies to waste ammo on, such as ones that are in areas you frequently travel around,  or choose to run past certain zombies in other areas you may only be at once or twice so its not like its just a shoot every enemy action game. The controls and animations work well in situations to try to manipulate the zombies into certain patterns and then run past them, it feels well tuned and balanced right. Theres a courtyard section that has some dogs , another classic threat, which similarly are well designed and suit their purpose of introducing fast moving "oh shit" moments.

The save system is very odd, a mix of classic and modern at least by default. You of course come across safe rooms, and usually instead of safe room music there are vinyl record players you can interact with. The way you save the game is by using limited use Vinyl records. Thats a clever and fun twist on the classic save system instead of ink ribbons and typewriters. You even find all sorts of different vinyls, each pieces of classical music from Bach, Beethoven, even Erik Satie among many others. When you save using one of these vinytls, it then changes the music for that room until you use another record. Nice touch. Its amusing coming across all these different vinyls and keeps you wondering what classic song you'll find next. The limited saves are great, I think its a mandatory component of Survival Horror to have limited saves, it really makes you care about your characters life and items, you dont want to just play carelessly and it really emphasizes the survival aspect, you dont want to die and go all the way back to some long ago segment, and even saving is a precious resource which helps make the experience that much more immersive. However in Them and Us on the default settings, there is also an Auto-save function but you never really know when to expect it. For the first few hours, I think I've only seen it once. But later on into the game is happens commonly. Its actually a nice mix of the stress of limited saves, but also having these auto saves on crucial moments like before boss fights or things that could otherwise kill the player because they walked into a room they werent prepared for. The only downside with this system is sometimes you can consume a Vinyl save item, and then 2 minutes later trigger an auto-save which feels bad. Still, its handled well enough. I believe on higher difficulty there is no auto-save at all, which is great too.

However maybe the strangest part of the game is the storage system. Or apparent lack-thereof. You come across a handful of saferooms, but none of them have a storage box like classic games in the genre. Instead, it seems like youre expected to just drop your items on the ground, because unlike classic games, which lacked a drop feature, you CAN drop items in this game. This is handled excellently though, because whenever you drop an item it marks it on your map so you cant ever really lose or forget where it was, and also highlights it in the game work so even if its behind an object in the fixed camera you can still see through it. So what I end up doing is dropping items at saferoom A, and dropping other items at Saferoom B, kind of annoying that you couldnt easily get them across saferooms unlike a Storage box, however there is a shocking twist that comes up later where I will talk about this more.


You traverse through the beginning mansion, and its as you would expect, gothic looking, creepy, full of famous classical paintings which are always fun to look at , and  some memorable rooms and locations. Theres a big library, with evidence about this creepy cult who takes over the mansion, strange paintings and things clearly inspired by Nosferatu which is awesome to see, the game has great influences and references.  There are all sorts of display cases and here is where you find the Handgun. You need to do a light puzzle to solve it, by climbing up top and tipping a statue ontop of it. Nice RE1 Reference, but with a twist. My only maybe gripe with this room is theres SO much stuff to examine and look at that the actual key progression points become blurred and easy to gloss over, still the mansion has a good air of mystique about it which kept exploring feel fascinating and exciting.

Eventually you go through the main dining room, which looks classic and feels like another reference, which the game is full of, then to the mansions Main hall and its quite regal and grand looking area and is memorable. Level design is well done and it doesn't feel repetitive, each new area is interesting and feels like something fresh and keeps you wondering whats around each corner.

There is even a map screen which is very helpful, maybe too helpful, it even highlights which doors to use next say if you just picked up a key it will then flash a door red. I found myself glancing at this map screen very often as the game progressed because there does tend to be quite a lot of backtracking later in the game, something which I don't mind as its a staple of the genre and makes the game less liner and more like an actual locational puzzle to explore and solve.

Early on you do some light puzzle solving, like adjusting clocks going back and forth getting various key items medallions and switches. Outside of the mansion is this big sprawling courtyard segment, this is actually perhaps the biggest part of the game. Much of the game is spent travelling back and forth in these outdoor segments, possibly too much time as it does start to drag here and there with everything looking the same after awhile but it's fine because you end up returning to the mansion anyway.

The most surprising part of the game is that it starts introducing all sorts of strange fantasy elements, which I'm not so fond of. These blue portals open up in various spots around the game world. almost like Diablo 2 portals, and you go inside and its this magical safe room but this time there IS a storage box where you can actually store items and even access these items across portals! So as I said previously about the shocking twist with the lack of storage boxes, this is it. Its weird they don't exist in any of the non-portal saferooms, questionable design choice really. Something else very interesting is inside these blue portal saferooms also -  a fancy magic box you can interact with where you can even pickup ANY dropped item ANYWHERE in the game.

This drastically changes how you play the game. Now, anytime you find an item, you can just immediately drop it and you know that the next time you find a portal room you can then instantly transfer it over and store it away safely. I'm not sure how I feel about this, its almost cheap and tacky in a way. It makes it so you just start picking up every single item no matter what, and then dropping it immediately if you dont need it asap. Would of been nice to retain some of that tension of the feeling of having to leave items behind and come back for them later, thats gone now.

The strangest part of all is with this magic item cube, it seems like transfering dropped items is supposed to cost some currency called SE. Spiritual Essence. Except, the ENTIRE game every single ground item always costed me 0 spiritual essence. Whats the point then? The only other thing to spend this currency on are like, 3 locked weapons and some super expensive optional key. The entire game I saw zero purpose for this Spiritual Essence currency, which you obtain by defeating certain enemies. A very baffling mechanic which I don't really get at all. It actually would have been cool if there was some decision making involved in choosing to transfer over ground items if it actually did cost resources, why is it always 0? Does it only cost resources on the highest difficulty? I think thats a mistake and a design flaw, personally, even on Normal it should have costed  something.

Still, its fun to find these portal rooms and the ability to magically grab any dropped item is unique for sure.

Other areas in the game feature a cemetery with a bunch of crypts and catacombs which are creepy and has cult ritual stuff going on which further adds intrigue to the plot.

Theres a sort of castle ruin segment where you go into the sewers and do the first boss fight I guess youd call it where it introduces new enemies, these monsters that come out of orange portals. By this point youve found the Shotgun which is great and satisfying, and makes quick work of this miniboss. After this, as you run around , probably the most bullshit part of the game is these monsters can just spawn right ontop of it from these orange portals almost always making you take damage which feels cheap and unfair. Still, the shotgun kills them in 2 shots, first one stuns them. You have to then drop some holy water on them to permanently kill them, an item that is limited use with a % but I never came close to running out since you can refill it quite commonly. I guess this is another reference to Resident evil 1 remake and having to light Crimson Heads on fire after killing them, but in this game its nowhere near as intense. Something about these enemies spawning ontop of you just annoyed me the whole game.

The worst segment in the game is when you go through this portal from the sewers and its this floating otherworld, a fantasy segment. Thats where you get the Divine holy water item, but worst of all are the puzzles here involving very cryptic dials matching up symbols, and then another puzzle with these triangles which I just found the whole segment to be obtuse and downright tedious and annoying so I eventually had to look up the solutions. Maybe I missed something, I don't know but I didn't like that segment. I don't really love much of the fantasy elements at all really, it feels a bit out of place. I get its all about this cult, but still it felt a bit cartoony rather than horrific.

The funniest parts of the game is that for a few brief segments you find another guy called Paul who acts as your sidekick, but hes so few and far between its like whats the point? Theres a cutscene in the ruins where you chat with him and hes a detective, he gives you a belt to hold more slots (you also get a backpack earlier, in total bringing your inventory to 8 slots) , then shortly after this you play a segment as paul which is amusingly in first person. Youre just in his detective office looking around for clues and case files while listening to the radio, thats it, thats the whole segment. Its just funny its in first person. Thats pretty much the last you see of this second character until the very end of the game. Felt a bit shoehorned in honestly.


After this its a lot of backtracking around the gardens and greenhouses, you come across this other boss that shows up repeatedly called the Gravekeeper which is exciting and fun, you go to a bunch of these cabins in the outback woods find a Bow gun, here a got a bit stuck because there are these magical stones you need to interact with but I could not interact with it because I had missed some item somewhere, a note with special symbols, I had to look up where to find this unfortunately and that was a bit tedious.

Then the main goal from this part of the game is to find like 6 Medallions to put into a building in the graveyard to open up some crypt. So its a lot of backtracking from here, still I found it engaging and theres even a sewage system which is basically a fast travel between various parts of the game, although I felt like the sewage area could have had some more memorable landmarks to differenciate the different tunnels because I ended up accidentally going in circles since each tunnel almost looks the same which I found annnoying.

At this point you unlock a building in the gravyard and progress through the catacombs back to an elevator which leads back to the mansion
Then you do Mansion part 2, just like Resident Evil 1.

Resident Evil 1 has Hunters in Mansion part 2,  and in this game its Cultists. A nice twist.
Areas that were previously unlocked are now locked, some areas are now suddenly unlocked, and new segments of the mansion open up to explore.
It all comes together to make a cohesive and exciting experience almost keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole time. It was fun to go back and forth finding all the new doors I can open now, and finding keys to finally uncover what some of these doors led to.

The cultists are threatening and fun too, they can throw axes at you, mumble spooky languages while walking towards you, they have a lot more health than zombies so it involves decision making which gun to use on them, usually the shotgun or Bow gun works okay too, there are some fun puzzles in this mansion such as a number puzzle with statues, maybe the only gripe with this segment is there really is a lot of backtracking and it gets pretty confusing. Like the front mansion door is locked now and you have to go back outside through a side courtyard entrance and I missed having to use the Imitation Lion head and that took me through a loop for awhile.

You even have to basically go through almsot the entire outdoors segment again as Outdoors part 2, its like replaying the whole game again respinned. Its maybe a bit too much and bit repetitive, but this is admittedly a nitpick, I honestly cant find too much to complain about with this game besides the odd fantasy elements and excessive backtracking and some bad puzzles.

At least in the Outdoors part 2 segments, there is that Gravekeeper boss that appears and chases you around a few more times which was quite fun.

Eventually after getting all the medallions going through Mansion part 2, Outdoors part 2, you go through a swamp area and find a cabin with your daughter locked in a cage. It amusingly gives you like 1 minute to find a key to save her while you get attacked from outside, almost like the beginning area from Resident Evil 4, another reference. Its not really enough time to find the key, it should of been 2 minutes but thats where the auto-save comes in.

Not long after this you have another funny segment with the other friendly Paul character - this time its a full blown survival action segment. You play as him in Fixed Camera angle, in a little set village, you have two revolvers and theres just ammo everywhere as you get swarmed by all enemies in the game for like 5 minutes all you have to really do is just survive, its a funny little segment, I guess they needed some excuse to pop him back into the gameplay.

Then theres the final area of the game, you take a boat to some island and the most intuitive route is to go straight ahead and theres a helicoptor, of course the helicoptor is what you wanna do right? The paul guy is there and asks if youll go with  him. I naturally say yeah obviously. Turns out this is the VERY BAD ending, like he just arrests you and you end up taking your own life. Ouch. At least I saved before hand so I loaded my save and found out you can find a note and then go back to the boat and it unlocks a whole other big castle segment which is like the coolest area of the game. This is a straight up Nosferatu dracula castle, you go into the cathedral and see the big bad cult leader boss guy and fight your way through his castle, its awesome. Its pretty straight forward and not too long winded, find a few key items unlock an elevator, you find the room that the magic box has been taking you to all along which was cool to find, and then you get the final actual boss battle. Its just funny this whole area is kinda hidden and a bit unintuitive to get through. To think some people missed it is just sad.

The last boss is very similar to other Resident Evil boss fights, especially the Resident Evil 1 fight. Its a big hulking tyrant guy, I just blasted him with my shotgun and Explosive bow rounds and just like RE1 the ally (Paul) shows up and throws a big rocket launcher type gun to you to finish the boss off with. This gets end credits , and this is the Good ending. Theres other endings I didn't see also, but this seemed to be the canon one because you survive the ordeal, paul doesnt turn you in and instead helps you, and you even get your daughter back who turns out was under the spell of the cult.

So thats Them and Us. I think its a pretty damn underrated game. Only has 1000 reviews on steam, and Recent reviews are even mixed. Why dont people like this game? I thought it was actually kind of awesome. The locations are well done, the mansion is atmospheric and memorable, theres a lot of variety in enemies and areas, it has tons of classic callbacks and it perfectly sets that 90s Survival Horror vibe with good Fixed camera angles and controls, theres a bunch of Replayability , theres New game +, you can unlock lots of costumes, theres other areas only avalible in New game + , other mysteries to discover and secrets to unlock, Its a good game! I'm surprised its not more well known. I get that its indie and it doesn't feel as quite polished and high quality as bigger budget games, but once you get past the initial impression of slight jank it really pays off.

8/10