Welcome to Hanwell is a game that has all the potential to be a survival horror on the fringes of a city infested by monstrosities, and its atmospheric composition by James Elsey has captured that essence.

Unfortunately, there are some negative features, such as the extremely unbalanced weapon combat system, where only a sword with two hits and a frying pan(?) with one hit will benefit you in this exploration. The creatures will often give crazy respawns in front of you and if you don't have one of these weapons, you'd better run or prepare for a painful 4 hits. The music is often mixed with other music or when you run away from a creature it continues to play around you even if you're already safe. The locations, which are too constructive in their attempt to bring the horror of Hanwell to life, tend to be a little deformed in their graphics, in order to consummate the loss of that atmospheric essence.

In short, it's a game that has an interesting proportionality in terms of surviving, exploring and collecting, but it has certain flaws that don't give it the qualification it deserves.

So much wasted potential. This is not a sub-par survival horror game with an open world concept, although the majority of this open world is filled unnecessary with tons of places you cannot explore simply for the sake of making the game seem bigger than it is.

You'll spend most of your time running around trying to find a building you can enter and instead getting blown up by random bombs placed all around the map. the first 4 enemies I encountered I didnt even have to fight because they would just walk into one of these numerous bombs. In fact the first bomb I came accross in the tutorial I had to let kill me. You have to let it kill you in order to teach you that "hey you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up but guess what you can disarm bombs". Even going back and trying to disarm it it would still blow up in my face. wtf

The music is amped up pretty much the entire time, completely breaking any immersion since it's always playing as if theres an enemy near you, which while there may be, nost of the time I simply take a glance around, see nothing, and continue on my way.

Combat is clunky, movement is horrible. The sprint button makes you feel as if your speed walking instead of sprinting. Not sure if theres a stealth system and if there is it is terrible. Tons of random melee weapons yet no indication of which one are better or any stats on them. This game could have used a lean system to peak around corners. At least for the opening part. Once you get to the big open world in daylight you simply run around and run away if you see anything.

The open world gives you no indication of where to go except the first building your tasked to explore, but even if you didn't want to start there and want to explore elsewhere first theres still no indication of which buildings you may enter. after wandering around the city for 20 minutes I just got bored because there was nothing interesting outside and the only building i found that I could enter was a store where I pucked up a battery for my flashlight (no scares or enemies).

This game could have been so much more. When I saw the first gameplay demo I was hoping for a survival horror on par with Darkwood where you have to get resources and manage your house for the darkness while also uncovering the story behind the town. Instead you just run around in the foggy void of nothingness going from place to place to collect whatever the game wants you to with some lackluster scares and enemies here and there.

Do not spend you money on this game. It is far to overpriced for what you are getting. If you want a good survival horror go buy Darkwood if you don't already have it.

Welcome To Hanwell (WTH) is a first person horror adventure set in the present time, taking place in the mysterious city of Hanwell, UK, which has recently been struck by a series of disturbing events. Players impersonate an unnamed prisoner escaped from an underground dungeon, only to find himself roaming the desolated streets of Hanwell, by then only populated by monsters and strange anomalies. Driven by a series of clues and recordings, it will be up to you to find all the six pieces of the key needed to access the Council Building, maybe the last safe place in the city, and find the truth.

🟩 Pros

• Completely open-world freedom of movement from the start, with many hidden locations and collectibles to find, which unlock secret areas.
  
• The atmosphere of some indoor locations is well done and truly delivers a sense of constant dread.

🟥 Cons

• Combat is clunky, boring and unreliable: soon becomes a hindrance to the overall experience.
  
• No audio options at all. Music cannot be removed if a player so desires, and it's deafening most of the time.
  
• The map is 90% made up of filler areas you cannot have any interaction with.
  
• Atmosphere of several indoor locations and the outside world is crippled by bad lighting and omnipresent fog.
  
• Indirect narration style is poorly made and ends up making the whole story a confusing, nonsensical mess.
  
• Several other game design problems that further cripple the experience.

Click here for the complete Rating Chart

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2020871224

Let's start with the (few) good sides of WTH. One of the most positive aspects of this horror experience is that, unlike many other games of this kind, after a short introduction it allows players to completely roam the world as they please. The fact it does not force them into a specific path is interesting and not something usually seen in this genre, and adds a sense of freedom. Collectibles are plenty and unlock certain areas when all are found. The atmosphere of certain indoor locations, mostly the ones related to the story, is well done and truly results fear-inducing most of the time, as it should be.

For the bad parts there is a lot more to say. One of the worst parts of the experience is combat, which is poorly executed and soon becomes an annoyance rather than an engaging part of gameplay. All weapons deal the same damage, enemy variety is poor with just three foes, blocking doesn't seem to work half of the time, while enemy damage seem to be random, at times insta-killing you wile others doing small damage. The fact there aren't any kinds of audio options is inexcusable even for the most basic Indie game and here the inability to remove the extremely repetitive, deafening music is a real pain.

Freedom is nice, but becomes stale when you realize the map is made up of mostly filler areas with zero interactivity: piles upon piles of barred-off houses and factories, while they all also feel kinda same-y and this further dulls the exploration. In contrast with the excellent atmosphere of the "main" locations, the outside and most secondary places instead have a horrible "glossy" look due to stock Unreal 4 lighting, and an omnipresent fog that makes a very good job at hiding the details of just about everything.

The story is initially mysterious and has a good incipit but then becomes sloppy and quite a mess. This because, despite using an indirect narrative style, the game puzzles together many events and facts too detached from each other and that do not complete a larger vision as they should. As a result, players will find themselves into an increasingly confusing plot. Other game design issues include weapons unable to being stored and disappearing on loading a save or exiting a building of dropped at the entrance, unlimited stamina outside but limited inside structures.

Overall, WTH is a mediocre horror game that has some unusual good points but also too many other problems, and in the end results sub-par at best. It took me around 5 hours to explore the map thoroughly though not finding every single collectible, and finish the game. Priced at 12,49€, with mediocre quality and no replay value, I suggest avoiding this title.

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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2020985260

🎮 Gameplay Analysis
The gameplay of WTH is divided into Exploration, Puzzles and Combat.

Exploration
Is performed on foot, either running or just walking. The fact stamina is unlimited outside makes it easier to escape monsters while it being limited inside buildings where you rarely will fight makes no sense and exploration more tedious. While exploring you can use any transition from outside to inside, or static ATMs, to save your game. Once in a certain radius from an interactive building it will be highlighted on the map, which is a 3D representation of Hanwell seen from top-down. Inside and outside you'll find three types of collectibles each unlocking a secret area once all are found, for completionists. While exploring, enemies or anomalies will spawn around you and either fighting or avoiding are viable options.

Puzzles
Are mostly found inside buildings and usually are about finding a code, key, or using items in the correct way to open a locked passage. No puzzle results overly difficult and most are related to being attentive while exploring in order to find the key clue to solving it all.

Combat
Is only melee, and very basic at that. Whether you're wielding a sword or a cooking pan, the damage will always be the same, killing most foes in four blows and weaker ones in just two. Blocking works sometimes and reduces greatly enemy damage: attacking between attack patterns is fundamental to not get hit yourself while scoring a blow, as your character has little HP. The damage dealt by enemies is inconsistent and sometimes you'll just get 1-shot there and then. Enemies do not give any reward for defeating them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2020871934

🔩 Technical
PC Specs: RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM DDR4
The game has no stability or performance issues to note and runs well in 1440p on this config. There are no options to disable blur, film grain and other distortion effects from the menu, as it requires manual editing of .ini game files. There are no audio options (!). Teleporting enemies, in particular the final boss itself can glitch out of the map and become permanently bugged.

Welcome to Hanwell is a mediocre horror adventure that has its few good points smashed by a load of other issues and bad game design choices. Overall a sub-par game that has no reason to be purchased with many other better alternatives on the market.

Why are there bombs on the floor literally everywhere in the game? In the ~50 times I've died in the game I think that all but maybe 5 were from getting blown up. So almost the entire game you are doing only two things:

1. Searching for a key, button or item to open the next locked door
2. Defusing every single bomb you see along the way

This gets repetitive and boring after 1 hour. There are enemies but you almost rarely have to deal with them.

The price point and game length are good but it just gets way too frustrating to enjoy.

You’re thrust into a scenario that doesn’t quite make sense at first. I still don’t understand what’s going on as the story looks to be told through notes, recordings, and things strewn about the world. It’s bad enough that I don’t often see these items, so running around and away from enemies is all I could do. The moments where I did pick up items that opened up the story more, it only left me feeling more confused.

It plays like any other horror like this: Go here, kill/avoid this monster, pick up this key that goes to a door you have zero idea is located but you’ll eventually stumble upon as you run from heck knows what, and then listen/read these scraps of newspaper clippings that foreshadow a story you’re still having to piece together.

These audio logs, however, are top quality voicework. If I could just listen to the story from start to finish through these logs, that would be preferable. I enjoyed piecing what little of the story I could through these logs as they were chilling and the voice acting superb.

The world feels way too big and way too empty. There aren’t even that many enemies in the football field sized area you’re turned loose in. In other open world horrors, there existed a depth and a sense of dread as you slowly make your way through the streets. Not the case in Hanwell. The roads, buildings, and sometimes objects all looked similar and muddy. It was unvaried.

The monsters were creepy, but combat was extremely lackluster. Sometimes the hitboxes didn’t register and when they did, it was far off where it should’ve been. Hits feel hollow and there’s no sense of ‘YEA, HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW SUCKA’ kind of feeling when you kill things. Combat is dull and uninspiring.

I also ran into a few bugs that others have mentioned. Freezing, game won’t start, unable to interact with objects or the environment. While not game breaking, these were frustrating to deal with and did happen more often than they should in a finished game.

I can’t recommend this game. The bugs, while not exactly game breaking, don’t help this already empty and unfulling horror. The sluggish often disappointing combat, the tedious trek around a huge map, and the convoluted story don’t make for a game that I’d revisit any time soon.

Good little open world to explore. Also nice atmosphere with the town having just that little SIlent Hill feeling to it...

But that is where it ENDS. Instead of giving the player real weapons, you only get crap weapons and for some reason you have to drop them when entering a building??? What about giving us the good old pistol or shotgun?

But it doesn't end there, the enemies are annoying as hell so you are supposed to be running from them, it would be okay if the enemies didn't teleport all over the place and the combat wasn't broken + you run so slow it's no use to even try to outrun any enemies.

This games fails on too many aspects, they could have made a nice and entertaining game out of this. But instead for some reason there are some weird game design decisions that completely ruin the game(for me at least).

Cannot recommend, maybe on sale, but be prepared to play an unpolished game.

The idea of the game is fun, but the execution is full of weird quirks.
-Can run unlimited amount outside, but get exhausted very quickly inside
-Flashlight is Mandatory in some areas but the Flashlight run off of battery after less than a minute
-Combat is weird without real indication of damage on you or them, dying has no set backs outside of teleporting you to the nearest save point
-2 sections where you need to run away but the enemy is as fast as you, so any error or door opening kills you
-A lot of doors open the wrong way, meaning you need to clip in the wall
-Weapons randomly spawn but you cant fight without one and Witches enemy kill you easily
-Bugged achievements would make this game annoying to any achievement hunter

It feels like someone tried to make a game but didnt actually intend for anyone to enjoy playing it

Welcome to Hanwell is a survival exploration horror game.

I had the game on my wishlist for quite a while, once I got to actually play it I got disappointed unfortunately. It looked promising...

There are couple of gripes I have with the game:
- Huge map populated with what seem to be assets that are being sold on some store. It still feels empty as there is nothing going on.
- Game mechanics make no sense, eg. you can't enter buildings with weapons(?)
- Textures issues, clipping issues.
- Scares are basically jump scares which make my heart go to my heel. I don't like that, I don't want to get a heart attack.
- Tons of collectibles for no reason except for prolonging the game.
- Backtracking.......

So what you are going to do is walk around a dead town, enter buildings where jump scares will get to you and repeat until you go through all buildings. I got quite bored after I went through the hospital. It feels like a chore to go further and I'd rather not do it.

Just a review of Welcome to Hanwell.
What can I say? Atmospheric, moody and creepy, with a dash of frustrating and pointless.
The Story is interesting enough to try to find out whats up, and the progress through what you are Supposed to do is pointed out easily in the first of the game. Collect 6 pieces of something.
Sure, but when you only run like a drunken sailor for a BURST of Running, you get a 'gassless' half-lope.
I swear I ran better totally Drunk. I had to keep hitting the shift button INCESSANTLY, and as Fast as you could but to no avail, and you die.
Randomly appearing things, uh,.. doors that aren't operational, but cute, Running at the speed of 'Talk'.
I had to re-think whats Cool in a game. Is it Cool to have atmosphere and mood, Without control? NO!
That is the Theme of my Review: Cool is NOT 'pretty', 'Cool' is Fun, and Screw the difficulty, without the Thorazine.
Some Game Devs are So out of tune with the Casual gamer.
Meaning: This game is pretty, Frustrating; technically, along with the games glitches, no saving is possible, so, No I wouldnt recommend it.
I like you and dont want you as upset as I was when this game lost its mind.
I believe it was a mercy killing. My PC put me out of my misery.
Thank you PC, you're my only friend.