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The Initiate 2: The First Interviews

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews Game Cover
91%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:story, graphics
Most mentioned negative aspects:gameplay, stability
91% User Score Based on 85 reviews

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PCMac OSWindows
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The Initiate 2: The First Interviews Game Cover

About The Initiate 2: The First Interviews

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews is a single player shooter game with horror, mystery and violence themes. It was developed by Deceptive Games Ltd. and was released on October 16, 2018. It received very positive reviews from players.

Three people awake in adjacent prison cells with no recollection of how they got there. Now, they must work together in order to escape this nightmarish captivity. But can they really trust one another?

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Reviews

91%Audience ScoreBased on 85 reviews
story9 positive mentions
stability8 negative mentions
  • Engaging and challenging puzzle design with good variety and complexity, requiring logical thinking and cooperation between three characters.
  • Well-crafted atmospheric setting with immersive sound design and voice acting that enhances the psychological mystery and tension.
  • Innovative gameplay mechanic involving multiple characters trapped in separate rooms, exchanging items and clues, adding depth to the escape room genre.
  • Technical issues including bugs, glitches, and clunky user interface that sometimes hinder progression and enjoyment.
  • Lack of polish with outdated graphics, missing quality-of-life features such as adjustable audio and control settings, and occasional spelling and localization errors.
  • Some puzzles and riddles can be frustrating due to vague wording, design flaws, or requiring external walkthroughs to solve, detracting from the overall experience.

  • story

    24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    38% positive mentions, 49% neutral mentions, 13% negative mentions

    The story is more developed and engaging than its predecessor, offering a dark, mysterious narrative with interesting characters and a twist ending, though some find it predictable or poorly written. It unfolds through exploration, notes, and sparse voice acting, adding atmosphere to the escape-room style puzzles. Overall, while the story enhances the experience, it remains secondary to the gameplay and puzzle design.

    • “The story begins with three strangers awakening in isolated cells within what appears to be an underground facility.”
    • “There's a dark story that's fun to unravel and the entire experience feels like some Twilight Zone episode gone wrong and distilled into an old school point-and-click adventure that just so happens to play out in real-time FPS.”
    • “You'll uncover bits of the story as you open up more rooms, read notes and meet the other characters trapped in this underground drunk tank.”
    • “The story is laughably poorly written.”
    • “However, the story is too obvious; I figured out way too early the 'connection' between Sam and Ben.”
    • “When it comes to story, the first game was lacking; this one tries a bit harder but the one good thing about a lack of story is that the game doesn't need to make perfect sense.”

  • gameplay

    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    14% positive mentions, 72% neutral mentions, 14% negative mentions

    The gameplay combines escape-room style puzzles with a psychological narrative, emphasizing observation, reasoning, and methodical exploration. A standout feature is the innovative multiple-character mechanic, allowing item sharing and information exchange, which adds depth and complexity to puzzle-solving. However, the experience is marred by technical issues such as a clunky interface, bugs, and occasional slow or unresponsive controls.

    • “With its escape-room style mechanics and narrative built around secrecy and moral judgment, the game aims to immerse players in a tense situation where observation and reasoning become the most valuable tools.”
    • “By blending escape-room mechanics with a psychological narrative, it offers a distinctive experience that will appeal particularly to players who enjoy methodical exploration and intellectually demanding gameplay.”
    • “The multiple characters mechanic adds a lot to the gameplay (sharing information and items).”
    • “The puzzles are mostly great (except for the riddles) and there is a welcome new twist to the gameplay, but all the quality issues of the first game continue: clunky user interface, clicks not registering, bugs, broken English text, etc. If anything this sequel seems even less polished than the first game.”
    • “Even with the resolution down as far as it could reasonably go and all the bells and whistles turned off (except anti-aliasing, which wouldn't let me turn off; it kept being checked even after I unchecked and restarted the game many times), gameplay is still too slow and jagged to be feasible.”
    • “I had to use a guide three times - once to find an item that requires using a mechanic that's extremely poorly designed; once to learn that some event was bugged and required a restart; and once to solve a puzzle that has the completely wrong solution (but then it turns out to be unnecessary, it just gives you the password for some ARG I'm not interested in).”

  • graphics

    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 33% neutral mentions, 17% negative mentions

    The graphics are generally considered passable and effective in conveying the game's atmosphere and setting, though not on par with high-budget titles. Some users note a drop in quality compared to the previous installment, with occasional technical and design flaws, but overall the visuals support the immersive experience without detracting from gameplay.

    • “While the graphics may not rival those of large-budget productions, the design of the facility effectively conveys the feeling of a hidden underground location built for secret purposes.”
    • “It features a system of choices matter with multiple endings, a multitude of puzzles to solve, multi-character control, well-done graphics and sound to aid in an immersive experience.”
    • “Graphics and music were good just like the first, except the people, their graphics weren't as well done as the environment around you but again, wasn't something that took away from the gameplay.”
    • “The graphics are just terrible as well.”
    • “Right out the gate I knew I was in trouble - no cancel button or any method of cancelling in the graphics menu, no audio settings, etc. The usual careless basic mistakes you see in some of these games.”
    • “Graphics could be way better - I understand that this game is larger and more complex than the first one, but the drop in the graphics is significant.”

  • atmosphere

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 25% neutral mentions, 25% negative mentions

    The game's atmosphere is praised for its strong environmental design and sound, creating a tense and eerie mood that enhances the mysterious narrative. Cooperative problem-solving and thoughtful pacing further deepen the immersive experience, making it engaging and rewarding. Overall, the atmosphere is described as compelling and well-crafted, though not necessarily creepy.

    • “The environment itself contributes heavily to the game’s atmosphere.”
    • “Its emphasis on cooperative problem solving between multiple characters, combined with a mysterious narrative and a tense atmosphere, creates an engaging experience that rewards patience and logical thinking.”
    • “The eerie atmosphere is great.”
    • “The atmosphere was not creepy.”
    • “Dreary atmosphere adds to the experience.”

  • stability

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game experiences several bugs and glitches, including occasional game-breaking issues requiring restarts and an unsolvable riddle due to developer oversight. While some players find it largely playable with minor issues, overall stability is compromised by persistent bugs and lack of thorough testing.

    • “A few bugs and glitches here and there; a couple of times I had to restart from my last saving point because I glitched out of the game and couldn't move.”
    • “Games like this that are glitchy or buggy are just not worth buying if developers do not take the time to properly test and patch before the final release.”
    • “Not quite so buggy, although one of the riddles is unsolvable due to a failure of the developers to add up correctly—you'll need to look up the answer.”

  • music

    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    The game's music is generally subtle and engaging, effectively enhancing the atmosphere and tension. However, some users find the soundtrack annoying and wish for volume customization options to better balance with other game sounds. Overall, the music is well-produced but could benefit from more audio control features.

    • “The soundtrack remains subtle for most of the game, allowing the tension of the situation to build naturally as players explore and attempt to solve the increasingly difficult puzzles.”
    • “The voice acting was professionally done and the soundtrack is engaging, making me want to keep my headphones on.”
    • “Graphics and music were good just like the first, except the people; their graphics weren't as well done as the environment around you but again, it wasn't something that took away from the gameplay.”
    • “Started playing, got annoyed by the weird music that you can't turn off.”
    • “The only minus is that I would have wanted to adjust the music volume a little bit lower to hear other game sounds better.”
    • “But that's just the only negative thing I can think about... except for the music.”

  • grinding

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Grinding can be somewhat tedious and time-consuming, especially with inventory management and item swapping, which some find confusing. However, the mechanic for sharing items between rooms is praised as ingenious and adds complexity to puzzle-solving, enhancing the overall experience despite occasional tediousness.

    • “That at times could be a little tedious, but for me it didn't take away from the game; it could just be time-consuming and somewhat confusing trying to remember who has what items.”
    • “I think I preferred the first game mostly because there was none of the inventory swapping, which, while clever, was also tedious at times.”
    • “Even if it gets a tiny bit tedious, the mechanic for sharing items between rooms is quite ingenious and adds a whole new level of complexity to solving the varied puzzles in each area.”

  • optimization

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Users note that despite the game's impressive graphics, its optimization is lacking, resulting in less smooth performance compared to other visually similar games.

  • humor

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor is characterized by amusing grammatical and spelling errors that add a comedic charm to the experience.

  • replayability

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Replayability is limited once all puzzles are solved, appealing mainly to those interested in speedrunning rather than repeated casual play.

    • “After completing all the puzzles, the chances of replayability drop to nothing unless you enjoy speedrunning.”
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Play Times

5h Median play time
5h Average play time
5-5h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews is a shooter game with horror, mystery and violence themes. Common tags for The Initiate 2: The First Interviews include indie, female protagonist, psychological, atmospheric, psychological horror and others.

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews is available on PC, Mac OS and Windows.

On average players spend around 5 hours playing The Initiate 2: The First Interviews.

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews was released on October 16, 2018.

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews was developed by Deceptive Games Ltd..

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews has received very positive reviews from players. Most players liked The Initiate 2: The First Interviews for its story but disliked it for its gameplay.

The Initiate 2: The First Interviews is a single player game.

Similar games include The Initiate, The Guest, Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder, Quern: Undying Thoughts, The Inheritance of Crimson Manor and others.