2016 ended for me with a bang, as I had the displeasure to play the now infamous Honour_And_Duty:_Arcade_Edition, a game so bad, I’m still baffled to this day by the fact that this monstrosity managed to get onto the PlayStation store. However, now that we’ve entered the year of our lord, 2017, I’m full of hope that things will change, and that they will do so for the better, as it is time to put a stop to the endless stream of half assed ‘indie games’ which clock-out at 10 frames per second, and crash every minute or so.
So far 2017 was rather tame, as for the most part it was a host to only a handful of titles, which hold any significance, and such state of affairs allowed other, smaller games to catch attention of gamers around the world. One of such titles, of a lesser stature, is Pineview Drive, a horror adventure which takes place within a single building over a period of 30 days.
Pineview Drive opens with a spectacular scene where the player character is standing in front of the titular Pineview mansion, and as he approaches, all on screen textures begin to shake and slowly unravel, as the majority of objects pops into focus only when the player him/herself is standing no more than a metre away. This occurs most commonly when one walks around the mansion, as all doors and windows are invisible whenever they are ”too” far away, which in this case is about a single metre, sometimes two.
Texture popping, and overall lack of visual quality can be jarring, and incredibly distracting at times, but it is not as bad as the framerate which is atrocious throughout the entirety of the title. When outside, frame rates can reach a stable 20fps, if one is not turning the camera too quickly, but once the player enters the building and starts lighting candles, using the flashlight, and rapidly turning whenever exiting the room, it all goes downhill. Pineview Drive can turn into a literal slideshow whenever the player leaves a brightly lit room, and rapidly enters a darkened corridor, at times it gets so laughably bad, that the title just freezes for a couple of seconds, and only readjusts after a while pointing the player character in a random direction.
Drastic frame drops upon traversal wouldn’t be as significant, if not for the fact that an eternity of Pineview Drive revolves around exploration of a building which is filled with countless rooms, corridors, and halls. And due to the horror nature of the title, all candles and lights are constantly being disabled by supernatural beings, meaning that even if player turns on all available light sources in order to avoid the framerate dropping into the gutter, the game will make sure to interfere and make things worse.
When it comes to making things worse, Pineview Drive ensures the gameplay is as insufferable as humanly possible at each and every opportunity. During my first playthrough, which lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, my player character, when walking through the bushes has stepped onto a twig, and because of that has slipped into thin air, meaning that because of that I couldn’t proceed as I was stuck in place, unable to move an inch. Upon hard reset of the playthrough I’ve made it a bit further, however, once I came across a scripted event, I got stuck yet again, as a jumpscare which should have triggered a subsequent event did not occur, and ultimately I got stuck in a room, and had to replay all the previous days one more time.
Ultimately, Pineview Drive is a title which is neither interesting enough, or polished enough to be released at any price. With its endless arsenal of bugs, glitches, and other lesser imperfections, it is nothing more than a simple cash grab, just like the previously mentioned Honor_And_Duty:_Arcade_Edition, and Joe’s Diner, which coincidentally was also published by United Independent Entertainment GMBH. In short, Pineview Drive is a title which should be avoided at all cost, as even the most committed fans of the horror genre, will find it deplorable, as the horror aspect of Pineview Drive is laughable at its best, and cringeworthy at its worst.