Hysteria Project 2 has all of the elements needed for a great horror game: excellent sense of dread and panic, great atmospherics, and a good story. But it just bludgeons you with death scenes that constantly rip you out of the experience. When constructing a world this interesting, Bulkypix should be trying to keep the player fully engaged in it. That’s how fear is made.
GB: "Hysteria Project 2 will remind you of Dragons Lair and Heavy Rain, except the latter is a really good ‘game’. There is hardly any gameplay here and requires a lot of trial and error, and has a horror theme, which should have been obvious from the title. It’s comprised completely of cutscenes and has a few puzzles and some interactivity element. Also, it’s one of the worst games I have played this year."
PushSquare: "In many ways Hysteria Project 2 is a step-backwards. In trying to flesh out the ideas established in its predecessor, BulkyPix has crafted a game with more ambition and less polish, resulting in a frustrating mess of trial-and-error puzzles."
ATemporaryDistraction.com: "With the golden age of survival horror ending with the PS2 and the genre’s top franchises either falling off the map (like Fatal Frame/Project Zero, whose fourth entry never officially made it outside of Japan) or embracing action over scares (like Resident Evil 5), next-gen console frights are becoming fewer and farther between. Gaming horror fans sadly have to take what they can get, even if it’s a PlayStation Mini title. But while Hysteria Project 2 has some creepy potential on paper, on PSP it’s a disappointingly inert game burdened by painfully awkward controls and a lack of engaging gameplay."
