Ever since the success of I’m on Observation Duty and The Exit 8, the number of observational horror games has grown exponentially. These are games that require players to spot anomalies and report them in order to progress. Captured 2, developed by Puck Redflix and published by Puck Games, is the newest entry in this popular horror subgenre.

After a brief introduction in which our protagonist escapes a strange entity, all viewed through the lens of a camcorder, we enter the hallway of a house. To break free from the loop and escape through the exit, we must carefully search for anomalies hidden throughout the environment. Failing to do so restarts the loop.

These anomalies can range from tiny, easy to miss details, such as a small object disappearing from one of the rooms, to massive, outright impossible changes like entire rooms shifting, writing appearing on the walls, or entrances to rooms vanishing completely. There is a good range of anomalies, so each loop does a good job of feeling different, keeping you on your toes.

When you detect an anomaly, you must correctly tag it using the list provided. This drains your battery, but thankfully, you can find more while exploring. Getting it wrong will also restart the loop, which led to a few frustrating mistakes on my end.

More than once, I misidentified a cluttered room full of displaced objects as a deformed room, when in reality it was simply classified as an object out of place. Other anomaly types include lighting fluctuations, electronic disturbances, and water changes.​

Now, if I could take my time, finding the anomalies would be fairly easy. Unfortunately, you aren’t alone. Entities can appear, and if you don’t react correctly, the loop will reset. One of the more memorable examples is the very hilariously named Ring-a-Ding, a terrifying telephone that moves through the hallway.

Thankfully, simply ducking into one of the nearby rooms is enough to avoid it. Other entities require more specific reactions, such as keeping your flashlight pointed directly at them or remaining completely silent. Some encounters even make use of your actual microphone, forcing you to stay quiet in real life.

Some rooms completely change, becoming Backrooms sections using familiar locations such as pools, indoor climbing parks, and the classic yellow rooms. Exploring these tends to offer a bit more narrative, and you can find items in there, too. Burning them adds a buff to future runs, like lowering the spawn rate of one of the entities.

Later days introduce additional mechanics, such as a sanity bar that slowly drains the longer you remain in the current cycle. It adds a strong sense of tension, especially as you discover more and more anomalies.

By the time you reach something like 10 out of 13 anomalies found, the pressure becomes intense, and the last thing you want to do is make a mistake and restart the loop. It naturally encourages a far more cautious playstyle and works as an effective psychological tool on players.

The game is fairly short, with only four days to complete, but there is enough in there that will cause you to restart that it doesn’t feel as short as it is. There are difficulty options for players who would like an easier challenge if they prefer.

I mentioned earlier that the game is played through the perspective of a camcorder. While the found footage style has been used many times before, modern shaders and lighting tech make it feel more realistic than ever. That is certainly the case with Captured 2. Every room is packed with detail, adding to the unsettling atmosphere and making the anomalies harder to spot at times.

One gripe I did have, however, was with the doors. On PC, opening them can feel a little clunky due to the controls, which becomes especially frustrating during enemy encounters. More than once, I found myself fumbling with a door while trying to escape, only to get caught and be forced to restart the loop.

The sound is solid, and as I mentioned earlier, it even uses your audio to alert monsters, which forces you to be mindful of real-world noise as well. On top of that, the ambient sound design does a lot of work in building atmosphere, distant rumbles, subtle environmental cues, and that classic low hum reminiscent of the backrooms all contribute to a constant sense of unease.

Overall, Captured 2 does what it sets out to, which is to offer a scary observational horror experience. A solid variety of anomalies and entities keeps you on your toes, while the realistic graphics add to that uncanny feeling throughout. However, some clunky controls do slightly hurt the experience.

Written by: Dylan Kocins