For a long time, DreadOut was "locked" exclusively on PC. However, in 2025, the developers finally rectified the situation and released a remaster of the game on PlayStation 4/5 and Nintendo Switch. In the case of any other series, one could hope for significant improvements in graphics and new mechanics, but not in the case of the harsh Indonesian gamemode. Therefore, DreadOut Remastered Collection is still a crooked and oblique entertainment exclusively for horror fans, which, to its credit, is still not without its own charm.
| Game | DreadOut Remastered Collection |
| Genre | horrors |
| Platforms | PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch |
| Languages | English |
| Developer | Digital Happiness |
| Publisher | Soft Source |
| Link | Page on the publisher's website |
The story of DreadOut Remastered Collection revolves around a group of high school students and their teacher who find themselves in an abandoned and neglected city in the middle of a trip to Indonesia. The main character Linda had a dream the night before, in which her best friend was in danger and the world around her was filled with ghosts. The dream gradually turns into reality when night descends on the ghost town and various monsters and other paranormal creatures go on the prowl. Now Linda has to find her missing friends and teacher, and she is especially worried about her best friend, who is in mortal danger.
You can understand whether you will like DreadOut Remastered Collection very quickly. To do this, the developers have created a separate level, which is at the same time a prologue, training and a kind of demonstration of all the key mechanics of the game. During these first twenty minutes, you can see a ghost appearing right behind you without any warning, hack an important plot script that will require you to restart the game, and come across a puzzle whose logic is almost impossible to understand without the game's in-game guide. And even then, you can still get stuck for a few minutes because the game refuses to record your actions properly. Yes, playing DreadOut Remastered Collection is far from a holiday.
However, it should be understood that it's not just the lack of experience of the developers and the extremely small budget. If you look at the horror genre as a whole, you will notice that it has always been dominated by budget projects made literally on the knee and from your own savings. Video game horror is no exception, which is why games like Five Nights at Freddy's and Buckshot Roulette are very popular and have brought their creators a lot of money. However, horror budgeting is not only about the cost of production, but also about creativity, creative freedom, and interesting solutions that are born out of the inability to create an expensive and pretentious production.
These are Sony exclusives like The Last of Us that can bombard players with action scenes and horror demonstrations in full detail. More low-budget horror games have to resort to tricks to scare and grab the player's attention. And even when something goes wrong as the developers intended, for example, a script breaks down or enemies start behaving strangely, everything can be attributed to paranormal events and an increased atmosphere of fear. These are horror games, and they shouldn't be normal and follow the laws of common sense.
It's not just about technical bugs, but also about the deep implementation of everything that works or doesn't work in the game. For example, there is also a strange control when the camera can be controlled using the DualSense touchpad. Moving through the menu items is sometimes illogical, and the sound and visual indication of important moments does not convey what the player needs to know. The developers have made a big bet on the combat system, but it is primitive and inferior to the Fatal Frame that inspired it. When a text guide becomes your biggest friend in a video game, it says a lot about its quality.
At the same time, for a debut horror game, this is still understandable, as it is the reality of game development. Especially in Indonesia, which is not exactly famous for its own PC and console games. However, Digital Happiness has managed to turn DreadOut into a well-known franchise in 10 years, and the game has even received a movie adaptation. DreadOut Remastered Collection could have been an opportunity to fix many problems, if not gameplay, then at least technical ones. But nothing of the sort happened, and sometimes it seems that new bugs have been added to the old ones.
It is not a "remaster" if it lacks significant improvements. Moreover, what kind of a "collection" is it if it doesn't include all the main games in the series. DreadOut Remastered Collection contains the first installment and the standalone DreadOut Keepers of the Dark expansion, which can still be considered a spinoff or a branch, but not a full-fledged standalone game. The more sophisticated and polished DreadOut 2 is not included in the collection. DreadOut Remastered Collection doesn't cost that much, 949 UAH for PlayStation 5, but still, the developers' policy and their attitude towards players may raise questions.
However, if the technical performance of the game didn't scare you off, then you can still enjoy DreadOut Remastered Collection. The main gameplay cycle, which consists of exploring locations, collecting items and notes, as well as battles with enemies and bosses, has long been time-tested and does not cause disgust. The idea that many important things can only be seen through a smartphone camera hasn't exhausted itself either and looks good even in 2025. At the same time, when Linda uses a smartphone, she becomes slower and more clumsy, so she won't be able to walk like that all the time. Such seemingly small but important nuances hide the strengths of DreadOut Remastered Collection, as well as the understanding that the developers were still trying to create a good game, but not some kind of hack job.
In addition, DreadOut Remastered Collection knows how to scare. Of course, when all the elements of the game work properly, which is not always the case, but it does happen. Many of the scary scenes are creative and out-of-the-box, and the monster design is generally the strongest element of the game that other horror developers can look up to. In a world where many horror titles are more likely to cause tension than fear, DreadOut Remastered Collection's ability to scare is already a solid advantage. This is despite the fact that the central plot is rather simple and boring, but it is filled with scenes that will definitely be remembered.
Additionally, Digital Happiness seems to have understood the importance of soft power and promoting their country's culture through video games. That's why DreadOut Remastered Collection perfectly demonstrates the peculiarities of Indonesian culture, folklore and mythology. At the same time, it is not limited to the design of monsters and the legends associated with them. Even the in-game advertisements and various postcards have a lot of interesting nuances.
In general, the more you look at DreadOut Remastered Collection, the more it becomes clear that the developers really put their heart and soul into the game. Perhaps it was this mystical "soul" that helped the game turn into a whole series that found an audience of players despite all the problems. Nevertheless, we can still recommend DreadOut Remastered Collection only with a huge "but". However, horror fans are no strangers to this.
But if you are not one of them, feel free to subtract about three points from the score.