Subversive Memories is a PS1-style survival horror game set during the last days of Brazil’s military dictatorship. It opens with the standard “this is a work of fiction warning”, yet immediately tells you “this is not a work of fiction” upon starting a new game. It’s pretty clear that, supernatural elements aside, the latter warning is the one the devs really meant. Although the events of Subversive Memories did not actually happen, one character is very obviously based on a real person whose disappearance greatly contributed to Brazil’s return to democracy, and you’re clearly meant to come away from this having learned something about a period that is rarely discussed even in Brazil.
In terms of gameplay, Subversive Memories hews very closely to classics like Resident Evil 2. It even opens with a similar roadside scene leading into the game’s main level, and the puzzle style within will be equally familiar. However, instead of getting a gun, you spend the whole game armed only with an industrial flashlight. Enemies are all shadows that are invisible except when illuminated by a lightsource, and you can spend battery power to emit a bright flash and damage them. It seems gimmicky at first, but level lighting gets more creative as the game progresses and fighting invisible enemies in with intermittent or dim ambient light can be tense. My only complaints about the combat are that enemies are slightly too fast to be able to turn and shoot reliably without taking damage, and they sometimes spawn right next to doors when you enter a room, which always feels cheap.
The puzzles are consistently enjoyable. There’s a nice arc where you spend the first half of the game constantly finding more locks and missing items without being able to solve many, and then the second half rapidly gives you the clues you need to put everything together. There’s a good variety of puzzle types, too. Some are simple number puzzles, while others give you clues about how to use a piece of art you found somewhere else in the level. Quite a few of them even make use of bizarre animal drawings from an actual 1930s Brazilian advertising campaign that you can find scattered around.
Conclusion
In the end, the only thing really holding Subversive Memories back from greatness is that it’s really short. I don’t mind a $12 game only taking 4.5 hours to 100% when it’s this good, but the ending feels abrupt. It’s kind of like if Resident Evil 2 had just ended after the police station. It would still be a classic game with one fantastic level, but hard to call complete. Subversive Memories constantly teases a mysterious cave that is presumably the source of all the ghosts, but once you go there, the cave is a few screens with no enemies followed by credits. It’s still a good game that got me to read more about its historical setting, but it needed another chapter.
Rating: 80%
Time to beat: 4.5 hours to do everything. A rushed playthrough might take 2.5
Price: $12
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For more reviews, see my Steam curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43219041
For a similar modern game, see Signalis Review – Loud and Clear
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