Receiver 2: I’ve Been Brainwashed, and I’m Grateful for That
A very late review of an amazing and quite disturbing game I have been obsessed with for the last 6 months.
A Long Process
The first Receiver was born during a 2012 game jam where the Wolfire Games team came up with a pretty unusual concept that focuses more on the gun than the shooting itself. A few months later, a version of the game was released on Steam (still available for the bravest of you) with all its rough edges and rendering, scarce content, and a tremendous level of difficulty. I hadn’t noticed Receiver until last year and to be honest, even if I liked the concept, the content was way too raw for me and I asked for the 3.99 euros refund right away (yep, I’m a cheap bastard). However, I was intrigued enough to give a second look at the much-appealing sequel released in 2020. Receiver 2 is more or less the same game with a much higher production level, a toned-down difficulty level, and a refined gameplay, pushing even further some already radical concepts.
“It is vital that you know that you are not dreaming. This is real. This is the time you have prepared for.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
I believe the game is still very unknown to many PC players, and it’s a pity as it deserves so much more recognition for the very unique experience it delivers. Therefore I decided to write a very late review (the game was released a year prior to this article) of what I consider a fantastic game despite all of its flaws. I hope it will guide some of you to become a Receiver and fight the Threat as well.
The Paramount to your Survival
“Bullets can penetrate a lot farther than most people think. How many interior sheetrock walls do you think a typical 9mm bullet will go through? One? Two? More like twenty. In a typical gunfight, more shots miss than hit, but all bullets end up somewhere.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
At first glance, Receiver 2 could pass for a standard first-person shooter with the quite imposing gun in the middle of the screen and the inventory stacked at the bottom. The game is undoubtedly an FPS, but there is absolutely nothing ordinary about it. It takes only a few minutes to notice how peculiar and demanding this experience is going to be. Receiver 2 is so challenging that the simple act of reloading a gun flawlessly gives a sense of self-accomplishment.
Indeed, in Receiver 2, the two most essential actions of the first-person shooter genre (shoot and reload) require all the player’s attention until they are fully mastered. Something that probably won’t happen within your first 20 hours on the game, depending on your skill, since it adds up pieces at a slow pace. And each one of them has its own pros, cons, quirks, and learning curve to react safely in a split second when everything goes south. In Receiver 2, the player is not the protagonist. The guns are.
“Appropriate gun discipline is paramount to your survival… The Threat will not wait while you fumble with your magazine.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
Video game firearms are usually differentiated based on their look and basic criteria such as ammo capacity or precision. Receiver 2 offers you eight models which all have their personality and behave as much as their authentic counterparts as possible, including cool features and mechanics flaws. Along the way, you’ll learn to love some for their stopping power, their smoothness and ease of use, and dislike others for their lack of safety, their tendency to double-feed or stovepipe. But you will adapt (the guns are randomly given at each level among the models you’ve unlocked), and you will have to learn every one of them to beat the game.
Handling a .38 Detective Special (double action), a Beretta M9 (single/double action semi-automatic), or a Glock (striker-fired gun semi-automatic) will impact the gameplay in many ways regarding the reloading, the aiming, the shooting, and the holstering. In a very stressful situation, your ability to react accordingly to your gun requirements is “paramount to your survival,” as the narrator says. Nothing could be more accurate here.
The Hypnotizing Tapes
“The Threat exists beyond this world. In this reality, they are weak. Their actions are limited. With great effort, they have infiltrated dreams, implanting ideas, but it is humans who have nurtured these ideas, causing them to grow and spread.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
Of course, gun handling is not the only aspect that makes Receiver 2 stand out among the massive crowd of first-person shooters available on PC. Without the audiotapes found scattered in the very repetitive level design, the game would just be a dull nerdy concept, and I probably wouldn’t share this review with you.
These audiotapes slowly feed the player with bits of storyline randomly, narrated by a charismatic and warm voice. A voice that will quickly sound like a paranoid cult leader manipulating your thoughts, giving tons of odd firearms-related facts (safety rules, historical facts, advice of usage, etc.) blended with a weird conspiracy-themed background story. People’s minds need to be trained with the Mindtech, a protection against a mysterious force called the Threat that you will fight through different depths of your dream until you wake up (allegedly, I haven’t beat the game yet). You must find a defined number of tapes to progress (5, 4, or 3 depending on the level) and climb up the ladder of awakeness, and at every death, you will step down unless you are on the baseline and then die.
“Together, we have laid the foundation. You have shown great potential, but that potential is yet to be realized. We have sent the message…. can you hear it?”
The narrator, Receiver 2
Honestly, the story doesn’t make sense the first time you start to listen to those tapes (even more as they come disorderly). On top of that, there is a kind of uncomfortable feeling listening to the very Carpenteresque (They Live, 1988), almost Qanonish, conspiracy preaching against the nocive “exposure to the media” and the “gradual creeping decay and dysfunction around you.” But the more you listen to them — and trust me, the game is very hard, so you will! — the more you will get immersed into the narrative and probably, as I did, become fond and obsessed with them.
The deep voice, the smooth phrasing delivering all those random facts about guns, the perceptible depression, the transcendent soundtrack, the insidious sound effects… everything makes these tapes and the atmosphere hypnotizing and uncanny at the same time. Listening to the recordings repeatedly — as you die or progress and enter a new dream — is part of your training. “It will drown out, and eventually counteract, the negative influences from your environment.” And the more you play, the more this nonsense will become senseful, and the more you will feel the Threat influence taking over your mind. But I won’t say more.
This is Brainwash
“In the face of frustration, it is normal to feel anger and disappointment. Receivers are trained to understand and accept these feelings, and allow them to flow through their mind unobstructed, and out the other side, leaving only clarity and resolve.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
The visuals are polished for an indie production, and the game is almost bug-free. Nevertheless, saying that it lacks content will be an understatement, to say the least. There are only three kinds of enemies that are pretty similar (turrets, drones, and cameras) and probably around ten sets of condos/construction sites randomly combined with almost no variation whatsoever in their content. There are no lifeforms in the game: you incapacitate barely animated tiny robots, and your reflection in the mirror is just a human-shaped shooting target. From a level or character design perspective, it couldn’t be more repetitive as you navigate through the same dehumanized rooms shooting the same mechanic foes over and over.
All of this is true. However, Receiver 2 is very good at explaining its apparent shortcomings with shady concepts through the narrator’s audio bits. Of course, these concepts sound pretty absurd at first. But they will become more and more acceptable, even logical to you, while you get brainwashed by listening to the tapes.
“The media is a threat. We have a technique to help. We use tapes as part of this technique. You must listen to them to advance.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
For Responsible Gun Owners
“When discharging a firearm, we learn to control our most basic autonomic reactions. To blink or flinch risks missing the target, resulting in death. With slow, steady breathing, muscles neither fully tensed nor relaxed, we train our focus. We breathe in, we check the breach, we breathe out, we release the safety, we breathe in, we aim at the target, we slowly exhale while we squeeze the trigger.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
Emptying and filling the cylinder, holstering the gun, checking the chamber, cocking the hammer, half-cocking the hammer, gently releasing it, putting the safety on, off, releasing the mag, filling the mag, unjamming the gun, clearing the chamber safely… Even if you are a trained and responsible gun owner, there is always a fraction of a moment where you lose your attention and wind up with a fatal accidental shooting or self-inflicting wound. Yes, Receiver 2 is fetishistic all the way about guns, but it also makes you realize how dangerous it is to handle one, especially in a stressful environment. For once, this game doesn’t display guns as cool toys. Even after 50 hours of practice, I still shoot my leg from time to time while holstering my gun too quickly (especially the Glock 17, which has no safety switch) or shoot way too close to the target with the risk of a fatal ricochet.
“Correct usage of your firearm has to become as natural as breathing for there to be any chance of success.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
While progressing through the layers of your dream, you unlock gun models at a very slow pace, which is convenient as it gives you the time to master each one of them and avoid hazardous situations. It starts with an old-fashioned six-shooter: the Smith & Wesson Model 10. Revolvers are much reliable and safer, but they require specific ammo and cylinder management which can be tricky when you’re panicking.
Hopefully, after a couple of hours, you will enjoy your third gun and first semi-automatic, the famous single-action Colt M1911 with the welcomed 7-bullet magazine. Very practical for reloading (once you have filled them up one bullet at a time). However, the complex mechanism of semi-automatic guns is delicate: on many occasions, you will experience a malfunction, adding up to the fear when confronting a killing drone flying toward you. This game made me rethink my position regarding the old-fashioned revolver: reliability is something ammo capacity can’t buy.
The Attention to Details
“Humans are curious creatures, always hungry for information. The Threat has found a way to turn this strength into a fatal weakness. They force-feed us from a firehose of narratives designed to agitate and demoralize us, leaving our minds exhausted and crowding out our own thoughts. They divide the world into false dichotomies and demand we choose between obvious lies. To become a Receiver, you must reject this choice.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
Instead of spending months designing levels and enemies as a regular video game studio would do to add content, Wolfire Games polished every detail of the few they have created.
The sound of the firearms is something so explosive, and every shot is brutal. It is so crisp and clear, so distinctive that they are precise enough to guess what gun you’re holding and to manipulate it with your eyes closed. You definitely should play with headphones to enjoy the overall sound design quality of the game, and it is also vital as each enemy makes a very distinctive noise.
Visually, the guns are a marvel as well. Nothing is missing, and everything behaves as it should (or shouldn’t when it’s faulty). It’s almost like you could feel the Colt Detective Special’s beautiful grip in your hand. This level of precision is genuinely something that I have never experienced before in a game.
Even though Receiver 2 uses the classic key configuration (WASD and Space), the way the Receiver (you) moves and jumps is kind of peculiar with some smoothness that matches the dreamy state you’re in. This is a bit disturbing at first but very intuitive and pleasant after minutes of practice. To run, you need to tap repeatedly on the W key rather than having a dedicated run toggle key. This is quite odd, but it becomes very natural. I don’t know if Receiver is the first game to come up with this feature, but I think many more studios should include this running method as it requires some energy from the player without diminishing the precision in the controls.
Also, the game contains a myriad of details, references, and easter eggs that must be discovered or experienced by the player and not spoiled in this article. The developers recently added a different level — more like a hub — called “The Compound” full of those, and I recommend not go into it too early to enjoy all its concepts and references.
Now What
“The body and mind are linked. Physical actions are a manifestation of mental actions. Thus, training to protect the body also protects the mind. Controlling your environment controls your thoughts. You, your body, and your environment are part of a larger whole. Control your thoughts, control your body, control your environment and control your fate.”
The narrator, Receiver 2
Receiver 2 is not a mainstream game by any means. It is repetitive, tedious, very demanding, and the storyline is disturbing and could be regarded as unhealthy. Receiver 2 is also very unique, creative, and fascinating (especially for gun lovers). Maybe after a couple of hours of frustration, you will start to realize how enjoyable and challenging it can be, despite the lack of content. Or perhaps I have just been brainwashed by the narrator, who knows. If you are looking for something different, you definitely need to give it a try and not give up too early. Join the cult. Receiver 2 is the reason why I love the indie games industry, period.
Pros
- The firearms: impressive, delightful, and frightening altogether.
- The sound design is incredible. Play it loud.
- The audiotapes are so hypnotizing, and I still enjoy them all.
- The uncanny atmosphere.
- The player’s movements are very different from other FPS yet delightful.
- The attention to small details.
- The learning curve is steep, but it’s real.
Cons
- Despite some slight variations, the five levels are basically the same over and over.
- There are very few types of enemies.
- Therefore, it’s repetitive af.
- Randomness is a bitch: some sessions are so much more challenging than others.
- Even if you’re lucky with finding tapes and ammo quickly, the game will still be extremely hard.
- It’s definitely not for you if you like to reload your gun in a keystroke.
Receiver 2
Developed by Wolfire Team and released in April 2020.
Available on Steam (€16.79)
