White Noise 2 - Astaroth DLC

6/10

Dear Milkstone- here is my money.

Dank demon to demolish dem dummies.

A decent, now balanced, creature. His powers allow to easily split a team of investigators, and he has a very high horror, thus detroying sanity if stared at. His weaknesses are his very low perception, and the fact that some of his skins feattures luminous parts, easily giving away your position to investigators from afar.

Fun new monster, I understand why they're charging people for it. They need to continue to have money coming in for this game so they can continue to work on the game, (bug fixes/dlc/ect.) that's why I bought it.

Killer is alright but I bought it to support the developers of the game. (P.S) Pls buy this killer to support the developers of the game.

For the first Creature available as Downloadable Content, Astaroth is noticably rough around the edges, but surprisingly satisfying to use (sometimes). Astaroth's primary gimmick among the other Creatures is his 7 stat points in Horror. This effectively averages out Rinko, Vincent, and Nikolai's Bravery stats, which are also at 7, although it falls short of equaling Anne Marie and Shaira's 8 Bravery. He also has 6 points in Idol Influence, meaning it will summon Idols at a faster speed and they will be more effective in lowering sanity as well as detecting Investigators. That's sort of where the kindness ends, however. His Skill Usage and Light Resistance are both average. While it does seem that he also has average Speed, it's actually false, as he has been tested by players to be slower than Olkoth and Lilith without SADIST Stacks, who genuinely have 5 Speed. His Skill Usage is below average, which hurts him in more ways than one, which I'll get to later. The Perception is Astaroth's biggest weakness, as it is effectively deaf to all Investigators except for Nikolai and Hannah in their base skins. Astaroth's Horror stat isn't even great, either, as although it is incredibly high, simply looking at him from the waist down or bobbing your vision up and down slows the Sanity drain. Astaroth's traits are a mix of mediocrity and weakness-nullifying. MALEFICENT increases Astaroth's Horror by 2% each time he is stunned, although it can also be worked around by looking at him waist-down. VENERATION recharges your skills by 12% with each Idol summoned, helping the player with his Skill Usage. Astaroth's unique powers consist of a mix of high highs, but also some very low lows. His first one is Breakdown, which forces all living Investigators to run uncontrollably until their Stamina reaches 0 or when the effect ends, either due to high Stealth, or in Jin's case, QUICK REFLEXES. When used on an Investigator facing Astaroth, they will have less time to react to avoid getting caught, although Investigators facing away will be able to run away and potentially get closer to a Clue. His second one is SPLINTERS, which traps Investigators who step on the spiky surface and cripples their Speed for a short while. It can only be disarmed by Ghosts, making it a useful tool for trapping areas. However, it is small, meaning Investigators can reach over it to grab a trapped Clue, and it only really effective during chases and for areas that need to be passed through to collect a tape. The last power is Disruption, which teleports a highlighted (otherwise random) Investigator up to 75 meters away, switching places with Astaroth. This does allow for a potentially easy target and a quick assault on the other Investigators, but it can create a Stealth split, which Astaroth will have plenty of trouble finding. Astaroth's skins are down the middle of the road. The Infernal skin lowers his Horror (which won't be of much use anyway) to raise Light Resistance, making Astaroth more tanky. Invocation raises Skill Usage, but lowers Light Resistance. With his powers working against him and VENERATION, Invocation is one of the weaker skins. Mantis increases Perception at the cost of Idol Influence, although you can use the Pazuzu to increase Perception too (assuming you have the Accursed Pack). The Overlord skin is easily his worst one, as it increases his weak Strength (Horror) while amplifying his strong Negative (Perception). Like with Okiku and Lilith, you get an Idol with this DLC, being the Hellspawn. Its effectively a portable Astaroth, as it has 8 Horror, but 2 Range, making it far better at lowering Sanity than detecting Investigators. Similar to the MALEFCIENT trait, it lowers each Investigator's Bravery by 2% when summoned up until the tenth Idol. It's better on Lilith, a DLC Creature released later, funnily enough. For what it's worth, Astaroth is the worst Creature in the game as stated by top players. However, he gets incredible buffs in a 4v1 and is actually pretty fun to play as. Astaroth is no Okiku, but he isn't Rusalka either. He just takes a lot of time to understand and get the hang of. I'd recommend buying this DLC if you don't mind that.