Supermassive Games is better known for its cinematic, choice-based narrative horror games, but it chose the more arcade action route for its PSVR1 launch title Till Dawn: Rush of Blood, It was a wonder that early adopters were convinced to splash out on a pair of PlayStation Move controllers to partake in their schlocky gun-wielding roller coaster.
repeating the trick on PSVR2 The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, which also makes use of the headset’s unique features to enhance both the action and the scares, certainly sounds like a recipe for success. Especially when it’s the only exclusive for the pricey headset, besides mountain horizon call, Is it on the same caliber as Must-Play?
scary ride
as its spiritual predecessor, switchback vr is a horror-themed roller coaster crossed with an arcade rail shooter. Its levels take inspiration from four games The Dark Pictures Anthologyfrom the haunted ghost ship field man for ‘Murder Hotel’ devil in me, Anthology play fans will probably appreciate these cues, though you don’t need to roleplay either way to enjoy the ride (if enjoyment is the right word).
The Sense controllers are much better suited for dual-wielding weapons, with feedback from the adaptive triggers adding a new layer of immersion. The haptics mimic the rumble of your train traveling along shaky rails and will require you to physically move your head to avoid the effects of hitting obstacles.
The roller coaster element builds tension when the tracks make steep inclines before the inevitable stomach-churning drop, which almost tempts us to bring our lunch. The problem is maintaining the same exciting rush throughout, which doesn’t work when levels drag on for more than 20 minutes – almost the entire length of a real arcade on-rails shooter like the house of the Dead, Despite having little experience, switchback vrThe pacing comes at the expense of its scares.
push back
most of the time, switchback vr A pedestrian ride that slows to a crawl, forcing you to sit helplessly in the dark as it milks all the suspense. It has a trick up its sleeve: using the VR2’s eye tracking to zoom in on enemies every time you blink, which sounds as terrifying as it sounds. Mostly though, it comes back to very cheap jump scares.
They definitely work: when the hideous zombies barge in on you it’s easy to panic and start firing blindly. But using the same tricks over and over again in each long level gets tiring. There’s also plenty of time when there isn’t a note to do, so you’re given the space of target practice to earn points – fine if you want to get a high score, but a bit of padding. Big chunk too.
Taking some inspiration from the narrative choices of core Dark Pictures games, you get some interactivity designed to make the levels replayable. Think about which part of the track your car is going down, and be able to save other characters or leave them to their doom. Nice in theory, but the puzzles lack urgency and end up killing the momentum even more. again, we are reminded the house of the Dead, including multiple paths and characters you can save, all of which are well integrated into the core of the game. Perhaps the developers of its remake should consider a VR update?
dark hiccup
Worst of all, when nothing is happening, you can’t help but notice how dull, low quality, and blurry the visuals are. This is most evident in one particular non-interactive sequence that takes you from a roller coaster to a train carriage amidst a horrific crash. You can’t reach to check out items on the table seat in front of you, leaving you to stare at oppositely presented passengers. The atrocious loading times when these cutscenes make us doubt that this is even a PS5 game.
As much as we enjoy the immersive haptics, we find the actual shooting lacking due to the lack of visual feedback from enemies. They seem unaffected by anything except headshots, and even these don’t always register. While you can reload your weapons by shaking the Sense controllers, we also had problems with its recognition so had to rely on pressing a button instead.
Considering switchback vr With VR2’s launch date already delayed, we were hoping that Supermassive Games would have resolved any technical issues. His persistence only makes an already weak game even more frustrating.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR Verdict
For all the creepy and unnecessary thrills afforded by the new PSVR2 hardware in terms of its haptics and audio, switchback vr is let down by low-quality visuals, uninteresting combat, and puzzles that feel at odds with its roller coaster structure. We’ve seen interesting ideas that are better executed in linear arcade shooters.
Given how its spiritual predecessor is supposed to be a fun and breezy showcase for Sony’s past headsets, this isn’t exactly the game that’s going to get you on board for this new generation.
Leave a Reply