You step into the shoes of Serdar, a doctor whose personal quest to help his ailing wife leads him through the dangerous underground world of the Metro. Without spoiling anything, I can say the narrative is one of the game’s strongest elements, featuring several compelling twists and turns as you uncover various truths along your journey. The writing really shines throughout, delivering both emotional depth and narrative complexity across the game’s 12 chapters. The story manages to feel both personal and consequential, maintaining the series’ trademark blend of human drama and post-apocalyptic survival.

Bullets, Beasts & No Workbenches

At its core, this is quintessentially Metro, though with some notable streamlining of mechanics. The gameplay loop alternates between narrative sequences, atmospheric exploration, and intense combat against various mutants. You’ll encounter everything from dog-sized creatures to more imposing threats, each demanding different tactical approaches. Your arsenal starts with a pistol and gradually expands to include a semi-automatic rifle and other weapons. While the selection isn’t extensive, the gunplay is exceptional, ranking among the best I’ve experienced on Quest alongside titles like The Light Brigade and Arizona Sunshine.

Unlike Metro Exodus, for example, there’s no crafting in Metro Awakening. You won’t be crafting grenades or Molotov cocktails, and weapon modification is extremely limited – the only weapons mod I found was a silencer for the pistol, which was automatically added once found. In that sense, Metro Awakening keeps it simple: no workbenches, no crafting systems. While some might miss these features from the mainline series, this streamlined approach works well in VR, keeping the focus on immediate action and survival rather than resource management.

Don’t Blink: The Art of Metro Terror

The game masterfully straddles the line between action-adventure and survival horror, and this is where it really shines. While it comes with an explicit arachnophobia warning, it never ventures too deep into pure horror territory – something I appreciate as someone who typically “nopes out” of VR horror games. Instead, it excels at building a persistent sense of tension and anxiety. You’ll experience moments of frantic panic in dark corridors, managing limited ammo while mutants scurry about, creating intense situations that feel challenging but manageable. The game keeps you perpetually uncomfortable without crossing into overwhelming territory, striking an impressive balance between tension and playability.

Tunnel Vision Never Looked So Good

Metro Awakening is visually impressive, with strong art direction and effective real-time lighting that contributes significantly to the atmosphere. The game consistently maintains its foreboding atmosphere through excellent environmental design. While much of the game takes place underground, each area feels distinct and purposeful, avoiding the potential monotony that could come with a subway-based setting. Some locations are intentionally revisited as part of the narrative – this isn’t lazy asset reuse but a deliberate story choice that adds to the overall experience.

The attention to detail is remarkable, especially in the interactive elements. You can physically check your remaining ammo by looking at your weapon’s chamber, and small touches like functional fans add to the world’s believability. While it’s not an immersive sim where you can interact with everything like in Half-Life: Alyx, the interactive elements that are present feel purposeful and well-implemented. Character animations are notably smooth with minimal jank – even while recording, which is particularly impressive for a Quest title. The environmental storytelling is subtle but effective, with each area telling its own story through careful visual design.

The Sound of Survival

The audio design stands as the game’s crowning achievement, creating a deeply immersive experience that elevates every other aspect of the game. The soundtrack expertly emphasizes emotional beats throughout the story, from moments of creeping dread to brief instances of hope and optimism. While it pays homage to classic Metro themes, it establishes its own unique identity that fits perfectly with the VR experience.

The sound design is exceptional, leveraging every trick in the horror game playbook to maintain tension. You’ll hear unsettling radio murmurs that you can’t quite make out, precise directional audio that keeps you on edge, and the nerve-wracking sounds of mutants moving through nearby tunnels. These audio elements work together to create a constant sense of unease that enhances every aspect of the gameplay. The voice acting is consistently strong throughout, adding authenticity to the experience and helping sell the emotional moments in the story. The way sound echoes through the tunnels, the mechanical clinking of your weapons, and the environmental ambiance all contribute to making the Metro feel like a living, breathing place.

Mind The Gap: Performance & Playtime

I encountered very few technical issues during my playthrough. There are some minor control quirks, like occasional overlap between mask and reload detection zones, and a few moments where gameplay systems don’t quite sync with narrative elements (like conversations continuing normally while running out of oxygen). However, I experienced no crashes or significant bugs throughout my entire playthrough, which is impressive for a VR title of this scope.

I completed the game in about six and a half hours on normal difficulty. While some players report longer playtimes of 10-14 hours, especially on hard difficulty or when pursuing a stealthy approach, my experience was focused and satisfying. There are collectible postcards to find, which unlock with a satisfying musical cue, but replayability is limited as you’d expect from a narrative-driven single-player game. While there’s no new game plus or challenge modes, Vertigo’s track record with post-launch support (as seen with Arizona Sunshine) suggests we might see additional content in the future.

Last Stop: Final Thoughts

Metro Awakening stands as a testament to how traditional gaming franchises can be thoughtfully adapted to virtual reality. While it doesn’t include all the systems and complexity of its non-VR counterparts, it succeeds by focusing on what works best in VR: immersive storytelling, tense combat, and atmospheric exploration. The combination of great gunplay, impressive visuals, outstanding audio design, and an engaging story kept me coming back for more – I found myself playing about an hour and a half each day until completion.

The game’s greatest achievement is perhaps how it maintains the series’ signature atmosphere while adapting it for a new medium. Every element, from the sound design to the visual presentation, works together to create a compelling and often unsettling journey through the Metro. While some might wish for more weapon variety or crafting options, the streamlined approach serves the VR format well.

It’s very easy to recommend Metro Awakening to all but those who might find themselves too unsettled by its tense atmosphere. It’s easily one of the best games I’ve yet played on Quest, and despite the somewhat brief run-time, it presents a dense and gripping experience from the first cinematic intro to the moment the final credits roll on screen.

FREDDY FOR THE BIG TIME

I revisit Arizona Sunshine every so often because it’s a great game; it can be enjoyed solo or co-op in ten-minute chunks or as a more satisfying long-form session, and the core conceit of gunning zombies down is still really satisfying. Honestly, there have been so many shooters released in VR since AS, and nearly none of them have nailed the satisfying and substantial feel offered by Arizona Sunshine, still. However, it was never a very good-looking or slick affair and was full of less and less forgivable jank. I was relieved when Arizona Sunshine 2 came along and smoothed out a lot of those rough edges, whilst largely doubling down on everything that made the first game so good to play.

A remake of the original using later tech is a rather great idea, and I’m largely happy to report that Arizona Sunshine Remake does what it promises to. It includes all the DLC for the original release, similarly remastered, and offers tremendous value for money – there’s even a nifty discount if you’ve got the original in your Quest library already. So, before I get into the specifics, just know that if you’ve played and love the original and are looking for a shiny new version to show off your Quest 3 or 3S, then go to it, I recommend it. You won’t be disappointed. But wait – hey – I haven’t fini… Ah sod you. In your impatience to go spend your money you’re missing out on some exemplary videogame criticism and penmanship. Your loss. The rest of you still with me? Ok, let’s get into it.

FRED DEAD REDEMPTION

Players both familiar and new to Arizona Sunshine will find a lot to love. The setting still feels fresh and original, despite the zombie theme having been done to death, resurrected and headshotted more times than can be counted in the past thirty years. Even Resident Evil, whose fault it all is, has been trying to move away from zombies for at least 15 years. However, zombies do provide a gloriously guilt-free way for us all to virtually live out our fantasies of taking our frustrations and loneliness out on the general public with gardening equipment and automatic weaponry.

Arizona Sunshine Remake casts the player as an unnamed, initially slightly dislikable dude who’s been surviving alone in the Arizona wilderness in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. He’s trying to find any living souls to team up with and has been alone for quite a while when the player quantum leaps into his head. He sounds a bit like a bassist, a roadie or a general stoner – in fact, it occurred to me as I played through the remake that my mental image of him is that he’s Neil Fak from The Bear dropped into a zombie survival scenario. This is a Good Thing. His journey in the course of the game is slight, but brilliant and engaging, and as I mentioned in my original review Sky Soleil’s fantastic performance is key to making the whole thing work. A majority of protagonist voiceovers in VR can be grating or off key, making it a chore to literally inhabit their heads as you progress, but here you are completely engrossed in getting the guy where he wants to go and keeping him alive. If you’ve only ever experienced him in Arizona Sunshine 2, then it’ll be an extra frisson to experience him getting to the point where he’s obsessed with keeping his dog alive when the sequel hits the fan. There’s no massive story here, so the narrative sells itself through empathy with its only character, and this has stood the test of time well.

DEAD MAN, FRED MAN

The game offers pretty cool options for customising the feel of the game – from movement and turning to switching between the simple reloading of the original, or the new VR standard of sliding in a clip and cocking the gun. Thankfully you can now hold pistols with two hands. You can calibrate where you’d like your holsters and ammo to sit on your body. All good, as is the improved Half-Life Alyx style wrist inventory and inclusion of tremendously fun bludgeoning melee weapons like crowbars, picks and hammers. These can be balanced on railings or the sides of tables or shelves while you reload or scavenge, and this feels really cool.

FREDDING THE NEEDLE

The level of challenge is pretty good – on the easier difficulties if you’re a reasonable, quick enough shot you’ll be ok. The game has two paces; scavenging for ammo and exploring, popping heads as you go, and then set piece horde rushes where you hope that you’ve stockpiled enough bullets and picked the right weapons to survive. Like the sequel, these horde rushes can be suffocatingly frustrating and stressful chokeholds on progress or exhilarating and rewarding tests of endurance which provide a tremendous rush of relief and accomplishment when you’re through. If this is your first rodeo, I’d advise playing through on lower difficulties first, so you know roughly what to expect, and then have another playthrough where you’ll have to be a lot more sparing with your ammo and inventive with the offered weapons at your disposal. You won’t have to worry about finding crafting ingredients like in the sequel, but supplies get pretty scarce even if you aren’t the sort of person who likes to spray and pray.

This all changes again when playing through in co-op with a friend, which is such a good feature of both the original game and its shiny new incarnation, Arizona Sunshine Remake. Sadly, the same limitations apply, and this is one thing I really hoped would be improved with the new gameplay. There are points where you’d think one player could be running around gung-ho with an automatic amongst the horde whilst the other takes overwatch, but this is often not so. When a player triggers the horde, the co-op partner will be teleported to their side if they’re in a place the game doesn’t want you to be. Sometimes invisible walls will prevent the player from taking a visible path, the game locking off areas of the map that should be accessible just because the designers wanted it that way. It’s pretty lazy and annoying, and it was weak eight years ago. It’s downright unforgivable for such a classy game to be so graceless in its execution, reiterating its mistakes verbatim after eight years of iteration.

LONG AND WASTED YEARS

Whilst we’re on the subject of things that really should have died and stayed dead with the original game, let’s talk about graphics. By and large the graphics in Arizona Sunshine Remake are a remarkable improvement on the original, as one might expect. The bacon wood textures of the original are long gone, thank goodness, but there are still some items of text that are unforgivably pixelated and horrible. The searchable trunks of the police cars, for example, just about say ‘HIGHWAY PATROL’ on them, but I’ve seen better image quality on those Captcha things online when they’re trying to ascertain I’m human. Most egregious of all is the sniper scope section, where distant zombies are rendered with such horrible quality that the graphics don’t match the original release. In fact, in this one instance they don’t even look as good as the original PlayStation. Vertigo Games have done so much to fly the flag for VR as a gaming medium, and all eyes are on this remake to show us all how it’s done. We let some things slide about the original because of the ambition and overall quality of the experience. Don’t let Ed Wood get hold of your Director’s Cut version, because we’re going to mark it down accordingly now.

The same goes for how fiddly things can be. Scavenging is better and drawers and doors have a far more physical interactivity to them, but sometimes picking up stuff can be unnecessarily finicky and sometimes even bugs out. If you’re carrying things when the game loads a new area, these can sometimes disappear.

This is all stuff that absolutely should have been sorted out. Some of it is patchable, some of it ain’t. Let’s see what the next couple of months may bring – but this is a remake of an eight-year-old game, and it should have been slicker. It only takes seven years to train as a doctor or an architect, so I think it’s reasonable to expect Fred to have got his shit together a bit better than this, dead or no.

SUNSHINE DESSERTS

Arizona Sunshine Remake does exactly what it promises to do, and provides great value, great fun and great challenge in one juicily headshottable package. It drips with atmosphere, from the setting and impressive voice acting to the perfectly judged musical score. It still provides the most satisfying gunplay on the Quest and sidesteps the time commitment problem of Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners by being playable in bitesize chunks, and in co-op too. You get the excellent DLC stories as part of the deal, and there’s also the endlessly replayable Horde mode to play with up to 4 friends. It supercedes the original game entirely and provides fans of the original and the sequel plenty of reasons to dive back in, whilst being a very enticing and recommended prospect for new players.

However, be warned that this is a remaster rather than a true remake, and the failings of the original game are often brought along wholesale for the ride.

As the game begins, you’re tasked with becoming a vampire slayer, put into a castle that houses 9 vampires, and told that many before you have failed. You’re guided by a mysterious mentor, who tells you about the history of the vampires you’re trying to dust as they slumber and teaches you how to get past their defenses. A pry bar, clippers, and a hook made from a finger bone are among the many tools within reach, but a stake through the heart is the only way to end it.

The game relies on a spooky atmosphere and requires a good deal of patience as any sound you make risks waking up the vampire whose defenses you’re trying to get past. Tension builds as you cautiously lift bars, remove nails, and clip wires to find the vampire’s heart. Your silence and precision are key as you avoid awakening the beasts who will drain your life instantly.

COFFIN UP THE MECHANICS

As the game begins, you’re given a short but effective tutorial level. After that, the pattern is fairly consistent: solve a 3-dimensional puzzle that shows you the shapes you’ll have to make to penetrate the final defensive layer of each vampire, teleport to the vampire’s coffin, and then slowly unlock the coffin and make your way, as stealthily as possible, past their defenses.

The defenses do pile on, starting with bars that need to be slowly and carefully removed, to nails that must slowly be pried loose, to wires pulsing with electricity that you need to cut, to little voodoo watchers that’ll awaken every now and then and sound an alert if they sense any movement.

It all fosters a careful exercise in patience and slow, purposeful movement, all while in a slightly spooky atmosphere that VR veterans will find entertaining but the less adept might feel terrifying.

If you’re worried about jump scares, well, they’re tempered. In fact, Pete and I have slightly different views on the scares. I don’t consider the jump scares true jump scares since they occur only when you fail, so I consider them a death screen, and because they’re predictable (you can always tell when you’ve messed up), I don’t find them particularly scary and they don’t startle me. I love Pete, but he has the fortitude of a little baby and still thinks they’re jump scares. Clearly, your horror mileage may vary.

Overall, the game is slick and well-made, a testament to Schell Games, and honestly, after their work on the I Expect You to Die series, we expected no less than a classy execution. See what I did there?

FANG-TASTIC VISUALS

Graphically speaking, Schell Games are as sharp as they’ve always been. The castle environments are cool, well-stylized, and look great. The game’s visual presentation effectively captures the eerie, gothic atmosphere of a vampire’s lair, with dimly lit corridors, ancient stone walls, and ominous coffins.

The attention to detail in the various tools and traps you encounter adds to the immersion, making each interaction feel tactile and real. While the overall aesthetic leans more towards a cartoonish, Transylvania-inspired style rather than photorealism, it works well for the game’s tone and gameplay. Nice and spooky, in a fun, approachable way.

SOUNDS LIKE A SCREAM

The sound is equally great, with the voice acting by your mentor being quite sinister and superb, and the ambient audio of the castle environments lending everything a creepy atmosphere. You can hear spiders crawling, you can hear the occasional bat fly by, startling you a little, you can feel echoing footsteps in the distance making you look around in concern while you’re trying to slowly, carefully pry a nail loose while worrying that another nail is sympathetically coming out of the coffin with it, and might drop to the floor and wake up a damn bloodsucker.

BLOODY NITPICKS

There’s not much to complain about with Silent Slayer, but you know us better than that. We’re the nitpicking reviewers, so here it goes. The game might feel a little short; there are less than a dozen vampires to kill, and once you get past the first five, the rest just build on the first, without really adding any more game mechanics. On the other hand, it’s priced at $19.99, so you can’t really complain about the longevity you get. Still – it would have been great to keep adding on more mechanics as the game reached its conclusion rather than just piling on mechanics that have already been introduced.

The 3D puzzles are also somewhat useless. I mean, some are more challenging than others to assemble, but the conceit that solving them reveals the shapes you need to cast to defeat the vampires is rendered useless by the fact that you’re guided through the shapes by arrows that show up before the kill, so the actual utility of the puzzles is nullified.

Another issue is that once you’ve gotten used to the fact that you only get caught if you fail twice in a row, the game becomes a bit too easy. As long as you’re patient, it’s hard to fail.

But again, like I said, I’m nitpicking. At the end of the day, this is a unique game, with great graphics, great audio, an interesting conceit, and cool mechanics. It’s well-priced and knows not to wear out its welcome.

FANGS FOR THE MEMORIES

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire is a solid new title from Schell Games. While not as deep as their I Expect You to Die installments, it’s fun and offers a nicely spooky and tactile VR experience well-suited to both VR veterans and VR newbies since the player doesn’t really move around the environment and there’s no cause for motion sickness. It’s Operation in VR, and that’s not a bad thing at all, so long as you know what you’re getting into.

About the Game

THE EVENTS AT UNITY FARM is a story-rich, dark fantasy action-adventure title that offers an intriguing blend of survival, RPG elements, and shooter-style magic combat. The game invites players to prevent a cataclysmic event called the “Multipocalypse” by unraveling the mystery surrounding a ghost girl named Alliss. Players navigate an expansive story universe, employing an ancestral journal that enables the casting of physical magic, solving intricate puzzles, and battling formidable foes.

Inspired by Lovecraftian horror, fantasy elements, and steampunk aesthetics, the game pays homage to classic 1990s adventure and RPG titles from pioneering publishers like Sierra Online, Origin Systems, and LucasArts.

Characters and Story Arc

The game introduces Ruth Bowie, a shy BIPOC teen from a matrilineal lineage of occult scientists. Ruth is thrust into a quest by her grandmother, who sends her back in time to prevent the Multipocalypse. Armed with her great-grandmother’s journal, she faces a menagerie of mythical and technological creatures born of human experiments gone awry.

Why Early Access?

The move to Early Access was a calculated strategy. Titan1Studios is committed to delivering a quality gaming experience while actively involving its community in the game’s future development. The Early Access stage offers an invaluable opportunity for the development team to incorporate feedback from players and content creators, following successful Closed Beta and Demo phases.

What’s New in Early Access

Players already familiar with the demo will find a plethora of new content in Early Access. This includes:

• An enhanced combat system featuring spell shooting combinations
• An XP system with skill upgrades and potion crafting
• Expanded lore and unlocked locations
• Brand-new puzzles and boss battles
• Arena (Horde) Mode, introducing the fictional Western town of Rockslide

Inverse is nothing like that. 

MassVR, the team behind Inverse, brings substantial experience in crafting location-based VR experiences to the table. They have already demonstrated their prowess with titles such as VR Champions, a team-oriented first-person shooter, and Hallow Realm, an asymmetric horror experience. Inverse marks their debut in standalone VR gaming, yet their rich background in multiplayer VR design shines through distinctly, a fact that became apparent from my initial encounter with the game.

Perhaps influenced by Hallow Realm, Inverse immerses players in a 4-against-1 multiplayer survival horror scenario. In this narrative, an entity known as The Foundation inadvertently opens a gateway to a mysterious and hostile new world dominated by an unwelcoming monstrous entity.

Portal Perils

As the game kicks off, a team of up to four players assumes the role of agents, venturing through a portal with a unified goal: to activate terminals dispersed throughout each map. Success in this endeavor unlocks weapon caches, granting the players the arsenal needed to confront the creature stalking them. Cooperation accelerates the activation process, as two players can work on a terminal simultaneously, unlocking it faster. However, this strategy is not without its risks, as it grants the NUL heightened opportunities to track and incapacitate pairs of agents, especially given the agents’ initial lack of weaponry. 

Opposing the agents is a solitary player embodying the NUL, a creature from a world accessible through the portals. The NUL manifests in two distinct forms: the Reaper, a swift and agile entity delivering melee damage, and another variant, slower yet armed with devastatingly potent attacks capable of long-range stuns to catch up to players. While the Reaper offers an easier handling for players, mastering the slower, yet more lethal variant could be a preferred choice for veteran players.

Prior to unlocking the weapon caches, the agents’ defensive capabilities are limited. They possess traps to temporarily halt the NUL, defibrillators for reviving fallen teammates, and a single-use self-revive gadget. Moreover, agents can seek refuge in rooms, sealing the doors to stall the NUL, albeit temporarily, as the creature can breach the barriers with repeated assaults. Agents are not completely defenseless in this scenario, armed with drills to repair the damage and buy time as they strategize their next move. They also have traps that can temporarily slow down the Nul. 

Inverse Realities

The graphics in Inverse are nothing short of excellent, leveraging Meta’s ASW to bring a rich layer of detail and immersion to the quintet of maps available at launch. The environment showcases eerie shape-shifting rocks and floating objects, evoking scenes reminiscent of Into the Radius. The addition of textured glass imparts a heightened sense of realism to the surroundings, immersing players deeper into the game’s unique world.

Players also have a range of skins at their disposal for modifying their agent’s appearance, with some options available right off the bat and others set to be introduced as in-game purchases later on. This visual splendour successfully transports players into a strange, new world, with a sense of being relentlessly pursued by the Nul adding to the haunting experience. In certain respects, the atmosphere conjured bears a likeness to a mysterious and eerie vibe reminescent of Stranger Things.

Acoustic Dimensions

Not to be outdone by the graphics, the audio in Inverse offers atmospheric audio that plays a pivotal role in the gaming experience. The spatial audio is adept at facilitating the localization of fellow agents and alerting you to the stalking Nul’s presence. Voice chat is a remarkable feature, allowing seamless communication amongst players.

Moreover, the game innovatively mutates the Nul’s voice to resonate with a grotesque and monstrous tone, enhancing the eerie atmosphere. This cool effect oscillates between being silly and effective, heavily reliant on the player embodying the Nul and their choice of utterances during the hunt, adding an unpredictable and entertaining element to the chase.

Parallel Pains

Inverse lays a robust foundation for an asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror experience on Quest, with MassVR’s expertise in creating location-based multiplayer VR experiences clearly reflecting in the game’s design and execution. However, like many online multiplayer platforms, it faces the common predicament of player base unpredictability, which invariably affects the matchmaking process. The future remains uncertain — it can either foster a community where matchmaking is seamless and the company enjoyable, or it might attract individuals who indulge in disruptive behavior, dampening the gaming experience for others.

At launch, the game promises a substantial amount of content with five well-conceived and beautifully designed maps, offering a playground ripe for exhilarating adventures and lots of fun. The quality and potential enjoyment hinge on the community that builds around it, making the player base a critical element in determining the game’s long-term success. The long term success is impossible to predict right now.

Endverse

In conclusion, Inverse by MassVR emerges as a standout title in the asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror genre, especially on the Quest platform. Leveraging their substantial experience in crafting immersive VR experiences, MassVR offer a game replete with atmospheric graphics and sound design. Their meticulous attention to detail extends from the audibly grotesque mutations of the Nul’s communications to the visually immersive landscapes. The gameplay encourages collaboration while also teasing the thrilling risk of ‘going solo,’ offering a great experience whether you’re an agent working against the clock or a Nul delighting in the chase.

However, the unpredictable nature of the online player base casts a shadow of uncertainty on the long-term enjoyment of the game. It stands at a critical juncture where the community that congregates around it will play a pivotal role in defining its success. 

For now, however, and as it stands, Inverse is an excellent, well made and polished experience that should provide hours of enjoyment for fans of the genre. 

On the Quest alone we’ve already got a ridiculous amount of zombie-themed titles, some better than others. Where does Propagation: Paradise Hotel get off, thinking that it can just waltz in here talking tough and expecting to be heard above the crowd? Well…

AN EVIL INFLUENCE

The thing which is immediately apparent is that Propagation clearly takes its main cues from the original Resident Evil titles. The survival horror ones, you know, pre-RE4. The spooky hotel setting, full of locked doors, puzzles and shuffling undead twats, has all the trappings of a classic Resident Evil game. It’s not a background flavour either – from the use of the first aid spray to the save game room music channelling Resident Evil 2 pretty hard,

Propagation doesn’t so much wear its influences on its sleeve as much as wear an Umbrella onesie and prance around a mansion proclaiming itself the Master of Unlocking. This could of course be a foolhardy move, especially given that not only is the Quest swimming in zombie games, but also – an actual Resident Evil title, the sublime Quest version of RE4, is one of the very best games on the system already. Propagation has to be pretty bloody good to stand out, and I’m happy to report that, by and large, it hits the mark. With a few caveats, as ever.

THE DOOR WAS LOCKED

I’ll try hard to avoid spoilers. The basic premise is that you play Emily, one of two sisters working in a hotel, an already creepy old building which, at the outset of the game, is a few days into holding out against a zombie plague at the outset of the game.

When the game begins you’re holed up in the kitchen, running out of food, accompanied by another survivor, a security guard who kindly teaches you how to use a gun before asking for it back. (Who can guess what might happen to him after the prologue?) When Emily hears via the radio that her sister is alive and hoping for a military rescue, she heads out into the depths of the hotel to find her. And thus begins a classic survival horror scenario; key and keycards must be found, puzzled must be unpuzzled, drawers and cupboards must be raided for health, batteries and ammo, and the undead must be re-deaded.

AIM FOR THE HEAD

It’s nothing particularly ground-breaking or original, but you know there’s a lot to be said for some games which set out to make a decent, solid experience rather than change the world. And Propagation is a confident, largely solid attempt at a first-person horror game. The overall amount of polish is commendable for a Quest game. Interactions between hands, inventory objects and the world are pleasingly convincing, and certainly better than a lot of other, more expensive and more hyped titles. A lot of thought and work has gone into the way that things fit together, giving the player enough agency that it still feels like a VR game, but guiding and locking interactions enough so that it sidesteps a lot of the usual jank.

The three resources that have to be managed – health, ammo and batteries for the flashlight – are all dealt with by the same, context-aware system and it becomes second nature within minutes. Levers, switches, keys and number pads are lovely to use and it all just feels right, most of the time. The puzzles are great, and there’s one brilliant example which manages to blend text clues, the environment and even a zombie fight, and it’s pretty much a best-in-genre example of how to execute a puzzle in a game like this.

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMB

The game soon settles into a flow state of opening doors and creeping around, with flashlight and gun drawn. The combat isn’t particularly challenging, but the gunplay is very well realised and chunky; you’ll always feel a sense of dread when zombies lurch towards you, which is no mean feat in an overcrowded and familiar genre. There are some genuinely creepy and scary moments in here to keep your pants the wrong side of brown, even if the beats that it hits are well-worn. The sound design is truly excellent, from the creaking of the hotel to the groans of the undead bellends. There’s always something to unnerve in the gloomy halls of this old place, and that is how it should be.

The music is sublime. Like the rest of the game, the soundtrack dances with practically every trope of the genre but it does so with grace, poise, and the unashamed objective of creating dread and unease at every opportunity, either by its bombast or its absence.

I’ve very few complaints about the actual gameplay. For the most part, it’s one of the better story-based horror games in VR by some way. I’m not entirely happy about the fact that the core things are managed via physical interaction – guns on hip and back, resources in bumbag, torch on breast pocket – but the inventory is a button-press menu, one which clips through the scenery and is a bit of an immersion-breaker. This brings us to the main reason I’m not giving Propagation a higher score, even though I really like it.

ALMOST A JILL SANDWICH

The one bit of Resident Evil’s twisted, mutated DNA that I really, really wish that Propagation didn’t share is that it often fumbles moments of drama with poor scene-setting and awful acting. Two of the peripheral characters in the game sound so stilted and weird that I suspected for a while that they might have been generated by AI.

The player character, Emily, fares a little better with the performance but the direction is often way off, like the actor hasn’t been given any context for her lines at all. If she sounded like a desperate survivor dealing with unimaginable amounts of shit because she wants to find her sister, it would be far stronger than what we mostly have here. She often sounds smug and quippy when she really shouldn’t, and I’m sure that isn’t the intention. Even worse, there are a couple of occasions in which the scene is completely ruined by the timing of the dialogue – early on when one of her friends dies after a battle with something horrible, Emily starts talking about them being dead as she is standing over them before they’ve even expired, and it jars to the point of making her appear truly heartless. This is one aspect of the game that appears unpolished and unfinished, and it’s a shame. It’s not hokey enough to be good for comedy value, as with the earlier Resident Evil titles; it’s just a bit shit. The story is slight but otherwise well-told, and it deserves better realisation than this. With better cues and actors this could really be elevated to being a solid 9. I could certainly put Wanadev in touch with some decent voice-over artists cough

YOU TALK TOO MUCH

Propagation: Paradise Hotel is a well-made tribute to classic survival horror, with neat gunplay, solid mechanics, some great puzzles and magnificent amounts of atmosphere. Its running time will put some off, at around three hours, but at the very decent price of 15 quid, it provides pretty good value for what it is. There are longer (and more expensive) zombie narrative experiences out there, but Propagation will not leave you feeling short-changed, and there’s so much entertainment here that it’s a recommendation for sure. Just don’t let those bad voices and pacing issues put you off.

AFTERLIFE: ALYX

Starting off, you will be callously informed of your death and then guided down a simple path, following along with the tutorial steps until emerging at Barclay Mansion, where the game is set. This expansive manor will become your prison, in the great beyond, as you navigate an essentially linear path in search of answers. Utilising object interaction much like the gravity gloves from Half-Life: Alyx, you can grab items at a distance or lean down to pick them up manually. As well as the haptic feedback used on doors, drawers and handles when physically reaching for them, these specific objects will glow to indicate the ranged grab functionality. Unfortunately, this haptic feedback is also triggered by an invisible line extending from your hands to these objects, excessively vibrating as you walk through any room filled with random things.

Movement generally has its own challenges, seemingly based on flatscreen logic rather than a real-world with peripheral vision. Players are unable to move quickly in any direction other than where their head is facing. Looking around while moving is clunky and off-putting, as your speed will change dramatically by turning slightly to look at a door as you pass by. 

If you can overcome these frustrations, the gameplay does a good job immersing you in the world, encouraging physical interaction with doorknobs and turning keys to access new areas. To proceed, you will need to investigate and solve puzzles by scavenging requirements hidden throughout the mansion. These include keycodes and character-specific story items, making the linear storyline a little less straightforward if you are repeatedly backtracking or looking for clues.

Additional powers and controls are granted as you advance, with instruction on their usage varying in quality. Still, a staple throughout the game is that you have no fighting chance against the otherworldly entities roaming the halls. You will often find yourself implementing stealth and guile to bypass or distract those that see you as an obstacle to their vengeance. 

AM I HEARING THINGS

Past events will often be presented to you through re-enactments seen from beyond the veil of mortal eyes, allowing you to feel appropriately unnerved by the actions and consequences of the story’s characters. Early on, these story segments act as mild jump scares, usually triggered by passing by their location only to hear a conversation spring up behind you. Likewise, the wraith guiding you through the world is prone to narrate in many scenes. However, the wraith’s ghostly cacophony of layered voices is impossible to spatially pinpoint as it seems located inside your head even when he chooses to be visible.

Ghoulish whispers and a relentless sighing, as if the last breaths of the dead, carry through the halls. Eery echoes and creepy creaking embellish the already ominous ambience. A realistic graphical style further immerses you in this supernatural world. Although the visual style alone isn’t what brings life to the dilapidated mansion. The world is credibly cluttered, and you see deterioration all around you. Discarded furniture litters the locations, and mould accumulations abound. Paranormal plant life and inky black portals that shift and distort when you approach them help build a fantastical atmosphere. 

WRAITH: THE OBLIVIOUS

Spend enough time in the game, though, and you’ll find several grievances that don’t require posthumous investigation from beyond the grave. Several fundamental game mechanics are, at best, loosely explained, causing players to rely on either the respawn mechanic or knowledge of other, similar stealth games. For instance, your ‘corpus’ is never presented, with players having to just figure out they have a health meter after dying multiple times. You are given numerous refills for your ‘corpus’ before you even have the chance to take damage, leaving players with no natural way to connect the dots. When encountering enemies, a subtle icon appears on the screen, indicating your presence is being detected, and immediate action is required. Again, this detection meter is something players must either be familiar with through other games or somehow figure out through dying and making the arduous journey back through the storyline.

Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife doesn’t let you skip dialogue, regardless of how many times you’ve repeated a section, or even if there is already dialogue being played. You are forced to endure it as you seek out a Save Point. Subtitles don’t always match the dialogue you’re hearing and aren’t even always visible, including during the pitch-black death screen.

Despite the insistence on revising information at every stage, crucial information gathered during your journey cannot be recalled from its storage location until immediately required. This results in situations where you will have to knowingly stand in a dangerous place to reacquire information the game expects you to have remembered. Conversely, providing the required information often makes puzzles immediately predictable or removes any challenge they may have otherwise posed. A different method of accessing gathered clues and important notes would go a long way towards reducing these frustrations.

SHORT-LIVED AFTERLIFE

Similarly, non-essential items containing lore and story material are sent directly to a memory palace separate from your person. Items sent to the memory palace are inaccessible until you reach a save point. Until the tutorial occurs, you’ll only know it exists if you maybe, possibly, happen to notice the extra orb that appears. These collectable tidbits of information grant deeper understanding and insight about the characters and even clues for dealing with the various spectres.

DEAD ON ARRIVAL

While progressing through Wraith, I felt that I was struggling for the wrong reasons. Instead of fearing the nightmarish creatures or feeling uncertainty regarding a complex puzzle, I felt frustrated at the control schemes and gameplay mechanics. While the story and world-building are amazingly well done, playing the game itself didn’t deliver the satisfaction I expected. Admittedly, the story improves as you get further into it, so if you’re a fan of horror titles or like the World of Darkness series, you’ll likely enjoy Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife. 

Still, a few more game patches couldn’t hurt.

Crashland does indeed see you fending off hordes of enemies. Yes, indeed, Crashland doesn’t have some convoluted narrative giving you an emotional reason to kill its monsters. But it is also true that Crashland has an intensely deep and well thought out gameplay loop that will provide some of the most intense action that the Quest can provide. I understand that to many, that will not be enough. The simple utterance of the dirty words “wave shooter” will elicit an instant nope. To those people, I can say sincerely, it’s your loss. 

I hope you shoot better than you fly

Crashland has a simple enough premise. You are a space gladiator who crashlands onto various planets to face off against the local inhabitants until rescue arrives. There’s really nothing else to it, and nor, quite frankly, does there need to be. I’m sure the same experience could be delivered with some exposition or another that gives the player a reason to push through the minutes of non-stop violence, but in this case, it would probably just be a hindrance. At the end of the day, Crashland is confident enough in the core gameplay loop that it doesn’t dress it up in plot-based connivances. As far as I’m concerned, that confidence pays off.

Combat is entirely projectile-based, with the player equipped with a pistol-like primary weapon and a “boomstick” weapon. The boomstick is essentially a high-powered secondary weapon that operates on a cooldown and provides your in-game motion sensor. This innocuous gadget is vital. You will need to pay close attention to it as the insidious red dots converge on you, or you will find yourself in trouble very quickly. 

Both weapons can be upgraded via powerups that drop from the sky throughout the level. You can cycle through the options to select the best possible weapon for each situation. Given the extensive range of enemies you will encounter and their individual abilities, this versatility is often the difference between life and death. 

Before launch, the player selects from a range of perks. These perks unlock over time as the player levels up, as does the number of perks that can be carried into battle. Finding the right loadout combinations for each world and its specific variety of enemy types is engaging. Matching those to the players playstyle provides a tactical aspect to the game that also makes each run unique.

Salvation Imminent

Crashland takes the wave shooter’s timeless VR trope and fills it with so much style and substance that it feels almost ready to burst. Rather than facing numbered waves of enemies as is traditional for the genre, each world gives the player a timer counting down until salvation arrives. From there, the onslaught of enemies is nothing short of relentless, and there is never a moment where you have time to breathe. I have seldom experienced anything as tense as fighting through the final seconds of a level as impossible numbers of insectoid nasties scramble to take you down.

In addition to the powerups and perks, the player also has boost shots and teleport slots to aid them through the carnage. These additions are limited, with teleports recharged by killing enemies and boost shots gained by collecting the glowing balls dropped randomly by fallen enemies. Careful (often desperate) use of these abilities will often be your saving grace. A well-placed teleport or timely barrage of boost fire can be the only thing saving you from being surrounded or overrun.

The action is quick and intense, and hard. Damn hard. Everything within the game cycle is built towards balancing planning and instinct. Without precision, movement, and careful deployment of powerups, even a momentary lapse in concentration can see the end to the most proficient of gladiators. It’s really, really good.

There be Monsters here

The enemy design in Crashland is quite simply amazing. Rarely am I so impressed by a single feature of a game. Still, in this instance, Crashland has raised the bar so high beyond its nearest competitor that I can’t imagine being impressed again for quite a while. Most games usually offer a dozen enemy types at best, for the most part, empowered riffs on a core three or four. Crashland, on the other hand, delivers fifty of the most diabolical grotesqueries I have encountered in VR. Yes, there are empowered versions as you progress, but they are generally so different in how they need to be dispatched that they feel new.

As you progress through the 24 worlds, each progressive stage reveals several new monstrosities for you to contend with. Make no mistake, these are the things of nightmares. I have played Crashland for six hours at the time of writing, and I have taken the headset off twice because the game got too intense, and I had to nope out. Without any spoilers, there was one level that made me so uncomfortable that if I hadn’t beaten it on my second attempt, I don’t think I would have gone back in for a third. 

Some enemies latch on and immobilise you. Some circle you as they hunt in packs. Some enemies interfere with your weaponry, and others that…well, you’ll see. Regardless of where the overall score for Crashland sits, if we had an ‘enemy design’ criteria, I would score it a solid 10. This is the new gold standard, and other dev teams would be well advised to take note.

Beautiful desolation

Crashland succeeds at making the various hostile alien landscapes eerily immersive. The remarkable depth of textures and the different lighting and weather effects all help give the environments a character of their own. I will admit that I am only a little more than halfway through the 24 levels (after playing six hours on casual) at the time of writing this review, so I have no doubt that there are plenty more worlds to come. That said, so far, Crashland has taken me through an impressive range of ecosystems and landscapes which suit the game down to the ground, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store.

The other big visual drawcard is the procedural animation of the enemies. Each creature moves beautifully through the environment, with nuanced animations that give each beastie a definite and often terrifying character of its own. That, plus the fact that each creature has multiple death animations, keeps things fresh long after the initial impact has worn off.

The sound, like every other element of Crashland, is well thought out and equally well delivered. There is no music (for the most part), and that is an absolute blessing. The ambient environmental sounds create an eery sense of foreboding. This is amplified by the relentless bleep of the motion sensor, continually reminding you that there are ever more enemies on their way. The positional audio for a game like Crashland, which throws enemies at you from all sides, needed to be good, and it’s outstanding.

Each alien atrocity has its own unique audio cue to alert you of its presence. Soon, you will be relying on these for your very life. Each time a new enemy is introduced, the learning curve to pick that sound out of the cacophony of combat becomes steeper and, at the same time, more vital. Overall the sound design is a critical component of the experience, as much fused with the actual gameplay as the very act of pulling the trigger. Again, it’s excellent.

I’ll be back

When a new game is released, one of the first questions is, “How long is it?” In the case of Crashland, this really becomes a ‘how long is a piece of string‘ style question. Crashland has 24 worlds to conquer, each roughly between 3-8 minutes, and three difficulty levels to master. So, if you’re an elite gamer, it is conceivable that you could beat it in around 3 hours. However, chances are that this will take you a lot longer to finish for slightly less godlike players. 

Also, Crashland is a wave shooter that relies on your enjoyment of the core game mechanics. This means that you could be finished with it in 20 minutes if it’s just not your thing. But, if the mix of intense, fast-paced tactical action does appeal, then you’re in for many hours of fun. There are also online leaderboards, so if you’re competitive, then there’s yet another angle for you to enjoy.

Perhaps it would be better to put it this way…

I have played Crashland for six hours on the casual difficulty setting, and I have only just beaten level 14. Given the difficulty curve, I estimate it will be at least another six hours before I get to the final world. Once I’ve done that, I’ll go back and start score chasing. Will I eventually lose interest? Probably. Will that happen within the first twenty hours of gameplay. Probably not.

One of my only complaints is that the game is only single player. The developer has stated that there is currently no plan to add multiplayer to Crashland. However, I can think of no other game that would be better suited to the addition of a co-op mode. If we could head into battle with a friend, scrambling to survive as a team, risking everything for a desperate revive, then I have no doubt that this would easily become one of my favourite games. 

Game over Man! Game Over!

Crashland is a sci-fi wave survival game that innovates within a genre that hasn’t seen innovation in years. It offers a level of depth and nuance to the action that is equal parts terrifying and addictive, and I, for one, love it. Crashland is a simple formula that delivers a lot more than the average shooter. When you find the right balance between fight, flight and some additional might, it really makes you feel like a mighty space gladiator.

I have no doubt that many gamers will remain unimpressed and bypass Crashland purely because of its genre. Those people will sadly miss out on something great. For everybody else, I strongly recommend that you give it a try.

Thanks a bunch, Superbright. With the success of the Quest already being surpassed by the Quest 2, the Oculus Store and Sidequest are now more stuffed with content than Baron Harkonnen is of space pies. There are now many, many, many more games and experiences on Quest than can be reviewed in a timely and thorough manner, even by the well-trained and overworked team of crack commando writers languishing here in the dungeons of Castle 6DoF. We’re all working round the clock as it is, Superbright, without having to RE-review games because you’ve improved them so much since release. And yet here we are. 

ATONEMENT

When I originally reviewed In Death: Unchained, only a few months ago, I gave it a solid 7. Whilst it was a unique and addictive archery game that I loved in its previous incarnation on PCVR, I felt that the Quest version had some rough edges. These affected the gameplay and stopped it reaching the heights it aspired to and deserved. Commendably, the Superbright team have issued a steady stream of improvements, tweaks and additions from the very first week of it being on sale. These tweaks have not only addressed most (if not all) of the game’s problems but have also added to the gameplay and overall experience. So much so, that an incremental upgrade to the score to tweak the original review would not do it justice. So here I am again. Just call me Doc Sisyphus.

A HELL OF A HEAV’N

What pure pleasure it is to be able to report that In Death: Unchained is, thanks to a solid foundation and a tireless and dedicated developer, now one of the best games on the Quest or any VR platform. That’s all you need to know. Go and buy it.

No, I didn’t think I’d be able to get away with leaving it there, somehow. Okay, let me take you by the eyes and lead you through the spires of Heaven.

THE PATH TO PARADISE BEGINS IN HELL

The game casts you as the hands of an unseen archer, moving through procedurally-generated levels dispatching ever-trickier hordes of unholy, monstrous baddingtons. The setting is incredible; whilst most pop culture media uses heavy metal album covers as the go-to depiction of hell, In Death wants to convey the works of Dante and Milton, with the melancholic echoes of the Dark Souls games thrown into the mix. Cathedral spires and cloisters jut impossibly from floating, snowy rock platforms which float in the clouds. It’s an ever-changing, unsettling landscape of statues and stained glass. 

As your journey progresses, it will take you through increasingly beautiful and dizzying levels that channel archaic Christian imagery of worship. You’ll traverse Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell; environments which beg to be explored and cleansed of its arcane villains. These range from faceless, hooded monks and rotting zombies to Harryhausen-issue chuckling skeletons and what I believe John Milton himself referred to as ‘little deform’d cherub bastards’. (Please check this, ed).

[Absolutely, Er…Sure! That’s exactly what Milton said! – Ed.]

Your hellish adversaries are well-designed and creepy. They all have distinctive movement patterns and sounds, all of which are excellently placed through positional audio, even when just using the Quest’s built-in speakers. I can’t emphasise enough how improved this is from how the game released originally – the game is so much fairer than it was, even though it’s still bloody difficult.

PARADISE RELOADED

The archery is simply sublime. Aiming and firing is a quick, rewarding movement which gives empowerment to a beginner and much subtlety and reward to more experienced players. While the game now allows smooth turning and free movement, this is intentionally slow-paced. You won’t be running and strafing like you’re playing Doom; the teleport arrows remain a classy way of encouraging exploration and deliberate, methodical play. Slowly creeping sideways along a balustrade, dodging arrows and lining up headshots, is truly one of gaming’s greatest pleasures. The shield you can bring up to protect against projectiles and melee attacks is excellent too, requiring good timing and skill to make the most of.

The arrow power-ups you can unlock and pick up along the way are really rewarding to use too; fire, freeze, homing and lightning arrows and such. All of these get powered up by specific achievements you earn on your runs, as do your standard attacks. They all have a use and a place in your arsenal; don’t hoard them just for the terrifying and pressured boss encounters.

THE SEVENTH CIRCLE

I’ve never been a massive fan of ‘roguelike’ random level generation per se. It can often leave me feeling demotivated when progression in a game resets on death, and it takes a special title to sidestep my ambivalence in this regard. In Death: Unchained features runs that feel satisfying and rewarding in numerous ways, not least of which is the feedback you get after you fall. 

When you find yourself back in the cathedral hub of purgatory, the game gives you numerous score tallies and now ingeniously displays filling meters for achievements you’ve earned and are on the way to earning. This, coupled with the brilliant splatting headcount of ghoulish adversaries you’ve vanquished, means that you don’t ever feel like you’ve wasted your time. There are also global and friend leaderboards to keep you competitive and motivated. 

When you get a bit more adept at handling yourself in the game, you’ll stop just struggling through and surviving, and you’ll start challenging yourself to earn a higher score with distant headshots and skilled play. It’s a wonderfully moreish gameplay loop which is more akin to the likes of Beat Saber or Audica, in some ways – and every bit as essential.

FORGIVE ME, FATHER

There are very, very few niggles with the game. I’ve played the game on various platforms, and I’m not convinced the boss battles are as polished or pleasing as they should be, no matter how often I do them. Also, there’s one enemy type, creepy floating spectres, that are mildly reminiscent of the library ghost in Ghostbusters. These advance towards you through the scenery, and sometimes you will have no idea they are doing so during a flurried group confrontation, leading to a slightly unfair health loss every so often. [You can hear them coming! Ed.] I also find that the hitboxes for their glowing chest weak-points are slightly dubious – often an arrow will show as a near-as-dammit direct hit, and yet still they advance. 

As far as criticism, that’s pretty much it. I’m really hoping Superbright don’t work too hard on improving the game any further. It would bring In Death: Unchained dangerously close to being 6DoF’s first 10, and I’ll have to do all this again.

In Death: Unchained is a distinctive, original and polished explorative archery game which is endlessly replayable and massively addictive. Through canny iteration by a talented dev, it is now a standout title on the Quest platform and an essential system-seller in its own right.

If you enjoy feeling afraid, Layers of Fear VR offers a few cheap thrills. Unfortunately, this version for the Oculus Quest looks terrible and is poorly suited for VR.

No Happy Little Trees

A port of a well-received PC horror game from 2016, Layers of Fear VR starts with a solid premise. You explore the mansion of a mentally anguished painter, and the house continually changes around you to reflect his state of mind. As you learn more about the painter’s past and family, the house intrudes more aggressively on your sanity.

Very quickly, you’ll learn that this house operates on dream logic. You’ll frequently walk through a door, turn around, and walk through it again to find yourself in a new location. The house’s ever-shifting architecture means that there is minimal grounding in reality. It often feels like one extended, unsettling hallucination, with very little calm to offset the constant craziness.

Without regular breathers and a chance to slowly rebuild tension between spooky rooms, the constant jump scares start to feel less effective. For example, it’s great when a painting creeps up behind you, or ghostly dolls begin to groan in the darkness. But when it happens every few seconds, you’ll learn to brace for those sudden movements and sounds.

Failing Art Class

Layers of Fear VR is an exhausting series of scare events, with some very light puzzle-solving sprinkled in. Most of the time, you’re just searching for a way out.

The game’s more successful atmospheric touches are due to quality sound design. You can expect whispers, creaks, and off-kilter lullabies— all the spooky sounds you’ll recognize from Halloween haunted houses.

But visually, the graphics in this Quest port are scary for all the wrong reasons. Muddy blobs of books and bottles clutter this nightmare hoarder house, and it’s frequently grainy and depressing to look at. The portraits, which should be sharply textured for dramatic effect, instead appear blurry and dim. Rather than madness-provoking peeling wallpaper, you’ll find yourself gliding by similar-looking beige and brown smears.

Apparently, this Quest port is a significant downgrade from the PC version. It’s disappointing that a game so heavily invested in the theme of art could miss the mark in that department.

Nauseous Quest

It gets worse. Utilizing first-person controls that have not been optimized for VR made me frequently feel nauseous while playing Layers of Fear VR.

In several rooms and hallways, the path forward only unlocks when you turn around and around. Spinning in circles, I began to associate the spooky violin strings and haunting piano melodies with real physical discomfort. I hope the developers choose to add a “teleport” travel option to cut down on the motion sickness you may feel from this half-baked PC port.

Something is also wrong with the font used in this port. The text flickers in black and white, and moving your head just slightly makes it much more difficult to read. On top of that, interacting with doors and switches feels imprecise.

Final Thoughts

Layers of Fear VR is a mediocre port on Quest. It does provide a few scary moments, a clever premise, and good sound design, however, at least on the Oculus Quest, Layers of Fear VR is also low-resolution and uncomfortable to play.

The haunted dolls and paintings occasionally made me feel spooked, but playing this poorly-designed port also made me feel sick. You’ll find better scares— and a much smoother, better game overall— in VR titles like Red Matter or Dreadhalls.