With less than a fortnight to go before the worldwide release of Sony’s PlayStation VR headset, I have been anxious to get some hands-on time with a number of titles to help give you guys a heads up on how the experiences hold up before taking that leap of faith and forking out the purchase price. I was fortunate enough to be invited to a preview event by Sony at the EB Expo the night before it was open to the public in Sydney. While most of the attendees were only allowed to play a couple of VR demoes due to limited availability, I was stealthy and patient enough to get a decent amount of playtime with seven VR titles. As the launch of PSVR looms, I thought I would give my impressions on one title every second day leading up to the big day.
I actually did not plan to play Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. I am not a huge fan of horrors generally (2 spooky 4 me), although I did thoroughly enjoy the original Until Dawn on Playstation 4 last year. However, the demo station was free as I was passing by and the Sony rep asked me if I wanted a go. I could not say no for fear of being perceived as a wimp so I put on my big boy pants and marched over there. I was seated and given two move controllers (which are not required, as there was an option to use the Dualshock as well).
The game is a horror-themed roller coaster that borrows themes and elements from the main game. I don’t want to spoil anything but you recognise props, characters and locations from the original game throughout, which I thought was pretty cool. The game’s atmosphere really excels in creating a sense of tension and suspense. While there were a number of jump scares throughout my demo, it was the environments and audio which were the main source of apprehension. Subtle sounds and flickers of images play on the mind and make you wonder what’s about to jump out at you and paint your dacks a new shade of brown.
The beginning of the demo had nothing but my carriage moving slowly towards an open pig’s mouth, and once you are in there it is pitch black. From possessed girls appearing and re-appearing in dark rooms, a room full of giant pigs’ corpses screeching as you pass them by and a psychotic giant clown serial killer trying to murder you inside a haunted house, this rollercoaster has it all. Another part where this demo excels is the scale. That giant clown was quite literally gigantic, and you feel tiny in his demented gaze. It was truly awe-inspiring. Another real world effect of VR apparent in Until Dawn: Rush of Blood was the use of steep slopes on the track, to simulate a “stomach-drop” feeling on a roller coaster. I have to admit it was pretty cool
The controls are very simple too. You choose to carry either a pair of pistols or shotguns and can switch between the two as you see weapon boxes scattered throughout the ride. The move button on the front reloads. That’s basically it. My main strategy was to just spray and pray for fear of anything getting close to my carriage, and there are a couple of intense moments where waves of demon-things approach your carriage and you have to fend them off.
As for graphics and resolution, I did find it was one of the lowest achievers of the bunch. When lighting is used in dark rooms it looks great and environments look great when they are in darker environments, but with the guns and menu screen (where there are carnival style lights all over the place) the pixels can become noticeable. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood was probably the biggest surprise for me out of all the PSVR demoes I tried, purely because my expectations were already low. It’s definitely not my favourite VR experience but it does do some interesting things. At a bargain price of $24.95, don’t expect a lengthy game, but hopefully there’ll be enough tracks/paths to make multiple playthroughs interesting and varied. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood launches exclusively to the PlayStation VR on 13 October 2016. The U.S. will receive a free demo of the game, so if you have a US PSN account, make sure you have that ready on launch day to see if this is right for you.
