Monday, 7 November 2016

Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood: PSVR Review

Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood: PSVR Review


Developed by Supermassive Games
Platform: PS VR

There's nothing worse than a haunted house ride.

A rollercoaster takes you through a series of static locations where some goon presses a lever and out pops a ghost that looks like it wouldn't scare a 2 year old - it's a pitiful sight most times.

So it is that the Until Dawn developers have taken this concept on board and created a light gun shooter that panders to the scope of the VR World.

Taking you into the seat of a rollercoaster (even so much that unlike Batman VR you have legs and arms) you're sent spiralling around a series of levels via haunted house / rollercoaster and out into the environs that you may recognise from parts of the original Until Dawn game.

The premise is simple - you have 2 guns and you have to shoot things. It's not rocket science, but it's also not your usual shoot at the rubber duckies carny fare either. As you move slowly but with certainty around the tracks and into one location after the next, it's all about using the dual PS Move controllers to load up, fire and reload when the guns glow orange.

Ducking and diving to avoid low hanging obstacles is present too - and it's occasionally hit and miss as to whether you actually hit and miss.

Taking out some static targets boosts the multiplier and others are collectables, but at the end of the day, this is about shooting what comes at you from within the dark - be it mannequins that require an inordinate amount of bullets to stop them dead or scary clowns that menace you.

The scope of the VR means you're constantly scanning around as you play through seven levels and with bits going on on the side of it all, it means that there's always something to look at. If you're a horror buff, you'll know the tropes and maybe won't jump as much as others will, but there's something to be said for the pace of the game and the way it knows what it wants to do.

Less effective is monitoring your life as you take on hits from others. Because there's always something happening on screen, it's uncertain how much health you have left in the face of attacks and during the marauding moments, there's no indication of how close to death you are which is frustrating to say the least.

Ultimately, Until Dawn A Rush of Blood gives you the kind of adrenaline boost you'd get from a haunted house ride - it's kind of fun, occasionally tough and occasionally corny and cliched, but it shows there's great promise in VR in creating entire worlds that feel organic.

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