The seventh Visitor VR evaluate: a creepy, clumsy 90s throwback

How do you protect a sport like The seventh Visitor? The PC basic was a groundbreaking launch in 1993, providing an uncharacteristically darkish sport for the time with some spectacular prerendered 3D graphics. Play it at this time, although, and that truth can be laborious to glean. By at this time’s requirements, it’s simple to mistake it for a boilerplate puzzle journey of the period filled with tacky appearing. There’s solely a lot a easy remaster can do to protect the oohs and aahs of a launch that previous.

Maybe sensing that pressure, Vertigo Video games takes a really totally different remake strategy with The seventh Visitor VR. Somewhat than dropping a refined model of the unique right into a headset, the brand new launch is a ground-up reimagining. It options the identical spooky mansion, now constructed as a completely explorable 3D area, however that’s about all it has in widespread. A extra fleshed-out homicide thriller and an virtually completely unique set of puzzles purpose to think about what The seventh Visitor may need seemed like have been it made with at this time’s technical developments.

It’s a artistic remake strategy that finds blended outcomes. The seventh Visitor VR works finest as a campy haunted home journey crammed with intuitive escape room puzzles. That tactile enjoyable will get difficult by the quirks of digital actuality, as fiddly movement controls provide its largest scare of all.

Return to the haunted mansion

Whereas The seventh Visitor VR is a reasonably radical reimagining of its predecessor, it shares loads of foundational DNA. Gamers are referred to as to a spooky mansion on a darkish and stormy night time the place they encounter a haunted home filled with ghosts, puzzles, and creepy puppets. The VR remake has loads of enjoyable increasing the 1993 sport’s story, blowing it up right into a full-on homicide thriller as gamers study what occurred to a handful of company who have been mysteriously invited to the home. It’s filled with previous horror tropes and supernatural camp, which makes for a enjoyable style throwback.

Story was an necessary side of the unique seventh Visitor due to its heavy use of pre-rendered 3D video. That put actual actors into the PC sport — a outstanding feat for 1993. The VR model appears to recapture that wow issue with a magic trick of its personal: volumetric video. That brings its forged of ghostly actors to life, as gamers can totally stroll round them in 3D. It’s not as groundbreaking a technical feat, however it does assist pump up its cinematic appeal by placing gamers within the heart of an interactive horror film.

The immersive nature of VR does the unique sport’s spooky tone justice, because the previous mansion will get an appropriate 3D makeover right here. Every room is a Halloween delight, crammed with thick cobwebs, scratched-up portraits, and dusty furnishings. All of those creative additions are the place The seventh Visitor VR capabilities finest as a remake. In 2023, it’s laborious to speak how an previous PC sport with a goofy MIDI soundtrack and corny visuals felt genuinely unnerving on the time of launch. The VR model does an awesome job of modernizing the ghost story, balancing gentle horror and playful camp. It’s extra Disney’s Haunted Mansion than Phasmophobia, however that tone is an ideal match for the unique.

VR quirks

Whereas its campy horror aesthetics make for enjoyable set dressing, The seventh Visitor VR is extra of a blended expertise in the case of puzzles. The core gameplay loop is simple sufficient: Every room of the mansion is its personal mini escape room crammed with interconnecting puzzles. A few of these discover an awesome stability by mixing in some cerebral brain-teasers with tactile options that make nice use of VR. In a gross rest room, I’m guiding cockroaches throughout a spider-infested wall by shooing the bugs off and blocking holes within the wall with my palms. In one other, I’m sticking my hand by means of a magician’s hat to snag objects I can’t attain in any other case.

There are tons of artistic interactions right here, with no two puzzle rooms feeling the identical. A number of even pay tribute to the extra board game-like nature of the unique’s puzzles. A well-known logic conundrum has me putting down a handful of queens on a chess board, taking care to not put them in each other’s crosshairs. Within the kitchen, a chunk of frozen meat turns right into a jigsaw puzzle as I reconstruct it for a witch’s brew. Puzzles like that decision again to the previous age of PC puzzlers whereas nonetheless using the extra trendy tactile really feel of VR to their benefit.

The tech is usually The seventh Visitor’s best hindrance, although. Via my playthrough, I skilled quite a few finicky motion-controlled moments that left me pulling out my hair beneath my PSVR2. One room has me putting dolls in a guillotine, reattaching the heads to different dolls, and putting them in the best seats at a tea occasion. It’s an awesome logic puzzle in idea, however it’s an absolute ache to get the dolls into their correct positions.

In some methods, I really feel like I’m critiquing VR platforms greater than the sport itself, however The seventh Visitor VR doesn’t at all times design across the tech quirks. A number of late-game puzzles require precision as I press piano keys or fastidiously faucet tiny rings in a jewellery field. These aren’t precisely simple duties when utilizing fat-fingered movement controls. The again half is stuffed with annoying interactions like that, which ultimately had me spending cash to auto-solve puzzles. They weren’t laborious to determine; I simply was bored with losing time with execution.

Maybe these technical hiccups make for a extra trustworthy expertise ultimately. In spite of everything, PCs had their very own irritating limitations in 1993; possibly it’s solely proper {that a} VR remake comes with the early warts of a brand new gaming period too. I can recognize that on a high-concept stage, however The seventh Visitor VR does really feel behind the tech’s potential at occasions. It’s a noticeably messier expertise than one thing like The Room VR: A Darkish Matter, a wonderful horror puzzler from 2020 that nailed clear, motion-controlled escape room gameplay.

Whereas I used to be keen to flee the mansion by the point I reached a irritating string of ultimate challenges, I nonetheless admire The seventh Visitor VR as a left-field remake. It’s a thoughtfully thought of reimagining that does a commendable job of capturing a PC basic’s haunted home power, whereas nonetheless delivering an expertise that’s completely its personal. If nothing else, it’s a nice means for shut-ins to spend a Halloween whereas hiding from trick-or-treaters.

The seventh Visitor VR was reviewed on PlayStation VR2.

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