Do you like horror the way I do? If earlier in order to tickle your nerves, people had to watch horror movies, then modern technologies gave us a completely new degree of immersion in what is happening - virtual reality. VR-horror can completely change your idea of how terrible video games can be. Today I would like to tell you about a new project for the PlayStation VR headset called The Inpatient.
Game: The Inpatient
Platform: PlayStation VR
Genre: Horror
Release date: January 24, 2018
Developer: Supermassive Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
British Supermassive Games became famous after the release of the game Until Dawn for the console PlayStation 4. This unusual cinematic horror told the story of several teenagers who oppose a maniac in a remote country house. The game stood out against the backdrop of the rest of the detailed characters, an exciting plot, as well as the ability to influence the development of history, making important decisions, thereby fundamentally changing the course of things and the ending. The game received high marks from critics and fell in love with players so much that it was decided to expand the universe in which the events of Until Dawn took place.
The studio management decided on a risky step and released an experimental first-person rail shooter for the virtual reality PlayStation VR headset called Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. The player, armed with two controllers PlayStation Move, was given the opportunity to be in the unconscious mind of the maniac from the original game and face to face with the terrible nightmares generated by his sick brain. The game turned out to be short, but really terrible, for the first time players could be directly inside all that horror, and not watch him through the window in the form of a TV screen.
Experiments with virtual reality were continued. This time, the British developers decided to abandon the players for several decades into the past. So the idea of the game The Inpatient was born (the Russian version of the title is "Patient"), which tells about the events that took place 60 years ago in the mental hospital "Blackwood Pines". The one that figured in the original Until Dawn. The game tries to recreate the atmosphere of classical psychological horror and cross it with the latest achievements in the field of virtual reality. How well it is obtained - we will try to find out together.
It all starts with choosing the sex of the main character and the color of his skin. You can play for a man or a woman. From this choice depends not only how you will see and feel yourself in virtual reality, but also many other factors, for example, non-player characters that will meet the protagonist / protagonist during the game. After that, you find yourself tied to an armchair in a dark room, where an eerie-looking psychiatrist asks you strange questions, trying to understand the causes of your amnesia. For the first time in my memory, players are invited to use innovative voice control. You can answer questions both with the help of the DualShock 4 gamepad, and simply with your own voice, by pronouncing the answers on the screen. Built-in headset PlayStation VR microphone will recognize the commands and transfer them to the game. However, because of the distorted translation, voice commands in Russian can sometimes not be recognized correctly. We write this down to the errors of the localizers.
Depending on how you will answer the questions you ask, the plot of the game will be transformed. Even an insignificant at first glance choice can lead to serious consequences after some time, therefore it is extremely difficult to foresee the development of events, even if we connect logic to the case. The game resorts to a scheme that has proven itself in Until Dawn, where your decisions depended on which characters in the finale survive, and which ones will perish. Such a "butterfly effect" allows players to feel their involvement in the development of the plot, which, in turn, enhances the degree of immersion in the game. The technology of virtual reality also helps immersion, for the first time we are directly at the center of events, and we do not observe what is happening from the outside.
From the psychiatrist's office, the protagonist enters a closed room where he meets with another patient, as well as with the staff of the Blackwood Pines clinic. Moving in virtual reality is carried out with the help of DualShock 4, and in order to make this process as comfortable as possible, you can adjust the turn of the character, minimizing the effect of motion sickness. Some items can be raised by pressing the button on the gamepad, and then rotate them in your hands (if you have a pair of Move controllers - you can use them). Management can not be called convenient: the character's turns around the axis are very slow, like the speed of his walking. Sometimes the game suffers because of the camera's tracking curve, which causes you to periodically reset the character's position in the virtual reality using the Options button. The study of objects often leads to flashbacks of the main character, transferring it to the past and shedding light on what is happening. But to be 100% sure that these memories are true, you can not. In this game, it's generally difficult to be sure of anything, because reality is closely intertwined with the hallucinations of the protagonist.
The horror component of the game did not impress me personally. Most often the player tries to scare classical techniques like "screamers" when something is thrown at you from the screen. And given that the events of The Inpatient are taking place in a clinic for the mentally ill, I would like to see more psychological techniques, rather than beaten cliches from low-quality horror films. There are a couple of interesting moments in the game, for example, when a player sees his character as a tiny toy inside the layout of the room in which he is at the moment, or when you need to stand still and do not move so that opponents do not notice you. And when I say "freeze", I really mean that you can not move, because any of your movement will be monitored using a PlayStation Camera. Otherwise, the game is unlikely to be a revelation for fans of horror, as it happened to me.
For the visual component meets the graphics engine Unreal Engine 4, but despite this, the graphics in The Inpatient places a good limp. The characters are executed and animated at a very decent level, which can not be said about the virtual environment. Texture decorations often look blurred, objects suffer from low detail, and the overall darkness of the picture tries to minimize all these shortcomings, making them less noticeable. But when the protagonist is given a personal lantern for personal use, you are increasingly beginning to focus on the graphic flaws of the game, and gradually this spoils the impression of the game. It's not entirely clear: whether it's technical limitations on the power of the PlayStation 4 hardware or whether it's an elementary budget shortage.
Music and sound in the game at a very decent level. The musical accompaniment remarkably conveys the atmosphere of its time, the compositions are always relevant and effectively emphasize what is happening on the screen. The voice of the characters is also very professional. All this is amplified many times due to impressive binaural audio effects, creating a realistic sound picture of what is happening. From myself I will add that the greatest effect will be achieved only with good headphones. To use the built-in speakers of the TV for the game is not recommended, as, indeed, cheap "plugs" that come with the PlayStation VR headset.
The minuses of the game include its uneven dynamism. Sometimes you will yawn from boredom simply because nothing happens on the screen. After a while, "shifts" will begin, soon again changing into a complete calm. Similar jumps in the speed of narration begin to strain with time, and closer to the end the game will become unbearably boring. It is very annoying that it is extremely difficult to understand what decisions you are taking. So you supported your roommate in the ward in his decision, the game made you realize that this choice is extremely important for the future. However, later we are never shown what exactly this choice was important for us. This happens very often. The length of the game also leaves a lot of questions. It takes place literally in 2-3 hours, depending on whether you want to 100% explore the virtual environment or go straight ahead.
Pros:
- The opportunity to learn what preceded the events of Until Dawn.
- The characters are executed at a very decent level.
- The pressing atmosphere of a psychiatric hospital.
- Innovative voice control.
- The ability to influence the development of the plot.
- Impressive binaural sound.
- Multiple game endings.
Minuses:
- The plot does not hold out to the magnificent story of Until Dawn.
- It's unlikely that the game will really frighten you.
- It is difficult to understand what the player's decisions affect.
- Sometimes the game graphics perceptibly limps.
- Management suffers from a number of shortcomings.
- Localization can not be called ideal.
- The dynamics of The Inpatient is extremely uneven.
- The Inpatient can be completed in 2 hours.
With all the above advantages, playing in The Inpatient after just an hour after the introductory credits becomes unbearably boring. The narrative, suffering from the failures in dynamics, destroys the whole atmosphere, which was created with such love by artists, sound engineer and composer. Especially well remembered voice control (not deprived of problems due to localization), a few really terrible moments (unfortunately, the game does not abound with them), as well as well-designed characters. Numerous endings of the game can not pull it out of the abyss of despondency, although they will please the fans of the franchise Until Dawn. Otherwise, The Inpatient is a passing project, unable to interest the player for a long time. The game gets from me only 5 points out of 10 . I really hope that the Supermassive Games studio will be able to rehabilitate with the release of its next VR-game - the military action movie Bravo Team.
The article is based on materials .
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