2023-04-25 15:42:27
“Afterlife VR” is now also available for PlayStation VR2. The technology is outdated, but the game with setting and sound more than makes up for it.
After a release on other VR systems, “Afterlife VR” is now also starting on the PlayStation VR2 for the PlayStation 5. And the concoction by the developer Split Light Studio has pretty much everything you would expect from a horror flick. Armed with a gun and a flashlight, a junior cop explores a dark and derelict psychiatric hospital full of insane patients, creepy girls in ghost dresses, and nurses with empty eyes but deadlier intentions. Yes, “Afterlife VR” draws from the well-known horror mishmash and is technically not necessarily up to par. The setting and especially the sound effects still shock players positively.
In the game, which is around two hours long and can be a bit longer if you struggle with the fairly simple puzzles or want to explore everything in the game world, you slip into the role of Adam Bernhard. The policeman, who has hardly any service experience and is currently on patrol on the night shift, is called to the Black Rose Mental Hospital, an old mental institution. Our younger sister, Allison, was recently transferred there – and now worrying news of missing patients and also facility staff is suddenly circulating. For spoiler reasons, we don’t want to reveal more – the plot is exciting in parts, but certainly doesn’t tear your socks off.
A tremendously spooky experience in VR
But once you’ve grabbed a walkie-talkie, pistol, and flashlight and entered the building, the horror begins – and alongside the task of uncovering the mysteries of the walls, a fight for survival quickly involves not being a patient yourself to become the institution. All players who are easily frightened in real life should be warned: Jumpscares with creepy figures suddenly darting around the corner and unexpectedly loud sound effects abound and they often made us, die-hard horror fans, wince. Though the graphics aren’t pin-sharp, Afterlife VR is a tremendously spooky virtual reality experience.
The controls feel a bit strange – to run you have to push the right stick of the DualSense controller forwards, and you can also turn the stick. On the other hand, the game takes the gambler too much by the hand, literally. Although the VR hands can be moved independently in the game and you can grab objects with them and rummage them out of the inventory and use them, you lose control when searching. And it works like this: If you get close enough to cupboards and drawers, the game takes control and our protagonist automatically searches them for items. The well-planned comfort function keeps tearing us out of the immersive experience.
Partly nerve-wracking exciting gameplay
But you don’t have to deal too much with the controls, because the options remain manageable. In the beginning you wave a flashlight, which consumes batteries that you have to search and find in the game world. This plays similar to the “Outlast” first-person survival horror games, where you’re constantly on the hunt for camera batteries. Syringes are also quickly added, which restore the health of the threatened protagonist in the event of damage. And finally, one rarely comes across ammunition for the service pistol, which, however, should only be used judiciously anyway due to the shortage of ammunition. The inventory stays tidy thanks to fewer items.
In terms of gameplay, most of the game is spent looking for keys or numeric codes needed to enter locked areas of the mental institution. What sounds boring is nerve-wrackingly exciting, because the game indicates creepy dangers around the next corner in a continuous loop, but then uses the shock effects more dosed and surprisingly every time. The highlight then are the encounters with the creepy residents of the mental hospital, the following fight is then less convincing. With no particular weapon feedback and no precise aiming in the VR world, just shoot at the enemies that appear until they vanish into thin air.
Technically dusty, but that’s not a problem
The fights aren’t particularly challenging either – after the first shock when they appear, the enemies are quickly defeated and have little chance of harming our health. This also robs the many health items in the game of their right to exist. Anything below the hardest level of difficulty should therefore be disregarded. Halfway through the game, an interesting mechanic comes into play, which the game unfortunately wasn’t able to integrate logically into the plot: Our protagonist learns to use telekinetic powers. Throwing objects at enemies is surprisingly satisfying to play – and at the end of the game you have to use the powers.
Especially graphically, the technology of the game is getting a bit old. Especially the walls, walls and floors of the mental hospital are far from sharp details and sometimes even appear as texture mud. Again, it’s surprising that some – but by no means all – characters in the game have been rendered in great detail, with crazy expressionless faces, black shadows around the empty eyes and dirt-smeared clothing. And the lighting effects should not be underestimated either. If lights flicker in the corridors, which are otherwise so poor in detail, and the glow of the flashlight darts around nervously, that’s enough for a good portion of horror and a great horror atmosphere.
“Afterlife VR” in the test – simple, but enormously scary
Even the sound effects are truly award-worthy. Even the voice output comes across as quite solid, the rest is then simply implemented fantastically well. Moaning voices from the shadows, creaking doors when walking through the gloomy mental hospital, eerie footsteps on the carpet behind us and shock moments that turn up the volume brutally, including screeching and bloodcurdling hissing or shrilling are simple and effective means that create the atmosphere in the game uncanny do well. Here the developers have really thought about it and perfectly emphasized every little moment of the game with audio – even horror connoisseurs are completely surprised with it again and again.
But not only frightened people are warned, we also urgently want to point out that topics such as murder and suicide as well as mental illnesses play a major role. Technically, the game may be far away from a next-gen VR headset, but the implementation is surprisingly good. Above all, sound effects and jump scares are well thought out and the plot motivates enough to search the mental institution. However, there is only limited replay value after one run and at around two hours “Afterlife VR” is also quite short. However, if you play it in the dark with headphones, the virtual reality game is one horror marathon full of good scares.
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