Mr. PSVR/2
Horror can mean different things depending on what is entailed. It can mean playing on your innocence or your emotions. It can be the internal struggle that one is going through just to keep their sanity. Depending on who you ask, you might receive a different answer. But has developer Red Limb Studio found a way to bring this all together in virtual reality? Let’s find out with Rise of Insanity for the PlayStation VR.
Before we begin, I will say that I do appreciate warnings so you know what you are getting yourself into. The warnings are there for a reason, so you should probably pay close attention and abide by said warning before continuing, because neither the authors nor I take any responsibility for any problems before, during, or after playing Rise of Insanity. Also, I will be very careful and not spoil too much, as you may want to just experience this for yourself. Now that we have that underway, make sure your DualShock 4 controller is charged, and let’s continue.
Being as Rise of Insanity is a horror game of sorts where you play as psychologist Dr. Stephen Dowell, you come to find out that you are trying to learn more about your patient who suffers from different mental disorders, so there is a nice mixture of horror and psychological horror to keep you intrigued along the way as you try to learn what happened to your wife and child.
Along the way, you will come across interactions that will reveal audio recordings and newspaper clippings that will help piece some of the story together. When it comes to horror, there is an important part that needs to be played, and that is preying on your fears. What you may not be aware of is that Rise of Insanity came out first in non-VR and then received the special VR treatment. So yes, you can play Rise of Insanity in non-VR if you wish, but to fully experience the developer’s vision, this does need to be experienced in VR, and I will say that at the beginning, the jump scares will get you in an almost surprising way. What I mean by that is for those who do not easily get scared, play this in VR, and at certain moments when the music is played just right, and you are expecting it only to have it hit you at the right moment, is truly the reason horror and VR can mix so well.
As you progress learning what possibly has happened, you start to wonder if what you are witnessing is something you encountered, or maybe there is something more internal going on than first presented. Just when you think you may have an idea, that’s when you hear it, the phone that will give even more detail to the store. It’s just that at times, hearing that certain voice that helped complement the scene did give off an eerie suspicion at times that I was not sure if something was about to jump out or not, and sometimes that can be a very good thing.
If there is anything more I would see added, it is that there would have been more locations to explore. Maybe going back in time even more, before the actions happened, to get even more of an in-depth look into the lives of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, there is some detail of the past, but seeing what caused these turns of events is something that would be interesting to witness.
Let’s talk about the graphics. Some may feel that the graphics may not be up to a certain level, but honestly, keep in mind the setting. This is 1970s America, and I got the feeling as I was wandering around the hospital and even the house, and if you can feel like the period that is set, that says something. There was a room in the hospital that had an eye chart, and I wanted to see how well it worked for testing the vision. I closed one eye and was able to make out not only the eye chart but also many other things that were written. Yes, some areas are darker than others, but I think it just leads to the environment, and keep in mind that VR was added later and not from the initial release. There is just something that Red Limb Studio did here that brought out the atmosphere that I appreciated.
For those who may not feel that the graphics are up to that certain bar, then the sound does help complement and add to the uneasy situations quite nicely when it needs to. Being able to hear the telephone in the distance or a voice that should be familiar to you later on, or even the pure silence that adds to the anxiety of the edginess rides that psychological coattail of surprises of the experience.
As I mentioned earlier, I was not going to spoil, and I have pretty much stuck to that. The small clips that I have included are just a taste of what you can expect with Rise to Insanity, along with many things that you will not expect. But as we start getting into the fall and Halloween is coming next month, Rise of Insanity is an experience that will help you get in that frightful mood.
Rise of Insanity is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on SteamVR. A review code was provided.
Also, check out the Rise of Insanity interview.
To learn more about Red Limb Studio, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I think I may have missed a collectible that I need to go find.
Mr. PSVR, September 15, 2019, theplaystationbrahs.com
