The VR videogame entry into the Paranormal Activity franchise is coming out on HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift soon and VRFocus reported Nina braved her terror or horror games to bring us her verdict.
The original Paranormal Activity movie came out in 2007 and depicted the life of a family that is haunted by a demon that stalks, and eventually murders, several members of the family. The series made use of footage made to resemble security cameras and other recording devices to present the films as what is now referred to as ‘found footage’.
You can watch Nina experience the terror in the video below. Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul will be available on Steam Early Access on March 14th 2017.
VRFocus will bring you more information on VR games as we get it.
Jump scares are universally hated by horror film and game enthusiasts alike for being ‘cheap thrills’, and are oft considered the low-hanging fruit of the genre. Suspense and existential dread however are much harder to manufacture in a horror game, and from what I’ve seen at this year’s GDC, Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul has it in spades. As it stands, this isn’t some short ‘brand engagement’ piece like we’ve seen in the past either, but rather a true game that’s clearly intending to approach AAA status.
Descending the dark staircase to the basement, a thought crosses my mind: I don’t really want to do this. Despite being reassured that the level I was playing wouldn’t have the sort of jump scare nightmares you’d expect from a VR horror game, and instead would feature the game’s puzzle elements, I couldn’t help but really hate my new reality.
Opening a creaky door with my Vive controller, I walk down the stairway. The atmosphere is thick with possibility of screaming ghouls, and I’m more than a little intimidated by the thought of coming face-to-face with whatever it is that I’m sure to meet in the grubby little cellar. At least I have a flashlight to guide my way. Suddenly an unseen force snaps the flashlight from my hand. Great.
Rounding the corner, I’m confronted with a Satanic pentagram on the floor lit with candles. The sense of danger is real, and my heartbeat is irregular.
There’s a small altar with an open book, instructions on how to ‘wake the beast’. For Pete’s sake, a beast? Can I… not?
The strange book instructs me to burn a ancient parchment with a monster inscribed on it. I don’t even want to look around, I’m so wary of a demon popping out of the dark corners of the room. Against my better judgement, I find the page on the other table, and now have to place 5 golden coins on the edges of a smaller pentagram etched into the altar. The coins, like the page, are strewn about the dank basement. The fear of the unknown has me quickly grabbing them and matching the symbols.
Suddenly a wild-eyed little girl, her face and elbows smudged with dirt, comes out from under the stairs, telling me to hide quickly before “she” gets here. Physically crouching under the stairs, a gaunt middle age woman storms into the basement, screeching and scanning the room for signs of life.
My palms are sweating, I’m crouching in the fetal position on the floor and the PR rep who was running my demo was laughing at me. The horrible woman looks my way. I can feel her make eye contact with me and she lurches closer. “You have to come with me!” she screams.
Yeah. That’s not happening.
A loud groan issues from above, seemingly coming from the belly of the house and recalling the woman back up the stairs and out of the basement. I’m alone again, but the only way for me to leave is to follow her. Returning to the stairs, they appear much darker than I remember, the door a little creakier than before. I get to the top of the stairs where it’s pitch black. No door can be seen. I slowly turn back down to face the stairwell to find … well, you’ll just have find out.
Created by VRwerx in cooperation with Paramount Pictures, Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul has changed from when we first saw it at last year’s GDC. Controls, which left something to be desired in the game’s earlier incarnation, have significantly improved. Object interaction, which was somewhat of a pain, seems to be a complete non-issue now that the game has undergone extensive polishing. Graphics are on the high end too, and reflect a clear wish by VRwerx to create a AAA ‘VR-native’.
The game is preferably played standing up, and requires you to physically turn your body instead of using a snap-turn comfort mode, which can lead to some predictable cable snags. Realism factor is high in both set design and characters, and by keeping artificial locomotion confined to forward movement, you really start to feel grounded in the reality.
Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul is slated to release on Steam Early Access on March 14th, and will be coming immediately to Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with PSVR support coming shortly after. The developers say the game will be 10-20 hours in length.
If you love the horror genre then virtual reality (VR) has got you covered. VR allows for a much more intense experience than film or standard videogames, as such developers have been readily exploring new ways to scare players. One of the most popular film franchises of recent years has been Paranormal Activity, andthis March a VR adaption arrives on Steam Early Access.
Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul has been in the works since 2015 – under the previous title Paranormal Activity VR – appearing at several events along the way. Created by VRWERX, the experience isn’t based on any one of the films previously released, simple set in the franchises universe. Story line details haven’t been released yet, but VRFocuspreviously reported that the studio is planning a fairly sizeable videogame with a run time of around 10 hours.
To coincide with the March release announcement VRWERX has unveiled a new trailer which plays on the whole horror atmosphere of Paranormal Activity. Gameplay wise very little is showcased, with the camera slowing moving down a dimly lit corridor towards music playing in a a distant room. Do you want to go inside? What’s in the room? You’ll have to wait till next month to find out.
Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul will launch for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive though Steam on 14th March initially, with a date for the PlayStation VR version still to be announced.
For any further updates for Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul, keep reading VRFocus.
The Paranormal Activity franchise may no longer be haunting the box office, but it will soon be possessing a VR headset near you.
Paranormal Actvity: The Lost Soul, as the game is called, will be launching in Early Access on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on March 14th 2017, with a PlayStation VR version coming later down the line. That is according to a new trailer for the game, hosted by IGN, that you can see below. It doesn’t tell you a whole lot about the upcoming project, but then again the best horror experiences keep things a mysterious.
The game is being developed by LA-based VRWERX in partnership with Paramount and was originally announced all the way back at E3 2015. An Early Access launch means the game won’t have all the content of its final build, but will have at least some form of playable content. We’ve reached out to VRWERX to clarify exactly what will be included in the release and when a full version of the title might launch.
A very short gameplay teaser was also released last month, though it doesn’t tell you much.
One thing’s for sure: the game’s going to be pretty scary. In fact, we saw someone tear off and throw an HTC Vive being used to demo it at GDC last year (don’t worry, it wasn’t damaged). From what we’ve played of it, it’s a fairly traditional first-person horror game that got our own hearts racing. If that’s enough in a post-Resident Evil 7 [Review: 9/10] world remains to be seen, but a little competition is a very good thing, especially for horror fans.
