VR is Saturated With Horror Titles…
So, this might be a strange take with Halloween a month or so away…but man am I getting exhausted of all the VR Horror being pumped out for the ecosystem. Zombies…haunted hotels, exorcisms…you name it…some Developer is going to “horrify it.“
Look, I love a good scare as much as the next person, admittedly a little less so in VR, but I totally understand what horror can do for the medium. It just feels like so many titles are leaning on cheap scares as a mechanic when VR can do so much more. I mean, you can literally transport me anywhere that your mind can dream of…into any historical scenario, or future scenario, or favorite moment from a film or book…but instead we get more zombies, more dark hallways and creepy, looking ghosties, and locales meant to scare, rather than amaze.
I was so excited for this new game I kept hearing about called capital Titanic: A Space Between...until I watched a YouTube preview tonight and found out that it’s basically survival horror…with a Backrooms-style monster chasing you through the darkened, blood red halls of the ship…as if surviving the Titanic isn’t scary enough as it is in VR!
This was a perfect opportunity to do something unique with an amazing location, a historical event and the immersive medium of VR. I still want to check the game out, but I’m bummed because I can tell I’m not going to finish it, despite the amazing environment and setting. It would have been so cool to explore the ship with some storylines about interacting with passengers or surviving to find whatever artifact…without the unnecessary monster stalking the halls.
I understand that developers have to make money, and the Gorilla Tags and horror games are what sells right now. But I’m hoping as the medium continues to evolve and mature that the experiences will also branch out a bit into other genre territories.
VR has the power to transport us to amazing places, allow us to do things we could never do in real life…it would be amazing to be able to explore some of that possibility more as VR grows.
Until then, at least we have plenty of options for October!
What places or settings would you like to explore in VR that haven’t been touched?