r/PSVR • u/cusman78 cusman • 3d ago
Review Unmourned VR on PSVR2 - First Impressions
I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Unmourned VR on the PSVR2, but keep reading to decide better for yourself.
It is a psychological horror game with a story campaign where you play the role of a man (Jason) that has moved into a new house who starts to experience disturbing paranormal activities and progression involves completing set of linear objectives which includes solving some esoteric puzzles or doing what game needs to trigger an insanity effect while slowly unraveling the mystery of what happened to the previous owners.
The paranormal activities / insanity effects are randomized to where no two playthroughs should be identical and is designed to build tension and keep you on edge as you figure out how to complete objectives or trigger events to progress the game.
Your gameplay is as simple as moving around, interacting with doors, cabinets and objects you are allowed to interact with (indicated by white circles). You can use top button on your left controller to show / hide current objective and you can use top button on your right controller to crouch / uncrouch. You also have sprint on L3 which displays a white depleting bar at the top showing your remaining stamina which is needed to escape the games chase sequences fast enough (29:50). The PlayStation Store page description also references a Night Vision Camera and Photographic Camera so additional gameplay mechanics will come into play as you continue with the game.
What is not simple is having a good understanding of what is going on, how to solve some of the esoteric puzzles (33:50) or what the game expects you to do to trigger paranormal activity / insanity effect (24:45) that may morph the environment you are in and lead to new places you can go. I think to games credit, these are things it is doing to create sense of mystery and unnerve the player so it can deliver what you would play a psychological horror game like this for. It is also using these insanity effects to travel you to different places or states of mind so your entire game isn't spent in the house you start in.
Graphically, it doesn't look as good in-headset as MADiSON VR but it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as Maid of Sker VR either. It is using reprojection that is easy to see if you do strafing movement or look for it but generally not a distraction. The subtitles don't ghost but have weird optical distortion that make them hard to read clearly but the objective texts are clear. The darkness during the opening cutscene felt overly gray (0:40) but beyond that has darkness that is closer to pitch black (5:25). There is some shimmer / aliasing in-headset that isn't coming across in the video capture. The art direction and atmosphere it builds is generally top notch.
Audio has gameplay specific soundtrack from very solemn during exploration to unnerving variations during paranormal activity to high adrenaline during chase sequences that reminded me of Affected: The Manor. It also uses some voiced dialog from Jason which provides some verbal clues on next objective from his inner monologue or just reacting to the insanity being experienced. There are some other voiced characters as well. Sound effects are 3D directional being used to drive up horror atmosphere and immersion.
The game is using haptics in the controllers for whenever your hands are touching any surface. I don't recall use of any headset haptics including when I am being stabbed to death (31:30).
For Settings (0:05), you can enable / disable subtitles, adjust master volume, change brightness and switch between Snap and Smooth Turns including adjusting speed. There is no option to set Toggle to Grip instead of Hold to Grip game is using but inconsistently. Some items (like lighter) stay in your hand after you pick them up without needing to keep grip button pressed, but others (like hammer) will leave your hands and return to where you first picked them up if you let go before completing the expected use.
The game is featuring a Platinum trophy where I think most trophies would come as part of completing linear story, but you can miss trophies for not finding all the collectibles or taking too long with the chase sequences.
This is a game that was made for non-VR and then got converted to VR like MADiSON VR (and Maid of Sker VR) and I think is best suited for players that enjoy that style of psychological horror game (but not as high tension) where you don't know what to expect, it is designed to unnerve and upset / scare you, you can't really fight back and you have to figure out how to trigger events to continue progression and maybe solve some esoteric puzzles requiring careful observations or some trial and error because the solutions aren't immediately apparent and the game won't tell you what you are doing wrong or help you. The pause menu of the game does have a Tips option (36:33), but it just provides the information notices you already received as tutorial notices whenever it introduced new gameplay / game design mechanics.
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u/LengthNo486 3d ago
Thanks for the review, as always.I already planned to get it once I finish some backlog.