Developed by Unlimited Fly Games and published by DeerVR Games, Blind Spot is a gorgeous new VR adventure/escape room game that was just released for Playstation VR (with a Steam version coming later). Here’s our take on the game.
The Playstation VR headset has received a good number of escape room-type games over the years, and despite so-so early attempts like Dying Reborn and Weeping Doll there have also been a few gems, including The Door and 18 Floors. Blind Spot reminded me a little of the latter two, as I came away mostly enjoying it.
Blind Spot puts you inside a big mansion, which has been the home of you, your father and your sibling. Things aren’t what they seem now though, and a puzzle-filled mystery soon starts to unfold. Sending you on your journey is a mysterious text message that urges you to explore, and more come in over time as you get gently nudged in the right direction.
The game relies heavily in these interactions via text messages, which are delivered to you through your phone – which is mapped to your hand that’s holding a move controller. Also acting as an in-game inventory/menu, it’s a pretty nifty way of organically including a lot of game functions into the game without resorting to an in-game menu and thus breaking the immersion.
Not surprisingly, this is handled with a pair of Move controllers, which also enables you to interact with objects and puzzles in the game. Movement (as per the norm with Move controllers) isn’t the smoothest because smooth locomotion is hard to pull off which this generation’s Move controllers, but because walking is quite slow this isn’t too big of a problem.
Puzzle design is nice and varied in the game, and a bit of exploring usually yields a clue or two to help keep you from just mindlessly clicking things and getting stuck. While most puzzles are interwoven with the main narrative, it was nice to see a few optional challenges were also tucked away in there. Everything’s currently divided up into two chapters, with a third one allegedly coming after launch. This is something that reminded me of 18 Floors though, which to date still only has a small part of those 18 floors available to players.
Let’s give Blind Spot the benefit of the doubt though, because another comparison to 18 Floors (besides the quality puzzles) is the fact that this is a very good looking VR title. I’m guessing the headset experience on the Steam version will be sharper when that releases, but there’s a tremendous amount of detail in the rooms as well as a large collection of objects to interact with. Visually, it reminded me a little of the stunning Torn by Aspyr as well, though I’d still have to give it to Torn when looking at them side by side.
Another part of the excellent audiovisual presentation is the soundtrack, with music that changes dynamically based on the location you’re in. Less of a reliance on the quiet cell phone (text) interactions would have been a benefit to the game though, as it does take you out of the experience a bit. I would have enjoyed it more if our mysterious called/texter had occasionally called us instead, preferably on speaker phone so we could stay in the moment. Done well (perhaps with a voice scrambler), it would have added to the sense of mystery that you try to uncover in the game.
Underneath the mystery, Blind Spot is also a story about yourself and your history, which gradually gets revealed over the course of the story. I look forward to going back in when the new content is released, even though it was a shame to have the game end before the story was over. This is a quality escape room adventure though, so if you’ve enjoyed similar games in the past this is one you should check out.
Score: 7.7/10
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