MADiSON returns and this time it’s putting you literally in the shoes of Luca via your VR headset. Terrifying is not a strong enough word for this experience…..
MADiSON has been one of my favorite games of all time since it was released in 2022. I wasn’t alone. It won oodles of horror awards, all while being touted as “the scariest game” by several horror outlets. So how do you follow that up? Take that same experience and make it even more frightening with VR.
MADiSON VR
Developer: BLOODIOUS GAMES
Platform: PSVR2
Release Date: May 1, 2024
Playing in VR is just an incredible experience, and simply porting flat screen games over is something I always welcome. But sometimes doing that changes the game so dramatically that it’s worth replaying. MADiSON VR fits in here. It’s essentially the same game you already played, but the updated visuals and interactive nature of VR totally changes the game.
MADiSON does an amazing job with environmental fear. Half the time, literally nothing is happening; but then something shifts in the room, or a sound goes off in the corner, and you can’t help but jump. The slow movement speed of the character makes you feel trapped and hunted all the time because you know there’s no quick escape. The game also utilizes that “P.T. inspiration” by enclosing you in small corridors with shifting rooms, so every time you look away something might change behind you.
This is something I found entirely interesting about MADiSON VR because you can’t help but to constantly be looking around. So one quick glance and the game already shifted to something new. You might even try to force yourself to not look away, but you simply can’t help it. In one instance I saw…Let’s say a monster, hiding in the dark corner of the room. I had to take a picture of the room and plan out my movements, while I kept my head turned towards him so he wouldn’t jumpscare me.
I failed. I screamed. I took a break.
But it wasn’t just environments, MADiSON VR is legit the scariest fucking game I’ve played. MADiSON already had me on edge the first time I played it. The slow build to tension, the miniscule glimpses of Blue Knees, the shifting rooms, and dark areas…It all made me uneasy. However throwing me into VR heightens everything to another level, as the developers found a way to toy with your peripheral vision in almost every area.
Odd looking statues, clocks, even the glimpses of Blue Knees are usually off to the side of your focused vision, and you look up real fast to see it. For example, in the early game you’re placed in a room that is lit up, then as the game starts, the lights dim around you, and it’s the most perfect way to explain the horror about to come because you instantly become uneasy about the dark areas.
When I play the flat screen version, if it gets a little too tense, I wimp out. I turn on a light or play during the day. No big deal. When things go dark in VR, however, IT’S DARK. So when the lights spark off and things are pitch black, you’re literally flashing your camera non stop, hoping and praying nothing appears on the film. There’s no way for you to feel comfortable because it’s simply dark in the headset.
Which leads to another great aspect of the game. You utilize a polaroid camera which quickly lights up dark areas for a split second. It’s also used to solve puzzles and take pictures of clues. But the cool thing is actually grabbing the film from the camera and waving it around to develop it. In frantic areas you are waving it around hoping it hurries up so you can see if danger is lurking in the distance, and it feels authentic as it slowly appears and you can hold up your work of art. Interestingly the gameplay does a good job of taking pictures literally, so if you’re trying to take a picture of a clue you have to line up and hold the camera in a proper angle to capture it.
Other areas were also developed pretty well to accommodate VR controls. The inventory menu is honestly one of my favorite things in any game. While I still feel it is too small, which forces you to backtrack a lot, the way it is laid out is quite innovative. When pressing inventory a big circle around your head opens up, and you can either use a thumbstick to scroll, or you can easily just look around and reach out to grab whatever you need. Everything is always easily accessible, and once you get used to it the action becomes quicker than normal. Putting things into inventory is rather easy. You just grab an object, then drop it over your shoulder.
However this is where a few of the issues with the game start to arise for me. MADiSON VR has a lot of creative interactive features all throughout, but at the same time it has questionable decisions that kind of hold it back. For example, for some reason when grabbing an inventory item the first time, you get frozen until you put it into inventory. So if you are adjusting a puzzle, for example, you need to put it into inventory, then take it back out in order to move it or move yourself around. This is kind of frustrating when you just need to shift a few pieces of a puzzle around, and instead of simply grabbing two pieces and moving them, you have this added step of inventory control.
At the same time it seems that having an item in one hand normally disables the second hand. It’s like the Doom 3 Flashlight all over again. You feel “safe” with the camera in your hand, so of course you want it in your hand, but not being able to touch or interact with your other hand is annoying. Sometimes this makes puzzles slightly more confusing because there will be an object you can touch or interact with, but the option is not available simply because you’re holding something in one hand. And adding to the confusion is that some objects require R1 instead of R2, and require you to be a little distance away.
But it’s odd, because this is the first game that I felt utilized PSVR2 properly. If you bump into objects with your hands, the controllers would slightly rumble. If Luca was tripping out, or things were getting tense, the headset would rumble. There were noise clues, rumble clues, and everything felt insanely immersive. So to have these random drawbacks doesn’t fit in with the overall quality of everything blended together.
I played MADiSON so many times I knew what was happening, but I was still scared as hell continuing in the game. The immersion cannot be compared to the flat screen experience. Interestingly the game has a visual update with the VR edition with way better textures and lighting, so it authentically feels like you’re walking around a real house, and combining that with the dark, like I said above, you feel like you can’t escape as easily.
This is why when I walked into areas and I knew what was going to happen, I still dreaded it. In one instance there was a moment where the outer environment was dark, and you had to use your camera to light it up. The game does this so nonchalantly to get you comfortable with it, and then one time Blue Knees jumps out and runs at you. My god. I didn’t even know I could scream, being 100 percent honest. I’ve never screamed playing any horror game ever.
I’ve been scared and I’ve made questionable decisions, but I’ve never outwardly screamed and covered my face in absolute fear. And I knew it was coming! Yet I exclaimed so loudly, my spouse came running asking what was wrong, and then giggling when she realized the horror I was experiencing.
I couldn’t imagine this experience while being totally unaware of it.
This is why I’m kind of sad certain aspects of the core game were not re-worked for this release. The puzzles, for example, still have moments of head scratching logic to figure them out. For example early in the game there is a puzzle with the universe, and the picture clue it gives you doesn’t line up with the actual answer. These clues are also slightly harder to figure out in VR because symbols and notable things are much smaller, or harder to read, than in flat screen. I found myself literally hitting my VR trying to get images closer to my face. If you have someone that is watching you play alongside, it is usually easier for them to see the clues on their screen than it is in VR.
Also while the environment is creepy as all hell, it is very static. I was a little disappointed that the VR aspects didn’t add more interaction with the environment like accidentally knocking down cups on shelves, or shuffling papers in drawers. The VR aspects overall are somewhat restrictive. Opening and closing doors is an absolute pain because your hands are constantly bumping them closed. And certain actions like opening the safe or solving certain instrument puzzles are simple point and click actions, instead of utilizing gesture controls to do them. Which is odd because some areas do have these aspects, like climbing the ladder in the basement, but then other areas don’t offer any interactivity.
But I have to ask myself if I’m just wanting this game to hit that next level? Which Is what I decided is the issue here. I love the game so much that some of these drawbacks are a little more disappointing to me in terms of “damn I wish they did this” and not “damn, the game’s broken.” It isn’t broken to me in any area, it in fact runs and flows much better than basically any other VR game I played. If I could have them fix just one thing, it would be the inventory pauses and being unable to hold objects while interacting with the other, but outside of that I have no real complaints.
Overall MADiSON VR is once again one of my most favorite experiences of all time. If you’ve followed me here you know I absolutely adored the original game, and I was desperately hoping the VR edition wasn’t another let down on PSVR2, but it excels in basically all aspects. It has some very minor drawbacks, but in terms of VR experiences it is by far the best one I’ve had. It utilizes almost all the PSVR2 perks to its strengths, and you can tell the team has some creative and strong ideas that I hope they expand on in a future game.
