The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a spin-off of the survival horror series launched in 2019 under the title The Dark Pictures Anthology. This is a rail shooter developed for virtual reality headsets. It was developed by the authors of the original, the Supermassive Games studio.

Game mechanics

In The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR we observe the action from a first-person perspective (FPP). We take on the role of a character who sits in a carriage traversing the locations known from the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology. We visit the ghost ship from The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, the haunted English town from the 17th century that we know from The Dark Pictures: Little Hope, the maze spreading under the desert that we first saw in The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes, and the "Murder Castle" from The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me.

In each of these places we come face to face with distinctive enemies and dangers, such as creepy phantoms, reincarnations of "witches," vampires and a sadistic murderer. We eliminate enemies by making use of weapons, led by two guns. Since each route has alternate paths, subsequent "rides" through the levels look slightly different from the previous ones.

Technical aspects

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR features high-quality graphics. Both the detail-filled designs of dark locations and the models of enemies are to be liked. The game takes advantage of the PlayStation VR2's capabilities, such as gaze tracking, haptic vibrations, adaptive triggers and surround sound.