It’s time to enter the world of exorcisms as a detective. Let us investigate whether or not the first episode of The Exorcist is worth your time. Or will we exorcise it from our minds and my console hard drive forever? The Exorcist Legion is a horror episodic game for VR, with the first episode taking around 20-25 minutes to beat.
OK, so first off it has to be said that this is best played standing up and using the move controllers. The game starts off by stating the standing up part, it then goes through a small little calibration setup. After that you find yourself in a briefing room, which goes through the controls, and then you are free to leave and start your adventure.
After the controls have been explained and you leave the briefing room, you find yourself in a corridor. Here you find a couple of things: coffee machine, evidence room, your boss’s room (which you can’t enter) and finally your office.
On the wall you see each case (episode) that you can select. Episode one is named Last Rites. In this episode we head to a church, where over the radio we are told a ritual crime is believed to have taken place. Within the church we are met with blood, and various evidence marks, and items to collect. We find a book within the priest’s room, however for some reason the writing was kind of blurry. This meant that I wasn’t able to make out most of what the book was telling me. The first couple of pages seemed to be about the items you find around the church in order to perform an exorcism. However, the pages towards the end seem to contain possible background/story information for the player. I would have liked the game to offer players to press a button, and have the writing appear on the screen in nice simple writing that can actually be read. This is not the case however, and I feel the choice of using a cursive font that seems to blur into the pages meant that I was not able to find out more.
On aside note, I went back through the game and picked up the note book, turned to the pages that I had trouble reading, and tried removing the headset, I lined it back up and checked my TV screen, and the writing was a little clearer. It contained information on weakness of certain things, so you know what to use, and background on some cases where people have died. This is something that is definitely worth taking note of.
Once we open the hidden safe then the game comes into its stride. Paintings in the room get symbols and writing on them, the creepiness of the game increases. Without spoiling the game the moment you leave the room, that’s when the spooks start, things moving, voices, a man, and what seems to be a creature.
After all that, we find ourselves back at the station and being told there is something waiting for us. Here we find a note with some information on, easier to read than the writing in the book, and we learn a bit more about the situation that we are now in; and who may have set this into motion.
The visuals for The Exorcist are actually nice, they are simple and not your triple A title kind of graphics, but still the game was great to look at on the PS4 pro.
The two locations that the game take place in are not all that big, however the space is filled just right. Your office has some lovely little details in it, wanted posters, cassette player, tape player, your board at the back with the episode selector, has a little case file on it which you can check to see what you need to do in order to 100% a chapter. When starting your first case, the room makes small changes to the lighting.
The priest’s room in the church, again the decoration within the room makes it feel that someone actually uses the place and the moment you interact with what you need, sets the spooks into full effect, then just like the police station, small changes happen in the room
The main area of the church sees changes in lighting, going from the lights that the police set up to candles lighting the area. Look at it like something from Layers of Fear if you will. You interact with something, and then things around you have changed, helping to create nervousness and uncertainty. There are also small details that change the setting; however I will not go into detail with that, I will allow you to experience that for yourself.
Throughout the game the developers have done a wonderful job with the sounds in order to absolutely set the player on edge. In the police station, you can hear small details, phones ringing in the distance, chit chat and a couple of other sounds. If we hang around too long as well, the deputy chief tells us to get to work. All this helps bring life to a small area where you are the only person in it. For the church, we hear police sirens, the public and the sound of police officers. Now these will also die out after a short time. We also now hear the wind and floor boards. As we open the confessions box door, we hear the flies and other insects that are hanging around. It is the little sounds, the ones in the background that you may not truly notice fully that add to this experience as well. Within the priest’s room, there was only the sound of a clocking ticking and the moment we open the hidden safe, the clock stops and now we are greeted with an eerie silence.
Returning to the main part of the church, again the big changes in the sound take place. From the moment we hear a woman’s voice from behind us… we then hear louder creaks, something heavily breathing somewhere in the church, and we hear once more the woman talking in the air. There is a kind of sound track within this area; however it wasn’t always present, only being heard for a short time before stopping. There are then the standard sounds you would expect, things possibly moving in the darkness, a door slowing opening, you know the sort of thing.
For the game controls, I would strongly recommend using the move controllers. Using just the standard PS4 controller, all I seemed to be able to move was one hand, while with the move controllers I was able to move both. You’re able to decide if you wish to move by using a teleport system, or by free roaming it. I used the free roam option, and I found it to be good enough. I didn’t feel sick from it, and the game did allow for change of speed as well. There was sometimes an issue of the game telling me I was outside the playing area, even with me not moving from where it had registered me within the playing area a second ago. Overall the controls and movement are simple enough, and I don’t have any complaints.
This is a must for people who like horrors, and have a PSVR. If you’re after a good horror experience, then this is it. It may not last all that long, taking around 25 minutes on your first attempt, but it achieves the job it sets out to do in scaring the hell out of you when it wants. You can also revisit the case to try and 100% if you didn’t manage it the first time around, so it does contain some replay value. For how well the game looks in the VR, and the way it grips and scares, I hope that the other episodes are just as good.
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.
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The Exorcist: Legion VR - Chapter 1: First Rites Review
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Gameplay - 8/10
8/10
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Graphics - 8/10
8/10
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Sound - 8/10
8/10
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Replay Value - 8/10
8/10
User Review
( votes)Overall
Summary
This is a must for people who like horrors, and have a PSVR. If you’re after a good horror experience, then this is it.