Reviews

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  tabbygryph

  Jul 20, 2022

  32 minutes into the game and there is already enough game breaking issues to frustrate and annoy me. Maybe a good deal of this is the really REALLY [b]REALLY[/b] shitty keyboard/mouse/controller port of the game. Maybe it is really bad kinesthetics on the part of the programmers but things just DON'T move right. Right off the bat, the player moves too slow. My walking pace is much quicker than the sprint they give you which makes me wish there was a toggle mode, not a push and hold to sprint. Then, there are segments of the game you can't sprint in. Listen, devs, if you have to take control away from the player, if you have to wrench the camera into awkward positions, or entirely lock out parts of your game, you're doing it WRONG. Shortly after you see the girl enter a vent and another sequence starts, you have to slow-walk through a hallway that is trying WAY too hard to be scary. Its literally a jump scare every three seconds. By the sixth thing flying, rolling, or jumping out in front of you at a snails pace and awkward and clumsy movement it isn't scary, its just really annoying. Further on controls, half the time you're trying to examine something the game just flat out won't let you look unless you go through the multi-button process to put the item out before you with the correct hand, then hit the examination key, then it flips and twists all over the place. Not horrible, until you try and read a note for the first time. You have to move to where there is light, push the item forward, press the exam key, rotate it until the text is upright then turn and tilt until the script is legible. Where is the tap this key to see the actual text prompt? Why make it cumbersome and painful to pick up the loose, flimsy, god-awful plot? Then there is how the items move in the world. Sure, picking something up is ... easy if a three button process is easy, but when you go to put it down, your protagonist just throws it on the floor. Or not. Or it falls through the dresser. Or just vanishes. I ran into a dresser that had three batteries in it. You can't seem to hold lots of extra batteries for the flashlight, and it only takes one at a time. Can't seem to store them all in your inventory and when you go to put them down somewhere sane, like on a table, they vanish and are gone FOR GOOD. Later, you get a book. And suddenly it merges with your control instruction page, for ... reasons I guess... and you get told you can examine the book with E. Well, you have to pick it from your inventory into a hand, then hold the hand out, then examine the book THEN hit E to view it. And it only works half the time. I was stuck in a loop of book out, examine, then just spinning and unable to put the book away, look at the pages, or handle anything else. I'll leave alone how anemic the flashlight is, even with "fresh batteries" in, because sure, horror game, you're not supposed to see things well. But the light OUT forces an awful heartbeat noise in your ears and is such a little difference in what you can and can't see, that I stopped using it. Then later when the lights go out and you think, "Hmm, now I could really use the light," the game locks the light so you CAN'T use it. Um, sure... ambiance or something, but then you have to look around and around and around to find a light source which is where you should go. Because crappy level design. By that point you're just frustrated by the movement, the crap atmosphere, and bad controls, its not scary, it feels like trying to eat peanut butter with a meat fork while wearing oven mitts and blind folded. I really hope some of this can be addressed, but I fear too much of this is hardwired into the game because it forces the pacing the developer wants you to experience. They want you to crawl down the first red hall so you see all the shit jumping out at you, but its so much and frankly predictable and over blown that it stops being scary and just sad. If you MUST try this game, get it on sale. Be prepared to spend QUITE a while stumbling about with piss poor controls and have patience with the devs. They obviously are used to action games, not real horror games.
• 

  DarkOrion11

  Oct 5, 2022

  Get it on sale, it takes about 2 hours to complete if you are not going for every achievement.
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  christianled59

  Mar 14, 2017

  [h1]Horrifying 9/10[/h1] [i]Allow me to preface this review by saying I haven't finished the game yet. Honestly, that should be a testimony of the game in itsself. It's too damn scary.[/i] [b]Pros:[/b] -The graphics are stunning. -The sounds are even better than the graphics. -The puzzles are really fun so far. Quite a challenge. -Level design is amazing. The way the game lores you to specific places (even though you can freely roam the house). -Story is actually pretty intriguing. Not something Paranormal Activity is exactly known for. -The game is really atmospheric. The jumpscares aren't what really get to me, it's the build up and the immersion of vr. As a grown man, this game actually got me shivering. [b]Cons:[/b] -The biggest con by far is the locomotion. I'm very very happy they didn't add teleportation (that would actually ruin this game), but instead the game relies on you pressing forward on the touch pad and looking in the direction you want to go. This can be annoying when I'm wanting to peek at something and keep walking forward at the same time. (I don't trust that f*cking painting) -The hands feel a bit off. Honestly, as a AAA game, the hands are actually really crap. The animations are bad and the models are cheap. They don't line up at all with my real life hands. -A little buggy, but it's Early Access so I can't complain much there. -The price is a bit steep. The game is 5-10 hours long but I think the game could have easily sold for $29.99 MSRP rather than $39.99. At least during early access. -Finding the first key for me was unnecessarily difficult. It was just too dark. [b]Conclusion:[/b] Overally, it's a really great, well polished game. Probably the BEST horror game I've played on the Vive so far. The atmosphere is just spot on. If you like horror, then GET THIS GAME. I'm taking a break until my roommate gets up so I can work up the courage to go back into this damned game.
• 

  ANorthKorean

  Mar 16, 2017

  I purchased the VIVE for this game over a year ago, and I waited and waited, I can honestly say this is the first game that I feel is completly worth the higher price tag, the puzzles are not the easiest which is nice, figuring out which doors are now open due to triggers really keeps me on edge and the jump scares for the most part are really well done, there have been more than a few times that a new door unlocks and I contimplate quitting and comming back to it later when im less of a baby about it, paranormal avtivity VR has a truley creepy and disturbing atmosphere and besides some minor issues which the devs have already said they will work on (movement ect) It feels like the first completly polished VR horror game with the best bang for your buck. Untill this purchase I wasnt sure if the HTC vive was gonna live up to the hype but now i know if DEVS put this much time and effort into a game it can be a masterpiece that is completly immersive and so fun you dont mind the headset weighing you down, PROPS to the devs! Things to improve for the devs to make this amazing game just a bit better >some sort of way to know when the game is auto saving or an option to save your progress manually >when you pick up key items that go into the book it can be confusing when they just dissapear from pulling the trigger, i felt like this was not explained very well but not the biggest issue >some sort of way to know which drawers can be opended and which ones cant, maybe a slight glow to them or somthing, but with an option in the menu to disable it if you feel like it takes away from the immersive expierence >flash light flickering a billion times and then the battery falling out before you can put in a new battery, this feels more annoying than scary >supersampling options maybe? the graphics are great but my pc is running this game so well i wonder if i could kick it up a notch My pc specs, I7-6700 GTX 1070 16gb ram game runs flawlessly with my setup, no stuttering what so ever, which is impressive since a fel VR games with worse graphics had issues , it shows how well this game is optimised and more devs need to follow this ones lead forgive my spelling errors not gonna proof read
• 

  mkN

  Apr 23, 2017

  Wow, I gotta say that this game have really made me feel alive. I am playing it through together with my mom since we both like scary games. But to me this game is so freaking scary that sometimes I can't stand to play it. It really gives you the creeps. I have reached 7 hours of gameplay so far and I don't know if I have much left or not. You have really made a great game here. I would love more games like these. I have nothing negative to say about it! Keep it up!! I totally recommend this game if you would like your pants to shift color or if you want to have a good laugh at your friends/family when they try it out!
• 

  AgaGaiinz

  May 18, 2017

  Id like to start by saying this is the first time Ive ever reviewed a game on here but this game is honestly the best experience Ive had with Virtual Reality. It is one of the greatest video gaming experiences I have ever endured. By far the most immersive Virtual Reality Game available. I am a grown man and someone who never gets scared while playing video games and this game had me on the flooring screaming constantly. It took me over 13 hours to beat because I was too scared to progress and moved so slowly. There were times where I was too shaking too much to move and actually frozen in fear. Everytime I stopped playing and took off the Vive Headset, I was sweating, shaking and panting from the adrenaline I had pumping from playing. Everyone of my friends that have tried this game had the same experiences as me and they were all too afraid to continue. This game is the most immersive Virtual Reality game that I have ever played. The graphics are pretty good and make you feel like you are actually there. The interactions, while sometimes arent the smoothest since its early access and thats understandable, feel pretty real and make you feel more connected to the game. The constant heartbeat you hear in the game eventually becomes your own as you get lost in the House. If you have Surround Sound Headphones and you use them, its easy to forget you arent actually in the house and its just a game. I didnt have problems with bugs in this game at all and didnt notice any if they did happen. Since this game is currently in Early Access, its understandable that there are bugs and they are expected, but the Devs are on top of it and active in the discussions. I had run into a problem and got stuck and the Devs got back to me right away and I was able to finish the game without any problems. So if anyone ever runs into any trouble, the Devs will be help you out and rather quickly too. This game will have you in constant fear. The adrenaline rush you get from playing will be intense because the game is so immersive. The movement system is perfect IMHO and people that complain of sickness probably arent used to this style of movement. After playing the game a few times you will get used to the movement style and the sickness goes away. The controls are simple and the game is good with drawing your attention certain events or places so that you do not get stuck. This game deserves a 10/10 rating and I cant wait to try the finished version.
• 

  Andrea Honeybee

  Jun 1, 2017

  Just hit a part with one of my biggest fears (will not say what as to avoid spoilers) and will have to pick this back up tomorrow during the day because that was way too much for me..Being in VR with a horror game that you can actually play and be a part of is absolutely brilliant and I cant wait to see what the rest of this game brings! (You can even get on your belly and look under the couches!)
• 

  SteveThurston

  Jun 5, 2017

  Great graphics and sound. Locomotion does need a little work for seated play. Slow paced game at first. There are some frustrating parts, but stick with it. The further into the story you get, the better and scarier it gets. ** W̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶r̶e̶c̶o̶m̶m̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶l̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶(̶$̶1̶5̶-̶$̶2̶0̶)̶ ** Devs do support this game, and it is still classed as early release, so changed review and rating to recommend. (Usually don't change review, but this one deserved it)
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  Mecha-Joelioto

  Jun 24, 2017

  This is a very polished, well presented and crafted VR horror experience! Even though it is still in Early Access, it has more content and is more well done than most other horror (or most VR games in general) out there at the moment. I highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a thrilling experience and enjoys solving puzzles and getting the crap scared out of them! I would say this is worth the money considering the amount of polish, the hours you can get, and the fact that it is very easy to throw a friend in and immediately get them into a good scary experience without much effort or waiting around. The developers appear to also be very active on the forums and respond to their player base, which is always a good thing throughout EA development. Here is a breakdown of my thoughts on the various aspects of the game... Story: Yes, there is actually a story here! As you progress through the game you will learn more and more about what is going on, what has happened, and what things are leading up to. There is enough here to want you to keep playing through the horror aspects to find out what happens next. The dev is planning on creating multiple endings, which is a plus. Gameplay: Most of the gameplay involves trying to collect items throughout the suprisingly large house (it looks smaller on the outside). There is a good deal of puzzle solving. The puzzle solving isn't very advanced, but this is understandable. Some of the puzzles are harder to figure out, to the point the dev might want to think about putting in a hint system of somesort to help guide players. On a first play through, there is enough content here to last a few hours. Graphics: The game runs on UE4 and looks great while running great! I experienced very few graphical bugs while playing. The fidelity of the graphics really helped with the creepy atmosphere of the game. While I wish I could have interacted with more objects around the home (eg. clutter/drawers/etc) , it is understandable why everything does not have physics attached to it. Sound: The sound is very well done and helps add a lot to the atmosphere, vital to the horror aspect. Sound attenuates throughout the house , so sound sources will gradually get louder as you get closer, or will fade as you get farther or pass a wall into another room.
• 

  Jason Plays

  Jun 26, 2017

  Just Finished the game, I have taken many breaks, Real life, and such so the game took me 3 days to finish. I didn't find any Bugs in my game play, none that I would notice anyway. There was a Glitch with Graphics when I went up to the Attic, walls were dropped, looked like I was outside, Just restarted and things were back to normal. Game play, I felt a good bit of how the game immerses you with the environment, even with the walking, and moving mechanics I still felt like I was there and really felt part of it all. The game has that, someone is following you, or watching you feel all through the house, the jump scares added to the excitement and being a horror buff, I only wanted to explore to get to the next scare. I really liked the game. Ok now for the little Tad bit that could of made it somewhat better, in no way, is this a complaint, but a Review is such. I think, a little change of venue at times could of made a difference, like having to go outside to the garden shed, or old work shop. Just something that would change the landscape somewhat. I, at times felt I wanted to move on to another part of the story quickly, maybe to quickly at times, because I was going through the same rooms over and over, and I can see there being a point of boredom, if things weren't completed to get to the next exciting part. For early access I had a great time playing, and I look forward to how thing game will evolve.
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  Mikrohas

  Aug 16, 2017

  I truly love this game -- however, as a Deaf person, there are no subtitles so my kids and myself can't get the full benefit of this game. I've progressed as far as I could -- collecting all items in the book except for candle/dynamite. I am sure I missed out on a lot of dialogue and clues. :-( Please subtitle your games for benefit of all, including those learning English as their second language as well.
• 

  Awesome!

  Aug 16, 2017

  I'm too scared to finish it.
• 

  Elrondel

  Nov 13, 2017

  For $15, maybe worth buying. Completed the game in <2.5 hours with a brand new group. It was worth the price of admission for me because I can play it with 2-3 different groups of people so it's still refreshing. There's very little replayability. It's too short of a game for $40 - The Left Path just released for less than this, and it's got 5x as much gameplay. That being said, if you demo your Vive often and have a lot of friends that enjoy horror, this is a must-buy for them. I'm giving this a "Yes" recommendation to support these devs that put in a lot of work to the game, but I cannot recommend it at a price point of $40 for one playthrough alone.
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  Theoriginalshady

  Dec 26, 2017

  VR Horror games are so damn scary, especially this one. The atmosphere is just so insane. Buy it on sale, not for full price.
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  El_Torko_Grande

  Dec 27, 2017

  10/10 girlfriend almost made it inside the house
• 

  redwood86ed

  Mar 13, 2018

  Man, I really hate to leave a bad review for a game I played so little of, but it’s extremely difficult to enjoy a game when the immersion is broken so easily by bad movement. So, the movement. The game has a few movement options, but the issue is how those options are implemented. The "Smooth turning" was put in last October with a bug that blinks the screen prior to turning. The developers acknowledged it and said they were working on a patch. Well, its March now and no patch. The smooth turning slider speed goes from just above stop all the way to slow. It takes about 15 minutes to turn all the way around. (yeah, exaggeration, but you get the point.) With all movement types, you can only move forward, back, left and right. Nothing in between. If you are moving forward and want to strafe a little left or right, forget about it, you just stop. People have been asking the developers to fix this since launch and have been consistently ignored. Movement is the one thing that a developer needs to get right from the very start to make a game worth playing. I hate to thumbs down what I’m sure is a pretty good game, I wish I could just thumbs down the developer for abandoning what could have been a good experience, but I was unable to suffer the clunky controls to be able to enjoy that experience. Update: So, they fixed the movement, almost. They replaced the screen blink while turning with a jarring frame shift. It’s hard to explain. It’s like, I turn left but first I get one frame of visual from some other direction. I don't know, maybe I'm being too picky. Everything about the movement system just seems clunky, almost as if locomotion was an afterthought.
• 

  The Horror Network

  Mar 23, 2018

  [h1]Played On: [b]HTC Vive[/b][/h1] Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul was previously a VR exclusive title. With recent updates, as of March 20, 2018, the game can now be played on a standard desktop, using either a keyboard and mouse set up, or with a controller. The title is loosely tied in to the horror franchise of the same name. Without revealing too much, the story revolves around Katie when she was a child, and it explores what happened to her family during her first dreaded haunting. It's up to you to figure out how to perform the ritual to stop the poltergeist activity, and to save Katie. When I first played Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul, I did so in VR. It should go without saying that I'm incredibly hard to scare, but in VR this game nearly made me poop bricks. While the amazing graphics help the immersive-realism aspect of the title, the ambience and atmospheric soundscape is what really drives this title; especially if you have the luxury of owning a 7.1 surround sound headset. There are creaks, bangs, and knocks that constantly make you look behind yourself, and all of the scares will completely catch you off guard. This game actually managed to make me scream out loud a couple of times. It goes without saying that if you plan to play this title in a VR environment, as you should, make sure that you don't have any underlying heart conditions. That was back in November of 2017. As the game recently dropped its VR exclusivity, I decided to give it a secondary run. Unfortunately, this is not a title that translates well outside of a virtual reality environment, and much of its nerve-wracking horror vanishes on a desktop playthrough. It's sad to say that it diminishes down to your standard, run-of-the-mill horror game, and you end up realizing how little of a story or plotline there actually is. It doesn't help that the control scheme is needlessly convoluted, with each hand having to be controlled separately with almost half of the keyboard/controller for each limb. The run function is also entirely too slow. The largest majority of the game has you running around a house, finding items that will help you begin a ritual to ward off the poltergeist that haunts said house. The game doesn't make it immediately clear that this is your ultimate goal, so you'll wander around, reading notes and picking up just about anything until you make the small connection to what you need to do. Of course, along the way some scary things happen, and if you're not careful you may run head-first into the angry, demonic spirit. Somehow, in the desktop mode I did not run into this entity at all, and I'm not sure if that's a glitch or not. Speaking of glitches, this game is full of them in two key areas; both in VR and non-VR. In one room, it's important to pick up some coins, but sometimes those coins go flying and disappear completely, leaving you to reset your game after frustratingly scouring the area for said coin. The other glitchy part is at the end, during the final boss battle. You'll have items flying around you that you have to grab in a short amount of time, but it can be insanely hard to do so. I found that this final part almost ruined my experience with the game initially, as sometimes the items that you need to grab just up and disappear, on top of being hard to grab. It should also be noted that one of the achievements are glitched and completely unattainable. With such a mixed feeling between the desktop and VR versions of this game, I believe that Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul is going to be the first title that I have to give two ratings to. It should go without saying that if you own a VR headset, and you love horror games, then this is a definite must-buy; the scares are incredible, there's an overwhelming sense of dread, you'll find yourself peeking around corners and hesitating to take even one step forward. It's a truly terrifying experience. On the other hand, if you're going to play this on the desktop, the game feels like your standard key and note finding horror game with cheap scares. While the price of $33.99 is rather steep for 1.5-2 hours of playtime, and another 30 minute run for the second ending, I recommend VR owners to grab this one on sale. Desktop players may want to bypass this one all together. VR Rating: [h1]Rating: [b]4.0/5.0[/b] - Excellent, highly worth playing.[/h1] Desktop Rating: [h1]Rating: [b]2.0/5.0[/b] - It's not awful, but it's not great.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore The VR Network [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33182845-The-VR-Network/]Curator[/url] | [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/thevrnetwork]Group[/url] Click for More
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  SilentCaay

  Apr 22, 2018

  This game has some promise. It seems to be your typical scenario of being stuck in a haunted house and you have to wander around, collecting keys, progressing, etc, but it's very well done. Unfortunately, I had to refund it after attempting to play it twice because of a perpetual ambient "lub-dub" heartbeat noise that starts playing before the main menu even loads and never ever stops... Never. It's loud and bassy, too, so there's not much you can do about it since this is a horror game and you want to play with headphones on and ample volume to hear everything. It gave me a headache the first time within 20 minutes and I attempted playing a second time but knew I would get a headache again so I had to give up. The soup is good, but something needs to be done about the fly in it.
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  Giath

  Jun 25, 2018

  This is absolutely horrifying. I can watch any scary movie and laugh, but this game.... I've tried to play it for maybe 10 times now, and every time I turn it off I spend a couple of days making up a brave mindset but then when I'm in the house again I just can't go further. Be prepared to spend some money on a game you don't dare to play! :'D
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  Lontáz

  Nov 14, 2018

  I played this in VR Go to the bathroom before you play or get a diaper because this game is probably one of the most horrifying VR experience you will get. This game will not hold your hands so you won't get any help and the only way to progress is to explore the house. It really feels like a haunted house (atleast for me) and the further you progress the scarier it becomes. I even wanted to stop playing a few times because i was too scared to continue. If you got a VR and are into horror games then this is a must have. I think this game could be fun to play with a group of friends. let them play it from start to finish so they can experience this horrifying game too. that's what i intend to do and it's gonna be so much fun, i just hope the neighbor wont call the cops if they hear someone screaming like he's getting murdered.