Nightmares, by their very definitions, take place in your sleep. Their scariest moments, however, occur as you slowly fade into consciousness, when you know just enough to be uncomfortable but not enough to calm yourself down. The fear extends past your sleep and well into the haze of waking up. (The solution to this, as with all of life’s other problems, involves a double shot of espresso, but that is another column for another day.)
there is no shortage of curious phenomena to be curious about
Anyhow, Alice VR, an upcoming game from Klabater, renders this dilemma in space and with virtual reality. All of those things, in theory, conspire to make the situation scarier. Before the game began, your character was travelling through space in some sort of cryogenic sleep. Something went wrong, as it invariably does—both in life and especially in videogames—and your character wakes up on a deserted planet.
The details shouldn’t matter to you, an ominous voice explains. But who is that voice kidding? Sure, your immediate concerns are limited to finding fuel and getting out of dodge, but even if you’ve just been roused from cryogenic somnolence, curiosity is hard to escape. And there is no shortage of curious phenomena to be curious about: the planet is apparently empty but full of hints that life might have been here and may still remain. Good luck making sense of that.
Klabater says Alice VR will feature a series of puzzles optimized for VR and combines comprehensive gameplay with virtual reality aesthetics. About which, sure? We’ll see. The interesting thing about Alice VR is how its dream world pretense coexists with VR storytelling. Are you closer to hearing voices in your head when that is in effect what the technological setup of the game looks like? These questions may not be resolved by Alice VR, but they are worth considering as its October release approaches.
You can find out more about Alice VR over on its website.
