Theseus Review (PSVR)
For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a review code does not affect my judgement of the game.
When Theseus was first revealed it drew comparisons to a well-known and great franchise by the name of God of War, but in VR – and hey the guy was even a boss fight in God of War 2. The comparisons came about because it was an action game based on Greek Mythology, and played in the perspective of God of War, and the enemies looked huge and in numbers. But, does Theseus make a stand against the standard set by Kratos?
There are many well-known tales from Greek Mythology, and Theseus and his battle with the Minotaur is one of those tales. The team at Forge Reply have taken this story and brought it the VR platform. If you are not aware of the story of Theseus, he is navigated a deadly labyrinth before taking on a giant Minotaur in battle. Forge Reply have taken this story and added their own spin on it, which for me works when it comes to basing games on mythology – meaning if you know this tale, you can still get some surprises on this gaming journey.
When playing Theseus you will come across two main gaming mechanics, action and platforming. But, the games approach to these elements just never really takes you in. The platforming and climbing sequences are simple and don’t really offer any challenge, and the action is very little, apart from the Minotaur sequences (which I will discuss later). Other than those stand out moments, the game fails to deliver a really compelling experience. Through the game you will come across torches and a sword, that come in handy when you have to take care of spiders that appear every now and then. Your torch can scare them and make them back away from you – also when a well-timed swipe is performed can set them on fire. As you expect with the sword it’s there for combat with the spiders, and is also used to unlock some areas in the game. Unfortunately, the combat is not as fluid as you would hope and really does let the game down a little.
Now let’s get to the Minotaur, this is one of the most impressive parts of the game. The thing is huge compared to Theseus, and everything about the game makes this feel evident with the power of VR. This a hulking great thing, and when he is present you know and to be honest the game has you fearing his presence when it’s not there. The team at Forge Reply have really used the design of the character and the use of the sound to give this creature an essence of fear. The creature is blind, but this means his other senses and heightened and this is where the idea of avoiding it comes into play. When the Minotaur is there you are either trying to sneak past him, or solving puzzles at the correct time – because a lot of puzzle sections give off sound that will alert him.
Forge Reply took and interesting stance on the view you play the game in. As mentioned in the myth Theseus navigates a labyrinth, and rather than take the first person view many would think, the game is played in third person with a fly on the wall type view. So, if you think the view on games like Devil May Cry and God of War – but in VR. The game does come with some issues in this perspective, but, I quite like the risk the team took and think it works in providing something different. It also shows the aforementioned games, could work in a VR environment. Now I mentioned it did come with some issues, the main one I found was at times I placed inside the environment (walls) – something that could only be fixed by leaning forward while playing it to see what I was doing.
Taking into account the view, the puzzles, the platforming and the combat; I feel that the team behind the game have been inspired by God of War and Ico. Which are not bad games to be inspired by if they were, but, I feel with more time spent on the gameplay elements the game could have been a lot more. As it is it does feel very sluggish, and is only really saved by the Minotaur sequences.
Visually was quite impressed with the game, yes at times it can look a little rough around the edges, but, in overall I was impressed. I found myself looking around every now and then taking in the areas of the game I was currently in at that time. Going back the Minotaur this was really well designed from a visual point as well, adding to the nervous feeling you could get when you were expecting him to show up. The thing is huge, shadowy, and covered in spike and horns – its not like the Minotaur’s you would expect in the myths, but, it makes it that more scary. Overall the game does offer a pretty looking experience, but it’s not distracting enough to take away from the sluggish gameplay.
The game is played with the Dual-Shock 4 but I can not think of any other way you could control Theseus from the third person perspective. The only addition to the controls is as you look around with your own head, Theseus will also look that way. Where this is a nice little feature, if turn you head too far and Theseus will stop walking – meaning in sequences where you don’t really want to stop, but want to look around it becomes tricky. Again I would like to go back to a good thing Theseus is showing, that is, with this control system it again shows game like Devil May Cry and God of War could work in VR.
Theseus advertises a three to five hours experience, and then came in at a short playtime of up to two hours for me, and this was mainly down to stopping to take in some of the areas of the game. Taking it this into account, one thing that happens on Theseus is you are left feeling the game has missed half of the story it could have told. I personally felt when it ended, that more was to come from the game – then the credits rolled. From what I have heard there are secrets hid about to discover, and they offer the ‘true’ ending if you find them all. But, the linier labyrinth segments really do not give the player a sense of exploration in order to make you want to look for these. May be if you are looking for all these secrets, this is where the three to five hours experience come in, however, I feel a lot of people will find it hard to be motivated to try to find all of these.
Conclusion
Theseus shows a lot of promise, but unfortunately failed to deliver on a lot of it. Making for a short, linier and sluggish title. Only really saved by the visuals and the work they’ve done on making the Minotaur have the fear factor. I feel with a bit more work on the game length, platforming and combat areas of the game it could have been a lot better.
Coming to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on 26 October 2017
Developer: Forge Reply
