Review: MARE
Nearly three years ago MARE was surprised dropped on the Oculus Quest, then it followed this trend by just dropping on PSVR2 store without a warning of a release date. I have now played through the game again on the latest platform but, is it as good as I originally thought?
Release Date: November 18th 2024
Developer: Lonekite
Publisher: Lonekite
Price: US $24.99 / CA $34.49 / €29,99 / £24.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
* Access Provided For Review *
Uncover Your Fate
In MARE you play as a benevolent force, embodied in a mechanical bird. Soon you encounter a young girl, as you navigate through the world together. Both helping each other on the way to ultimately uncover your fates. This is what I took from the game as there is no spoken dialogue throughout to explain what is happening.
Shrouded In Mystery
Saying MARE is a mysterious game is an understatement, as mentioned there is no spoken dialogue in the game so, it keeps everything about this world shrouded in mystery. This plays out through a puzzle game, but one that never really gets overly difficult despite which mode you play.
As the bird you will get set points on the level you can fly between, and also interact with objects in the environment by firing electricity to the objects to activate them. While doing this the aforementioned little girl will follow you or move to the objects you are activating, with her automatically finding the best path available to do so. Which is how a majority of the puzzles work, figuring out the order to fly between the points to make sure the little girl has a pathway available to get to you. This really gave me the feeling of The Last Guardian by Fumito Ueda – which is not the only time you will feel his inspiration in this game.
The other way you will assist the little girl is by fighting off some shadow silhouettes that will surround her at times, like the rest of the game the reason they are doing this is shrouded in mystery. But, its not all about you helping out the little girl, she will be useful and help you. At points of the game you might become trapped or, maybe the point you need to get to is blocked off by a gate – if this happen she can help you by opening the gates or releasing you from your trap.
With the jump to PlayStation VR2, the team have also added more puzzles, types of interactions and more content – with some areas being expanded on, to allow for these changes. Also, you get the option of two modes, which are either use eye-tracking to control where you move to or what you interact with to as the bird. Or, controller based where you will point and click to carry out your actions. The only real difference between the modes, is with the controller method it allows the puzzle to be a little more complex.
Lonekite have also made sure to make the use of all the features on Sony’s hardware. With the headset haptics being used perfectly, if was fantastic to fly through the storm at the beginning feeling like rain was hitting my head. Also, the use of the adaptive triggers to make you truly feel the pulse of the electricity from the bird – it really adds to the immersion in the world of MARE.
ICO-esc
As soon as you enter the world after the first sequence in the game, you will see the inspiration from Fumito Ueda’s ICO with the visual style. But, please don’t take this as a bad thing, its a style that really suits the game – and seeing that visual style in VR blew me away. With the move to PSVR2 the visuals have been given a massive boost, given this originally released on the Quest. It looked great on that with the visual style, but with the increased resolution, higher quality textures and the OLED displays on the PSVR2 the world which is crafted like a painting looks even more outstanding.
Seeing the girl run through these impressive looking settings really gives you a sense of scale of these ruins, as she is running down the stairs, through doors and in and out of the scenery. You will also come across some other animated objects and creatures as you explore which all look great. Many times while playing MARE on PSVR2 with the updates I was given those ‘WOW’ moments that I want from Virtual Reality.
To go with these breath-taking visuals, the team has matched them with the audio – and even through they have not done a lot with it, this suits the mystery of the world and plot. From the sometimes ethereal to eerie musical score and the wind bustling around you, it sets the atmosphere a game of this style needs. Outside of this you have the crackling noise of the electric coming from the bird and some little noise from the girl. The girls does say some words that sound Latina, but the best use of sound for her is when she shrieks when surrounded by the shadows – as this is when you realise the bond you have been building with her, as its not nice to hear her fear.
Comfort
The Verdict
MARE on the PlayStation VR2, takes a game which was great on the Quest and improves on what it offered, rather than just making it a direct port. With the team at Lonekite adding more puzzles, interaction types and content to the PSVR2 version. This has allowed them to expand on areas you are in to make use of the new features, with them also adding two difficulty modes with eye-tracking mode giving simpler puzzles and controller mode allowing them to make them a little more difficult. Where you might think a game that is shrouded in mystery might be a little frustrating, it really works for MARE as the intrigue is part of its charm. With a world that feels like your are in a painting being even more visually stunning. With the higher resolution, updated textures and the OLED displays only increasing the beauty the art style offers. With the inspiration of Fumito Ueda being clear, the team have still made MARE feel like its own game and have done a fantastic job. Everyone needs to make sure they play MARE.