Casey has received a mysterious message from her father. What will following the Broken Spectre lead her to?
The horror genre has always had a place in peoples’ hearts. Creators of Broken Spectre hope to continue that tradition with another VR title. With the advent of the console age, many developers want to make it about the jump scares more than the look or feel. Horror fans are always looking up the scare factor and feel that next adrenaline rush. With the invention of virtual reality games and platforms like Meta Quest 2, a goal is not hard to achieve. Broken Spectre looks to add VR horror games to mainstream popularity for that reason.
Broken Spectre is the most recent game to hit the app lab from Games by Stitch. From this veteran of the VR space comes a horror title that twists the science of nature, and pulls at the strings of one’s sanity. A young woman searches for her father. The last time they saw each other she was a little girl. All she knows since he became lost is that many of his things lie at the base of Coldblood Mountain. It may be a sense of family that draws her to this mountain. Or it may be an unseen force altogether, one she may be completely unfamiliar with. Perhaps her father knows more or he may know nothing.
She hopes to reunite with her father quickly. The rundown family RV Casey happens across does nothing to quell this feeling. It is thanks to her father’s survival education she’s even at the base of the mountain. The mysterious message she hears from her father spurs her on. A sense of foreboding eats away at the back of her mind, but determination spurs her on. Why did Dad come back here? Why has he been gone so long?
The controls for this title were fantastic. Instead of the Meta Quest 2 controllers, they went with the built-in hand-tracking features. Even with all current advancements in VR, it is a relatively new technology. Despite this fact, developers made excellent use of the technology. With only the use of one’s hands, it seemed a daunting task to get through the game. Touching the environment superimposed by Meta Quest 2 was nothing short of fascinating.
Moving was a bit odd but not hard to get used to. Silhouettes in the shape of humans indicated the places where a player was able to go. When a palm was outstretched and face up, a compass would appear. Facing a specific silhouette, the player closes their hand on the compass, and they will teleport to the figure they were facing. While stationary, one can turn 360 degrees and view the entire space. Other tools besides the compass are acquired throughout the story. Some might be used repeatedly while others are only used once or twice.
The compass itself did not always work either. Because of how finicky hand-tracking can be, the headset did not always perceive what hand was even being used to travel. This can lead to an eventful chase scene that ends in Casey’s certain doom.
A few sequences involve climbing and grasping onto certain areas. These controls felt super weird. Once a hand touched an area, it didn’t require anything other than “pulling” Casey up along the path. It required clasping a hand once and the limb would then be magnetized to the spot. One section involves having to dig out of a pile of snow. This must be one of my favorite parts of Broken Spectre. Sure, it is a simple section that doesn’t involve much more than helping Casey escape to safety.
There are a lot of references to mountain climbing throughout Broken Spectre. It’s always alluded to that Casey’s father was an expert climber in addition to being a scientist. Even taking on the role of the character, it is still hard to believe she wouldn’t injure herself, even as an adult.
Certain pathways through Coldblood Mountain had been blocked off. The things that stood in the way were either a chain link fence or overgrown weeds. Getting through these obstacles required a pair of wire cutters and a sickle respectively. Cutting the weeds feels normal. It genuinely feels like I am taking down some weeds in front of a house. But cutting through the chain link fence didn’t feel so normal. All it required while holding the wire Clippers with to simply whip the item toward the fence. It felt more like I was hammering through than cutting through the fence.
A handful of sections involved dealing with snow. At one point a user may have to dig things out of the snow, including themselves. Digging items out of the snow is quite an easy feat. After finding a shovel, one must simply grab it by the handle, and then proceed to whack at the snow that must be cleaned up. Sure, it’s nice to have a shovel to use to dig out useful items from the snow. But it is a much greater feeling to feel like I’m digging through the snow rather than chopping through the wood.
When digging oneself out of the snow, there are no tools involved. Nothing more than Casey’s two hands must get her out of a pile of snow. It is far more fun than it sounds to dig oneself out of a virtual snowbank. There is no doubt that when a person is using hand tracking, they look ridiculous flailing their hands about digging through snow that isn’t in front of them.
Along the paths, there are sometimes strange orbs that glow with an odd blue light. These orbs contain auditory and sometimes visual memories of Casey’s past in the Broken Spectre story. A handful of them are nothing more than background information. Others might work to completely warp her perception of reality. To access these orbs, one simply must pass a hand through whichever one they wish to access. It’s a great way to layer this story without adding too much to the main experience.
One of the most repeated locations is the family RV. This is the RV that Casey and her father spent time in when she was a young child. At one point we are treated to the experience of conducting the same experiments that Casey and her father conducted decades ago. It isn’t hard to find the right pieces provided one pays close attention to the shapes of each item that one grabs. If the ingredients are correct, they snap right into the bin. If they are not correct, the ingredients teleport right back to their point of origin.
There is plenty in the game to scare anyone brave enough to experience Broken Spectre. Where some games rely heavily on consistent jump scares, this title lays into the psychological aspect of the gameplay. Visually, Broken Spectre is a beautiful sight to behold. All the colors used seemed to fall into a ‘fall’ palette. Excellent use was made of these colors throughout the entire experience. Seeing that range of color in virtual reality is not something that can be imitated.
The trails vary enough that it never feels like one is looking at the same path every time. Too many mystery horror titles re-use the same tilesets for various stages of a game. Broken Spectre has enough variety that one will not get bored with exploring the forests of Coldblood Mountain.
As great as the few monsters in Broken Spectre were, there just weren’t enough. Having come face-to-face with the Chimera creature, one might look forward to even more scary creatures. There is certainly a freak factor when it comes to the visuals and multiple creatures would make things even more exciting. Keeping the scares to a minimum might be a good thing, lest a user sling their headset into the wall out of fright.
The sounds of the forest in Broken Spectre were quite a treat. Every bird call and the rustling of leaves breathed life into the environment that one is shown. When parts of the mountain begin to crumble, these are sounds that can be heard directly in the ears when one he is wearing headphones.
Thanks to the built in headphone jack on the meta quest 2, those of us still in possession of wired headphones can also benefit in the immersion such things offer. More graphic scenes, thanks to how well-engineered the sound is, still make my skin crawl when I think about them. It is a major selling point for any fans dedicated to the horror genre.
The voice acting in Broken Spectre is fantastic. None of the characters that are portrayed sound flat in any way. Everyone who speaks does so in a clear and crisp tone. When a specific character is trained to convey an emotion, it is easy to empathize with that emotion, thanks to how well the character is voiced.
Visually speaking, Broken Spectre amazing. Using fall colors, the artists made excellent use of the palettes that fit into this category. Trees throughout the forest didn’t feel repetitive despite appearing to be the same species. The ground itself appeared well thought out as well. Most games in the same category as Broken Spectre aren’t likely to consider that the user might want to see what lies beneath their avatar.
Broken Spectre is an amazing experience. There are a few places where it can use some improvement. One of those improvements might be in the form of making hints a little bit more obvious. A few sections might result in a person spending more time than they should, only because the item meant to advance the story isn’t obvious. Some of those improvements are limited by the hand-tracking technology itself. Aside from issues with hand tracking, there isn’t a whole lot to complain about personally speaking. I have to say that my only major grape would have to be the length of the game.
Broken Spectre isn’t a fast-paced action title like one might expect it to be. And that is OK. It isn’t trying to be something it’s not. At its heart, the title is a horror mystery that is meant to invoke specific emotions. One might experience happiness, sorrow, and dread, and they will most certainly experience panic. Broken Spectre Is an immersive experience, that utilizes the hand tracking built into meta quest two and can be experienced in less than a single afternoon.
