Scanner Sombre

I love exploring caves in real life, it's very exciting, interesting and challenging. From the other reviews I understood that there wasn't much in the way of story or combat, and I was okay with that. But at a bare minimum I expected the game to recreate the awesome experience of exploring a subterranean world in a brand new way. Unfortunately it does not do this. The game is totally unrealistic, and makes exploring a cave seem like a walk in the park. I can think of so many ways they could have made the game a lot more interesting (without involving combat), but they didn't do any of it. Normally games try to be MORE interesting than reality, but I was shocked to find the caves in this game are much LESS interesting than most in the real world! Not to mention the other problems, such as the inexplicably lit-up pickups which seem to negate the game's central premise. I really regret buying this game, there's just nothing to it aside from a cashgrab.

The game is short, I finished it in just under 3 hours. However I enjoyed the experience and I appreciate that the devs were trying something new. I think the price is a little steep for a 3 hour game, but I got a bunch of other games for free when I bought it, and the pack of games was worth the price. There is literally no combat. This isn't a shooter. It's a pure exploration experience. So if your looking for action look elsewhere. It was relaxing to play for the most part (there were a couple jump scares, but nothing major).

(No spoilers) The concept and story was interesting, and had me intruiged in the beginning. Very atmospheric. I couldn't wait to learn more about the game world. But instead of further building on what it tries to do in the beginning, the story/narrative drastically changes direction about midway through, and therefore the ending fell completely flat. The novelty of the LIDAR mechanic quickly wears off, with pretty uninteresting upgrades, and it starts to get pretty tedious. I just wanted to be done with it for about the last 40% of the game. The sound design is very good. Extremely atmospheric, and really does a lot of the heavy lifting to create an eerie feeling and immersion. Lastly, the game automatically has "anonymized sharing of game data" enabled. I chose to leave it on, but it's not very good mannered to have it enabled by default IMO. However I do appreciate the DRM-free approach. I paid just over a dollar for the game on sale, and wouldn't pay much more. I think it has some great ideas, but ultimately it feels like a prototype or proof of concept more than anything else.

First and foremost: This is a game meant to be played in VR. Not necessarily by the developers, I don't know - but it is made vor VR, it is made for simulated depth and free hand controls. On a flat screen you play a gimmicky game in total darkness while creating your environment by painting dots onto the walls. Which is nice for some time, but won't be fun for endless hours. But once you start to play in VR, suddenly the dots are not just colored but you can see how far they are away, you get a real feeling of your surroundings. Having the ability to control your pointing device independently from your viewing direction also ehnaces the game greatly. It's less then 2 hours from start to finish, way less if you hurry. But in all honesty, this is one of the games I use to showcase VR. It really is that good ----- as a VR tech demo. DonÄt expect a huge AAA title, but a really unique experience.

I found this game through a short on YouTube and was instantly hooked. While trying it, i got the idea of testing it with my ChromaDepth-Glases (they make an 3D-Effect based on the refraction of the different colors, like when shining white light through a prisma. Red object will be in the front and the more blue an object is, the more away it is) Just amazing, how it looks through them. So, if you dont have enough money (or PC-Power), then grab one of these glasses (under 5 Bugs per unit on amazon) and enjoy it. You dont have to change any settings ingame.