The premise of Dreadhalls is simple — you awaken in a dark, dingy room that is part of a much larger dungeon. How you got here, how to escape, all of that is unknown, other than the fact that you know you’re in danger and you got to find a way out. You have an oil lamp and a piece of parchment that you literally look down to examine. On this parchment is a map that is drawn out as you explore. The map helps you keep at least that spatial-awareness portion of your sanity intact. The rest? Well, that’s largely up to you and how you handle a pretty intense environment and jump-scares.
With Dreadhalls, having never played it or watched any of the videos on Youtube, I felt like I went into it fresh yet I still knew that the game was very much about jump-scares. So I tread lightly — I didn’t use my oil lamp much and I rarely sprinted, which you can do with the right trigger. I had other reasons for taking it slow, though — motion sickness. Dreadhalls was one of the first half-dozen or so Oculus Rift games I played and it was literally the first VR experience I had that caused me my face to feel flushed and warm, and my stomach to feel queasy. The first time I played it, I was standing up and had the Rotational Speed and the ‘Move where you look’ setting enabled, which is the default. Within about ten minutes I began feeling really warm and nauseous. I had to take a break, which surprised me.
Fortunately, Dreadhalls quietly and automatically saves your progress whenever you are in the ‘nexus’ room in which all other halls begin. I felt a bit sick for about a half hour after playing, but I had to go back for more because I appreciated what Dreadhalls was trying to accomplish. I tried a few things over the course of my next sessions and things got better, but even playing again last night I couldn’t go more than about fifteen minutes before I had sweat forming on my forehead and my stomach began to turn. I think some small part of this is due, in a positive light, to the game itself and its unsettling atmosphere, but the majority of this is probably ‘just me.’ I think that the combination of darkness, rigid hallways, and monotonous textures are also a factor. I had some motion sickness with FATED as well, but not as rapidly or as severe as what I get with Dreadhalls. I’m just mentioning this for disclosure, not to knock the game — obviously your mileage may vary, but as I play more VR, I’m discovering personally that first person simultaneous moving + rotating can get to me, physically. I think the reason it’s more pronounced in Dreadhalls than other games is again due in part to the monotony of the wall textures.
Those physical issues aside, Dreadhalls is a game I wanted to keep getting back to because I knew it wasn’t a particularly long game and, well, it’s pretty darn scary, or startling anyway, at times. You’ll encounter different creatures, the first of these for me was a ghostly woman. You must avoid eye contact with her and when you catch a glimpse of her, your heart might skip a beat because you’ll quickly turn away. Other creatures are not as harrowing for me, but they’ll literally just attack and kill you. The first time I saw one of these, I mistakenly thought I just had to look away and I would be fine. I literally jumped an inch in my seat when I was legitmately startled a moment later when that monster swiftly came over and killed me with one hit, I didn’t even see it coming. This took me back to the nexus room and prompted a short break. It’s worth noting that your character has no offensive abilities at all: only your map, oil lamp, and some lock picks at your disposal. You also find gold coins that can be used at certain markers that activate when you get close to them. You’re setup in a short dialog sequence in which the marker will ask if you want to pay a few coins to ask a single question. All of the questions are compelling, but you only get one shot and then that marker is closed. Questions relate to how you got there, what the dungeon is, and so on. These bits of background are interesting, but they take an obvious backseat to the heart of the game which is cautiously exploring your way around every turn and door and hoping to find a way out.
The main game isn’t very long, it depends a lot on how quickly you move, what paths you take, and so forth. Each time you start a new game, the dungeon layout is procedurally generated, which promotes replay-ability as does the ‘enter random map’ mode available from the start menu. These are good design elements to extend the life of the experience but, personally, given the physical issues I encounter and having seen and experienced enough once through, I’m not likely to return to these dark and intimidating hallways.
With a new platform like VR, and being that no matter what game I’m playing I always start by going to the Options first, I thought I would note the entries available in Dreadhalls. For Video Settings, you can change this from Lowest to Best, although being that this was ported from the GearVR I doubt anyone running this on their OR will have to run this on anything but Best. Pixel Density can be lowered from 100% if desired, and Anti-Aliasing can be set up to 8X. For Movement, Rotational Speed can be set from 1 to 5, I went with 1. Snap or Comfort Rotation can be toggled On and Off, On will have the view literally snap a certain number of degrees rather than adhere to a smooth rotation, the latter of which seems to cause more motion sickness issues than snapping does. I tried both methods, I liked having snap off because it’s a lot more immersive that way, but it meant I couldn’t play as long before I got nauseous. You can also toggle “Move In Looking Direction” On or Off and disable tutorials.
With that, let’s get to the summary…
