Using a fractured family and a computer simulation as its diving board, Transference hopes to plunge players into a creepy bath of psychological terrors, creepy auras, and escape room puzzles when it releases in September on VR platforms.
In fifteen minutes Transference had firmly planted itself in my mind. My stomach was lurching and I was swiftly turning my head at the slightest suggestion of distant noise. When plunging the depths of virtual reality, this may be a sign that nausea is about to set in and you’ll wish you had a vomit bag. For Ubisoft and SpectreVision’s upcoming VR game, it’s a sign of the psychological torment to come.
Moving past the Elijah Wood association, Transference is a game bathed in mystery, which is a necessary evil considering the amount of surprise and unease that are likely to await players once they strap on a VR device. Scientist Raymond Hayes has been working to upload the consciousness of a person into a computer. It’s a technological innovation born out of ’80s and ’90s science fiction where computers possessed infinite possibility within their circuitry. That infinite possibility could also result in infinite horrors.
Transference, however, isn’t concerned with rogue AI or cyberterrorists that are easily thwarted by Sandra Bullock. Instead, players will be dropped into the figurative rubble of Hayes’ home, who has used himself, his son Benjamin, and wife Katherine as his final test subjects. Amiss is a gentle way to describe the somethings going on when the player character walks into the culmination of three minds swirling in both digital and physical space.
VR players who have trekked through multiple simulated worlds won’t take long to get their sea legs. Transference is not a game requiring rapid movements or exaggerated bobbing and weaving. Players can crouch, grab interactive objects and turn twist them around, walk at a leisurely pace, and cautiously approach unfamiliar and disturbing scenery.
I was told before starting that the demo was akin to an escape room. To “find a way out” clues were strewn about to solve puzzles and perspective shifts were required to see the whole picture. The Hayes household is located a few floors up in an apartment complex. The circling staircase leading to different apartments is littered with eviction notices, a dim sum flyer, business cards, and notes that add flavor to the setting.
As the player/protagonist, you walk into the entryway and are greeted to darkened hallways and nowhere to go. A door is missing its knocker and a light switch is ominously highlighted. Flick the switch and everything goes dark only for your vision to return. Now the hallway is bathed in a soft yellow light and the doorways have been replaced with a black corruption. Instead of a door, bright red letters indicate a file is missing along with a door knocker. From the depths of the basement a loud banging sound reverberates in your ears. You know what to do next.
Ubisoft is a developer known for Tom Clancy’s(s) and open-worlds. Rarely has it set forth to instill dread in players’ hearts through the creepy and unknown. Transference is an honest attempt at shaking up that familiarity and testing players in another way. Once the perspective switches, we see things from Benjamin’s view, the memories of a kid stuck in a computer. Sounds become deeper and other-worldly and the building takes on an oppressive nature.
Venturing down to the basement, players are treated to Transference‘s use of live-action footage interspersed with the digital world. Watching Hayes and his family humanizes their plight and the fractured relationship between husband and wife and son. Once the door knocker is grabbed, players can go back up the stairs, flip the light switch to make things “normal” again, and enter the Hayes home.
Here, the environmental storytelling begins to burst at the seams. Crayon drawings on the bottoms of the walls indicate a child who is terrified of his mother who may or may not hate him. A turn of the head reveals a shadowy figure lurking at the end of a hallway. It’s a windfall of elements meant to give players pause and instantly contrast that emotion with fear and panic.
The roller-coaster that is Hayes’ house represents the cream of the crop in psychological horror games. It’s where the jump scares meet eternal dread and the participant doesn’t feel safe anywhere. Upon exploring the house, you can play a kind answering machine message from Katherine, who has a penchant for music. Musical instruments are scattered throughout the home that peel back the layers of what this family could have been had they not been trapped in the steel casing of a CPU.
Transference shifts the gameplay focus away from older adventure games where the player was required to find a particular item and guess at its use. Most objects and goals feel contained and in close proximity to each other, which could change when the full game releases. My one issue with the puzzles presented isn’t that they are obtuse, it’s that they are quite simple.
The final puzzle of the demo had me shifting back and forth between reality and simulation. Benjamin’s voice was crying out for help from a radio. Was I Raymond, calling back out to my son after another flip of a light switch? The fevered feeling of trying to both escape this domestic horror and figure out what’s wrong is like a drug.
Initially, I was in a kitchen opening drawers and cabinets to uncover some required item. I found a pair of wire cutters and thought I needed them to sever a thick blue line that stretched all over the kitchen and into a computer. Cut the cord and free the family, right? Wrong. To progress I had to match up the radio frequency in both “realities” so that I was free to move on.
For puzzle mechanics to work in a horror game, players must never feel too safe and that an invisible clock is always ticking towards some gruesome end. The moving pieces of spectacular sound design and intentionally disorienting visuals always kept the pressure on me during the demo. After a minute or so, trying to make sense of what the game wanted from me took me out of the experience. When it comes time for the full game’s release, I hope that the puzzles have added complexity that makes full use of switching back and forth between what is real and what might be real.
As the demo came to a close, the door back into the hallway was unlocked. Reality began to distort and a black, looming corruption advanced towards me. It grew glowing red eyes and pounced. It was a fitting bookend to an experience that constantly had me weary at what was next but also intrigued to know more. Family drama isn’t for everyone but the twisting narrative hinted at leaves me with the impression that Transference will do its best to thrill players in one way or another.
Transference releases on PlayStation 4, PS VR, Xbox One, Oculus, and Vive on September 18. PS4 owners can download the Walter Test Case demo that acts as prequel to the main game to get a taste of what Transference will be like on release.
