Do you ever think about games that you used to play when you were younger and how if given a chance to be reborn in a way for a new audience, how well they would do? What changes would you make to some of your favorites? Maybe adding an upgrade in the graphics or new sounds to bring a refreshing take on it would be ideal. Maybe add in a new control scheme that could actually make the gameplay better or even add some leaderboards to add some friendly competition. It really can make you think about how ideas can improve an experience from what you might remember playing. So does developer, Red Chain Games bring some of these ideas? Let’s find out with Boxed In for PlayStation VR.
Boxed In is a game where you must try to clear the colored boxes that could from in front, above, or below you as you try to survive as long as you can so you do not well, become boxed in. So before you start, you have a couple of different choices of how you want to play. You can plan in the non-VR sense, which is fine, but the real magic is playing it in Virtual Reality. Then you will need to decide which control scheme you would like to use. You could use the Dualshock 4 controller, the Move controllers, or go with the Aim controller. Once you have your favorites controller ready, it’s time to decide on the game options. You have the number of colors from 3, 4, or 5. The match mode of getting matching the colors across or in a square, then you need to decide how you want to blocks to come at you.
Either from above, which you will need to look up all the time. So if you get a sore neck easily, you may not want to do this too long. You can also have the blocks coming from below you, or have you with your back to the wall as the blocks are coming towards you. Oh, and there are no exits in this room of death. In fact, you will need to be thinking quick and hopefully, your strategy will pay off, so you are not squashed or splattered, and then it’s game over. Then the other decision you will need to make is the game type you want to play.
Solitaire has it where the blocks do not move and you just need to clear the room until it’s empty to Survival, which just like the name entails, you try to survive as long as you can.
So you don’t just jump into a game and try to figure out what is going on right before it is too late, you might want to go through the tutorial where you can change the color, add, and push a cube to have a better chance of lasting and also increasing your score on the leaderboards. The color of your beam from your trusty BlockOTron 3000 displays the current color that is in use. Point at a cube and press R2, and it will change color. Sometimes when you clear blocks, it will leave a gap and you will need to fill in those gaps with additional blocks and you do that by pressing L2. You can also get up close to a cube and push it into an empty space by pressing X.
I will say that the first few times I played Boxed In, I had some concerns. For one, there was the only teleportation to move and honestly, I died a lot as you would have to teleport and then click to turn. It was challenging. The other was somehow, the Aim controller felt off and no matter what, I kept trying, but had to move to the DualShock 4 controller to play. But the developer has listened and I am very happy to say that improvements have already been added including continuous movement to just move along. Smooth turning has been added and these two alone, make the game a lot better. Also, new advanced options such as snap turning angle, smooth turning speed, moving from the head or controller, and left or right-handed Aim controller along with seeing what the next color will be in Survival mode. And somehow with all the updates and nothing may have been added, but it does seem to make the Aim controller seem to work a lot better, at least for me.
I mentioned leaderboards previously and there are leaderboards for everything including the different modes, gameplay, and color matching. So it’s good to see who is on there and how close you are to claiming that next spot. Oh, and if you need to know within the game to see what your score is, just look at the BlockOTron 3000 as it will display your score. I can’t say how many times I came so close to claiming a spot only to not make it and want to keep trying again and again until I made it. If there is anything I would want to see added would be an addition to the blocks and game type. For the blocks we have from above, back wall, and below. What about adding from the sides? Having blocks come at you from both sides would add even more fun to the mix. And then for the game type, a multiplayer one vs one and try to cause chaos for the other player and ultimately becoming the Boxed In Champion of the World.
Boxed In gives us something so simple, so casual, and some fun. When you add the leaderboards to the mix, it just adds the right amount of casual competition of just trying to do better each time. And should we strive each day to make it better than the last?
Boxed In is out now on Steam, Viveport, and coming to PlayStation VR on May 27, 2021. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Red Chain Games, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I need to go improve my score.
