A house, a murder, and a motive. Every since I played the board game it was fun to see who was the suspect with what weapon in what room. Then when the movie came out, it took what I loved about the board game and brought it on the big screen to have that inner child smile. The Invisible Hours by GameTrust and Tequila Works have taken the formula of a board game to a classic movie and made it the new standard in VR mystery-solving and that inner child is not only smiling but actually filled with such joy.
The Invisible Hours is a mystery that you have to solve. But it is done in such a way, in such a manner where you will want to find all the clues and find out the story of each character. Ever wanted to be a fly on a wall and just hear what is going on, now you get that chance. Well not the fly part, but you are there and hearing everything that is going on. The way the game is being told is almost like an art of the stage and you are the star in an invisible way.
I am not going to spoil anything as far as the story goes or who may or may not be the guilty one(s) or one. I cannot do it and I won’t do it. This is a story you need to unfold and an unfolding it will become. What is a nice change of pace is you do not control a character. As I mentioned this is a stage if you will, a performance of mystery. The way the characters interact to tell what they may or may not know is truly magical. Yes, you do not control a character, but what you do get to control is time. You see you choose who to follow. At any time you can pause time so that you may search for clues. You can rewind time in case you missed something or speed it up and this simple act of time is a refreshing take on storytelling that there needs to be more of this.
After the scene plays out it will end the chapter. You can then replay the chapter or you can select one of the characters to replay there a part of the chapter. At any time that the characters are interacting with each other or even just passing by in the scene, you can select the character and choose to follow them, which then gives a different side of the story from there point of view. And like I mentioned, you can pause time any time you want, which allows you to just free roam the house and maybe find a clue that you might have missed or seen something that is going to help the story play out. I really love how this is incorporated and applaud this use in VR.
The immersion in The Invisible Hours is very well done and honestly, this is the only way it can play is in VR. The way you are able to look around and under things or peek around the corners to get that alternative view is truly amazing. The way the sound adds to it. Hearing the conversations with the other characters lowered as you may have followed another character and you might be on the other side of the room to the passing down a hallway and hearing something behind a closed door. The way you can pass by a window and you can sense the storm outside. It really shows how important sound is a very important part of VR and The Invisible Hours adds to this in a way that really makes you appreciate it.
But what about the characters that make The Invisible Hours so special is not only the presence of this stage of the story they are telling but who is portraying them which I found really interesting. The way historical figures are used here along with the entire experience is the only way VR can take us to new places, to learn history, and make us that fly on the wall, even if we have to be invisible to experience it.
The Invisible Hours is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Store and Steam. A review code was provided.
To learn more about GameTrust, visit their site. To learn more about Tequila Works, 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 find some more clues.
Mr. PSVR, October 13, 2017, theplaystationbrahs.com
