What would you do if a war tore the world as you knew it apart? Your worst visions coming true. Sickness becomes the new health and death becomes the new form of life roaming the lands. But after it was all said and done, you were the chosen one. What would you do? What questions would you have? Does Developer Daily Magic Productions show us what it means to be the chosen one? Let’s find out with Witching Tower VR for the PlayStation VR.
In Witching Tower VR, you play as Anna and you are the key to changing the future. You will be exploring the tower and facing evil skeletons, bats, and other creatures with some weapons and some magic all while trying to stop the evil Queen. But before you try and enter this tower and solve the puzzles to prove that the choice that has been made might be the smartest, you will want to make sure you have both Move controllers fully charged. Once you have that, go into the options and decide on your movement. Do you want to teleport or do you want to move freely? I went with the teleportation aspect of it all and was sitting down during my time with Witching Tower VR.
Each part is played on a different level of the tower with different sections to explore and uncover the secrets with puzzle solving. When you first start, you will notice you are chained to a room surrounded by the skeletons that once were full of life, but died and forgotten was their outcome. While trying to figure out what is going on, you hear the Queen letting you know that these shackles that are now part of you will prevent you from using the power of your sign. She wants your power all to herself and, this greed that the Queen has doesn’t become her, but it does add to the whole atmosphere, which I liked. Inside this broken part of the tower I was in, I was greeted by this glowing skull of a spirit guide who is also locked up until a bird brings you the key so you can free yourself from this gothic setting of a place. Your friendly spirit guide seems concerned with all things about my vision as it seems I have necro vision, a magical vision that lets me see invisible things which are a very nice touch.
Now when you do come across some enemies, it is not too difficult to defeat them. Bats will usually come in multiples and just simply striking them down will end their reign of terror. Dogs can take a few times depending on the weapon in hand, but some of the bigger enemies will take more work. Don’t be afraid to move out of the way right before they strike, and depending on the enemies, they could help you in a way. There was a part later on where I came against two larger enemies and somehow when was about to strike, the other enemy was in front of him and the one enemy took out the other. It’s all about teamwork.
Some enemies will be high above and all of the sudden I would get hit. I looked around and saw that they were shooting arrows. And as high up as they were, they were still getting me. You do obtain a bow that you can use to shoot arrows, but what you want to pay attention to, is objects that have like a green emerald tone to them as you can use your right hand and generate this lasso that you can pull them down with. Not only is this lasso good for those types of enemies, but it will also come in handy on some of the puzzle aspects such as pulling a lever to help you get across. But I do like how some of the puzzles require interactions and make you think a little bit about how the mechanisms work instead of just touching to move forward.
On your left hand, you do have an inventory system that you can use by moving your right hand and pulling it outwards. Sometimes you can just place the object over your wrist and they will go in there, but there are times when I came across something that I didn’t think about putting in the inventory, only to find out that they were placed in there. This is a good thing as I didn’t have to backtrack really to locate the items I previously found.
I did talk about puzzles and there is another aspect to them in the form of blue ghosts who will give you more information about the tower. Most of the time, the ghosts are holding a ghostly object that you must locate, place in the blue fire to help solve the puzzle. What I like about this puzzling aspect is how if I were a ghost, I would only say a few things until I felt that what was missing, was found so then that I could move on with my journey in the afterlife. These ghostly puzzles were probably one of my favorite aspects of the Witching Tower VR that I wish that there more of them.
Now, of course, I am not going to spoil much for anyone as in what powers you may gain or all the weapons that may be had as you need to experience Witching Tower VR for yourself. But there is something else I will share. Throughout your adventure, you will come across these collectible cards. There is something I experienced in Witching Tower VR that kind of threw me off a bit and that was when I was about to go into a new scene and I guess I missed two of the collectible cards. Before I moved on, I was informed of this and asking if I wanted to proceed in leaving the location, which is a great idea. What if every time in every adventure, we were told that there were still four more trophies in this section, do you want to continue?
Let’s look at the graphics and sound. The graphics are very sharp. Scenes are not too bright giving the setting which I appreciate. Words are very clear which makes things very easy to read. The sound was good as well. Hearing the music that fit well and hearing those distant voices in the background that was all well rounded within the atmosphere There were times that after I killed the enemies, that you could still hear them. This isn’t a bad thing as the more I think about it adds to the eeriness of this tower as I kept looking around to make sure nothing was coming up behind me. If there could be anything I would like to see added, it is more enemies with different variations of fighting and moving mechanics. They were not bad; I just would have loved to have some additional enemies come from all directions and maybe have them pick up objects to throw at me.
If anything Witching Tower VR gives us some fun interactions as well as some clever puzzles that I would love to see more of. Sometimes it goes to show that we should all have open minds and never judge a book by its cover.
Witching Tower VR is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Store, Steam, and Viveport. A review code was provided.
To learn about Daily Magic Productions, 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 am going to find those missing cards.
Mr. PSVR, September 27, 2019, theplaystationbrahs.com
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