Yesterday I demoed the Oculus Rift headset to a friend for the first time. After my usual playlist of demos, I put him into Alone in the Rift, a brief virtual reality horror demo. The ensuing reaction shows the potential of virtual reality horror games.

I’m a big fan of scary games and I’m absolutely looking forward to more that support the Oculus Rift. I’ve played my fair share, but Alone in the Rift, even with its cheap scares, shows that virtual reality horror games are something else completely.

When you’ve got the Oculus Rift on, you are isolated in a world that is not in your control. You aren’t looking into a small window — you feel present in the virtual world. And when that world happens to be a dark and unfamiliar forest set to a spine chilling soundtrack… you’re bound for terror like you’ve never felt before.

Alone in the Rift definitely made me jump involuntarily and, for the sake of my heart, my brain was telling me to take the Oculus Rift off of my face and escape that world. But reaction was subtle compared to my friend’s first attempt seen above.

Alone in the Rift was made by Oculus VR developer forum user ‘mrmaffen’. You can find the original thread and download links here to try it for yourself. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • eyeandeye

    “No no no no…uh uh…”

    That was my reaction when I tried to watch an oculus rift playthrough of Slender: The Arrival last night. I wasn’t even playing it. I’ve never even had the guts to play it on a normal screen.

  • Alexander

    Having just played Silent Hill 2 for the first time, I can only despise all those modern shocker games that think giving full on scares without any meaningful has any value at all.

    • seanlumly

      Thanks for the update. Why do you feel it necessary to outwardly communicate your snobbery regarding a particular genre of games? Articulated elitism is really quite silly: if you don’t like ‘shocker’ games, don’t play them.

  • VAL

    Thanks for YOUR ignorant update. Why do you feel it necessary to be a douchebag and over-read into someone else’s opinion on specifically MODERN shocker games like he said – not all shocker games. Ignorance is bliss: If you have nothing useful to say, don’t say it – you’ll learn that one day when you grow up.