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.