Silent Slayer could also be a stationary recreation, designed to be performed whereas sitting down, however that didn’t cease me from breaking a sweat as I attempted to finish vampires of their sleep.
Schell Video games’ upcoming horror recreation wasn’t the standard creep-filled jumpscare fest you would possibly anticipate from VR horror. As an alternative, it displays the studio’s constantly modern spirit because it eschews tendencies in horror recreation design for one thing a bit extra contemporary and compelling.
There are not any labyrinthine corridors or capturing galleries in Silent Slayer. As an alternative, you and your (mildly suspicious) acquainted—a speaking spellbook who’s guiding you thru the method of preventing creatures of the evening—are tasked with killing vampires quietly. Meaning no weapons, no flashy fight, and most significantly, no loud noises. Sitting (or standing) in entrance of a ticking time bomb, Silent Slayer forbids any loud noises on the danger of getting caught and killed by your lethal targets.
The method retains the sport’s tempo gradual and methodical—and very tense. Primarily based on the degrees I performed, the method of each opening the coffin and killing the vampire varies from stage to stage, however all play by related guidelines. From sliding a key right into a lock to prying nails out from its door, something can and can go mistaken for those who do it too shortly. However opening the coffin is barely half the battle; when you’ve managed to take away each deadbolt, lock, and nail from the vampire’s wood tomb, you’ll want to truly kill the bugger.
First, I needed to begin the method by holding a tool up to a degree above the vampire’s brow. Then, a collection of directional prompts popped up, asking me to attract runic symbols utilizing my wood stake destined for the vampire’s coronary heart. Then, utilizing a tool that form of resembles a petrified coronary heart, I positioned the vampire’s coronary heart earlier than lastly working them by way of. One of many folks demoing the sport at PAX talked about {that a} vampire would possibly get up for those who don’t kill them shortly sufficient, although I didn’t encounter that.
There’s a robust case to be made that Schell is mainly making Operation: Vampire Version.
My one subject with the pair of ranges I performed by way of in my half-hour-long demo is that a few of these prompts for killing the vampire had been too exact. Perhaps it was simply my positioning relative to the bloodsucker within the coffin, however executing among the motions wanted to ship a vampire to the pits felt overly specific. There have been some moments the place it appeared like I carried out the movement accurately based mostly on the place I used to be sitting however the recreation registered it as a miss. This sort of factor isn’t essentially the most important subject in a vacuum, however feeling inspired by the sport to place myself in a sure technique to open up the coffin within the first place after which punished when it got here time to stab the fanged monster by way of the center with a stake was irritating at first look.
That frustration is enhanced by the truth that it is a recreation all about taking it gradual. That velocity provides a lot rigidity and weight to each small motion you make as a result of every part you do places you prone to getting your veins drained, nevertheless it additionally implies that re-doing sections of a stage can really feel painstaking by the point you’re in your third or fourth try. Nonetheless, efficiently turning a vampire into mud is deeply satisfying. I discovered myself respiration a sigh of aid every time I accomplished a stage as a result of the strain on this recreation is as thick as a bowl of oatmeal.
Schell isn’t any stranger to enjoying with rigidity within the I Anticipate You To Die and Amongst Us VR video games, and I loved my time with Silent Slayer. It looks like it’s offering sufficient several types of duties and actions all through any given stage to maintain its pretty easy loop from going stale. We’ll be curious to see the way it holds up over longer play classes and evolves in its later ranges.
Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire releases summer season 2024 for Quest headsets.
