There aren’t many themes that video games don’t touch. From murder to love, we’ve seen it all. And yet, there are certain themes that remain too obscure even in our modern days. Domestic violence is one of those themes. Only rarely we see games touching this subject, Detroit: Become Human is one of the only games that dared to break with the controversy. Now, we got a second experience in the form of Transference, a product of Ubisoft and Elijah Wood, playable in VR. Where Detroit hold its distance, Transference puts you in the middle of the madness.

My Precious

Transference is a unique product and can’t be considered as a typical video game. It’s a product of Spectrevision, production studio of Elijah Wood. Of course, most people will know Elijah Wood as the actor who played Frodo in The Lord of the Rings but he’s far more than ‘just’ that. He’s a big fan of classic thriller/horror movies and even has a passion for video games. He always wanted to combine those two things and thanks to Virtual Reality, he finally found the perfect time to release his first concept. Transference is a product that surpasses the normal video game in a lot of aspects.

First things first, it’s more than just gameplay. Unlike other popular games, Transference doesn’t rely on gameplay alone. It’s somewhere between an interactive drama and a movie. Real actors worked on this product and the story is told in an innovating way. Thanks to short webcam shots, you’ll learn the sinister truth all while discovering a haunted environment in Virtual Reality. VR is optional but it’s the only way to truly appreciate the product, to be honest.

Get out of my mind

Now, an interactive experience like this stands or falls with its story. As said before, Transference touches on domestic violence but goes a little further than that. You follow the events of a small family of three where things went horribly wrong. In order to find out what went wrong, the minds of all three were uploaded into a strong computer. It’s your job to find out what happened to them by descending deeper and deeper into their thoughts. What you’re doing is rather strange, even in the world you live in. This form is research is introduced as a new kind of experiment and just like with all experiments, things don’t always go as planned.

Instead of seeing the events unfold through the eyes of the father, mother, and child separately, their memories are combined into one big corrupt virtual reality. The house they all lived in is filled with corrupted files, missing items, and horrific memories. By switching on and off the lights, you’ll change your perspective to the mind of a different family member. This sounds rather complex but in reality, you’ll solve most puzzles by switching between perspectives at the right time and bringing back objects to the right mind. The puzzles, and thus the actual gameplay, aren’t hard to master, it’s the atmosphere that will keep you going.

I can’t leave this place

The atmosphere is the biggest selling point of the game without a doubt. Right from the start, you’ll feel haunted and trapped in the small house. I played it in VR on PlayStation Pro and I’m sure this is the best way to immerse yourself into the twisted world. Transference has a lot in common with traditional thrillers, meaning there’s no horde of zombies constantly hunting you down, the horror comes from the slow interaction with the world. The game gives you a lot of time to explore each and every room, the goal is to clear the puzzle but if you only do this, you’ll miss a lot. The world is filled with interesting documents, photos and voice recordings delving deeper into the crazy story. By slowly finding all the pieces of the puzzles, you’ll feel the tension rising.

The way the team created this haunted house is truly admirable. I’ve played a lot of VR games before and I had my fair share of horror experiences, but rarely did I feel so uncomfortable as in Transference. It’s a solid way of creating an unsettling environment and the team behind it deserves all credit for this.

Not flawless

Although Transference certainly offers an entirely new experience, it’s not perfect. First things first, like many other VR games, it’s just too short to justify the rather high price. I understand that creating a game like this isn’t cheap but you don’t really get a lot of content in exchange for your money. If money isn’t a problem, the game does suffer from anoter bigger problem too. Discovering the house in VR is extremely thrilling but it’s not always that fun. Moving around is hard since you’ll use your controller to walk and your camera stick to harshly change the direction you’re facing. Just turning your head in the direction you want to go, doesn’t work. Due to this, I often started to feel sick while playing the game. The camera couldn’t follow my fluent movements and I had to adapt to the new angle each and every time. Perhaps enabling motion controls would have been the better option since I’m sure a lot of people will get sick from playing it VR like it is right now. A shame really, since I wanted to discover the secrets as fast as possible but was forced to take small breaks from time to time.

Conclusion:

Transference offers a unique experience unlike any other on the market to date. The way they build up the tension is amazing and if it wasn’t for the motion sickness, I would have probably finished the game in one run. Too bad it didn’t offer a bit more content for its rather high price but that being said, it’s a game worth playing. Perhaps it’s best to wait for a small price drop in order to fully enjoy this marvelous VR game.

7.5/10

Tested on PlayStation 4 Pro