The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR Reviews
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a fun arcade shooter, but its short length, a weak story, and lack of scares hold it back.
Switchback VR is a steady rail shooter that offers decent variety and an interesting tour through some old levels, but never tries to earn The Dark Pictures name. The choices don’t matter, the Curator is just a creepy Where’s Wally?, and the stakes or even setup for rescuing characters was lost on me. However, it’s reliably spooky, action-packed, and has the best designed villain in the series. It’s a rail shooter obsessed with its own past, so it makes sense that it’s two steps forward and one step back.
Switchback VR surprises and delights with its jump scare rollercoaster ride through its greatest hits, offering a great reason to don a headset.
It’s a decent enough arcade shooter, and if you look at it that way, the length and mood of the game make sense. However, it doesn’t make as much sense as a game with the Dark Pictures moniker. As widely varied as the quality of those games have been, they take the time to tell a story. Switchback doesn’t. It focuses on the gunplay, action, and thrills. While it does a decent enough job of that, the performance issues bring even that end down a bit. If you’re a fan of Supermassive’s brand of horror, it would be hard for me to recommend this over their other games. If you want to play something more like a modern light gun horror that makes decent use of the PS VR2’s technology, then you could do worse than Switchback, but you could also do better.
Switchback VR is one of the best demonstrations of what terror can do on PS VR2 taking advantage of its technical innovations. Uncomfortable, intense and with moments that you will remember, you can only reproach the limitations that it brings as standard: it is not far from what was seen in Rush of Blood and it is somewhat expensive for what lasts.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
A moderately entertaining on-rails action game that fails to learn anything from its predecessor Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood or indeed other, much older, lightgun games.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a really solid PSVR 2 shooter with some fun uses of the headset's eye tracking and haptics, though it is sadly let down by some annoying technical hitches.
Until Dawn continues to elude Supermassive, and now even Rush of Blood appears out of reach. Switchback VR is a scruffy game that fails to match up to its well-liked PSVR predecessor, delivering low-budget visuals, lousy combat encounters, and some pretty low-energy level design. There are a handful of memorable moments, and some may find fun in the jump scares – but this should and could have been so much more.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR improves on every aspect of Rush of Blood to create an essential horror title for the PSVR 2. The innovative use of the headset adds to the immersion to create memorable moments of terror. While the story takes a back seat, the heart-racing ride through the grotesque is not to be missed.
Supermassive Games has nailed the thrill of funfair rides and amplified it with a healthy dose of horror. The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR utilizes the PSVR 2 toolset to great and grisly effect. It can be counted among the most consistently entertaining PSVR 2 experiences you can have.
A sequel in everything but name to PS VR's delightful Rush of Blood, The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR takes everything that made that title successful and refines it further. The shooting is great, the thrills are some of the best on the platform, and the overall vibe can be downright terrifying. Ride a coaster, shoot some demons, scream, laugh, and cuss. What's not to love?
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR offers cheap chills and thrills along with eye-catching lighting effects, but not much else.
Switchback VR is a fantastically frightening ride that will have you jumping in your seat and reeling from its horrific sights and sounds, all while shooting your way through an excellent homage to The Dark Pictures Anthology.
At the end of the day, The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR delivers what it sets out to do with an on-rails shooter that is low on the story but high on the shooting action. While the fun may not last for a long time and the genuine scares are few and far between, it is still a good demonstration of what the PS VR2 brings to the table. Just like Until Dawn: Rush of Blood set the stage back in 2016, hopefully, this will only be the beginning when it comes to exploiting the full potential of PS VR2.
Switchback VR is a fun, albeit flawed, arcade shooter. While the game lacks enemy variety, has disappointing bosses, and has some graphical issues, the core gunplay remains fun and the variety of locations you'll visit keep the game entertaining throughout the rather short campaign. While I wish the rollercoaster theme was utilized for more thrills, it is still a blast to take down a horde of enemies as you ride through a burning house or a creepy backwoods road.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback is a confident rail shooter that celebrates Supermassive Games’ unrelenting knack of horror, but not even the PSVR 2’s impressive use of eye-tracking can save this ride from a nonexistent story and cheap thrills.
Full of twists and turns and jump scares that will nearly knock you out of your seat, it is an adrenaline filled fear ride that will test your nerve. On the verge of death, the player must fight for their lives and the immortal souls of their fellow travelers.
While this review may sound very negative, you can have some fun with The Dark Pictures Anthology: Switchback VR. The problem is, we just expected it to be better. While we didn’t find it scary at all, some might. We at least appreciated that a number of its scenarios put us under pressure. It’s perhaps apt that it puts you on a rollercoaster, as like a real rollercoaster ride it’s full of highs and lows, both technically and mechanically. At the end of the day, there are better on-rails shooters available on PSVR 2 already. And the unique elements on offer here just aren’t accomplished enough to draw us away from them.
An enjoyable romp made for VR let down by shoddy execution. The definition of a game that thrives mainly as a launch title.
Review in Arabic | Read full review