As big of a proponent I am of Virtual Reality - and as much as I think it certainly defines the future of the potential of gaming - I absolutely put my foot down at the sheer existence of VR horror games. They fundamentally should not exist. They are the point at which I believe we, as a society, have gone "too far”. For a long time now, I’ve maintained that anyone that tries to encourage me to even try out Resident Evil 7 in VR is surely a servant of Satan himself, and that the experience is an actual, simulated reminder of what awaits me in the afterlife. In short - I feel that for the average gamer, VR horror games often transcend any kind of entertainment value, and simply become too scary to enjoy in a lot of cases. I can’t pop the hallway light on to distract from the tension of the screen when the screen is suspended mere centimeters away from my face. I often find myself too paralyzed by fear that I actually stop having fun a lot of the time.
Thankfully, that’s not the case with Otherworld Interactive’s Hello Puppets!, a dark comedy horror title that thankfully anesthetizes its tension and jumpscares by providing a charming and endearing anthropomorphic puppet companion that makes navigating the dark corridors of an abandoned TV studio a much more enjoyable experience - one that saw me cowering, laughing, and bonding with a new friend.