When I first started up Medusa’s Labyrinth VR, set to release on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on 25 May, the game took me right back to that feeling of playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but in Greece.
Medusa’s Labyrinth VR by Guru Games, is a first-person horror title where you get to explore the labyrinths under – what I’m assuming – is Athena’s Temple. I say this because the game seems to be based on the popular mythology of Medusa as told by Ovid. There are varying versions of Medusa’s origins, however. But in this version of the story, Poseidon had raped the beautiful girl in Athena’s temple, and either in rage or empathy, the goddess turned the girl into the gorgon we’re so familiar with.
Medusa’s Labyrinth was originally just a free PC game, released on Steam last year. It was released, I think, as more of a teaser so the developers could get more funding to develop the full game that they had wanted. They then decided to make a VR version for this year as well – but they did add a small price tag to the VR version. No word on what the price will be yet, though.
Check out the trailer below:
Who Are you and What Are You Doing Here? No Clue.
But in Medusa’s Labyrinth VR you start out in the city just outside the temple, where you can see people frozen in stone. The game doesn’t give any clue as to who you are or what you’re doing here – much like Amnesia I guess. Once inside the labyrinth, you start to uncover the story of what happened to a girl named Alyona and why these catacombs are so darn creepy. I don’t want to give too much of the story away because that for me was probably the best aspect of the game.
As for the monsters and gameplay – it was okay. And okay isn’t exactly bad, but there just wasn’t any aspect of the gameplay that really stood out for me. That being said, the team did make good design choices and I liked the environment of the game overall. I can even say that, for an indie title, this was a really good attempt at an original (in terms of story), and somewhat novel game.
Medusa’s Labyrinth VR Gameplay
In Medusa’s Labyrinth VR you have to (you guessed it) explore the labyrinth and face the creatures that walk the catacombs in misery. I’m still not entirely sure what they are (minotaurs?), but luckily you do get a bow and arrows to fend them off. The game has a couple of locomotion options, including teleportation and touchpad locomotion.
You also come across torches in the game that helps light the way and you can light braziers with them to help you see. But much like in Amnesia, these torches have a limited life span and the light attracts the creatures. Luckily, I found that there was no shortage of torches in the game, and while you can go with the run and hide tactic, just shooting the creatures worked even better.
Also, like in Amnesia, your character starts to panic whenever something scary happens in the game or whenever a monster appears. Your heartbeat starts getting louder and faster and your vision starts to tunnel.
What kept me going through Medusa’s Labyrinth the drive to find out more of the story through these notes that I kept finding. But probably the biggest let down was the cliffhanger ending. I wanted to know the ending of the story! But all I got was a big door in my face. I would say that this game worth playing. Luckily, Guru Games are working on a follow-up title for the game PC game, which I hope gets ported to VR too. So with a little more funding, I’m excited to see what Medusa’s Labyrinth VR can be in the next installment of the story.
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