Sisters Proves Little Girls Are Still Terrifying
April Marie
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In the early days of my youth I read the Japanese manga, and watched the anime for .Hack. All the while I became more and more infatuated with the idea of virtual reality. At last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, I got my first hands-on experience with the technology. Needless to say, I was thrilled. However, as the market stands right now, to own a quality VR system, you’re going to be forking out some serious cash. They’re not exactly in a “starving artist” writer’s budget. But when more wallet-friendly options became available like the Google Cardboard, I jumped at the chance. After realizing the cell phone I had at the time didn’t work with the Cardboard, I promptly shelved the headset.
Now, many months later, I’ve found a good reason to clear the dust from the ol’ Cardboard, and give it another try. At this year’s E3, I tested a relative newcomer to the VR gaming universe at the IndieCade area. Otherworld Interactive has released a game for free on the Google Play Store, and the Apple App Store for iOS users. The name of their game is Sisters, and surprisingly, considering it’s currently a mobile title, Sisters gave me one of my favorite VR experiences thus far.
There’s one more point I have to explain before we get to the meat of what I experienced with Sisters at E3. I was told by Otherworld Interactive’s CEO, Andrew Goldstein, that they plan to expand on what’s currently available for Sisters. To do so, they’re going to continue releasing the rest of the Sisters story episodically. Not only that, but Otherworld will also be releasing it on more headsets. With the episodic continuation, Sisters will be released on mobiles again for Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear, but also on Steam/PCs for HTC Vive and Oculus users.
Enough of the technical bullhonky though, right? What made me say Sisters was one of my favorite VR experiences? One of the biggest reasons I say this is because when taking off the headset after going through Sisters I had a moment of adjustment I’d never experienced before. You’d think with any VR headset and game there will always be that few seconds of realignment where you put yourself back in the real world, but that’s not really the case. Usually when I’m finished demoing a VR game, I take the headset off and immediately start talking to the developer about their game. With Sisters I had to pause a moment before saying, “Sorry, I had to remind myself that I’m not in that room anymore.”
Sisters, as it stands at the moment, takes place in a single room with you sitting on a couch dead center. There are no movements to be made other than simply looking around the room. One of the cool things about Sisters, and VR games in general, is that the action will wait for you to notice it. Sisters reacts to your current field of vision. So if you’re looking straight ahead and there’s something behind you about to happen, it will wait for you to turn around before instigating said action. This led to some ultra creepy moments in my playthrough where I saw something spooky out of the corner of my eye, and knew that it wouldn’t move until I fully looked at it. It’s a fantastic way to direct an audience’s attention, as well as up the thrill factor.
The art style in Sisters is semi-cartoonish. There are two dolls that function as the main characters in the game, and they look like marionettes. The rest of the room I witnessed was fairly bare-bones, with basic furniture. The most detailed things I noticed were paintings on the walls, and some effects on a television set. Seeing as how those matter to the story, it only makes sense that they would have more attention given to them. While the rest of the Sisters room was fairly simple graphically, I didn’t mind. I was so caught up in trying to see where the next action would happen that I didn’t even mind the less realistic visuals.
That leads to another great point to make about Sisters. Currently it’s very heavily reliant on jump scares, but for such a short game it’s a very enjoyable amount of scares. It’s a perfect introduction to VR horror for those who haven’t experienced it yet. It’ll get your heart going, but you won’t literally shit your pants. I was told that the rest of the episodes will be more like a room escape, especially since they will involve movement. With the use of the HTC Vive or Oculus, players will be able to investigate the rest of the Sisters house to unravel the story of the two sisters that used to live there.
All in all, Sisters proved itself to be a title to keep on my watch list. While it’s incredibly short, and functions mostly as a, “Who can spot the jump scare first?” competition, it still has it’s high points. The scares that were there worked extremely well thanks to the field of vision tracking system in the game. There’s an incredible sense of tension as you have to decide to instigate it yourself. Plus, Sisters promises to include new rooms to explore, movement, and an evolving story in the future. Considering how fun the current app is, I can’t wait to play Sisters again in the future.
Categorized:News
