Affected: The Manor PS4 Review: "A short, but worthwhile experience that will certainly scare you!"

Affected: The Manor Ps4 Review

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Patch Version: 1.01

I think to some degree, the majority of us enjoys feeling scared from time to time.  It reminds us after all that we’re alive, right.?  Saying this, I’m not the easiest person to be frightened by things, chalk it up to an adolescent inclination for watching every horror film I could get my hands on.

However, I’ll be honest, there are times when I’m playing computer games where even I’m a little tentative about travelling down a dark and foreboding hallway or opening that door to where I do not know.  Making it worse are when those games are first person compared to third; the action feeling more in your face.

Enter Affected: The Manor.  What could be more immersive than a first person horror in VR?!  But would this keep me on my toes?  Would it make my heart race and my hairs stand on end?  I was very game to find out.

Upon loading in, I immediately find myself inside a quaint little room, and when I say little I mean very; it’s the size of a small closet, and if I had to guess, 2 metres squared give or take.

The attention to detail though is impressive, already I’m getting a sense for the ambience to come when it suddenly hits me: this is the menu, but it's more than that, it's all the menus in one.  Nice.

Directly in front of me is the option to begin.  To my right, the controls, my left a company logo for the makers of the game: Fallen Planet Studios, and behind, something I wasn’t expecting, two picture frames housing the individuals responsible for putting this whole thing together.   My first thought, wow, a small team: would this be a reflection of the quality to come?

Hungry to find out I begin and in a matter of moments find myself in an old courtyard with this rickety manor before me.  I appear to have free movement, within the bounds of staying in range of the PS4 camera of course, but to primarily move my character I use the left analog stick, which was interesting, because the control scheme in the menu room suggested this was done with the right not the left.  Ah well.

However, controlling the look direction with the analog stick does not sit well with me, nor does it with the buttons, so I immediately refrain from touching those and rely solely on using the headset to direct my look direction and the left to move, which to be honest works better and feels more natural.

Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that this review will not be mentioning any specifics in regards to how Affected: the Manor scares you, so don’t worry about spoilers.  It will focus on what the game does opposed to how it does it.

The first thing you need to know about Affected: The Manor, is it’s not very long.  It took me roughly thirty-ish minutes to reach the end of the frightening experience.  But before you get disheartened by this seemingly small timeframe, there are some interesting replay factors to consider. 

Firstly, there are two main routes through the house and both are different in regards to the encounters you will experience, which are very well scripted and executed perfectly.

The second, is that each route has a right and wrong way at some point, tasking you with making a decision as to which you choose.  It was interesting, both of these decisions in either route will prey on your fears, it’s a case of the worst of two evils.  Ultimately, the choice is yours and I liked that.  This meant to fully experience everything the game has to offer, you will need to journey through it four times at the very least, and depending on how brave you are, this could take you around 2 hours in total minimum.

For the price of it, which stands at £4.99, I don’t think 2 hours is a bad price at all, especially when you consider that other VR games/experiences on PSN around that price bracket to not only be shorter, but very poor in quality in comparison.  But I know you don’t care about that, so this aside, is it worth it?  A wholehearted, yes. 

And here is why.  There’s a subtle story here, just not in a traditional sense.  It's not spoken to you but shown as you traverse the manor itself.  From the wooden beams, the brickwork, the fireplaces, the Victorian styled children’s toys and the eerier paintings practically everywhere you look.  You get a real sense of the manor’s past tenants, and whatever happened to them wasn’t good, it wasn’t good at all!

The immersive ness of the experience is further boasted by the subtle details and textures, which look good by PS4 VR standards considering the resolution restrictions, which normally are severely hindered by games that aim for a realistic experience over a more cartoony approach when it comes to environments.

My first gripe in this area though is that I was able to put my head through walls and see out of the environment.  I only mention this because in a few other VR games I’ve played they have made the VR headset go black to prevent players from cheating.  It’s not a big thing, but I mention it in the interest that if they do make a sequel, which I hope they do, this is addressed.

The other aspect is one that is more a limitation of the the PSVR system than the game itself, and that is the blackness is not true black, the colour becoming a tad white-washed or specked when it becomes dimly lit or pitch black enitirely.  You can tweak this a little by adjusting the VR screen's brightness settings but it won't eradicate it.  Saying this though, it does add a sense of grain to the experience making it feel older and adding to it, and once you get immersed in it, you get used to it.

So is it scary?  Yes.  And at times, very!  The fact that works in its favour is because it strikes a decent balance between not overwhelming you with jump scares every few metres, and instead builds suspense, keeping you on your toes, allowing the creepy setting to chip away at your own imagination and fears then BANG, snares your focus and plunges you into a moment where even though you know something is going to happen, it scares you anyway and makes your heart jump within your chest!  A fact my Fitbit confirmed.

But let me ask you a question… have you ever watched a horror film and wondered why on earth the main character ventures into that dark and cobwebbed ridden cellar because they heard a sound?  I bet you have, what’s more, I bet you have thought they were idiots!  After playing this experience you’ll have the answer as to why they do it.  It’s a need you see, to know.  Curiosity afterall is a powerful thing, and with a soft and gentle voice of a child speaking and sometimes ominously singing nursery rhymes to you as you roam the dark hallways of this creepy-ass manor, it only piques your inquisitiveness even more as you slowly encroach ever forwards into the unknown.

The other aspect I loved, which can only really be fully experienced in VR, is being able to physically peer around corners, opposed to positioning my character or camera to look around them.  This is the freedom you have in VR, and in Affected: The Manor you have plenty of opportunities to do just that.  However, it was a shame that the game didn’t utilise this aspect, a fact I proved on my first run through as I peered around every dark corner first before venturing around and down them yet witnessed nothing moving or creeping about to freak me out.  It would have been a nice bit of polish to heighten the experience had they done something like this.

Whilst I’m talking about things Affected: The Manor doesn’t do, I think now would be a good time to talk about the aspects I felt it fell a little short on:

Firstly, the experience is gated, and for those who don’t know what this means, as you make your way through the manor, at certain points the way behind will be locked off forcing you on a forward orientated path.  Don’t mistake me, I didn’t mind this at all, however, when this happened they could have really mixed it up and played on my fears even more.  How?  Well, it was shame because I don’t recall a single moment that a door slammed shut behind me; it always seemed to eerily creak to a close.  I often turned out of instinct mind, but it didn’t startle me.  Perhaps some people will find a creaking door worse than the sudden slamming of one, but having a mixture, for me, would have kept me more on my toes than I already was.

Secondly, is that it really only has two features in relation to functionality, which is why I've been calling it an experience rather than a game.  So in this regard you move through the house using the analog stick, and your look direction is controlled by you looking in whatever direction takes your fancy.  (You can turn the camera using other buttons, but this made me feel funny as I stated earlier so I refrained from doing it and just pivoted on the spot when needed.)

However, playing the game like this did have a knock-on, because I often found myself needing to reset my camera position as I clipped and became stuck on invisible collisions, which turned out to be a wall or door frame that were there because I myself had become misaligned.  Still, moving through the building in the manner  I chose felt more satisfying than relying on the games native controls to focus your look-at.  So it was a price I was willing to pay and do not fault it for.

Thirdly, is a very minor one considering the audio on the whole was really well done, but my issue pertains to your footsteps.  This is a twofold problem.  Firstly, no matter how fast you move, the pace of the steps is the same.  It should be noted though your maximum speed is not that much different to the slowest speed, this being controlled by how much you push on the analog stick. 

The second is that if you choose to move independently of touching the analog stick, you will not hear any footsteps at all, which was a shame as this would increase immersion.  As I said, minor problems, which won’t really diminish your enjoyment, but I mention because I believe in being thorough.

The forth is that there are only five achievements to attain.  Not a problem in itself, however, three of them are time based, and either are bugged, as in they don’t work, or require you to be inside the manor in the same playthrough for two hours as least to unlock them.  This seemed odd considering a single playthrough can be done in thirty minutes, and that’s taking your time and not rushing.  If you could double back on yourself, again, I would understand, but it's gated as I mentioned previously.

The fifth is that it’s a shame it doesn’t make use of the move controllers.  I honestly feel that Affected: The Manor could have been so much more immersive if they allowed more interaction with it.  For example, the level of detail was superb, so superb that I wished I could pick objects up and examine them to learn more.  I wanted to blow out a candle. Stoke a fire.  Flip a light switch. Reach for that door.  The list is endless, so much so that there’s a plethora of untapped potential with Affected: The Manor that I really hope they make use of if a sequel is on the cards.  It could even aid with the storytelling element by allowing you to read through someone’s diary.  I could go on.

Lastly, but probably the most important and the aspect I found most disappointing, was considering it such a short experience, they didn’t maximise the replay factor by randomising the scare moments.  I’m not talking about the key moments, you can’t change the key moments in a linear experience, but the little moments could have been mixed up for sure.  Going down one of the routes for a second time knowing when a book, a picture or a lightbulb is going to do something takes away from that sense of suspense and works against the premise it's striving for.   I remember thinking, it would have been really cool if that book hadn’t suddenly fallen from that bookcase.  My mind would have instantly been second guessing my own memories from the previous run and kept me more engaged.

However, if you only playthrough twice, one for each route through the manor, this won’t be a problem nor will it hinder your enjoyment.

Full Playthrough Score after 2.5 hrs of play

Overall Impression

I spent in total a little over two hours with Affected: The Manor, and though I’d gain little from playing through it again myself, there is more fun to be had by watching your friends take turns.  Witnessing their reactions was truly just as good as my own experience.  That alone was priceless and certainly increased the bang for my buck value of the product, which to be fair, at £4.99, is more than reasonable, especially when you compare it to the quality of other VR games in the same price region that fall short.  So in that regard, Affected: The Manor stands out as something that perhaps could have been priced higher and I commend it for not attempting to charge more.

But is this a VR title you should own?  If you enjoy a good scare, then Affected: The Manor is a an experience you won’t feel disappointed having bought it and will certainly make your hairs stand on end.  It’s not very long, but with detailed environments, atmospheric and creepy audio, and with there being some replay value, the product is sure to entertain and get you and your friends hearts pumping.

So turn off the lights, mute the TV and pop on your headphones.  Trust me, it’s the best way to play!

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by Fallen Planet Studios]

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