Narcosis is a survival horror game that provides so much more than a few gimmicky jump-scares. This is a beautifully written, immersive psychological thriller which tells a compelling, tragic story, demands observation, planning and problem solving, and yes, also throws a few shriek-worthy jump-scares into the mix. It leaves you questioning reality and explores just what a person and the human mind can handle when pushed to the limit. Solid voice acting and narration makes this an incredibly personal story, and while it’s not entirely free of motion sickness, being aware of where your head and body are can help you avoid the worst of it. Odds are, you’ll be so full of adrenaline that you probably won’t fully register the motion sickness until you take off the headgear. Narcosis is a shining example of a virtual reality psychological thriller done right, and a is must play for any horror junkie.
The game makes up for its shortness (ca. 4 hours) with an intelligent, well-delivered story, overwhelming atmosphere of solitude, fantastic audio (including voice acting worthy of a AAA game) and overall high level of polish. [07/2017, p.77]
i like the game because of how it does not give you time to think because in real life if you were in that situation your mind would be racing and you will not have much time to think and make decisions.
This game is for people looking for mature story telling.
Narcosis is about fate and existentialism (and parents-children relationships?) and the end is just... :o
A part of me died with this this game.
You can finish it in around 2.5hs.
A great VR horror experience with clever narration and excellent audio. The game can be played traditionally, without an HMD, but it loses 90% of its charm.
Narcosis is a suffocating experience in the bottom of the ocean. An interesting game, but it feels a little incomplete in some ways, including its length.
Fans of survival horror should give this title a go, and this is especially true if you have the opportunity to experience it in virtual reality. It may not have ghosts and goblins, but Narcosis still provides a suitably haunting experience worth undertaking.
Although Narcosis turned out to be pretty monotone, it has its own strengths: limited oxygen reserves make you think twice about stopping to take a breather, while subdued sounds keep you on edge. It probably won’t scare you, but it’s certainly an interesting experience. [Issue#220, p.55]
Although Narcosis’ runtime is fairly short (about four hours), it’s padded by frustrating stealth segments and banal puzzle-solving that get in the way of some great storytelling and voice-acting. While captivating, those aren’t enough to make this experience worth wading through.
If horror-survival games in VR are your thing, Narcosis delivers a linear, weird story that is overlaid with top-notch voice acting. The claustrophobia, the environments, and the hallucinations — if that's what they really are — come together to create an experience that left this diver a bit different than he was before he started.
Narcosis
Under the sea
Narcosis is a little less than 4 hour long first person survival horror game that takes place in the depths of the ocean
you play the entire game in a giant under water suit big daddy style
your able to thrust forward, also big daddy style, as well as throw flairs and melee attack..
this at first feels like a super linear underwater walking simulator, the environment is cool and creepy, and then you run into a giant sea spider and you’re like nah, this aint no edith finch
this is layers of fear under water, there are dead bodies of fellow personnel that you’ll run into as you’re trying to get to a shuttle to evacuate, where the survival bit comes into play is that oxygen is your health, you will have to search for decently spaced oxygen tanks to allow you to keep going as your oxygen is slowly depleted, though fish will attack you which while cause you to breathe harder and lose oxygen faster, this is where flairs and melee come into play.. you and slice and dice these fish or distract them… thankfully encounters such as these are greatly placed out.. youll mostly be using your flairs to see in dark rooms as youre exploring 2 separate bases in the game trying to get power back to the panels, I hate base exploring period, but these bases offer some purely terrifying and probably the best moments in the game, there will be shifting rooms, illusions… again reminding me of an underwater layers of fear and its really cool.. really got my heart racing…
I felt in suspense through my entire playthrough not really knowing hwat the game is going to throw at me next..
I do have quite a few issues with this game..
I felt like the overall experience was more stressful than it was enjoyable scary.. it could just be because of the setting and the whole under water base thing that I automatically don’t like… but I didn’t enjoy exploring these areas.. I don’t have a solutionfor make space station like areas enjoyable to explore.. but theyre just not for me.. they stress me out.. but this is jjsut a personal vendetta.. not so personal though there are heavy chunks of this game where direction is just awful… specifically the laval cavern giant spider bit towards the end of the game…
I ran around in circles, fell through what I felt were walls to land in some sort of spider nest only to be insta killed by the giant spider at the top after sruggling to climb back up only to learn that hes actually supposed to move when you get close and theres something wrong with his programming… once I got all of the triggering to work an hour later it was back to mildly enjoying being terrified, but this chunk of the game almost brought down the entire experience completely.. thankfully the final act picks it up and is well worth getting to
I don’t want to spoil thing so ill lust say this game has a really great pay off, and there’s tons of mystery going on with some glowing green ghost guy
This game is super stressful to get through, but I promise you it’s worth getting through…
Narcosis is far from a polished enjoyable horror experience
But its overall such a neat game that horror fans owe it to themselves to play through
I give narcosis
a 7/10
The game lacks the ability to produce the atmosphere a horror adventure stuck in the oppressive atmosphere of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean, alone, with dwindling oxygen should produce. Instead, the game throws in jump scares, occasionally plays with the players perspective, and clunky sea creature encounters. In VR, I'm sure the suit provides a more oppressive atmosphere, but not enough to get past the slow plodding pace and lack luster scares with no impressive technical aspects in either sound or graphics.
In a post-SOMA world, this game is unforgivably bad. Dirty tricks played constantly on the player, naff jump-scares, interminable walking speed, a story that practically doesn't exist, buggy, completely punishing nonsensical experience that thinks it's so profound, when it just isn't. Also the graphics are like something from 10 years ago. The corpses just look ridiculous. No way to navigate so you're walking blind at a snail's pace. The game basically suggests that all will be eventually explained if you just plow on, but it never is. Disappointing.
SummaryNarcosis is a survival story set at the hostile depths of the Pacific Ocean. Stranded after an accident, an industrial diver takes desperate steps to surface before his oxygen - and sanity - give out.