The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR

A sequel in everything but name to PS VR’s delightful Rush of Blood, The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR takes everything that made that title successful and refines it further. The shooting is great, the thrills are some of the best on the platform, and the overall vibe can be downright terrifying. Ride a coaster, shoot some demons, scream, laugh, and cuss. What’s not to love?

Switchback VR surprises and delights with its jump scare rollercoaster ride through its greatest hits, offering a great reason to don a headset.

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR improves on every aspect of Rush of Blood to create an essential horror title for the PSVR 2. The innovative use of the headset adds to the immersion to create memorable moments of terror. While the story takes a back seat, the heart-racing ride through the grotesque is not to be missed.

Given the attention to detail, exceptional level design, near-unending variety, but most importantly, its inventive approach to ‘scare tactics’, The Dark Pictures: Switchback is an absolute must-play for fans of the genre and those looking for a real fright. Go in with open eyes, let the distinct worlds and the many unsettling inhabitants enrapture you, and you may well be left trembling in no time at all.

Switchback VR is a fantastically frightening ride that will have you jumping in your seat and reeling from its horrific sights and sounds as you shoot your way through an excellent homage to The Dark Pictures Anthology.

Switchback VR is one of the best demonstrations of what horror can do in PS VR2 taking advantage of its technical innovations. Uncomfortable, intense and with moments that you will remember, it came with its own limitations: it does not stray far from what was seen in Rush of Blood and that it is somewhat expensive for what it lasts.

As a more or less classical rail shooter, Dark Pictures Switchback VR is no complexity monster – and it's short concerning a single playthrough. But the simple and good working gameplay mechanics are nothing less than a perfect match for VR. The shooting trip also benefits from its scary atmosphere while particular connoisseurs of the core series will enjoy the similarities.

I expect Switchback VR to be similarly polarizing because it caters to a very specific niche, but if you enjoyed Rush of Blood, you'll likely have a good time here as well.

The action-packed madness on wheels features the most terrifyingly beautiful jumpscares in VR, albeit marred by technical issues.

Switchback VR delivers what it sets out to do with an on-rails shooter that is low on the story but high on the shooting action. While the fun may not last for a long time and the genuine scares are few and far between, it is still a good demonstration of what the PS VR2 brings to the table. Just like Until Dawn: Rush of Blood set the stage back in 2016, hopefully, this will only be the beginning when it comes to exploiting the full potential of PS VR2.

Switchback VR is a fun, albeit flawed, arcade shooter. While the game lacks enemy variety, has disappointing bosses, and has some graphical issues, the core gunplay remains fun and the variety of locations you’ll visit keep the game entertaining throughout the rather short campaign. While I wish the rollercoaster theme was utilized for more thrills, it is still a blast to take down a horde of enemies as you ride through a burning house or a creepy backwoods road.

Switchback VR is one of the best games currently available on PS VR2. At the same time, it's a disappointment in terms of graphics and can be completed in one evening.

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a really solid PSVR 2 shooter with some fun uses of the headset's eye tracking and haptics, though it is sadly let down by some annoying technical hitches.

It’s a decent enough arcade shooter, and if you look at it that way, the length and mood of the game make sense. However, it doesn’t make as much sense as a game with the Dark Pictures moniker. As widely varied as the quality of those games have been, they take the time to tell a story. Switchback doesn’t. It focuses on the gunplay, action, and thrills. While it does a decent enough job of that, the performance issues bring even that end down a bit. If you’re a fan of Supermassive’s brand of horror, it would be hard for me to recommend this over their other games. If you want to play something more like a modern light gun horror that makes decent use of the PS VR2’s technology, then you could do worse than Switchback, but you could also do better.

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a fun on-rails arcade shooter, even if it’s one that takes less than a day to complete. It’s also one of the first games in the PS VR2’s library to really take advantage of the headset’s eye-tracking tech in an interesting and exciting way. However, the lack of scares, weak story, and occasional performance issues keep it from being a must-buy for PS VR2 early adopters.

While this review may sound very negative, you can have some fun with The Dark Pictures Anthology: Switchback VR. The problem is, we just expected it to be better. While we didn’t find it scary at all, some might. We at least appreciated that a number of its scenarios put us under pressure. It’s perhaps apt that it puts you on a rollercoaster, as like a real rollercoaster ride it’s full of highs and lows, both technically and mechanically. At the end of the day, there are better on-rails shooters available on PSVR 2 already. And the unique elements on offer here just aren’t accomplished enough to draw us away from them.

Switchback VR is a steady rail shooter that offers decent variety and an interesting tour through some old levels, but never tries to earn The Dark Pictures name. The choices don’t matter, the Curator is just a creepy Where’s Wally?, and the stakes or even setup for rescuing characters was lost on me. However, it’s reliably spooky, action-packed, and has the best designed villain in the series. It’s a rail shooter obsessed with its own past, so it makes sense that it’s two steps forward and one step back.

A moderately entertaining on-rails action game that fails to learn anything from its predecessor Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood or indeed other, much older, lightgun games.