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My Review
In late 2022, I played a half-dozen puzzle, problem solving, and escape room VR games on my newly acquired Meta Quest 2 over the course of a 6-7 week period of time, including games like The Room: A Dark Matter VR and A Rogue Escape. I stopped once the holiday season approached and haven’t picked it back up again until just a few weeks ago. With my new YouTube channel in full swing, I decided to try my hand at recording VR game playthroughs on games that I would be playing anyway. Best case scenario, the playthroughs gain traction; worst case scenario, I simply enjoy the playthroughs on a personal level.
The first of my playthroughs is of The Exit 8: VR, an interesting concept piece where the goal is to escape an infinitely winding underground subway tunnel. The setup is simple, but the learning curve is a bit steep, as the game doesn’t include any tutorial. It’s up to you, as the player, to figure out the rules for navigating the tunnel and use them to escape. During my playthrough, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process of discovery, including the initial trial and error phase, the gradual buildup of my understanding of the underlying logic, and my eventual realization of how escape is possible. That last insight came suddenly, sharply contrasting the gradual sense of progression present prior to this. From there, it was a matter of following that plan, though the game still offered difficulties that I had to carefully navigate.
Overall, The Exit 8 is a short, but interesting and enjoyable game, and one I’d recommend to anyone who loves puzzle or escape room games. It has roughly a single hour’s worth of gameplay, depending upon the player’s capabilities and prior experience with escape room-like puzzle games. In my opinion, this is the perfect amount of game time for the concept on which the game is based. Any shorter, and the player wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy the game. Any longer, and the game risks losing the potency of its novel atmosphere, leading to a slow by inevitable decline in the potency of its novel, interesting in-game atmosphere.
My first playthrough lasted roughly 50 minutes. I tried recording this playthrough from the start, with no prior experience playing the game, but unfortunately, the audio mic recording wasn’t viable, so I recorded a second playthrough, roughly 10 minutes long, which is now live on my YouTube channel. I find these games relaxing and highly enjoyed the experience of playthrough and recording, so I’ll be refining my playthroughs and recordings and publishing more of them on YouTube. I’m currently recording a playthrough of Shores of Loci, so stay tuned!
