Theseus (PSVR) - first 60 minutes of gameplay. No commentary, no logos.

Channel:

Jackler

Subscribers:

35,700

Published on July 25, 2017 10:14:59 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2eiL20-3Vw

Game:

Theseus (2017)

Category:

Vlog

Duration: 1:00:00

12,223 views

56

I wanted desperately for Theseus to catch my interest but that moment never came. It starts off exceptionally slow-paced and stays that way with only a few exciting moments to punctuate the slow gameplay. After just over an hour, including a few deaths, a restart due to a bug, and a fair amount of attempting to explore, the game’s credits came to a close and I was back at the main menu.
Apparently there are some additional secrets to discover and a “true” ending for finding them all, but I couldn’t for the life of me say where they would be. Theseus never encourages any kind of exploration or discovery, instead railroading you along to the finish line on an exceptionally slow train. I can’t see how anyone could pull the advertised three to five hours from it unless there’s a whole secret side to the labyrinth that never shows its face, and judging by the trophies that are still sitting at 0% as of release, I’d imagine no one else has seen it either.
image: http://cdn2-www.playstationlifestyle.net/assets/uploads/2017/07/Theseus-2-555x328.png
Theseus 2
With all that Theseus does wrong, it’s a great proof of concept for how a game like God of War, Uncharted, or Devil May Cry could be translated to a virtual reality platform. Allowing players to look around the environment using their own head has a phenomenal fly on the wall kind of feeling, enveloping players within the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in a way that no other platform has ever done. The pounding and roaring of the Minotaur that haunt the crumbling walls is terrifying, particularly with headphones. The over-the-shoulder parts feel a bit odd as Theseus will change direction depending on where you look, so I felt like the game was giving me the ability to look around at the ruins around me as I walked slowly forward, but encouraging me not to use this new found power.
There’s a lot of potential to really have Theseus be a great adventure, but it ends before you can get invested at all, a slow burn with an all too rapid conclusion. It feels like the whole middle part of the game is missing, with a long intro leading right into the climax. If it hadn’t played like a bad PS2 game. If it had been longer. If I had been less railroaded. If there had been a more meaningful buildup of the intriguing narrative. So many elements came together — or rather failed to coalesce — that make Theseus a less than memorable virtual reality experience, which is disappointing as I would love to have an engaging reason to play a unique virtual reality take on Greek mythology. Theseus just isn’t it.

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