HINGE VR Reviews

I love walking simulators, horror games like Layers of Fear so I was really excited for it. The art-deco environments are very cool too. Sadly I had performance problems with an RTX 3080 and AMD3900X, it would run fine and then suddenly start shuddering. Also I can't play games in VR that use direct locomotion without feeling really sick, and I couldn't find how to switch to telelport, as a result of the direct walking using thumbstick and the shuddering I gave up. I'll check back again when it's updated a few times.

Accidentally stumbled upon an the quick alternative ending, which then ruins my save file and locks me out of the extra content from the main ending. A great reward for suffering through a playthrough filled with bugs, performance issues, janky controls and unintuitive gameplay mechanics.

Really cool game. The VOICE ACTING IS EXCELLENT! ---> Graphics / Atmosphere: Excellent. Among the best in VR. If you like atmospheric games that have an eerie sense of mystery to them, then this game should fit that bill. The graphics in this game are truly refreshing if you're used to the slew of Quest 2 games that have been coming out of late. ---> VR Mechanics: Quite good. I have played on Quest 2 with AirLink, and a Valve Index, and both worked flawlessly. The core mechanics of the game are great. Everything works, and works well. You can interact with most objects in the world. All interactions are physical, there's no menus here! There are some aspects of VR mechanics that veterans will miss. Fully body IK is missing. Grab pose on items are often poorly implemented by having your hand just disappear (a common implementation in VR games sadly). ---> Gameplay: So far I'm really enjoying the game... it's a lot of exploration and trying to figure things out. It has sort of an escape room vibe to it, but its way more than that. Honestly, sometimes it feels a little bit like I'm just going from room to room without any real sense of what I'm doing. It seems the game understands when you're doing that though, and will start giving hints in the form of a ghostly figure - awesome. The game is spooky for sure, in a really unique way. I love the way the developer(s) have created a world that just makes you feel like you want to explore it and figure out what is going on.

Despite the good rendering of light, the Bioshock-like aesthetics and the dark atmosphere, it's not a good game. Gameplay is bad. You don't know what to do, you cannot understand what's happening; environmental puzzles are not compelling but frustrating. Too many documents and writings to read and memorize. There is a guy that everytime come from nowhere and gives you a lot of tips through messages, and despite the many tips it's very hard to progress. Some messages get stuck into the furnitures and you cannot read them! I went in to the electricity room and messed with some fuses, but sincerely I can't understand what I did! After that, the fuses disappeared! Bah! I randomly entered some doors with weird symbols and something happened, but I don't know precisely what and why! Was it me doing something right or was it the game? Bah! The inventory is badly implemented, a sort of clunky bulky belt hindering visual and movements. You are supposed to acces a sort of safe room by smoking some cigarettes. After two hours I cannot understand how to store cigarettes in the holder, where to find the holder, how to open the holder, how to access or where to find the lighter. I entered a weird room with a (dead?) woman stuck in the wall, the room had no exit, I couldn't understand what to do; the cigarettes holder materialized in my hands from nowhere: Was I meant to access the safe room by smoking cigarettes? As I said I cannot do it, so I was forced to quit the game! You have virtual hands but they are badly implemented, collecting or interacting with items and documents is painful and frustrating. Every 10 minutes you die and respawn. That's no novelty, see the Outer Wilds. Sincerely I cannot stand such mechanic; maybe it's just me, you might like it. The moment of death is announced by earthquakes. Then it gets dark and you're killed by some kind of monster or ghost, but you cannot see what killed you. When you respawn you can see the photos of the monsters or ghosts that killed you! Weird! You're supposed to use a lamp to search in the dark, but it's very bulky and clunky and you cannot store it in the inventory. There is a story, told through 3D static and stylized characters talking in empty rooms. But it didn't catch me. Sometimes the walls or doors or rooms of the hotel are changing; it reminded me of Layers of Fear, but we are very far from the good quality of the Bloober Team's title (the flat version, not the vr version). I cannot understand why developers made it in VR. I can feel no sense of wonder or depth or immersion despite the good aesthetics and rendering of light. The visual is too foggy in my opinion. The only good thing other than rendering of light, Bioshock aesthetics and atmosphere, it is the diapason mechanic; I liked to put it in vibration by hitting walls or furnitures. End of the story, after 2 hours I'm bored and frustrated by the repetitive and abstruse experience, no willing to play it again! Developers have good technical skills, but they failed the gameplay and the design; narrative is just on the background and doesn't help.

Probably the best horror VR game I've ever played. The graphics in the game are at the highest level, the developers also improved the performance of their game, for which they are very grateful.

Hardware for this review: Valve Index, RTX 3080, i9, 64 GB RAM The developers had a long hard road to go here and that is why there are some really bad reviews here. As the game was released it really had flaws like lacking of optimization, dropping frames and crashes. Yes, even I was unable to play the game, but I sticked to it and gave them the chance to do better as the devs were always honest about the progress and the state of the game. That said I just can tell you about HINGE performing on my system. It still is a very powerhungry game. I run it on middle settings and my GPU is around 50-80% depending on what is going on. Compared to other VR titles they never got over 40%. Maybe it just eats more of my GPU because it can, I don't know. For my old hardware (2060) the previous game version already was playable without the former crashes I had, but I can't compare that now that I am on new hardware. So I can just guess it is "okay" if you are on 2060 and above, but the more the better. Middle settings really is enough though, the game looks pretty amazing on medium settings. The story is very interesting, the atmosphere is great and I really like to know what is going on there and how it ends. THOUGH, I have to admit, I was really scared because of the whole atmosphere. The game does not live from jumpscares but more from creating a very oppressive atmosphere. My critique would be that it is, at least for me, a very hard game. I was a bit left alone and would have wished for more ingame help on request. Maybe such a function for players if they want a hint would be good for further improvements. Looking back, after I got some hints, I still am not sure if I would ever have make it that far all on my own. I think I know now how the game works and what it does me want to do, but that was a long and sometimes frustrating process. I still have a long way in front of me until the game is finished. I would guess I am on 20-25% now. The devs said it is about 6-8 hours but I probably will need more time there. You should give it a shot if you like an opressing atmosphere, stunning visuals and have no problem with hard game play. I would not consider this the usual horror game. --------------- FINAL THOUGHTS AFTER COMPLETION UPDATE March 23rd - after completed the game on stream, here some final thoughts and tipps you should know when entering the game: The game got CONSTANTLY improved, technically and gameplay wise during my playthrough. I could see it got much clearer to me during those updates. Some of my critiques were fixed with the updates. It got better in-game hints and directions. The performance got way better with each update and the devs still improve this. Also more and more content like new monsters and new endings are getting added and they are working on subtitles which will be very helpful for non english speaking natives like myself. After running into moments of frustration, rewatching myself and realizing the connections I can tell everone: The game is doable, but you REALLY have to take your time, collect and read every hint you find, look out carefully and think. The easier it gets. Don't expect to beat the game by not reading anything or just scanning through and run straight into the unknown! Most of my initial frustration were because I felt I was killed way too many times, but I overlooked the hints on how to survive and solve things. Even on my last sessions I realised "Wait a minute, I just understood the hint I was given on my first session - oh my god, that would have helped so much!". So I can say most frustrations came from not being concentrated, not reading, not focusing. If you find out HOW, it gets so much easier all the sudden :)... So look out for hints! It still is a hard(er) game and that is intended I think. At first more linear, then more freely to explore and to solve. It is not the usual horror game that just wants to scare you off by running through rooms... Also you should not be afraid too much of dying and if you die, just try again. For me the game is (though there is of course things to improve like hands, colliders and stuff) an outstanding experience, a great story, a super oppressing atmosphere and just refreshing with a lot of cool ideas - especially one will stay in mind as I have never seen this in any other game... Also I would advise to give the game at least a shot for 1-2 hours as it is very slowly increasing in the beginning to not be too overwhelming and sending you out to get some important stuff you need later when it gets full crazy... PS: And if still not sure what to do, visit the forums, join the Arcadia-Discord or watch some videos that are out there. PPS: If you are stuck, here is a short video of the steps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaJFzTpPTLA

One of the most spectacular VR games I've had the privilege to play. I'm only (I think) maybe a third-half way through; and I'm enjoying absolutely every minute of it. It's tough, don't get me wrong - a lot of my playtime is me uber confused (but never frustrated!). Game so far is a marvel! I'm glad I kept it on my wishlist to keep an eye on after a disastrous initial launch. 10/10 - please support the developers!!

I really tried to like this. It looks great, is well acted and has loads of content. However, I found it so frustratingly opaque. Playing this is about wandering aimlessly in circles in an (admittedly beautiful) surreal world trying to stumble upon the thing you are supposed to do next. There are very few clues. Oh, and every now and again, without warning, a monster appears next to you and you die. It isn't a horror. There is no tension, it's just annoying and repetitive. The developers need come out of their own bottoms for long enough to make their next game a little more accessible. Art in games should be connected to fun. I had no fun with this at all. Also to note: ran with difficulty on my 3090 10900k - you might need to return to this in a few years when technology has moved on. I got around 40 - 50 fps after sacrificing loads of detail and resolution. 40 - 50fps in VR gives me a headache, which may account for my difficulty getting into this game. Also also: Works great with a treadmill. The walking pace and acceleration are just perfect for high - tech setups.

Don't buy this right now, it's not ready for public consumption. I was really excited for this game but the honest truth is that it needs A LOT of work before it should be sold to anyone. It shows real promise but on my PC, which has an RTX 2080, i7-9700k & 32GB of DDR4, I was presented with a very laggy, latency filled, low frame rate experience EVEN WHEN I turned all settings to low or disabled them entirely. The performance severely impacts the enjoyment of the game and even made it basically impossible for me to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do, not to mention that interacting with items was nigh on impossible as they often flew out of my hands for no reason if I even slightly collided with any other object in the environment. - No comfort options - No audio options - No smooth turn or ability to remove vignette - Even with all graphics settings switched off or set to low the game still struggles to run at an acceptable level of performance Tried this on an Oculus Quest 2 with link cable & a Rift S, both suffered the same terrible results. It's a real shame, the game shows promise but it needs to go back into development for a while, it's really really not ready...

Played on a full Index kit, 2080ti, 9900k, 32GB RAM While I do recommend the game, it comes with some current issues that I hope gets fixed. The game is gorgeous and the visuals are impressive. Very unique environment designs that were well thought out by the devs. Does not have finger tracking but controls just fine on the knuckles. Smooth turning is in the game and you can disable all the safety settings. Very atmospheric and creepy. Now for the bad stuff.. The game needs better optimization. Im getting on average 60fps and thats with SS turned to just 100%. Sometimes it dips down to the 40s and my reprojection rate is somewhere around 40% for some reason, never had this problem before. I wouldn't even touch this game if you have anything less then a 2080. While the game is gorgeous to look at, it can be draining to figure out. I don't mind when a game doesn't hold your hand but this game feels extremely disjointed and loosely put together with its mechanics. Once you figure them out it makes the game better, but only just a bit. I died 10+ times on the first puzzle simply because I couldn't figure out what to do. This game feels like a AAA horror game with shotty direction. I recommend this only to the hardest of VR Horror fans.