The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR review – crude ride-like horror
Who would’ve thought that a horror rollercoaster shoot-em-up would be so bloody gnarly? Everybody, of course. Just a cursory look at the marketing materials for Switchback VR correctly indicates a grotesque arcade-like experience full of jump scares, hideous monsters and blood-drenched locations. My hope, going in, was that the conceptual simplicity of this kind of experience—which has its roots in ghost train rides—would push the developers at Supermassive Games to innovate in other areas. Somehow weaving a compelling plot around the visceral thrills, perhaps, or inventing creative forms of gameplay.
It didn’t take long to realise these hopes were misplaced. And it quickly became clear that the developers had no intention of reinventing the wheel: their goal was obviously to replicate a House of The Dead-like production, believing that converting the experience into virtual reality would be enough of a selling point. Which, sadly, is far from the case, and their lack of ambition is felt throughout. There are shreds of narrative here and there but the story elements feel arbitrary and tacked on.
Developer: Supermassive Games
Release date: March 16, 2023
Available on: PSVR2
Experienced on: PSVR2
The term “on the rails” is often used to describe video games that follow a predetermined path, offering little choice and freedom. This term assumes literal connotations in Switchback, given we’re situated on an actual track, being propelled forwards (and occasionally backwards) through all kinds of macabre environments, while being attacked by hordes of horrendous creatures from Halloween 101 character design. You know the kind: slobbering skeletons, zombie-like beasts, evil nurses. They all look awfully conventional and same-old.
In addition to House of the Dead, and ghost train rides, Switchback has other, more recent and more VR-specific antecedents. The early days of consumer-available VR (circa 2016 onwards) saw an inundation of short and forgettable ride-like content, from rollercoaster and helicopter trips to journeys on a boat and ventures into space. This surfeit of attraction-like content marks a period comparable to early cinema—notably what academic Tom Gunning called the “cinema of attraction,” referring to a surfeit of early motion pictures (from around 1907 to 1913) that aimed to impress the spectator with visceral thrills.
As virtual reality has matured, ride-like elements have been incorporated into longform VR narratives. The opening moments of The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners and Horizon Call of the Mountain for instance (to drop just two of many examples) consist of short boat trips, using this familiar scene-setting technique to introduce narrative themes and establish locations. Ride-like content will live eternal, forever repurposed into grander experiences. But Switchback VR is just a barebones concept—guns, monsters, rollercoaster—crudely stretched into a multi-hour runtime.