ARAYA Demo

Horror games should be in for quite a revolution in the next few years, thanks to the miracle of virtual reality. Thus, players are easier to scare when they can be completely immersed in the environment, and the experience is that much more vivid when the monsters are in front of them instead of on their monitor. On the other hand, the technology is still pretty new at the moment.

ARAYA is a first-person horror game with survival elements, in which your goal is to explore a Thai hospital and help three different characters survive the nasty spirits residing there. The gameplay is rather repetitive and simple, but the level design is nice enough to keep you engaged. The atmosphere is quite scary under the right conditions.

As mentioned before, the story presents you with three different perspectives, but each character is investigating the same case. Hence, it’s all about an unsolved murder at a hospital, although things get much darker than that along the way. Each character finds bits and pieces of information as they explore the hospital, such as notes that provide them with clues.

The interaction with the environment is pretty hands-on, given the fact that you have to push doors open and pick things up, but there are not that many objects to play with. Hence, most of your time is spent walking, which can be a bit boring sometimes. The creature set its sights on you sometimes, and your only option is to run in order to get away, although this is not very clearly explained.

As for the graphics, the game world looks pretty nice, but then again it’s quite dark most of the time, so it’s difficult to appreciate texture quality. However, the lighting effects are great, although they are much more effective in VR than they are on a classic monitor. Thankfully, the sound effects are great, and they can actually cause goose bumps every now and again.

In the end, ARAYA’s greatest feat is the VR support, because the gameplay and the story are nothing too special, unfortunately. However, the atmosphere is quite scary once the headset blocks the outside world, so it certainly deserves a try when the full version is out.