Lurking

It is well known that you can sharpen a particular sense by simply blocking all the other, thus allowing your brain to focus on a specific sensation. On the other hand, this works best if you do this for a long time, even if there are some quick effects as well. Hence, you might wonder of the concept could be integrated into video games somehow.

Lurking is a first-person horror game that answers your question and provides you with the opportunity to experience what it would be like to walk around using nothing but sounds to get a sense of the environment. In essence, it’s a lot like echolocation, although dolphins and bats use completely inaudible frequencies to achieve this, not actual footsteps and sounds like in the game at hand.

The story starts with the main character waking up in some kind of facility, after which his vision goes completely dark. It turns out that you can move and read the environment by simply listening to the echoes of your steps hit the objects around the room. However, there are monsters here as well, and your sounds attract them toward you, which means that you have to keep the noise at a minimum at the same time.

Since it’s obvious that you need headphones for everything to make sense, the developers tried to include many other gadgets in order to make the experience as immersive as possible. Hence, you can connect a microphone and calibrate it to pick up the sound of your breathing, which is used to create actual sound waves in the game. Thus, enemies can find you quicker if you get scared and breathe heavily for a while.

At the same time, the game also features virtual reality support for the Oculus Rift headset, which allows you to fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere. Granted, the exploration bit is a tad difficult if you are playing seated, but then again it’s all up to you. Since the graphics are nothing out of the ordinary, it shouldn’t be too much of a strain for your PC, even if it’s a bit weaker than recommended for VR.

Although it’s a tad different than what you usually see in the genre, Lurking can be a lot of fun under the right circumstances, depending on how patient you are and how eager to try new things. However, it’s clear that this might be the future of horror games, as in experiences that challenge more than just one of your senses.