Transference

Psych gaming.

PC, PS4, PSVR, RIFT, VIVE, XBOX ONE | USD$24.99 WWW.UBISOFT.COM

Transference is set in a single location that may be static but is never quite still. It’s disturbing because its domestic setting is at once so recognisable yet clearly a few degrees away from normality. And in a more straightforward sense, it’s a firstperson exploration game with some good scares.

Its premise imagines a piece of technology that can transmit one human consciousness into another. And who better to be the guinea pigs in such an experiment than one’s own family? At least that’s what Macon Blair’s scientist – occasionally calm, often manic, consistently dishevelled – believes, but as we watch him entertainingly unravelling in a series of video logs, it’s clear something has gone badly wrong. Hopping between his perspective, his musician wife and their son, we get to find out what that might be.

This isn’t the kind of game that says ‘Boo!’ every five minutes, but there are jolts, and they’re efficiently delivered. One deeply alarming set-piece leaves you trapped as a strange, hostile anomaly manifests nearby, with no exits to run to; another forces you to head directly towards a persistent banging noise instead of doing what comes naturally and fleeing. That’s why, despite the occasional stumble, Transference will frequently leave you transfixed.