Post Script
What Biohazard teaches us about VR’s relationship to traditional game design
PSVR has so far proven to be a highly capable VR setup, but while we’ve enjoyed much of what it has to offer – even if most of our time is now spent replaying Rez Infinite’s Area X – we’ve been hankering for something a bit more substantial to get stuck into. And with Resident Evil VII, Capcom has provided PSVR’s first truly sizeable offering. As such, it’s something of a test case for VR’s suitability when it comes to providing traditional console experiences (and, hopefully, a way to increase our threshold for time spent in VR before needing to consume an entire bowl of fruit and have a lie down outdoors).
Capcom has been broadly successful in building a game that caters for both VR and 2D displays, but Biohazard also highlights the difficulty of balancing such a complex, relatively long game so that it offers the best possible experience across two formats that, inevitably, have quite different characteristics.
Early on in the game you’ll fight Jack Baker – head of the disturbing family that has taken you prisoner – in the garage. The encounter starts simply enough. Jack chases you around a parked car while you try to land some headshots in order to stagger him and maintain a little breathing space between the pair of you. Various items sit around the perimeter of the room, and among the ammo and health are keys for the aforementioned car. If you’re quick enough, you can hop in and use the vehicle to end the fight quickly, ramming Jack against the wall. But if he’s too close when you get in, you’ll be torn from your seat and tossed aside as he commandeers it for himself. If that happens, you’ll find yourself in the maddening position of trying to avoid a car pulling doughnuts in a small garage while in control of a character who runs at walking pace.
Another fight with Jack a little later on sees him chasing you around a claustrophobic arena containing a pillar and a few dangling bodies, which can be used to slow him down. While he begins the fight with an axe, he’ll switch to a twin-bladed chainsaw at some point and begin charging at you with alarming speed. In both cases it’s difficult – though not impossible – to avoid being hit if playing on a 2D display because you can’t easily keep tabs on his position to judge where in the room to move. Using the headset allows you to stay focused on Jack while keeping half an eye on where you’re heading. You gain a better appreciation of the space you’re in, and of the distance between you and your tormentor. That the balance of these battles swings in favour of VR over a more traditional setup, especially given that most players are likely to experience it the latter way, is somewhat surprising.
Other aspects of the game are clearly geared towards VR as well. It’s there in some of the scripted sequences and jump scares, which stand out in the same way that scenes specifically made for 3D cinema do in films. You’ll also spend a fair amount of time hiding from characters who are actively looking for you, ducking behind furniture or tucking yourself away on a rickety balcony in order to avoid being detected. While it’s usually possible to dash out of sight and find a new hiding place when you’re spotted, remaining unnoticed is made a little easier when you’re able to keep tabs on your pursuer by leaning around the pool table you’re crouched behind, or peeking through a window. And beyond the mechanical functionality of being able to look and see what’s going on, doing so also ensures that when you have to remain still for a period of time it feels more engaging. Some items and consumables have also been placed with players who can crane their necks in mind.
But while examples such as this make for a richer experience in VR, there are aspects of the game that suffer instead. The fizzing aliasing issues that occur when there’s a lot of geometry onscreen go to show that not all environments can be easily transferred between displays. And tiny details, such as whether a camera pans or flicks when you crouch, or whether your hands float or are attached to a character model, can ironically make the standard mode feel more immersive than its VR counterpart in certain respects. And while some boss fights and item hunting benefit from the added sense of environmental awareness that VR brings, one obvious compromise of building a game for two formats is that there are no VR-specific puzzles or interactions throughout. This isn’t a criticism – Biohazard’s cloying atmosphere and tense chases benefit more meaningfully than many other titles from the simple addition of presence that VR delivers – but it does underscore the very different requirements of VR and traditional games.
Irrespective of Biohazard’s inconsistencies, Capcom should be applauded for offering the entirety of its game in VR. While hardly bespoke, Biohazard’s VR mode works exceptionally well for the most part – so well, in fact, that we had to tear the headset off on a number of occasions in order to calm down – and is a generous addition to an already sizeable package for those brave enough to commit to it. However, despite this, it’s difficult to shake the feeling that the game would have turned out slightly differently if Capcom had chosen to focus on one display mode or the other. Biohazard serves as convincing proof that VR can sustain largescale games, but it also reminds us that it’s a tall order to deliver a game that works equally well whether it’s viewed on a 2D display or from within a headset.
Irrespective of Biohazard’s inconsistencies, Capcom should be applauded for offering the entirety of its game in VR