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SYFY WIRE Gamegrrls

We checked out Sony VR's Five Nights at Freddy's, Trover Saves the Universe, and Falcon Age

By Jenna Busch
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This week, SYFY Fangrrls headed up to San Francisco to check out a bunch of new titles from PlayStation VR. We’ll have more for you coming soon, but right now, we wanted to offer a glimpse at what we learned from playing three new titles: Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted, Trover Saves the Universe, and Falcon Age. You’re going to need the PlayStation Move for all of the released games, so if you don’t have them yet, it’s time to pick them up.

If you’re one of those people who tend to get vertigo from virtual reality games, the first two games here are going to be right up your alley — and you’re probably going to do fine with the third one as well. First up: Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted.

If you’re familiar with the game series, you know you should maybe skip that giant soda before you begin. This is a horror game, and in virtual reality, it’s super immersive. You think animatronic Bonnie is scary in 2D? You have no idea what's coming.

There are three games included in the title, which comes out for PlayStation VR as well as Oculus, Steam and HTC Vive in April. The first one we played was a repair game. You plant yourself in a chair, put on the helmet and boom, there you are. You’re transported right into a tiny room where you’re going to have to follow a list of instructions to repair Bonnie, who is right in front of your nose. The room is dark, and anywhere you look — above, behind or to the sides — everything is right next to you. No sense of personal space, these animatronic creatures. You receive a list of instructions and if you don’t follow them correctly... well, let’s just say the jump scare might make you pee a little, even if you know it's coming. 

We also had the opportunity to play a game where you take on the role of security guard in a very poorly designed building where lights and door locks take a lot of electricity — oh, and you’re being hunted by animatronics. Is it worth turning your head away from the cameras and turning on the lights with precious energy to make sure that dark hallway on either side of you isn’t hiding someone out to kill you? Because it is. Can you make it through to morning without being killed? Why did they put doors on both sides? Why, oh, why did you forget to bring a floodlight with you to work? 

Finally, we played another repair game where you've been set up in a tiny room with open shafts where things are trying to murder you while you repair them. We don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say that you’re going to wish you had more peripheral vision. The game is super intense and an absolute blast, even if this is the first time you’re checking out the series. 

Next: Trover Saves the Universe. If you watch this trailer at work, you might want to keep the sound down. Cursing… so much lovely cursing. Here is the info for you: “From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe. Your pups are missing. The cosmos is at stake. Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR on May 31, and PC via Epic Games Store and Steam on June 4.”

This one comes to us from Justin Roiland’s Squanch Games Studio. First of all, you get to sit in this game, because everyone on the planet sits in chairs. Walking is a very, very bad thing, as you’ll learn from the tutorial (also involving a lot of profanity) while in your apartment. It’s a pretty clever way to learn to use the controls. You can interact with all the stuff in your place, and you’re going to be traveling using teleport points. You’re a pariah in the community because you have dogs, but those little guys were stolen by the alien Glorken who uses them as his eyeballs. A little purple dude named Trover joins you and harasses you into helping him help you save your pets and the universe. 

We got to play the beginning of the story, where you meet Trover and maybe have to kill a guy because he’s sort of a jerk. The decisions you make do affect gameplay going forward. Even better, if you need a break from VR, you can play this on your regular screen or monitor as well. There are tons of things to collect, so you don’t want to speed through the game. (If you do, it’s about 6 hours, but you can stretch it out.)  

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Finally, we played Falcon Age, a bonding game in which you can get a bird friend, dress him or her up in things like top hats and monocles, and maybe even a baby bird costume. Then you send her out to hunt things like rabbits. Yeah, it’s a tiny bit upsetting, but as the person demoing the game pointed out, the rabbit comes back to you looking like an adorable rabbit-shaped steak. What could be cuter? 

You play as Ara, a hunter/gatherer who is dealing with a robot army that has landed on her planet. You bond to your little buddy throughout the game, and you’ll be learning stuff about Ara’s culture as you go. One of the ways to do that is to use the PlayStation Move controllers to make a heart with your hands. Who hasn’t done that with their cats? This is a first-person perspective, but you are sitting down, so you’re probably going to be just fine with any vertigo issues. 

Falcon Age will be released on April 9 for the PS4 and the PlayStation VR for $19.99. You can check out the whole VR release video to get a look at what’s coming here.

Which games are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.