Daughter Death!
Game: The Assembly
Developer: nDreams
Publisher: nDreams
Reviewed on:
(Review code provided by publisher)
PlayStation VR has for the most part impressed me massively. The experiences that I have had on it in a few weeks are the kind I used to dream of having when I was a young child playing Sonic the Hedgehog on my MegaDrive. The likes of Until Daw: Rush of Blood, Rez Infiite and Batman: Arkham VR show off the massive potential that PlayStation VR and VR as a whole has. The Assembly seemed, from the outside looking in, a game that would be enjoyable, but I’m not sure what it would offer me in terms of immersion.
I’ll explain more as my review goes forward but for those who aren’t familiar with The Assembly, I’ll give you a brief introduction. Without spoiling the story, you take control of 2 different people, Madeleine and Caleb, as you solve puzzles and adventure around a lab known as ‘The Assembly. The story is alright, I did feel myself getting rather bored more often than not. The game is around 4 hours long, which in all honesty, is a decent amount for a VR game, due to motion sickness and such.
Motion Sickness is a big part of The Assembly, and one that I suffered with terribly. Mostly down to the settings I chose really, the default settings didn’t really suit to what I wanted to do, I much preferred the natural move with the left and right stick (my mind and body didn’t prefer that though!). The game sets you up with a ‘blink’ technique, meaning that you can dash along the room you are in. Moving 90 degrees to the side is activated with the L2 button. It is the most comfortable setting on the game but it just didn’t really make me feel immersed in this world of The Assembly.
Immersion is a big thing in VR, and like I just said previously, The Assembly failed to make me feel that way at all during my couple of hours with the game in total. I think the lack of immersion in my opinion is the lack of ideas. It is basically exploring the lab with Caleb or solving basic block solving puzzles with Madeleine. The fact is, everything that is showed in The Assembly could of been played without the VR Headset, and just sitting on my chair playing it like an original PlayStation 4 game. You can go look closer using your headset in order to read emails or look inside cabinets in the labs, but that’s hardly groundbreaking is it? The scale of the rooms that you are in aren’t as impressive as other games either that I have played.
VERDICT
The Assembly seems like a waste, in terms of using the PlayStation VR headset. It could easily be played as an original PlayStation 4 game, and in all honestly, not a very good one either. A complete lack of story and gameplay depth, The Assembly is nothing more than a failed tech demo if I’m being completely honest. There are so many better games to play on the PlayStation VR system, and The Assembly is one I’d probably avoid like the viruses that they portray in this game!
