Affected: The Manor’s new update adds a Gauntlet mode that challenges you to do a speedrun through a haunted house and judges your screams for points.
For those that have been around the VR scene for a few years, you probably recognize the name Affected. It’s one of the original VR horror games and has showed up, in some form or another, on basically every consumer VR headset. We first reviewed it back on the Gear VR and it’s only gotten better ever since.
Now today, Fallen Planet Studios is releasing a free update to Affected: The Manor called Gauntlet which adds a brand new game mode of the same name. In this mode you have to run from the start to the end as fast as possible. The longer your press forward on the left stick without stopping, the faster you’ll build up speed.
The catch? Every step of the way you’ll encounter a series of jump scares, sudden obstacles, possessed chairs, animated baby dolls, and an assortment of other haunted horrors. It’s a clever idea for a game mode, but it’s extremely short-lived.
As much as I enjoyed going through it three times to see how it differs each run (it only takes about 3-4 minutes to get through it if you’re not going full speed, but I was able to top the leaderboard at 2:29 on just my second try though) but there is little actual replayability. It’s not bad for a free update, but I’d liked to have seen more variability. Only a few things are different each time with regard to minor branching paths, but it’s about 90% identical every run.
That being said, if someone is comfortable with smooth locomotion and wants to try something focused on jump scares with immediate and quick thrills, this is a great choice.
The Manor was always seen as a great VR onboarding app and even though it’s not known for being a long experience, it’s still around 20 minutes for most, which is hardly demo length,” says Alex Moretti, CEO of Fallen Planet Studios in an email to UploadVR. “The Gauntlet is essentially a much punchier experience that plays on the strengths of The Manor, whilst offering what we feel is a totally different experience. We wanted to give it as free DLC because we feel it compliments The Manor so well, it makes sense for it to be part of the same package. Combined into a single product it also offers real value to the consumer for $9.99, which is very important to us. With the environmental menu and language localizations it really feels like the definitive version of that title for us now.”
One unique bit is that Gauntlet will actually use your Quest microphone to listen and rate your screams! The designation it assigns is based on how loud and terrified you sounded during the run. Thankfully the scream rating isn’t tied to your final time or ranking at all — only your speed matters for that.
The new Gauntlet mode is only available in the Oculus Quest version of the game for now. Affected: The Manor is also on sale with a 25% discount from today, July 9th, 2020 until July 16th, 2020. Affected: The Manor is a cross-buy title, so even if you don’t have it yet on either you could take advantage of the sale period and get it on both.
Between this new Affected update, Layers of Fear VR on Quest, Five Night’s at Freddy’s VR next week, existing games like Face Your Fears 2, Dreadhalls, Lies Beneath, and Exorcist VR, there is no shortage of excellent VR horror experiences on the standalone device.
Do you think you can top my blazing fast speed of 2:29? Let us know in the comments below!
