Intruders: Hide and Seek is a horror game from Daedalic Entertainment and Tessera Studios for the PlayStationVR. The game is about a family of four that has been trapped in their house by three Intruders. The story follows the typical revenge horror story , but that’s ok because it works. From a gameplay perspective, it’s unique and the VR headset offers movement that wouldn’t be possible without it.
In Intruders: Hide and Seek, you play as Ben, the young son in a family of four. From what I remember, they don’t say his age but it is immaterial. The rest of the family is comprised of Ben’s mother and father, and his younger sister Irene. The father is a doctor or scientist of some sort, but little detail is given into his exact profession. The family is on a weeklong vacation in their home in the country. At the end of the first night, their lives are changed forever when a group of Intruders breaks into their house.
If it weren’t a video game, Intruders: Hide and Seek would fit in perfectly as a Hollywood movie.
Without giving away too much of the story, revenge is it at the center of it. It starts slow, but once the intruders appear it picks up considerably. The majority of the game revolves around Irene giving Ben directions on where to go throughout the house. You have to avoid to the intruders while they search for you and what your father has hidden. Most of the story is delivered through dialogue, but there a few notes you can find throughout the house. The voice acting is well done for the most part with the father being the noteable exception. His dialogue is fine, but the delivery has an unnatural cadence to it. His lines were the only ones that seemed forced to me. That could be the localization though. In general, the story is as well written as movies in the same genre.
Visually, this game is very well done. I thought the house looks great, and there is a lot of detail in things that are laying around. Often times in games like this, rooms have furntiure but not decorations. In this game, the kids have toys in their rooms you can intereact with, there are wine bottles on the balcony next to the grill. I appreciate that the developers put the effort into adding little items like that. A few of the characters are stylized with skewed proprtions, but they look good. The characters also move naturally. In a lot of games the gait of a person walking looks unnatural, but in Intruders the character movements look natural . The darkness in the house helps add to the sense of tension. It makes walking down a hallway or turning a corner forboding.
The gameplay in Intruders: Hide and Seek is refershingly simple. There is no combat, you just have to avoid being seen by the intruders. This is unique it the horror genre. If the intruders do see you, you can run and hide. I found hiding wasn’t very effective, or maybe I wasn’t good at it. I always wound up getting caught. I found the AI of the Intruders left a little to be desired as they are easy to avoid. They also don’t hear doors opening and closing which seems odd. While the house is large, opening and closing doors would be easily heard.
For the most part, the gameplay isn’t particularly special. As I noted before, there is no cmbat which is unique in the horror genre. The game mostly /nvolves walking from one side of the house to the other to gather items. This is alright though because 1) the gameplay is smooth, and 2) this game is more about the story. If you are looking for a game with complex mexhanics, this is not it.
The VR headset allows you to move in one direction and keep an eye on another.
The VR headset helps increase the tension in this game because you aren’t aware of your sorroundings in the real world. The sensory deprivation adds to the immersion and makes it all the more frightening. I like how it increased the intensity of being chased by the intruders. When you turn a corner and one of them is right there, it makes for quite the startle.
Overall, Intruders: Hide and Seek is a good story and worth a playthrough if you are a fan of horror games. If you are looking for a game that will take a lot of your time, this isn’t it. I think it took me around 3 hours to complete the story. Personally, I like games that won’t occupy weeks of my time, so a shorter game is often welcomed. Once I got into the story where the intruders show up, I was hooked! I like it when a game makes me wanting to come back for more, even if it is for a short period of time. If you are looking for a good VR horror game to occupy some time, give Intruders: Hide and Seek a try. I give this game a 3.5/5.
