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HOW'S THE GAME PLAYED?
HOW'S THE GAME PLAYED?
The controls of The Invisible Hours are brilliantly well handled too. You merely need to touch the trackpad in order to highlight where you want to beam – there's no need to click, so movement is a joy. You can also change the direction you'll face when you reach a destination, meaning you can easily move around the rooms and see the action from the best locations with ease.
The game's mechanics also allow you to attach yourself to a character and follow them as they move about the house and its grounds without even needing to touch the controls yourself.
Since you're only really an observer, there's very little need for loads of movement control. Which means there are none of the usual frustrations with getting tied up in headset cables or tripping over real-world objects. We found we could just sit or stand and watch the story unfold before our eyes; the story would be an hour in a liner format, but we spent about three hours exploring it end to end. There are 5 Chapters in the game that consist of different hints that lead you to the killer.
Controls
Controls
- Pause/Unpause Time
- Follow Character / Hold+Aim - Teleport
- Interact with object
- Rewind Time
- Fast Forward Time
Collectables
Collectables
Scenes - Each character has a certain amount of major scenes which you can skip to from the hub. More about these in the chapter guides.
Clues - There are 19 clues to find that lend to the mystery of the story. A magnifying glass icon will appear the first time you pick a new one up.
Letters - There are 9 letters to find through the game. A mail icon with appear the first time you pick one up indicating it's new.
Photographs - There are 10 photographs in the game. A camera icon will appear the fist time you pick them up.
Newspaper Clips - There are 10 newspaper clips that can be found that introduce backstory. A newspaper icon will appear the first time you pick one up.
Tesla's Diaries - There are 13 diary entries to find. Each one adds the next page to the book so make sure to pay attention in the guide so you don't miss any. A book icon will appear the first time you find a new one.
Review
Review
As far as gameplay is concerned there isn't much to speak of. You can interact with certain objects, strictly as a type of collectible. You also interact with the timeline by pausing, rewinding and fast forwarding through the story. The menu has an easier to navigate timeline marked with important events specific to a highlighted character, making it easier to fill in the gaps that you may have missed.
Completion will take about 5-6 hours to get all the achievements, most of which require you to follow each character to their own stories completion. There are collectibles but they are easy to find. Not a hard list but not the easiest 1000 points. There is a secret ending to find as well which is tricky without a guide, but it's worth the find.
Overall, The Invisible Hours is a nice relaxing style of mystery with some nice twists and turns to keep you guessing till the end. The concept of concurrent story lines that you can follow at your leisure is a nice change. It’s not for everybody but I can recommend this as an alternative to traditional games on the current market. Just don’t book a weekend around this.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Invisible Hours is not only well-crafted and incredibly well acted, it's a new sort of game style which we've not seen much elsewhere. The design makes for a brilliant virtual reality experience and shows the possible future of VR for story-telling. Despite the story riffing on a classic (whether you know it or not), as a game it's a rare and brilliant original.
From the first moment we started playing we were hooked and wanted to explore every nook and cranny at every time point through the storyline. It's a game packed full of intrigue that'll keep you guessing to its last.
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