Here They Lie (2016)

This game is so goddamn weird and creepy. As one of the only horror offerings for the PSVR at launch (a peripheral I bought basically just to play Resident Evil 7), this was an instant purchase for me. And while this is definitely more of a 1st person interactive horror experience than a true survival horror game, it's elevated immensely by some truly unhinged art direction reminiscent of an obscure black and white arthouse horror film. There's an unmistakable sense of place and perspective that come from exploring a VR space, and the towering dystopian city inhabited by people with animal heads is definitely one of the most unforgettable locales I've wandered/been chased through. At one point, you get strapped down and drugged, have an out of body experience where you end up in a brothel with glory holes dripping ooze and horrible looking sexual encounters happening through barely opened doors. At another point, you take part in a morbid stage production where animal people repeatedly commit suicide by handing and you run around trying to save them as a ragtime piano plays into eternity until you finally give up, succumbing to the inevitability. All the while, you are pursued by a giant, burning businessman with a bowler hat and briefcase. Every collectable you pick up triggers what appears to be a snippet of conversation between some people who all took heavy doses of LSD and just recorded the whole thing. It's just insanity. But I love this stuff. And at the time, experiencing psychotic fever-dream through the power of VR was exactly the fix I was looking for.

This was a lovely head trip. I still don't understand at all what this game is about. It was gross, weird, intense, anxiety driven and I don't even know what else. I just found myself saying "what the fuck" the entire time. Can't remember the last time a game has really played around with my imagination and thoughts. It's definitely a 'love it or hate it' game. Best to go into this not knowing anything.