Terrors Of Nowhere

Terrors of Nowhere is something different than a lot of other action game worlds in VRChat. I haven’t really seen this concept too much in other games or virtual spaces. It delivers a unique and well-fleshed out horror game experience that feels a lot like a Steam game: it has achievements, records of bosses and environments, purchasable power-ups that depend somewhat on your ability to survive, a password save system, and scales with team play. The concept reminds me a lot of the 2011 horror film “Cabin in the Woods,” starring a younger and un-Thored Chris Hemsworth, Sigourney Weaver, and both Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford who have both played excellent secondary roles in TV and movies alike. If this game had existed in some way as an arcade cabinet in the 1990s, it would have been a quarter-muncher for sure.

I think the only thing that stops this from being a game for sale would be some of the meta-fiction inclusions. Though the password stat-save system is awesome for saving individual character progress (as long as you never change your VRChat name) my only complaint is that there is a little bit of unfairness early on. The difficulty ramp could use a little bit of tweaking so that new players don’t feel utterly punished for being new.

Other than that, get a group together and get your game on!

(Rating: 8)

I’m not sure what I expected here, but I definitely didn’t check this one out when it was current because the thumbnail screamed “amateur meh-ness” to me and I really shouldn’t have read this book by its cover. The game itself is quite fun and the main gameplay loop has you running from monsters in different biomes, some of which take directly from other games/worlds like Omori and Doors, to name a few. In the beginning you will be killed a lot, but you earn points that can be spent to give you certain equippable items called “Coils” that grant powers like extra speed or stun abilities to help you outlast the monsters. There’s even a radar that tells you how close the enemies are which is pretty helpful until you get a speed boost item.

A few of the stages can feel a bit “cheap” as monsters chase you into dead-ends. There are plenty that feel “easy” as well that you can outlast without much effort, so the balance works. If you don’t like being chased this might not be the world for you. It is important to note that there is an option to turn off jumpscares/death-screens so that when you are caught you don’t have to worry about being frightened beyond being pursued. Check this one out with friends! The more the better.

(Rating: 8.5)