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World of Darkness Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife - VR title

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,104
https://www.fasttravelgames.com/wraithafterlife/






So you know how Paradox acquired White Wolf and entirety of their World of Darkness game lines? Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, etc. Yeah, well, have a Wraith VR game.

Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife is a VR horror game set in the World of Darkness, and the next title coming from us at Fast Travel Games. Afterlife shares the same universe as Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, where monsters live among us. For the first time ever, enter the World of Darkness in VR and play from the perspective of a Wraith.

:dead:
 
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lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
I had given up to see a game of Wraith after WW closed down and the lunatics took over gaming. To see it as a VR EXCLOSIVE! though, it is bad.

In fact, you could say it is a... *Sunglasses* fate worse than death. *yeah*

What's next, OWoD Mage with 2020 political values?
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014




Even the dead are terrified inside the Barclay Mansion. As a Wraith, unravel its secrets and hide from the sinister Spectres trailing your footsteps. Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife is a first person VR horror exploration game set in the World of Darkness universe.

BECOME A WRAITH
As one of the restless dead, you will have supernatural powers at your disposal. As you progress, your powers will grow, granting you access to new areas:
  • Wraithgrasp: Allows you to manipulate objects from a distance and change the environment around you.
  • Sharpened Senses: Helps you pick up distant whispers or track the movement of other spirits.
  • Insubstantiality: Gives you the power to walk through solid walls.
jukebox_InsuConcept_600x150.jpg


THE BARCLAY MANSION
Afterlife plays against a backdrop of modern Hollywood decadence and occult research:
  • You will get to explore the massive Barclay Mansion to gradually reveal its terrifying history, and the reason behind your own death.
  • The mansion is filled with apparitions and sinister Spectres trailing your footsteps, each with its own background story and with a connection to the bigger mystery.
  • To stay hidden and uncover the truth, you will need to be stealthy and use objects to hunt for clues in the world around you.
jukebox_housefront_image_Concept_600x150.jpg


A WORLD OF DARK SECRETS
Afterlife shares the same universe as Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, where monsters are real and live among us:
  • For the first time in history, you will get to experience a World of Darkness game from the Wraith’s perspective.
  • As a Wraith, death is not the end. You are caught between this life and the next, accompanied by their Shadow, a manifestation of your dark subconscious.
  • The Shadowlands are the reflection of the daylight world: a place where the dead walk unseen, side by side with the living.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
https://www.oculus.com/blog/behind-the-scenes-of-wraith-the-oblivion-afterlife/
Behind the Scenes of ‘Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife'
Oculus-Blog
Erik Odeldahl, Creative Director, Fast Travel Games
30. October 2020

Barclay Mansion Is Not Your Typical Haunted Horror House... and Ed Miller Is Not Your Classical Hero Character
Hi, I’m Erik Odeldahl, Creative Director at Fast Travel Games. Since it’s Halloween season, I thought I would unwrap some new details and concept art from our upcoming VR horror title called Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife, which is set in the World of Darkness universe—specifically, around the main character named Ed Miller, and the setting where your horrifying gameplay experience will primarily take place: in the massive building called Barclay Mansion.

Ed Is Dead
The most important thing first: The main character you’ll be playing is already dead once the game starts. Why did he die, and how? That’s up to you to find out. You do this by entering the Afterlife as Ed Miller, now in the form of a Wraith—a spirit of the dead—which means you’ll have ghost-like powers at your disposal. Squeezing through solid walls, hearing faint whispers from other spirits, or lifting objects in the distance are some of the unique things you’ll do as a Wraith while searching for the truth about your own death. Now, being dead doesn’t mean that you’re safe... on the contrary, in spite of your new powers there are far more sinister beings called Spectres that will be trailing your footsteps as you explore. Just like you, these Spectres are stuck in the Afterlife for some reason, tied to the bigger mystery that you have to uncover.

Together with his wife Rachel, Ed came to the Barclay Mansion on behalf of the mansion owner, Howard Barclay. Being a photographer, Ed was tasked to document a mysterious seance arranged by Barclay. However, once it started something went terribly wrong and without giving any details away, what happened affected Ed in ways he could not have imagined.

123228196_354937182455105_1050574581488619771_n.png

The Seance Room. Something went terribly wrong here.

Even as a Wraith stuck in the Afterlife, Ed’s camera plays an important role in the game. As a way to gradually reveal more about what actually happened inside the mansion, you can unlock memories of past occurrences by photographing certain objects. You can also use it as a tool to find secrets hidden inside the mansion.

A Mansion of Hollywood Decadence and Occult Research
The game takes place in the home of Howard Barclay, an old and sick man, retired from his past career as a movie producer. Far from the stereotypical haunted house or gothic castle, the Barclay Mansion is a modern, grandiose building filled with Hollywood decadence and trophies that bring witness to Howard’s glorious past in the movie business. The remnants of a premiere party can still be seen inside the mansion, and broken glass covers the floor in the cinema room where the projector is still on. Barclay Mansion will let you explore every nook and cranny of its many interconnected floors and rooms—but also to leave it occasionally, as you search for a way out. The garden area is as pompous as the interiors, amplified by the haunting sky above and the glowing city skyline in the distance.

123169987_699424874322268_2490408383704837129_n.png

The Gazebo. Usually a place to rest and take shelter from the rain.

We have so much more we want to tell you about the experience we’re creating—the gameplay mechanics, the clever inventory system, the different threats you’ll be facing, and the deep background story... and we aim to do so soon.

In the meantime, get ready to be very, very scared in early 2021 and wishlist Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife on the Oculus Quest and Rift Platforms today!
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
Looks kinda shit and will remain such if it doesn't have a separate PC build with more detailed assets and actual lighting:



Oh yeah, April 22 on Quest/Rift, May 25th on SteamVR, "Later this year" on PSVR.
 
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Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
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Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...esurrects-the-tedium-of-early-vr-horror-games

Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife resurrects the tedium of early VR games
Yawn of the Dead.

Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife is shaping up to be quite an underwhelming trudge through a beige world that's full of beige horrors and beige gameplay mechanics.

Billed as a 'horror exploration game', Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife is light on jump scares and heavy on those most boring of VR moments - the ones where you just have to stand around and twiddle your thumbs while you listen to other people explain the story to you.

I recently played a preview demo that covered the first 20 percent of the game and during that time I encountered the bare minimum in terms of frights or interesting puzzles. I did however do a lot of walking through sparsely decorated and barely interactive locations with my arm outstretched like a half-arsed zombie looking for brains.

If you want to see the game (and a couple of its bugs) in action, check out this week's episode of Ian's VR Corner below where I make my way through some of the most bland VR horror I've played in a long time.

I've edited the video to remove the moments where you're forced to listen to the story rather than experience it, so if you're a fan of other World of Darkness games, like Vampire: The Masquerade or Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood and you want to experience Wraith's plot twists for yourself, this should be fairly spoiler free look at the game.

For me, the most successful VR games are the ones like The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners or Phasmophobia. Games where there may be an overarching narrative, but largely the story emerges and evolves around you as you go. Wraith on the other-hand feels like such a step backwards for immersion, to a time when developers were still unsure of the possibilities of VR and were scared to try anything too extreme.

The game takes place in the mouldy remains of Barclay Mansion and you - playing as the recently resurrected photographer, Ed Miller - have to piece together the unsettling events that went on there by discovering 'shadows' of past events. This basically involves walking at a snails pace through rectangular rooms, waiting for scripted events to happen. Not once will you feel like you're exploring or discovering things for yourself because you're quite literally led through the game by the hand at all times.

Gifted with a ghostly 'Sharpened Senses' power, you can feel your way towards the next piece of exposition by holding your hand out to see if your arm will glow or not. If it does, you go that way! It's a bit like checking a compass to find your waypoint, but here you look way sillier and it tires your arm out more.

It's just all so disappointing. Even the one section that should have been scary was ruined by clunky AI and repetitive one-hit-and-you're-dead stealth mechanics that feel like they're torn straight out of a 90s game.

I thought maybe all those modern, big budget VR games had spoiled me and that maybe I'd set my expectations too high for Wraith, but then I remembered that Phasmophobia was made by, like, one person and that holds more scares in its front porches than Wraith had in its entire 90 minute demo.

I think the real killer here for me though is the lack of innovation on offer. I've seen the other main mechanic in the game - using a torch to stop enemies and open up blocked pathways - in a bunch of different games before and it worked better in all of those. Even the mansion itself felt lifeless, devoid of anything but the most basic props that might make the world feel lived in. Sure you can pick up a bottle once in a while and look at the label on it, but other than that interactivity with the world seems limited to door handles, lore pick-ups and code operated key-pads.

Honestly, I know this is a game about death and all, but there's literally no life to Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife's world whatsoever. Still, with a May 31st release date, across PC platforms and Playstation 4, there's still time to tighten things up and maybe make the tension feel like less of an afterthought.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,104
Makes a video about the game, ends up talking about the tabletop RPG it's based on for 2/3. Not that I'm complaining since W:tO is criminally overlooked. Also, turns out Afterlife just might not be that horrible after all? Maybe only by spooky VR standards.

 

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