Horror experiences and VR platforms go hand-in-hand. There’s everything from haunted houses to ghost hunting available across the many different headsets, and yet sci-fi horror seems thinner on the ground. This is obviously an area lacking in content that new studio Patient 8 Games also noticed, as Memoreum is filling that hole nicely. The game is undoubtedly inspired by Dead Space, and in 131XR’s review of Memoreum we find out that it does a good job of aping that formula.
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What is Memoreum?
As stated above, Memoreum is a sci-fi horror game. You awake from cryo sleep on an abandoned ship drifting through space. The Earth has died, you are told, and one last hope for humanity was to send this ship on a 100+ year journey to a distant planet. However, as you might expect, something has gone horribly wrong.
The crew – or at least, most of them – have been turned into horribly mutated, violent creatures. If this doesn’t scream Dead Space to you, I’m not sure what will. The difference here of course, is the immersive nature of VR. You’ll be playing in first-person, exploring every environment as if you were actually there. And of course, taking down these alien-like creatures up close and personal.
Memoreum Review
In 131XR’s review of Memoreum (embedded below), we learn that the fundamentals of the game are all well in place. While the story is your usual sci-fi faire, the exploration is very well paced. Presumably the team’s noted inspirations of Half-Life: Alyx and BioShock – along with Dead Space – have played into the design of Memoreum‘s space station well. The combat however, doesn’t quite meet expectations.
While the weapon variety is pleasing, the constraints of the enemy attack patterns result in a frustrating combat experience. Enemies have obvious glowing weakspots for you to aim for, but with ammunition so limited and manual reloading, it’s often easier simply to utilise your basic pistol with automatic reload than some of the bigger guns. There’s also no standard melee attack, meaning you’ll often resort to simply walking backwards and shooting. You can learn more about this in 131XR’s Memoreum review below.
Patient 8 Games
Patient 8 Games has an interesting story about how the studio came to be. Relatively new on the VR scene – Memoreum is the studio’s first full title – the team state on their official website: “It all started with Half Life: Alyx. In this groundbreaking title, Patient 8 Games found its legs as one of the most prolific mod teams on the scene. Our passions grew into the accclaimed Return to Rapture, merging the worlds of Bioshock and VR.”
That Return to Rapture mod for the aforementioned Half Life: Alyx was so well received, that it obviously inspired the team to push further. And so here we are with Memoreum on Meta Quest. The game has received significant hype in the run up to launch, and subsequently critical praise. As such, we should all expect it to perform well amongst VR gamers, paving the way for more from Patient 8 Games.
Have you been playing Memoreum since its launch? Are you waiting for the PC VR or PSVR 2 edition of the game? Let us know in the comments below!
