But has Developer Red Limb Studio found a way to bring this all together in Virtual Reality? Let's find out with.
/Review copy provided by developer via Curator Connect“Psychological horror” is one of the most abused tags on Steam, to the point where it’s virtually unusable for its intended purpose. But that’s not just because anime and edutainment games get tagged with it. Indie developers are often woefully unprepared to craft games that actually horrify on a psychological level, or that effectively address and represent horrific mental states. Rise of Insanity makes the effort, and honestly makes a stronger effort than most of its ilk, but still falls far short of that lofty goal. In the rush to create a dreadful psychological state, the developers have instead crafted a short, stiff experience chock full of twists and details that do more to detract from the horror than anything.Dr. Stephen Dowell is a psychologist experimenting with a bold new treatment based on recorded images. He’s hoping to cure the ailments of a troubled man named Eddie, but the questionable nature of his treatment and shadowy connections to his patient complicate matters.
Now it’s all gone, your practice, your colleagues, your patients, and even your family. All you can do is sort through Stephen’s jumbled memory, assembling the pieces of the past to reveal his tragic fate.There are innumerable directions a game with this setup can go in. It could explore the horrific consequences of his experimental treatment, or the varied perspectives of a multiple personality disorder. It doesn’t go in those or any other unique directions, instead leaving you in the shoes of Dr. Dowell as he wanders through disjointed memories collecting notes. Each area, whether it be his house or the hospital or a garden or a courthouse will have notes revealing snippets of the story, and usually a dictaphone or two with a more illuminating audio log.
Of course, this all being a construct of his mind means there will be dark and disturbing events to contend with.Just so we’re clear, here’s the basic structure of the game. You’ll find yourself in an office or hallway somewhere, with a ghostly voice directing you. Exploring the area will reveal a few notes and a task to complete, anything from finding a key to collecting children’s toys.
In the process of completing your task a spooky thing will happen, maybe the lights will go out or a scary lady will scream at you. Then a phone will ring, you’ll pick it up, and during the voiceover you’ll transition to the next area. With vanishingly few exceptions this is exactly what you’ll be doing for the entire two-hour runtime of the game.What disappoints more than anything about Rise of Insanity is that it’s got a solid foundation that’s had a shoddy lean-to of a narrative built upon it. The game looks fine, and features nicely-detailed environments. The audio design is on point, and what special effects are used seem quite effective.
But the story is structured around the most obvious twist imaginable, like you’ve probably already guessed it just from “multiple personality disorder” and “twist.” There’s also layer after layer of unnecessary cruft, like the repeated bird imagery and the experimental treatment and ghostly people that like to appear and scream at you. These should not be vestigial components, they should be front-and-center in a deep, engaging story, but they’re neither developed nor utilized in any effective way.I have a fair bit of respect for Rise of Insanity for taking the bog-standard Unity horror game and elevating it in terms of basic quality. But that doesn’t make it a good game. Good horror games are tight, focused experiences that built senses of intrigue and insecurity and pick the right times to up-end those notions. Rise of Insanity does none of those things, opting to string together brief snippets of story between bland setpieces and meandering note-searches.
This would be a decent attempt by a student group or amateur mod scene, but as a full release it doesn’t do nearly enough to earn it a recommendation.
I appreciate a good horror game. Getting creeped out by ghosts or stalked by twisted monstrosities tickles my fancy, even though finding a quality experience can often feel like using a small set of pliers to perform extensive dental work on a kaiju. And while Rise of Insanity doesn’t tick all the boxes to qualify as one of the worst horror games you can experience on the Nintendo Switch, it’s still a fairly lacklustre and jumbled experience that doesn’t take any risks or push any boundaries.
Rise of Insanity invites players to step into the shoes of Dr Stephen Dowell, a man who spends a fair amount of his professional life probing the psyche of his patients. Without giving too much away, in the game, you’ll dive deep into the fractured mind of a man who’s experiencing quite a few mental issues — none of them comforting. There’s a very strong possibility that this man murdered poor Dr Dowell’s wife and children, which serves as the onus for the good doc’s investigation.
If you’ve played games such as The Park or Layers of Fear, you’ll find Rise of Insanity’s format familiar. You’ll wander in a linear fashion from one set piece to another, picking up whatever isn’t nailed down in the hope that it will serve a purpose down the road. None of the puzzles you encounter will bend your brain to its breaking point, and even if you do get stumped, you’ll likely find a not-so-subtle clue that will point you in the right direction. By that, I mean the hint will take you by the hand and lead you to the solution you so desperately desire. Rise of Insanity wants you to succeed.
Here’s the problem: while Rise of Insanity has a seemingly intriguing (if somewhat messy) story to tell, the set pieces you’ll explore don’t tie the narrative together in very interesting ways. Instead of giving us thought-provoking puzzles, you’re instead tasked with trying to find weird little dolls or figuring out how to turn on the lights of an abandoned car. The simplicity of these puzzles and their solutions may be a result of its virtual reality origins, as opposed to a lack of inspiration. Whatever the reason, the game never poses any real challenges, except for a few collectable rubber ducks stashed away in various nooks and crannies.
A word of warning to those weirdos (myself included) who need to invert the camera’s Y-axis: Rise of Insanity fumbles the proverbial ball. Yes, you can select that option, but doing so will also invert the X-axis. In other words, those who need that Y-axis inverted will struggle to control the camera. This doesn’t really become a major problem since the story’s laid-back presentation never requires you to do anything drastic, but is it annoying? Most definitely.
Although I wanted to like Rise of Insanity and I started to enjoy the adventure at points, I honestly can’t recommend it to anyone except hardcore horror fanatics who need a quick fix. That’s not to say it’s an inherently bad game; it certainly looks good in handheld mode (not necessarily on a large television screen) and some of the game’s admittedly cheap jump scares will, in fact, make you jump. However, despite its ability to generate atmosphere and spookiness, Rise of Insanity fails to do the most important thing: tell a story that truly chills the blood.
2.5
Summary
While it sports an intriguing premise and a few jump scares that may catch you completely off guard, Rise of Insanity ultimately fails to provide anything you can’t find in other, better horror-based adventure games on the Nintendo Switch.