Released Date: March 10th, 2023
Developed by: GoodbyeWorld Games
Published by: Skybound Games
Available on: PlayStation VR2 PC VR
Reviewed on: PlayStation VR2
▫️ code provided by the publisher ▫️
One of the main selling points of PlayStation VR2 is the promise of different and unique experiences. Being able to interact with game worlds in new ways and feel more immersed than ever. Before Your Eyes takes this concept and really runs with it, providing a game that does something new with the narrative genre.
Games like Before Your Eyes live and die by how the narrative connects with its audience. Our story begins with you on a boat that is captained by a weathered wolf who is looking for souls with life stories worthy of telling to the gatekeeper of the afterlife. He has clearly had many false starts and is jaded by the time our silent protagonist encounters him.
The game progresses with you telling the Ferryman your story as you edge ever closer to the gatekeeper who will decide your fate. Starting as a baby, you will move through various key points in your life and be able to interact with them in fun ways, such as playing the piano, drawing, popping bubbles and much more. Each of these tasks is designed around the PS VR2’s eye-tracking. It’s a novel way of interacting with the world and one that works well throughout.
One of the key features of Before Your Eyes is that each time you blink, you will jump forward in time to the next scene. The game has rightfully won a lot of plaudits, and awards, for its accessibility. However, while the mechanic does do a great job of reinforcing how quickly life can pass you by, it isn’t long before you feel like you are missing out on story beats.
Not blinking is something that sounds easy in your head, but unless you are Jenna Ortega or a psychopath, you’ll likely end up not blinking for a minute or two and then not being able to stop yourself. Thankfully, if you do find yourself jumping ahead before you want, you can go into the settings and change the input from blinking to pressing X on either the Dualsense or the PS VR2 sense controller. It does almost feel wrong, given the original input is a feature of the game, but I definitely enjoyed the alternate method more as I didn’t have that nagging feeling that I was missing out.
In games where the main selling point is the story, I like to be as vague as possible when discussing plot points. I will say, however, that Before Your Eyes does deal with some pretty heavy topics. There is every chance that as the credits roll, you may be welling up inside the headset.
The visuals won’t be the selling point for many, but the hand-drawn art style does fit well with the concept of looking back on life. I did encounter a few graphical glitches during my playtime though, including characters floating in mid-air next to a seat instead of actually sitting on it. There was also some minor pop-in, but nothing too distracting. The audio is a real highlight though. The voice acting is superb and does an excellent job of bringing the story to life and selling the emotion in each scene.
With a runtime of less than 2 hours and not much replayability outside of mopping up trophies for the platinum, it would be easy to say that Before Your Eyes doesn’t provide a great deal of value. However, given the impactful story, the unique way of playing and the fact that the launch price is a very generous £11.99 I think the value proposition is very fair.
Speaking of trophies, at the time of this review one is glitched, preventing anyone from getting the platinum. The developers have stated that a fix is on the way though, so this should hopefully be rectified soon. Once the fix arrives, this will be a very manageable platinum, which is rare for VR.
VERDICT
There are shortcomings in terms of the visuals and the eye-tracking can detract from the experience as much as it adds to it, but overall, Before Your Eyes tells a deep and emotional story that will hit you right in the feels thanks to some excellent voice acting. If you like narrative games this is an easy one to recommend.
-Craig