Since the inception of VR we’ve been able to experience things not only in different ways but in ways we may not have been able to otherwise. It’s a safe assumption that anyone that puts on a VR headset is not lacking in the sight department and has never truly experienced blindness for themselves. Thanks to this marvelous technology we can now feel and experience things such as blindness for the first time. While Blind won’t give you a true sense that you’ve lost your sight, it does give you a hint of what it might be like and creates a unique gaming experience along the way.
Story
Touted as a psychological thriller, Blind tells a fascinating story of a girl that loses her sight in an automobile accident who is looking for answers about what happened and never loses hope that she’ll regain her sight. After the accident, she wakes up in darkness and finds herself in an unfamiliar mansion that, over time, becomes more and more recognizable. Not only is she searching for answers about her sight, she is searching for her brother who was in the car with her at the time of the accident. Her journey through the dark will take her through the spooky mansion as she looks for a way to escape, and also on a journey through her past as well.
The narrative will stay with you long after you stop playing the game, but the story is really a guise for the true heart – the puzzles. It’s rare that a puzzle game (and make no mistake about it, this is a puzzle game) has such a great story betwixt the puzzles. Completing the puzzles will unlock new areas of the mansion thus moving the story along as you try and escape the mansion, find your brother, and regain your sight.
Gameplay
As we just mentioned, Bind is first and foremost a puzzle game, so you will be solving many puzzles as you traverse through the experience. One-part puzzler and one-part walking sim, when you aren’t solving puzzles you are walking through the mansion looking for answers. Since you no longer have your sight, this can be a chore in and of itself. Using echolocation, you can find your way through the mansion using sound to guide you. Shortly after entering the main hall of the house you’ll receive a walking stick that you can tap, sending sound waves out. These sound waves allow you to get a sense of your surroundings and can move about until it all goes black once again.
When you first start out you must follow a mysterious voice from place to place until receiving the walking stick, at which point he leaves you to your own devices as you attempt to solve the puzzles and leave the mansion. Puzzles come in all forms. Some involve solving multiple puzzles that will reveal pieces. These pieces will be used together to unlock a door. This door enables you to move on to other puzzles that require the use of sound to solve the way you would if you yourself were blind. Early on there is a puzzle that requires you to listen to a record playing and when it stops you must continue the song by pushing the right buttons in the correct order so that the melody continues, and the puzzle is solved.
The darkness can become overwhelming at times and the faster you hit your walking stick of he ground the harder it becomes to “see” and you’ll have to wait to move until everything settles back down again. Exploration is a key part of Blind and you’ll find yourself exploring all parts of the mansion as you search for answers. At times, the controls become a little janky and you’ll try and set something down and instead find yourself throwing the object at the wall instead. Luckily the game has a built-in fail safe when this occurs and allows you to reset significant items to their original position from the pause screen, enabling you to pick them up and start over again.
Graphics and Sound
Though mainly set against a black and white backdrop, Blind is still an incredibly beautiful game with an art style that will be completely recognizably as its own. Along with the gorgeous graphics comes a game so immersed in sound that we recommend you wear headphones during your play-through so that you can hear every little thing as the sound will help you just as much as the visuals.
Recommendation
Blind has some technical hiccups that keep it from being a perfect game, but it’s still an incredibly original experience that could only be possible in VR. For VR owners, this is exactly why we’ve bought in as early adapters to this hardware and anyone looking for a new experience should check out Blind. Fans of puzzle games will be right at home and will be thrilled to have such a deep story unfold as they solve the puzzles and move throughout the mansion.
*Blind was provided to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.
