Lies Beneath Review | Oculus Quest

---

Horror is a pretty overcrowded genre when it comes to VR, owing mostly to the platform’s greater level of immersion making it easy to provoke a reaction from players. Oculus exclusive Lies Beneath manages to differentiate itself by travelling the survival horror route while adopting a dark and pulpy comic book aesthetic. Throw in some exciting action gameplay and the team at Drifter (Robo Recall: Unplugged) could be onto a winner.

---

by Sam Sant

@SlamShotSam

---

Developer: Drifter
Publisher: Oculus Studios
Platforms: Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift
Players: 1

Published by Oculus Studios and released first on the wireless Quest - it’s due 14 April on Rift, with one purchase granting access to both versions - Lies Beneath is intentionally framed as schlocky fiction. You play through three issues of the titular comic series, which promises “lurid lore to alarm and harm” throughout the eight-hour campaign.

Lies Beneath remains steadfastly true to its gimmick, boasting cel shaded visuals and floating text boxes in place of spoken dialogue. Combined with trademark verbs like “thwack” emanating from your actions, it might be the closest any piece of entertainment has come to having you step inside a comic book world. Fans of the medium will appreciate that massively, especially since there’s actual quality writing and sequencing to accompany the basic framework.

Players are cast as a young woman named Mae, who’s homecoming to the quaint Alaskan town of Slumber quickly goes wrong. Throughout the story you navigate twists and turns as the truth regarding the setting and its inhabitants gradually comes to light. It’s not all that big of a revelation due to a reliance on familiar horror tropes, but it's possible to dig a little deeper by taking the time to inspect environmental storytelling elements and collectible lore items.

While Lies Beneath looks great both stylistically and technically, choosing to convey the narrative through text occasionally proves troublesome. Small font sizes are used in places and are hard to make out without leaning right into them, which is, of course, an option that you’re afforded in VR, but it’s irksome when playing room-scale and plain irritating with a stationary setup.

Regardless, the game does a great job of building an unnerving atmosphere through eerie environments and lighting. It’s close to pitch black at times, with only the piercing red eyes of enemies visible in the distance and the faint glow of your trusty lighter illuminating the more immediate area. PSA: If that lighter goes out and takes a few attempts to spark back up, prepare for an unpleasant jumpscare. Otherwise, the direction of its flame is a handy means of setting you on the right path and it’s light also reveals enemy weak points.

Many locations are adorned with grotesque, ornamental butchery that melds animal and human body parts; meanwhile, frantic banging emanates from the next helpless victims that are trapped inside nearby crates. The soundscape in Lies Beneath is strong on the whole and using headphones is an in-game recommendation we’d echo, but, failing that, the built-in Quest speakers do a decent job of outputting fairly immersive 3D audio.

When time comes to combat the deranged townsfolk, there are three tweakable comfort modes and three difficulty settings to ensure everyone can do so enjoyably. Whatever you opt for, Oculus Touch motion tracking works pretty much flawlessly; a great test in any VR game is to throw something, and Lies Beneath gave us no trouble lodging axes in enemy heads from meters away.

There are plenty more melee weapons to wield beyond just axes, which do different levels of damage and cover various ranges. Unfortunately, however, their collision is wildly inconsistent. Weapons collide with and lodge into certain foes and surfaces, but clip right through others, which is distracting enough to pull you out of the experience at times. 

Similarly mixed is the amount of damage that specific enemy types can absorb, especially in the late stages of the game. Two identical nasties can take vastly different levels of punishment, which, in theory, could’ve served to ramp up terror through uncertainty, but is more annoying than anything else. With checkpoints being limited at that point in the game, it’s almost enough to have you pulling your hair out.

​If that tempts you to drop the difficulty a notch, know that Lies Beneath significantly steps up (or down) with each setting. Easy is a cakewalk, Normal can get pretty challenging, while Hard, above and beyond to its name, is absolutely gruelling.

The difficulty level doesn’t just affect incoming and outgoing damage, but also the resources available to you in ammunition and health-replenishing foodstuffs. There’s a hard limit on what you can carry, with your back designated to a hunting rifle and a non-lethal harpoon gun, while your right and left holsters can be used to store anything from a silenced 9mm pistol to a tin of tuna.

Covering all of the bases with a melee weapon, some food and a pistol is most often your best bet to prep for enemy encounters. That’s especially true for a few set piece holdout sections reminiscent of Resident Evil 4, in which you’ll also be afforded bear traps and gasoline cans to strategically place around the battlefield. That being said, the best laid plans quickly go awry when you’re charged by tankish pigmen and forget to do something simple, like flick your wrist to reload the six shooter or cock the hunting rifle with your spare hand.

Although there are no multiplayer or secondary modes to lean on after finishing the inventive final chapter, it’s worth going back to try and find all of the collectibles for the extra lore and greater access to resources they provide through unlocks. Beating the hardest difficulty can definitely be worn as a badge of honour, while multiple endings and achievements (which a lot of Quest games don’t have) should also help to keep you coming back.

Oculus Quest is a platform that’s largely packed with shorter VR “experiences” and arcade-type games suited to brief bursts of play. That isn’t necessarily bad, considering the generally more casual audience, but it can leave some owners wanting in terms of substance. Lies Beneath brings just that, providing spine-tingling scares that can be as challenging or accessible as you’d like. While it might be frightening at times, the action and comic book leanings impart the necessary mass appeal to see it stick the landing as a flagship Oculus exclusive available on Quest.

Pros

• Satisfying action combat, with great motion tracking
• Varied, often gruesomely gorgeous environments
• Engaging comic book trappings

Cons

• Inconsistent collision detection
• Damage needed to bring down the same enemies is erratic
• Text pop-ups can be illegible without physically moving closer

8/10