Become the ultimate vampire slayer in this puzzle horror game.

A castle of vampires must be taken down and you are the only one who can handle the task.

Silent Slayer Vault of the Vampire is a puzzle horror game from Schell Games – the creators of the I Expect you to Die (IEYTD) series. Released June. 6, for the Quest headsets and Steam, this virtual reality (VR) game tasks you with disarming traps and protections on the coffin of each vampire, before driving a stake into their hearts.

You are armed with a set of tools and a magical talking book as your guide, as you teleport from coffin to coffin in an attempt to become the first slayer to take down this vampire nest.

The bad news: you need to do all of your work as quickly and quietly as possible, ensuring that you get your prey before you become it.

Like most games created by Schell, this one is spectacular as you would expect.

Graphics are incredible, with everything looking pristine as you work to disarm traps. Even playing in mixed reality (MR) mode – the coffin and table of tools appear in the middle of your home environment, adding an extra sense of fear if you slip up and the vampire gets you.

Gameplay is very straightforward here. You start each level by putting together a broken “bind stone” before teleporting to a coffin which usually has a new set of protections you must rid from the coffin.

These protections can range from magical locks, to electrified wiring and many other things that the developers have thrown at you to keep you engaged. But it’s not about figuring out how to disarm these things, this is actually very straightforward. Instead, the goal here is to accomplish these tasks as quickly as possible, without making too much noise – or slipping up.

Removing metal blocks too fast can lead to the vampire waking up just as much as picking the wrong key for the magical shifting lock.

Once you get past the traps, you need to use a heart to located the vampires – did you know they can move their hearts around now – before grabbing your stake to magically destroy the barrier.

Once all this is complete, the stabbing can commence.

Oh, from time to time you will probably come across a distraction like a flying bat or falling spider. These are meant to throw you off your game – and it works. These are just as graphically well done as the rest of the game, and it adds an extra level of creep -even when playing in MR.

Puzzles not only get harder as you move through the castle, but Schell has found a way to ensure that there are little twists on some later on to keep you on your toes. Overall, these are really well done – but considering their success with IEYTD, it’s not surprising.

What you don’t find out until it’s too late, is that taking too long will also spell your doom. It’s this and a few other things that make this game come out just shy of perfect.

The book – which is voice acted very well – seems to drone on forever. Sometimes, you just wanna go to the puzzle, but you’re unable to start the teleport until he shuts up. It’s not a big issue, just a slight annoyance.

The real problems we’ll chat about now.

That timer that they don’t seem to tell you about is actually pretty annoying. Now to be fair, the book did say at one point to hurry things along, but that is essentially the only warning you get. For a game that wants you to take your time, adding this extra clock without being able to SEE it seems like an annoyance. Maybe add in an hourglass so we can see the time we have, don’t let players find out there’s a clock when the vampire jumps out and goes “arghh.”

Another thing that is annoying is the weird way some tools you are using will suddenly no longer be in your hand. Every time you take a nail out of the coffin, the prybar will magically be no longer held by your hand. Yes, you need to detach it and take the nail out to avoid the noise, but why is something you are gripping no longer there after you go about this action.

Seems like they thought this was a good idea, but it actually becomes immersion breaking to a small extent.

Also, the weird way they make you use the ‘A’ or ‘X’ buttons instead of the trigger for an action is weird. This can cause a mistake for those who are use to using a trigger for any actions.

Finally, there were a few times when launching the game gave nothing but a black screen. Even trying to hit the Quest button would garner no reaction. It took hitting the power button and turning it back on, before the game decided it wanted to do something. This is probably the biggest annoyance you can experience – and hopefully it gets patched soon.

Overall this game is pretty spectacular. It’s a puzzle thriller that allows anyone, regardless of their ability to handle VR, and play something that’s very engaging.

If you’re hoping this will be like the IEYTD series, you’re going to feel a little disappointed. Those games had an extra layer of exploration – despite not allowing you to move around from your seat – along with puzzles that were a lot more creative and made you take the time to think.

This game was meant to stand on its own, and it does so very well. It swaps out ingenuity for a precise hand, while adding in a jumpscare for good measure.

If you want something engaging that will help you scare your friends and family, this is one you should pick up.

Silent Slayer Vault of the Vampire, was reviewed after purchasing from the Quest store at full price.