Dive into your memories and project them into your space in this mixed reality puzzler.

When Shattered by PlaySide Studios LTD was announced earlier this year for the Quest series of headsets, its use of mixed reality (MR) to bring the escape room into your physical space made it look like the next big thing for virtual reality (VR).

And really, why couldn’t this game – released Dec. 4 on Quest headsets – be something revolutionary?

Escape rooms in VR have already proven to be wildly successful. Here, players are not only able to encounter puzzles which require the same level of brain power and critical thinking to solve as those in real life, but you get the added benefit of things only able to be used in the video game world. Whether it’s being able to see hidden objects or turn back time (The House of Da Vinci VR) or simply being able to add supernatural elements that defy science and logic (The 7th Guest), what has been accomplished for this genre of games is pretty outstanding.

Of course, not all are perfect and some of these games turn out to be the biggest steaming piles of wasted money – Escape Simulator.

MR has been gaining popularity of late as more developers find ways to implement it into their offerings. While games with puzzle elements that use the technology are not new – Squingle, Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire, Infinite Inside – having a proper escape room styled game in this medium is a first.

In Shattered you take on the role of Jessica Gonzalez, a private investigator who has found herself stuck in a psychiatric hospital known as Greyvale. Gonzalez, who was in the middle of investigating a man known as Parker Wakefield and his business the Wakefield Corporation, now finds herself without knowledge of how she got to Greyvale and an inability to trust what she knows.

To figure out what happened, you must dive into your subconscious, with each new memory becoming a room of puzzles from which you must escape.

The MR here is actually very well done, with each memory “room” projected onto your main wall. From here, you are tasked to solve the puzzles before you, by pulling objects from your memory into your space and manipulating them to further the game. Any object in the memories can be helpful. However, there doesn’t seem to be any discernable markings on objects that signify it can be pulled, so you may find yourself pointing around the memory and hoping for an object to highlight so it can be moved into your space.

Of course, whenever you see a cabinet with a lock or something blatantly obvious like that, chances are you’ll need it at some point.

Once objects are in your space, it’s up to you to figure out what they do and how it can help you to proceed. Whether you’re taking a painting off the wall to see into another room, pulling a film viewer to see brain scans, or finding a tool to remove a bolt, this game is more than just finding the key that will help you get out of the room.

Playing Shattered is actually quite simple as the mechanics are not overly complicated. Grab with the ‘R1’ or ‘L1’ buttons like most games; while holding an item, using the ‘A’ or ‘X’ button allows you to open the item if possible and ‘B’ brings up a separate viewer to you can read text clearly.

If you hold your non-dominant hand palm upwards you’ll see something on your wrist which allows you to open the inventory. Here, you’ll be able to find all usable items like flashlights which you can access at anytime as you progress. But remember, the inventory does not carry across all levels, so you’ll end up having to find a new flashlight in each level – if it’s needed. You can also drop items into your inventory when not being used, by holding it over your wrist and looking for the green light.

This is best used so you’re not constantly leaving items laying around, and sometimes it does get very crowded – even if your usable space is as big as the Quest boundary allows.

The final mechanic to know is the item pulling. Holding down the ‘B’ or ‘Y’ button will allow you to point at items – which will then highlight – and you can bring them into your space by pushing the trigger on your controller. You’re able to manipulate them further by spinning them or change the distance to you by using the analog stick. A good thing to note is some objects cannot simply float in your space, and require a wall on which to be mounted; this includes paintings, doors, grates, etc. Aside from this, you’re essentially able to place items wherever you need and interact with them to make your way out.

Puzzles here range from very easy, to rip your hair out. Sometimes you might find yourself aimlessly pointing at objects in the memory, in the hopes that it’ll highlight and help you. There are hints here, but these are often not very helpful. In fact, there are multiple occasions where the hints are downright useless, providing next to no information beyond what’s common sense.

Developers note that this is to emulate what you would get if you were at a real escape room, but chances are if you have been to escape rooms at one point in your life, you’ll know that their clues aren’t as utterly useless as some you’ll find in Shattered.

Let’s quickly talk about the issues here.

You’ll notice right away that your hands are not at all aligned with the in game hands you have while playing. This becomes annoying when you’re holding items as they end up being at awkward angles and interact oddly.

More than once during the playthrough of the game, items would get stuck in drawers or other places, sometimes falling completely out of view or flying well across the room. Because they weren’t properly picked up, the item did not get saved to the inventory and this became an issue as it was impossible to find without completely restarting the level.

Just an FYI, there are no save points midway through each level so if you quit because of a bug like that, you’re going right back to the start.

The same level of janky mechanics that you see when trying to use objects, is present when pulling them into your space and trying to set them. Sometimes it’s very difficult to place an object, despite having ample space to place it. This issue was noticed mostly when trying to place doors, or other objects that apparently demand a very specific locale. Not only would it only go in one spot, but when trying to rotate or move the door it would spin uncontrollably or – at one point in the game – fly around the room until it disappeared and had to be pulled again.

A patch or two should be able to mitigate these issues if the developers care enough to remove them, but considering there was no release date until very recently, no one would have blamed them if the game was pushed back a month to remove all issues.

Of course the game is not completely devoid of merit and the MR world of memory and items you pull into your space looks pretty great. Some of the things do look sorta low quality from afar, but it’s a small tradeoff if you do want to take on this horror-esque escape room game.

Oh yeah, the game is pretty creepy.

Fairly early on you notice a scary lurking being around, that on more than one occasion, will provide a jump scare for a good old fashioned pants wetting. Considering you are always able to see your space around you, the fact that these scares work so well is a testament to how good this game looks – at least up close.

Overall Shattered is an interesting game and a unique way to experience an escape room. It has its faults, but if you’re able to look past them, you’re in for a puzzle adventure that will last a few hours. Considering the game is included in the Quest+ catalogue, its free cost for subscribers means there’s really no reason to at least try it out and see what it has to offer.

What do you have to lose, besides your sanity?

Shattered, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after redeeming from the Quest+ catalogue.