An odd title that feels like a walking simulator with some puzzles.
When it comes to virtual reality (VR) sometimes taking a risk and creating something unique is the way to stand out.
After all, why not try to ensure that whatever you’re adding to the ecosystem is able to set itself apart from the overabundance of free-to-play shooters and simian-focused games.
However, there’s an argument to be made that a risk isn’t always going to pay off; just look at the restaurant industry and it’s excessive failure rate.
Sometimes people just want something fun and natural to play. A VR title that will immerse you in all it has to offer, while creating engaging tasks and the urge to keep going – even when the tasks ahead seem tougher than ever.
Shil, released Oct. 8 by OSM Games on the Quest series of headsets, is one of those games that tries taking the risk of being something new – but it just ends up falling flat.
In this game you are someone whose consciousness has failed to upload into what can be assumed to be some computer network. The AI that greets you and follows you throughout the game notes that there might be a way to travel through your mind and save the fragments.
It’s here where your task begins.
You’ll walk throughout trippy neon-coloured lands, tossing a ball that helps to reveal the hidden paths around you. While the game feels very walking simulator heavy, there are dangers which lurk not in the shadows, but translucently in front of you.
Just like how you’ll need to reveal your path forward, so too will you need to highlight the danger with the toss of a ball, to ensure you escape the space unscathed.
As you play, you’ll quickly be given access to different “weapons.” A slingshot for instance will allow you to shoot away the projectiles being fired at you, activate switches and move things around.
Other things become available as you move further throughout the web of consciousness that is your mind.
Speaking of the web, as you choose each level, you’ll notice that there are memories to unlock and portals through which you can progress. Some levels have multiple, which adds a sense of replayability; but really, it’s just more wandering around throwing stuff at the ground.
Mechanically speaking there’s not much going on here. You’ll move and turn with thumbsticks, your right trigger summons a ball to toss. If you wanna shoot with the slingshot, just hold onto the ball and bring it to your left hand and pull.
Other weapons may utilize the left trigger as well, but that’s only if you stay engaged long enough to make it to the levels where these unlock.
Graphically Shil looks pretty good. However, that’s really only because there isn’t much going on in each level.
You’re treated to a bright coloured space – a colour very in your face, almost to the point of being obnoxious – with blocky paths set before you. The set dressing as we’ll call it, is also blocky.
But because nothing is blurry or out of focus and even in the distance things look crisp and clear, the game does one thing right.
Overall, Shil is a game that is a game that tries its best to be something that will lure in the VR user looking for something into which they can sink their teeth. However, it’s really just a title that will only appeal to a small number of users.
There’s just not enough here to sate the hunger of your average puzzle fan; though if you are one of those players who wants something “chill” with added aspects of danger to keep things interesting, then this might be for you.
At the end of the day, you’re really just wandering around like a hippie in the 60s on an acid trip. And there’s just not enough meat on the bones of this title to give even the lightest of “eaters” something to satisfy.
Good news for OSM Games though is that the looks and design overall help keep it from being blah across the board. But at the end of this day, this is just going to be another title which ends up fading into obscurity, in the recesses of the bloated Quest store.
Shil was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a key through PressEngine.
