Early Access Examination: Dark Trip

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Meta Quest

I'm no stranger to Early Access releases, but I don't think I've ever seen one outside of Steam. Dark Trip is a VR game that's available now on the Meta Store, but it’s currently in that aforementioned state of Early Access. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on when its full release will be coming, but you can grab it right now if you so desire. Is that something you desire? Hopefully that's what we'll find out today in this early look at the game!

Dark Trip places you into the shoes of a detective hired to find the missing daughter of a businessman. This investigation takes you to an abandoned laboratory in a small German town, and it's here where you hope to find clues as to her whereabouts. Things quickly go off the rails once it becomes apparent that this facility is very much active, and that her disappearance is part of a much bigger scheme. The details of what's going on will slowly reveal themselves to you, but you first have to find a way out of the series of rooms that you find yourself trapped in. Getting out means using your wits, but it also could mean using drugs. In a twist that is just as crazy as it sounds, you can ingest hallucinogenic drugs to help you escape. The word "help" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, but we'll to that in a bit. Dark Trip may throw you into the deep end as far as its plot goes, but there's no denying that it has quite the unique premise.

I guess this is the part where we discuss gameplay. At its heart, Dark Trip is an escape room-themed adventure game. Your task is to escape from a series of rooms, and you have to solve puzzles in order to do so. Items can be picked up and used in standard adventure game fashion, and clues can also be found scattered about the environment. There's even an in-game journal that provides both plot points and hints. Speaking of plot, this is game that relies heavily on atmospheric storytelling. There aren't any notable character interactions, so don't expect much in the way of dramatic cutscenes here. You'll be mostly solving puzzles, and that's fine by me. Puzzles involve the use of switches, codes, and picked-up items, with many of them containing multiple steps. There really isn't too much to say about the puzzles themselves, as they aren't too ground-breaking on their own. The thing that makes Dark Trip stand out among its contemporaries, and the main focus of its marketing, is its use of drugs to alter the gameplay. I of course refer to using drugs in-game, as we all know that winners don't use them. You can actually complete the entire game without ever having touched them, but where's the fun in that?

If the game ever explains what exactly the drugs are, I must've missed it. Their effects are psychedelic though, so it's safe to assume we're talking something along the lines of acid. Using these drugs changes up the way you see the game's world. Not only will you see things that might not really be there, but the puzzles may have altered solutions too. This doesn't really alter the difficulty or anything like that, but it is a very interesting concept. As a gameplay mechanic, it essentially creates two different versions of the game. Early Access or not, this adds a lot of replayability. You can do a sober run, a drugged-up run, or a mix of both. The game really does open up if you're willing to use the drugs in-game, though it is worth mentioning that the game gets even more over-the-top if you do. Even though I have no problem with the game's reliance on drugs to alter gameplay, I can also see how some would think this was added just to make the game needlessly edgy. I personally don't think that's the case at all, but I also have to say that things are definitely going to get more edgy whether you use the drugs or not.

Even though I have mostly good things to say about Dark Trip, let's cover some negatives. For a game that has the word "dark" in its title, it probably shouldn't be surprising that things can sometimes be a bit hard to see. There are actually some impressive lighting effects on display, but that doesn't change the fact that I often found myself straining to see what was going on more than a few times. There's also the matter of controls, which can be on the wonky side of things. Some puzzles require hand movements that feel outside of the abilities of the Meta Quest, and movement can take a bit of getting used to. You can alter things a bit via the options, but movement mostly takes place by teleporting automatically from space to space. This makes the game feel a bit like old-school Myst, but it can be very jarring in VR. You'll also be disappointed if you go in expecting to find a horror game. There are some creepy moments to be had, but there isn't a jump scare in sight, and the drug trips are more weird and wacky than anything else. This isn't a bad game by any stretch, but it's very rough around the edges at this point and time. I guess it's a good thing it's in Early Access.

Now that I have most of the negatives out of the way, let's go back to the positives. Even though the marketing focuses on the drug aspect, I for one feel that Dark Trip excels more at capturing realistic escape room vibes. I don't know why I prefer these types of experiences in a digital format over the IRL, but I'm a sucker for games like this. Genre favoritism aside, Dark Trip feels like a well thought out escape room that has puzzles that will actually challenge you. They won't have you stuck for hours not knowing what to do, but they'll probably have you stumped for a decent while until the lightbulb moment suddenly goes off. The story also gets quite out there by the end, and involves the topic of Nazi experiments. (Bet you thought I forgot about mentioning where things get edgy!) The story gets so crazy that it almost circles back around to becoming funny. The full scope of the plot is still not revealed at this point in the game's development, but it involves the rather infamous Dr. Mengele and his experiments. That might not sound very funny, but trust me when I say that it doesn't seem to be taking itself fully seriously.

As it stands now, Dark Trip offers seven rooms, and about one or two hours of gameplay. I'm not sure when the full launch will come about, but it's a surprisingly strong showing already. I've played full release VR games that offer the same level of content as this one, so I look forward to whatever else the developers have up their sleeves. It also only costs $10.99 at the time of this writing, so it's inexpensive too. I have absolutely no experience when it comes to Early Access games on the Meta platform, so I don't know if there's a good "success rate" or not when it comes to these types of games. Having said that, I think that Dark Trip looks really good already, and can only get better. If you choose to grab it now, I doubt you'll be disappointed. If you don't, then at least keep an eye on it.

Check Out Dark Trip on Meta:
https://www.meta.com/experiences/dark-trip/27793698076945636/

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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