Marlene Act 1 Betwixt - (Verdict: Avoid)

Hello fellow VRHeads, today I will be reviewing the game "Marlene Act 1 Betwixt", a game I think I must have picked up for free, which is just as well really.

It's quickly going to be apparent as you read this, that I don't think much of this game.

The Marketing

On the Steam Store page, the game describes itself thus:

"Marlene is a tense and immersive psychological horror story in which you star as the protagonist Ewan Brody. Ewan is on his way to visit his estranged sister at her remote cottage after hearing the news that his Niece Marlene has gone missing or possibly something worse. . ."
I'm very grateful to read this description actually because you get no clue about what is supposed to be happening by actually playing the game.

The Game Premise as Actually Played

Why is this man standing on top of the house? Who knows?

So what plot do you get from playing the game? Well, you start off in courtyard, at night, and you are holding a torch (a flashlight, for my American friends). The torch is a really odd looking thing, it's not a traditional torch. I did wonder if it is trying to be a torch function on the back of a mobile phone. After looking at it for some time, I came to the conclusion that it is meant to be a card torch, something like this.

And trying to work out what this thing you are holding is sums up the plot to this game. It really explains nothing to you. Things in the game are unusual and somewhat random. I mean, why a card torch? Why not just a regular torch? What is the point of this little detail?

And that's what you get from this game, weird details with no explanation.

The Game Mechanics

And the randomness with no explanation outlines the game mechanics as well. You basically spend your time plodding around, picking up random crap hidden in dark corners. Odd things happen without explanation; at one stage you get a bookshelf on a wall to fall down by... standing underneath the other bookshelf in the room. The bookshelf that falls down has the key you need to get to the next room.

Why does this room suddenly catch fire? Who cares?

How does that make any sense?

And that is all this game is, plodding around, doing random stuff until a solution presents itself. At one stage I climbed up a ladder onto a flat roof to pick up something up there, and then got stuck because I couldn't work out how to get down again, because apparently just climbing down the ladder I came up is too straightforward.

There is a review on Steam by the user Bee that sums up this game really well.

"I found this game really aggravating. It's like a demo for VR that's really in love with picking up books and soda cans. The play is one pixel-hunt after another, and your reward for finding the pixel is a jump scare. The story is a cliche, the sounds and music are very primitive (free downloads, I think) and objects, including critical objects, can clip through floors and walls and get stuck.

Have you ever wanted to try and find the marble in the oatmeal, while dodgeballs rain down on your head? This game has that experience, for some reason."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

This Game Highlights the Problem with the Indie VR scene.

Poor cabin owner can't afford more than basic furniture

I have to be very blunt here, this game resonates as a minimum effort project to create a really basic VR game "shell", just chuck in some low quality sounds and objects and just put in a few triggers. Then call it a game.

This game is the very epitome of all that is wrong in the Indie scene for VR games. Because of the relative lack of quality games in the VR market today, this game is the crap you have to sift through in order to find those gold nuggets. This game cheapens the market and makes it all the more difficult for those independent developers and game studios who *do* create quality titles, to get the kudos they deserve. The quality titles out there are lost in a sea of the mediocre, to the outright dreadful.

Going back to my section on the marketing of this game, I've never been so disgusted with the use of the word "immersive." The only way you can call this game immersive is that, by the act of putting on the VR headset and injecting yourself in this world, you are there. The only truth to the word "immersive" here is the basic technicality that this is a VR game.

Consider the value this game would have if it was not a VR title, but a regular PC indie title. It would be something some enthusiastic teenager would knock up in a bid to try and start a career in being an independent game developer. If that is the case, then kudos to that person as an individual, but I'm reviewing this game as a serious gamer. I potentially could have spent money on this.

So Who is the Developer?

Well, if you look up Uzi Games on Google, you arrive here. So at this stage I feel a little apologetic for my scathing review, because the website does say that this is a one-man show. Although I stand by my review, actually I have respect for anyone trying to make a go of something ambitious. The website does show this guy has another game in development, I have to hope this title is a lot better than Marlene.

Although then I read the review snippets he has for both of his games and I start to lose sympathy again.

“There are quite a number of VR psychological horror games out at the moment and Marlene is certainly one of the best.” - The Reality Sandwich

I can only think there must have been almost nothing else out on the market at the time.

The Verdict

If you have slightly masochistics tendencies, then get this game for free, lose 30 minutes of your life to it until you ask yourself, "What's the point?" and then you can at least say you tried it yourself to see if it really is bad.

If you are not masochitic, or if this game is not free (currently it is £1.49), then avoid! Take your £1.49 and use a dice to buy another game for the same price. You already rolled a one with this game, so a random pick cannot be any worse.