A Masterclass In Effective Minimalistic VR Game Design

It would be easy to look at screenshots and video of psychological horror puzzler Shil and dismiss it for being too basic, but its simplicity is its greatest strength. The all-encompassing, void-like environments and clever design make for one of the most engrossing, addictive VR games I have played all year.

Most horror games ratchet up the frights with clever sound design, low lighting, and a musical score that rises and lowers at opportune times to disturb you. Shil goes the total opposite direction, stripping the world down to next to nothing in a two-tone art style that is disturbingly effective. You are often times looking straight at seemingly nothing, but you know something is there. You can feel it. No screenshot or video I can add to this article can put the feeling of playing this game across. It has to be experienced to be appreciated.

I may be alone here, but one of the worst situations you can put me in is leaving me alone in a room with nothing but my thoughts. This is a crude metaphor, but playing Shil felt like sitting in a doctor’s office waiting on test results. My mind kept going to the worst-case scenario. I got that same feeling of dread walking through Shil’s world. Fear of the unknown can be very powerful, particularly in an environment with precious little available to distract your mind other than the path ahead.

You are trapped within the recesses of your shattered mind, tasked by an AI guide to reclaim your lost memories. This plays out as a series of rooms where you have to get from one end to the other by forging a path, defeating unseen enemies and manipulating available objects in the room to continue forward safely. Along the way, you pick up memories replayed in voiceovers to flesh out the story and make you question the intentions of your character, the AI guide, and other figures in your life. It sounds simpler than it is and you will breeze through the first couple of rooms, but then the amazing sound design and simple-but-effective obstacles will start to ramp up and make you pause and second-guess your next move.

Case in point, one of the first kinetic obstacles is a giant pistol on either side of you firing one-shot-kill bullets. Due to the aforementioned two-tone art style, said pistol is either black like the path, doorways, and pillars in front of you, or the other color in the room, say yellow for instance. You have a ball launcher that you use to recolor the yellow pathways in front of you. This launcher also works on the pistols, but turning the guns black for better visibility also turns the bullets black, meaning they completely disappear when over your walking path. So you either rely on the sight of the bullet crossing in front of you to know when to safely walk past the gun or make the pistol visible and trust your sense of timing to know when the path in front of you is bullet-free. Sounds simple enough, right? Add four to six guns all firing in different timings on both sides of your path and a simple concept becomes more complex. Moving enemies are also two-toned, allowing you to barely see their silhouettes fast enough to eliminate them.

Each portal to a new room tells you how many portals (i.e. path branches) and memories are available in it and the overall map lays out just how much you are missing as you progress. Along the way, you’ll pick up additional tools and weapons aside from the primary, path-creating ball launcher you start with. Magnets manipulate objects like pulling floating platforms towards you for safer traversal and temporarily freezing the giant chopping knives. Yes, giant chopping knives. Slingshots help you fight enemies and move pillars to block traps.

Shil wants you constantly on edge, evaluating everything around you and questioning every step you take. Some trippy challenges, like an outlandish roomscale version of the classic game Minesweeper, give you a palpable sense of satisfaction when you complete a room. The game also has seven endings depending on which of the winding branches you take to the end, so this is a game to return to several times to see every room and recover every memory. At the time of this article, I have not seen every single room yet, but I absolutely will. Depending on your speed, you can finish a full run in about an hour, but with the different endings and paths, the playtime quickly adds up.

Shil – Final Verdict

Shil is a testament to the power of great game design, more concerned with tasking your mind and nerves than simply overloading it with disturbing visuals and in-your-face audio. It is akin to a more horror-leaning version of Superhot VR, another game that plays more complex than its simple aesthetics would have you believe. It is not outright scary, but the way it constantly messes with your head is consistently distressing.

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