Review: Last Labyrinth – PS4/PSVR

I don’t know what it is with PSVR titles being developed by pristine and seasoned veterans of the industry. Each time I get rightfully excited knowing who’s working behind the scenes, only to grow extremely disappointed upon release. Very few have passed this process with flying colors and even some newer people to the industry are doing a better job with the technology. As you can probably guess I’m none too happy about the overall impression Last Labyrinth left me with. It had a solid team behind it, an intriguing opening hour, and a squandered opportunity that ended in a glitch. But hey, at least you get a video game based around escape rooms, Saw, and to a lesser effect, Simon Says.

Last Labyrinth holds its cards pretty close to its chest. There’s not much explanation for what’s happening as you control a character bound to a wheelchair and gagged. They can only communicate with head movement and a laser pointer. You’ll be doing this with a young girl who speaks a different language and is equally flabbergasted. The two are trapped in an impossibly designed and shaped mansion. Every room has a puzzle of some sort to solve or have the green-haired girl engage with which then leads to a cliff overlooking an ocean. Which may or may not actually be outside. Then you are inexplicably transported back into the mansion to do it all over again. There’s also some mysterious imagery with wilted flowers and blood-filled chalices that present themselves if you succeed or die respectively. Plus, some random fella wearing a black robe and mask causing the occasional confrontation.
The puzzles of Last Labyrinth are alright. They’re not terribly entertaining, but I can at least admit some of them are unique. Except for poison gas Simon Says which I mean…really? The player will guide our heroine with the aforementioned laser pointer by signaling which buttons to push, levers to pull, boxes to move, etc. The moderately important requests will require an actual head nod or shake from the PSVR user. She’ll point to what you selected and communicate if this is the decision you want to make. Rinse and repeat this song and dance for a few hours while watching a girl, who can’t be older than ten, die in horrendous ways. If you mess up a puzzle or guess wrong expect some gruesome events for our characters. Never fun having a guillotine placed around your neck and watching the blade fall forward in VR. Which wasn’t scary by the way, just unsettling.
There’s not much else content-wise and can already tell any gamer who hates excessive puzzle mechanics to cast this game aside without a second thought. Those looking to persist however will have to deal with some infuriating issues I can’t believe occur when the player can only do one or two things. The laser pointer attached to your head cannot be spammed and requires a second or two to recharge. At least that’s the design. Too often did my laser get stuck on “safe mode,” where the laser doesn’t actively communicate with the girl, or my head nods interpreted as shaking it. Granted these issues resolved themselves and sometimes within seconds. That doesn’t excuse them happening in the first place when Last Labyrinth is essentially laser pointers and head tilts.
 
My last straw for technical problems was when the girl pulled a box instead of pushing it (which I’m pretty sure is against the game’s code from the angle this happened at) and plummeted into the dark depths below. Except then to reappear where she first fell off like a Looney Tune and fall back down all over again. These combined with too simplistic challenges or “no way in hell would anyone figure this out with a guide” puzzle, ended my experience prematurely. Even if the checkpoint system was gracious. For what it’s worth the graphics in Last Labyrinth are some of the most pristine the PSVR has seen yet. The rendering of the young girl also shows this technology getting better and better with believable human models.

Last Labyrinth PSVR Review

• 4.5/10
  Overall - Bad - 4.5/10

4.5/10

Summary

I know this review is short and definitely the shortest I’ve ever written. It’s just that Last Labyrinth doesn’t take long to describe. The setup is simple, the gameplay is even simpler, and technical issues get in the way of all of it. There’s a mansion with inexplicable death puzzles in every room, the player-controlled character instructs a little girl on how to solve them with head movement and laser pointers (if they work), and even some glitches which will send her off-screen. There’s plenty of better things to do with my game time both in and out of the PSVR.