Hands on with Transference, an abstruse VR thriller that's part movie, part game

At this year's E3, perpetually young actor Elijah Wood giggled his way onto the stage to announce Transference, a psychological thriller being made by his film company SpectreVision in collaboration with the development team at Ubisoft Montreal.

Whilst Transference can be played in non-VR for those without headsets, the proper way to experience this trippy take on an 'escape room' is in virtual reality. I was able to test out a 15 minute slice of the action on the Oculus Rift this week at Gamescom and you can watch my escapades in the video below.

The demo kicks off with a live action cutscene featuring actor Macon Blair (Blue Ruin, Green Room) talking directly to the camera as he records some sort of cryptic video message. One of SpectreVision's aims with Transference is to bridge the gap between films and games. As a result, short live action videos feature regularly throughout the gameplay where they flash up like fragmented memories that serve as hints to the protagonist's back story.

Read more…