Ushering in the new-age of Augmented Reality gaming we have Night Terrors: Bloody Mary. Long gone should be the copy and paste Pokemon GO skins applied to just about every popular AR game since Pikachu and the gang raked in millions in revenue. It’s time for augmented reality to progress and move forward from the gimmick it was when it was first introduced. Night Terrors has taken the tech and evolved it into something much more immersive where you’re not just playing a game, you’re inside one!
The new experience revolves around the urban legend of Bloody Mary and the terrible fate she inflicts on those foolish enough to summon her. The horrifying tale has been shared for hundreds of years. Unwanted at birth, Mary Tudor was the daughter of the notorious King Henry VIII, who beheaded any queen that failed to give him a male heir.
Sustained by her vanity and the mirror that was never far from her side, she rose above all rivals to become England’s first reigning queen. Answering to no man, she ruled alone and the tyranny of Queen Mary’s reign matched her father’s as did her obsessions which lead to hundreds dead by her command. It was this bloodshed that earned her the moniker that would last forever – Bloody Mary.
Night Terrors: Bloody Mary Gameplay
Much like a haunted house experience there really isn’t an aim to the game as such, it’s more a walkthrough experience where the phone is the device bridging the gap between the real world and the spirit world. You turn the lights off in your home, wear headphones and use the camera’s flashlight as your only light source as you immerse yourself in this unique 30-minute experience.
From the binaural audio, weather effects, fake text messages, calls, and more, Night Terrors: Bloody Mary gives us a glimpse of just how interactive your mobile device can be. It’s not just a tool to play the game on, it’s an accessory as though, you were a camera-man in your very own found-footage horror movie.
It’s quite a cool experience and the augmented elements of the game are easily some of the most detailed figures in an augmented reality game to date. The game actually shot real live actors on greenscreen and had a full make-up and production team working on costumes, accessories and more to make the figures look as scary and believable as possible.
Whilst the storyline is a bit choppy you get the general gist of what is going on but your main focus is preparing yourself for what is coming next. Just like any great jump-scare movie, you always prepare yourself and tell yourself you’re not going to jump as you know it’s coming, feel relieved when the moment didn’t arrive and then in seconds jump out of your skin because the scare happened when you least expect it.
Night Terrors takes these elements, combines them with great audio and delivers a heart-thumping experience. Whether you live in a big house, small apartment or a tiny cupboard under the stairs you’ll certainly feel immersed, however, I do feel this game would be perfect in wider indoor space, the walking around and not knowing what’s around the corner add greatly to the scare factor.
Night Terrors: Bloody Mary Experience
As far as the overall experience I don’t think there’s anything else quite like it on the app store as we speak. Imprezario Entertainment has taken AR and evolved it from its currently gimmick state and really created something that will pave the way for future augmented titles.
Your own home becomes the center of an urban legend takeover as spirits, ghouls and more come out to play. You hallways flooded with eerie sound effects and horrific events that will certainly make you uneasy in many places.
Where Night Terrors lets itself down for me in parts is certain lulls between scares. Audio will trickle off ever so slightly and darkness surrounds you. For those afraid of the dark this is perfect but for me, it was a little tiresome especially as it happened sporadically throughout the 30-minute experience. Even a simple filler of audio between scenes would have been enough to keep my attention span going but walking around a house for 30-minutes would get a little tiresome for most.
Imprezario has confirmed that the experience will be extended to over a 60-minute runtime so one only hopes that they include chapters to separate each particular portion of the game. No-one would want to wait a whole 30 minutes of gameplay to experience the extended content so a simple ease of access menu should be a no-brainer.
As far as replay factor goes, that all depends on the person. It’s like going through a haunted house, going back around and through again. You know the twists and turns and where the jumps are but you may just get scared all over again and love it. It really is down to patience and personal preference hence why the chapters idea would be well suited.
You could show your friends a certain scare or scene without going through the entire game once again until you hit the scene you want to display.
Some of the calls and sequences in the game really are superb and look out for a 360-degree virtual reality segment that is astounding.
Check out Night Terrors: Bloody Mary on the App-Store TODAY
Summary
Night Terrors: Bloody Mary may not be perfect but it’s the AR game we’ve all been waiting for to catapult us into one hell of a bright future implementing this new, engaging and truly wonderful piece of technology.
