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Open your eyes, folks: why are so few studios leveraging the greater strength of Playstation VR 2 for new forms of game design and storytelling?
Some of my gamer friends have tasted blood after years of general disinterest in VR. The reason, of course, is the imminent release of Playstation VR 2.
And a feature that keeps coming up in conversations about Sony’s new VR headset. “In the sequel to Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, some enemies only move when you blink. How cool is that?”
PSVR 2’s eye tracking opens up new possibilities for game design
We’re talking about The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR horror roller coaster. Infrared cameras built into the headset record exactly where players are looking. This way, enemies can scare players because they only move when the player isn’t looking.
It’s a shame, however, that so few titles use the new technology for narrative purposes at launch. After all, eye tracking offers an even more powerful way to build tension in virtual reality that seems to be underutilized in early PSVR 2 games: the magic of eye contact.
A look is worth a thousand words, at least in my ideal vision of a truly immersive VR adventure. Even if it’s just the eyes of an NPC.
Imagine a playable crime thriller where the length of your eye contact makes or breaks your first impression of a crime boss. A single moment literally determines whether he accepts you as a worthy business partner. Depending on your cultural background, he might even be offended. In another scenario, the long eye contact common in Germany (“German Stare”) could be interpreted as rude.
Many save points could help avoid accidental mistakes. Or advice from other characters warning against the quirks of a cross-eyed gang leader: “He doesn’t like his squint getting too much attention!” There are so many new ways to flip the adventure genre.
Detroit: becoming even more human
A VR adventure in the style of David Cage’s Detroit: Become Human would also be great. I know his studio Quantic Dream is currently busy with the action-adventure Star Wars Eclipse, but we can still dream.
Parent company NetEase could prove that the studio’s vision of “breakthrough titles” isn’t some hollow PR phrase. Already Detroit, which has sold over eight million copies, offers many ramifications and implications for the “surviving” characters. I put “survive” in quotes because the majority of the characters are intelligent androids. Their dignity and role in society become an overarching theme in the game.
This detail could also be used creatively in an eye-tracking adventure. In case of misidentified moods, the scriptwriters could attribute the blunder to the awkwardness of the creature-machines. Or they could make a self-deprecating joke.
Many subtleties can influence mood and action: eyes wide open in surprise, embarrassed escape in conversation or even the search for an escape route.
In the era of big production budgets, such experimentation is certainly a risk. Great adventure games are having a much tougher time than during the boom of a decade ago, when titles like Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead cinematic revitalized the genre and developers focused more on storytelling. than on puzzles.
Focus on the story
Telltale Games went bankrupt and has since been relaunched in a smaller form. Even former adventure giants like Daedalic (Deponia, DSA) have shifted their genre to other types of games. All in all, not exactly rosy prospects for friends of strong narrative games.
But with Sony’s backing, visionaries like Cage or Jan Müller-Michaelis (Edna Breaks Out) could use the new platform to take non-linear narrative forms to the next level. If hardware sales are strong, a large user base will gain access to eye tracking for the first time. This could allow developers to use the feature more widely.
Eye-tracking in virtual reality could open up new audiences who want to participate more actively in history. After all, immersion means not only moving into another world, but also dynamically influencing it. For good reason, VR worlds are considered more believable when the player can pick up various objects, view them from different angles, and literally grab them.
PSVR 2 launch title Horizon: Call of the Mountain is on par with Half-Life: Alyx for PC-VR in terms of interactive game world. You can pick up apples, doodle on chalkboards, and do other immersive nonsense around every turn. But it would be even more impressive if my presence manifested itself in believable NPC reactions to my gaze.
This is planned for Horizon’s VR spin-off. The characters in the game will actively follow my gaze to deepen the relationship with the characters. I guess this feature won’t interfere with decisions, so as not to slow down the action and exploration. The game is designed to gently introduce newcomers to the new VR platform, rather than confusing them.
Few PSVR 2 launch titles use eye tracking for gameplay
So far, only a few titles in the PSVR 2 launch lineup explore eye-tracking gameplay. Skybound Games recently announced a port of the original adventure game Before Your Eyes. Blink-based locomotion is reminiscent of mechanics from The Dark Pictures: Switchback.
The 2D Steam version works with a webcam in front of the monitor, the Playstation VR 2 version uses eye tracking from the VR headset to track your eye movements. It remains unclear if and to what extent the controls will be revised. Sony’s eye tracking would offer many more possibilities than the original webcam’s eye tracking.
Eye tracking will be widely used in Ground floor for PSVR 2, allowing you to track and target enemies with your eyes. Developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi is known for his love of experimentation, which could give his award-winning VR action game a whole new feel.
The game of hide and seek Hello Neighbor VR: search and rescue has the potential to be the first instance of targeted eye contact, like when that annoying neighbor grabs you. But I wouldn’t bet on it. After all, the indie adventure will get plenty of VR ports on devices without eye tracking.
Many launch titles are ports that don’t change too much. Others focus on action rather than storytelling. Some of them, however, could at least benefit from avatar eye contact in multiplayer or social lobbies.
In-game eye tracking is in its infancy
It may take a few more years to develop more sophisticated solutions. Looking forward, I hope as many titles as possible take advantage of PSVR 2’s eye tracking and that developers get really creative.
Too bad the VR studio Ready at Dawn is not part of it. The creators of brilliant VR adventures Lone Echo and Lone Echo 2 would have the best credentials, but they’re now part of Meta’s studio family. Hopefully they’ll push Meta’s next headsets with creative VR gaming instead, though the Quest 3 probably won’t offer eye tracking.
At CES 2022, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan promoted eye tracking in the upcoming PSVR 2. | Image: Sony
Thanks to Dynamic Foveated Rendering, Sony even has a technical edge over many SteamVR headsets. While PC support for Playstation VR 2 is unlikely, its graphical benefits are good news, even for console skeptics. Maybe nice PSVR 2 games will lead to nicer PC VR ports. They might also inspire the part of my friends who don’t want to buy a Playstation 5 to try out VR.
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