Blindfold A Vérité VR Experience is a very different VR release that puts you in shoes of someone who is being interrogated under torture in Iran in 1979. Check out our Blindfold A Vérité VR Experience review!
Blindfold – Gamescom 2019 Announce Trailer | PS VR
Step inside Iran’s infamous Evin Prison in this harrowing companion piece to iNK Stories’ 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. Blindfold places you in the perspective of a photojournalist enduring a harsh interrogation for spreading anti-state propaganda, as the warden Assadollah Lajevardi tests your will. Through nodding or shaking your head, or remaining still and silent, your actions drive an immersive choice-driven story.
Drawing from real-life accounts and historical fact, Blindfold presents a powerful vérité experience that explores the unique storytelling possibilities of VR.
Features:
A companion piece to iNK Stories’ 1979 Revolution: Black Friday
A short, harrowing experience. Every choice matters.
Inspired by the real-life accounts of Evin Prison and interrogator Asadollah Lajevardi
With support from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI)
Blindfold is a new experience for PlayStation VR that is very different from what I have played in the past. It’s an intense experience based on the reality of Iran in 1979 when they were torturing journalists and getting them to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. It’s very heavy stuff, and when you add it to a PlayStation VR experience, everything is even harder to stomach.
The game doesn’t use any controller inputs. Instead, you can use your head when you need to interact with something. The entire game takes place in an Iranian prison interrogation room. You are in there with two men, one a torturer and another a journalist, who’s also blindfolded, who is being tortured.
The torturer will ask you questions, and you can nod yes or no, or not respond at all. Depending on what you do – or don’t do – it will change how the experience unfolds. It’s not just about the answers either. If you answer too quickly or too slowly, that will adjust how he responds and treats the other journalist doing terrible things to him.
It’s a really intense experience, and the acting from both the torturer and the other captive journalist is great, creating a sense of dread, making every choice matter in the scenario you are faced with. Extra special credit goes to the actor who played the torturer, as he did a great job in delivering the performance of a menacing persona. It’s something I am still thinking about even after playing the game for a while.
This will dramatically change the experience as it unfolds for the player. The sessions aren’t long, usually taking you around 10 minutes or so to complete a single run, but you can play the game again to take on the different branching paths. I ran through it a few times with different outcomes, trying to find out what would happen if I changed my answers or what questions I didn’t answer. You’re not going to get hours out of this game, as it’s a budget price, but you will definitely get your money’s worth out of it.
Blindfold really hits you at the end, though. Once the experience is over, and I don’t want to spoil this, you will get a big dose of reality that will hit you in the gut, big time. After doing a single run of Blindfold A Vérité VR Experience, you’re certainly going to remember this one. It’s an experience that deals with a mature topic, a game unlike anything else I’ve played before.
Final Thoughts
Blindfold A Vérité VR Experience is a short experience with a small price tag. I’m glad PlayStation VR allows us to explore difficult topics with experiences like this. Having said that, this one is not for everyone, so you should be aware of what you’re getting yourself into before you give Blindfold A Vérité VR Experience a try.
Disclaimer
This Blindfold A Vérité VR Experience review is based on a PlayStation VR copy provided by Digerati Distribution.
