The Exit 8 VR [Quest 3] | REVIEW

After creeping out both PC and Nintendo Switch gamers with its eerie anomaly-spotting gameplay, The Exit 8 has now brought its short yet sweet experience over to virtual reality.

Check out some screenshots down below:

The Exit 8 VR doesn’t give players much of an introduction to its gameplay, with them simply finding themselves wandering through a Japanese metro station where they’re tasked with one goal: reaching Exit 8. Well, it turns out that there’s a real peculiarity to this metro station, with players continually looping through the same passageway, spotting the same posters, camera, or doors, and walking past the same pedestrian as they work from Exit 0 all the way up to Exit 8. The catch? On some occasions, there’ll be slight differences to the passageway (known as anomalies), and when you spot one, you have to turn back and go the other way. If you’re successful, you’ll progressively work your way up through to Exit 8, but if you miss an anomaly or turn back when there wasn’t one, you’ll find yourself starting back at Exit 0.

On paper, it might not sound all that exciting, but there’s a sense of tension to The Exit 8 VR that makes it super satisfying to play. It helps that there are some cool distinctions to the anomalies you face, with some proving subtle (such as there being more yellow floor tiles than usual, a poster being upside down, a door being missing, and so forth) and others a bit more… disturbing. I won’t spoil any of the more sinister ones here, but there were PLENTY of occasions where an anomaly caught me off-guard and gave me a real spook – ESPECIALLY when coming across someone who shouldn’t be there…

“And believe me, there’ll be plenty of occasions where you’ll FEEL like something is wrong but just won’t be able to spot it, with The Exit 8 VR instilling a real sense of paranoia into the player that isn’t easy to shake off.”

It won’t take players too long to beat the game (I actually did so in under ten-minutes on my first attempt), but there’s a poster on display that’ll count down the remaining anomalies that you haven’t found. Whilst this will appeal to completionists, I’d implore all players to take the time to try and uncover every anomaly in the game – you’re missing most of the experience if you ignore them, with The Exit 8 VR’s greatest strengths coming with the sense of discovery within the subtlety of its design. And believe me, there’ll be plenty of occasions where you’ll FEEL like something is wrong but just won’t be able to spot it, with The Exit 8 VR instilling a real sense of paranoia into the player that isn’t easy to shake off. It’s all part of the fun and will leave players second-guessing every little thing they see around them.

It looks great on the Meta Quest 3 too, though given the simplicity of the game’s environment, it’s probably no surprise. Of course, it’s not as detailed as its PC counterpart (which could look photo-realistic in some places), but it still manages to look good and makes some of the anomalies all the more immersive. And hey, if you take a look at some photos of Japanese metro stations, you’ll appreciate the authenticity in the environment design of the game… it looks JUST like them.

Check out some screenshots down below:

I’d be remiss not to reiterate that The Exit 8 VR is a short game, and as mentioned, it took me less that ten-minutes to initially beat it and around an hour to find all of the anomalies after. However, it is priced appropriately for this, with the game available on the Meta Store for £4.99. It feels like the perfect price for the game, and whilst it doesn’t offer a lot of replayability after finding all anomalies, it doesn’t outstay its welcome either.

Developer: Kotake Create, MyDearest Inc.
Publisher: MyDearest Inc.
Platform(s): Meta Quest 3 (Reviewed), Meta Quest 2
Website: https://mydearestvr.com/en/