Ghost Busting in Spectro VR
By: Joshua Gad
Tags: Gaming, Virtual Reality, Gadgets, Technology, Features

Ghost Busting in Spectro VR

Vacuum up ghosts and hunt for objects in this haunted house roguelike

Spectro is a neat roguelike-meets-Luigi’s Mansion developed exclusively for VR. Explore a procedurally generated mansion and try to make it to the top floor while trying not to get spooked.

Made by Borrowed Light Studios, the developers of the Vincent van Gogh VR tribute The Night Cafe, Spectro is more than just a virtual reality recreation of a depicted environment. With a Ghostbusters-themed experience, the game draws upon a lot of great spooky thematics and concepts to make Spectro more than the average fun-filled ghost hunting experience. It is a gauntlet of great environments fueled by satisfying upgrades and mysteries, with a good amount of replayability. Play sessions usually go from 30 to 60 minutes. This ‘first person, ghost-busting, VR roguelike is available on the Steam and Oculus stores for $15.

There are quite a few features that make this game remarkable. The first is that VR adventure games typically suffer from a lack of replayability. By nature of this game being a roguelike it had already piqued my interest, but that didn’t stop me from being a skeptic, as I’ve played many repetitive roguelikes before. It does follow the typical roguelike tropes: there is a shop, special currency, you have to restart when you lose, and there are some really powerful upgrades that just melt the spectors the stand in your way.

Speaking of the spectors, the enemy designs are a perfect match for the game. There are quite a few enemies with a variety of faces. Some throw bombs, some shoot lasers, some run away, but they all have good dodging options and can be vacuumed up. The closest thing to a jump scare you’ll experience is having the ghosts open a door on you.

As a game that obviously takes heavy inspiration from Ghostbusters and Luigi’s Mansion, the ghost blaster and vacuum feel great. Being the core way you interact with the world, I’m sure a lot of effort went into getting the sound, particle effects, and suction just right to make it feel like you’re really catching ghosts!

But besides the ghosts in the house, the hidden key, objects, and general progression really work to establish the environment as a real haunted place. With the goal of the game being to get to the top floor to obtain a sought-after mask and return safely, to progress to each floor you need to locate a hidden staircase. To do that though, you need a totem that will tell you what to look for and allow you to unlock the secret passage. There are plenty more lock-and-key, find-the-object objectives, and hidden room puzzles that unlock upgrades.

Overall, Spectro creates a great haunted house experience to run through and try to not get spooked. The atmosphere, lighting, and different kinds of specters, from poltergeists to Casper-like ghosts, contribute to a varied game experience that combine perfectly with the roguelike design and haunted house puzzles for VR. The procedurally generated floors with different rooms and encounters create a unique immersive virtual reality experience.