Forewarned could be VR's scariest game yet
Pharaohphobia.
Oh my. I've certainly done some yelping in my time but on this week's episode of Ian's VR Corner, I let out the biggest Homer Simpson style shriek I think I've ever done. Twice.
In the video below, you can watch me get absolutely terrified by Forewarned, a relatively new multiplayer VR game from Dreambyte Games that's slowly building up quite the buzz amongst the streaming community.
Forewarned shares a lot of similarities with Phasmophobia but, rather than hunting for ghosts in a suburban setting, in Forewarned you're tasked with exploring cursed Egyptian tombs in order to find relics that belong to evil spirits called the Mejai.
As you'll discover if you watch this week's VR Corner, this quest isn't quite as easy as just opening up a selection of sarcophagi. Not only are there spike and boulder traps to contend with, there's also Mejai, mummies and some kind of angry smoke monster that seems to have wandered straight off of the set of Lost.
While the hazards may be different, the core gameplay of Forewarned definitely takes a lot of inspiration from Phasmophobia. Just like Kinetic Game's co-op ghost-hunting sim, you can play Forwarned in co-op with friends, in either VR or flat mode. The VR controls are almost identical to Phasmophobia's as well, even down to the circular waist belt you store your tools in and the way your character pops a weird squat pose if you're playing from a seated position.
Again, just like Phasmo, before you enter the tombs of the Mejai, you're given a set of objectives to complete and a selection of equipment to choose from to help you on your way. By using this equipment you'll not only be able to navigate the pitch black interiors of the crypts, but you'll also be able to hunt for evidence which will enable you to uncover the name of the Mejai currently guarding that tomb.
It's around this point when Forewarned stops being a phasmo clone and starts coming into its own. Gathering all the evidence and accurately identifying the Mejai is really just the start of your ordeal and it's this fear of the unknown that really terrifies. I'm so used to playing Phasmophobia now that I rarely get properly scared by it, but as you'll see in this week's VR Corner, the shocks and surprises thrown at me by Forewarned were so unexpected they almost made me call out for my Mummy.
Geddit? Mummy? Just a little ancient Egyptian joke for you there.
If you enjoyed this episode of Ian's VR Corner, you can catch up with my previous adventures over on YouTube in our VR playlist, where I've covered Valheim VR's motion controls mod, Doom 3 VR Edition and everything we know about PSVR 2 so far. You can also read our list of the best VR games.