Something that I feel hasn’t been done enough on PSVR is local multiplayer games. Online multiplayer games are awesome, but there’s something special about playing a game with a friend or family member right beside you. In my opinion local multiplayer works extremely well with VR, as shown with games like Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes, Black Hat Cooperative, Statik, and Playroom VR. So when Carly and the Reaperman created by Odd Raven Studios was announced for PSVR, I was excited. It was a game I had kept me eye on because it had previously released on Steam with great reviews. So now that it’s here on PSVR, is Carly and the Reaperman any good?
Carly and the Reaperman – Escape from the Underworld is a game that has a girl named Carly working together with a reaperman to help spirits out in the underworld. There is an ongoing story, but it didn’t really have the depth or emotion of a game like Moss.
At it’s core, Carly and the Reaperman is a puzzle platformer. The VR player plays as the Reaperman, and the TV player plays as Carly. You can also play single player which lets you control both the Reaperman and Carly at the same time. If you’re playing by yourself I highly recommend using the Daulshock, and if you’re playing multiplayer I would go with the move controllers. Both control styles can take a while to get used to, but once I did they worked really well.
Keep in mind there is no online multiplayer in this game, which is something I would love to see in the future, but the game still stands good on it’s own without it.
The gameplay itself consists of getting Carly to the end of the level. But there are two variations of levels, one where you aren’t rushed and can finish the level in your own time and pace. And another where a blue void is slowly swallowing the level behind you, which forces you to finish the level as fast as possible. In each level you’ll have to overcome several obstacles, such as lasers, enemies, and big gaps. There are also puzzles that involve vision, sometimes the VR or TV player will see something that the other player cannot, and so you’ll have to work together to finish the level. If Carly falls off the map she’ll be brought to the most recent checkpoint, the checkpoints are spread out between each level, but are really useful. The VR player can grab and move objects, and move around the world freely. There are over 50 levels in the game and each of them were different from each other and were really fun to play through.
Throughout the game there are also fireflies to collect, these fireflies are used to unlock bonus levels, which is a nice incentive for those who want more from the game.
I did run into two glitches while playing the game. The first one was when I recentered on the main menu I was put behind the menu itself and had to restart the game. The second glitch I ran into was sometimes when moving around as the VR player I would get teleported backwards, which was annoying. These glitches didn’t bring down my enjoyment of the game too much, and will probably be fixed in the future with a patch.
So Overall, Carly and the Reaperman is a great game! It’s a local multiplayer game unlike anything else we have on PSVR, and it shines with it’s unique puzzles and fun gameplay. And it’s still a fun game by yourself, but you’ll probably enjoy the game most when playing with another player. The controls take a while to get used to, and can cause some frustrating moments occasionally, but I really enjoyed my time playing this and highly recommend it for fans of the puzzle-platformer genre!
