5.4 hours played
Written 8 days ago
I have completed the game. The game is good, but it's still a Quest port with the many limitations of mobile/phone gpus, like having only one animated npc present at once. Thus locations are small, often barren, and most objects cannot be interacted with (limited physics - compared to Room VR, Ghost Town has no physics for cloth movement and wind). On the more positive side and compared to the Quest 2/3 standalone version it's a fine game with many greatly enhanced textures, effects (like smoke and fog) and some realtime lighting and many dynamic shadows. The enhancements are so profound that if you have the Quest version already, you'll surely want to upgrade to this premium version instead. The PCVR version is 30GB according to the devs compared to 13GB for the Quest standalone version.
I've uploaded some screenshots with comments here:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970329732/screenshots/?appid=2496180
All screenshots show Index res 300% (=27 million pixels per frame combining both eyes) with in-game maxed graphics settings. I'm using an RTX 3090 with Index at 80 Hz, and although I'm getting 80 fps many places, I have activated motion smoothing in case of more demanding locations.
Controls are fine, you can pick up the flashlight with whatever hand you'll like. There's smooth and snap turning, teleport and full locomotion etc. Locomotion is locked to the left controller. There is no finger tracking for Index controllers, but Index controllers are fully recognized by the game.
Puzzles aren't too hard and generally much easier than Room VR, in fact some puzzles are so easy that these are close to making the game feel like a walking simulator. The story is weak: you're looking for a missing brother and work like some kind of ghostbuster. Note that this game is no horror game, it's a simple adventure game with some spooky and occult content. I would have appreciated better physics and more object interactivity, and much harder puzzles.
Npcs do look great, especially with the high-res textures and dynamic shadows, but are constantly placed behind some sort of barricade, so for some strange reason devs keep you from getting very close to npcs.
The sum of all parts do provide a polished and enjoyable experience though, my rating is 6.5/10 - especially due to the very poor second half of the game and the ending - it all felt too rushed and repetitive. The game is also very short - I took 5 hours, but I'm slow - I bet many can complete the game in 3-4 hours. The game has no/little replay value.
Btw, in another Steam review this game was described as GOTY 2025, but I'd currently reserve such considerations for The Midnight Walk and Arken Age instead. Also my rating of Room VR would still be 10/10 - but Room VR is very special for the amazing atmosphere, and much better puzzles and gameplay. Ghost Town is a fine game, but it's far from the same level of quality for both story and puzzles as the PCVR version of Room VR. The House of Da Vinci VR and especially The 7th Guest VR also have better stories and more demanding puzzles than Ghost Town.
