Review copy was provided by Happy Manic LLC
Gameplay
Nope Challenge is a VR horror game designed to test your fears by confronting them directly. It features three different phobias, each with three intensity variants. The game provides a thrilling, fear-inducing experience for those with arachnophobia (fear of spiders), coulrophobia (fear of clowns), and acrophobia (fear of heights). If you suffer from any of these phobias, this game might be particularly challenging for you.
Each fear has three levels of intensity, resulting in a total of nine levels. For acrophobia, the first level involves a steady walk up the outside of a building, ending with a zipline. This leads to the next level, where you'll climb an Aztec temple. The final level is the most intense, requiring you to outclimb a giant spider (no warning here, by the way). The spiders and clowns follow a similar progression, starting with easier levels that gradually become more difficult.
Graphics and Audio
As long as you aren’t expecting hyper-realism from Nope Challenge, you shouldn't be too disappointed. The game is designed to test your fears, not to induce a panic attack. While the theme can be terrifying for some, I don't have the specific phobias targeted, so I was able to enjoy the graphics. They aren't overly frightening, so when you’re interacting with a giant spider, you won’t feel the urge to throw your controller across the room.
The Quest’s immersive sound speakers enhance the creepy ambiance. I have to admit, a couple of times when I was finishing up in the spider house, I got chills from hearing the spiders crawling around.
Feedback
Some of the levels are a little creepy, but if you don’t actually have the phobias being targeted, they aren’t very scary. Once you finish all the levels, there's not much left to do aside from collecting chips with random lore bits. I hope they add more levels for the existing phobias in the future, and I’d love to see entirely new phobias introduced. Increasing the content would definitely improve the overall experience.
Verdict
Nope Challenge is a decent horror game that has potential for an “unlimited” amount of content. They could add levels for every phobia out there and eventually there would be a challenge to tough for somebody. While the three that are selected are likely the most common, claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), nyctophobia (fear of the dark), and thalassophobia (fear of the dep ocean) could all make some pretty scary levels.
If you think your tough or are curious on whether you have a certain phobia or not, try the Nope Challenge for yourself!
