Lies Beneath

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A horror comic come to life in a small Alaskan town, in VR.

Platforms: VR, PC
Price: Paid
Rated: Meta Quest store 4.6 of 5 from about 1,800 ratings
Length: about 8 hours
Players: 1
Controls: VR headset with tracked controllers (Meta Quest, Oculus Rift).
Made by: Drifter Entertainment
Released: 2020

Visit the game's site Meta Store (Rift, PC VR)

What frightens In VR you walk a small Alaskan town drawn like a horror comic, where the townsfolk have become grinning, red-eyed monsters and corpses hang in the dark; you fight them up close with a revolver, an axe and whatever else you can hold.
Content: gore, violence, jumpscares.

Lies Beneath is a VR survival horror game told as a living horror comic. As Mae, a college student back home in Slumber, Alaska, you search for your father through a town overrun by monsters, fighting with guns, axes and cleavers in your own hands.

About Lies Beneath

Lies Beneath is made by Drifter Entertainment and published by Oculus Studios. It came out for Oculus Quest in March 2020, with a Rift version for PC VR following.

Mae comes home from college to Slumber, a small town in the Alaskan woods, to find her father. Something has gone very wrong. The town looks as if it was abandoned long ago, the woods are full of bodies, and the people who are left have turned into monsters. Mae has to fight her way through to save her father and her own mind.

The game looks and reads like a horror comic. It is cel-shaded with heavy black ink, Mae's thoughts appear as captions, sound effects pop up as words, and the story is split into issues. The look draws on old horror comics and on games like Silent Hill.

You carry weapons in holsters on your body: a revolver, a shotgun, axes, cleavers and knives, with stakes and cleavers you can throw. Ammunition is scarce, there are no sights, and most fights are close and frantic. A lighter in your chest slot lights the dark. Reviewers praised the style and atmosphere and found the combat light on physical weight. It suits Quest owners who want a full survival horror campaign of around eight hours.

How to play Lies Beneath

Put on your Quest and play standing or seated; turn and move with the thumbsticks.
Take weapons from the holsters on your hips, shoulders and chest, and put them back to keep your hands free.
Use the lighter to see in the dark and to find enemies' weak spots.
Fight close with axes, cleavers and knives to save bullets, and throw blades when you need distance.
Follow Mae's captions and the story issues to find the way through town.

Screenshots

Lies Beneath screenshot: red, grinning creatures with glowing blue eyes crowd a dark classroom as the player raises a shotgun

Lies Beneath screenshot: the player aims two revolvers at huge spider-like creatures with skull faces and red eyes in a stone cellar

Lies Beneath screenshot: three gaunt, skull-faced figures, one with antlers, shamble toward the player in a dark wooden room

Lies Beneath screenshot: bodies hang upside down in a blood-red room, faces with red eyes screaming, the player gripping a cleaver and a stake

Lies Beneath key art: the title Lies Beneath in orange letters beside a hooded figure holding an axe in a dark room

Tips

Save your revolver ammunition for the monsters that need it; use melee on the weak ones.
Pick up throwing cleavers and stakes; they are useful when a crowd closes in.
Keep the lighter handy in dark areas.
Search buildings carefully for ammunition.