Propagation: Paradise Hotel

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Search a hotel full of the infected for your missing sister, in VR.

Platforms: PC, VR
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (87% of 883 reviews); 4.5 stars from 613 ratings on the Meta Quest Store
Players: 1
Controls: Played in VR with motion controllers; free movement or teleport.
Made by: WanadevStudio
Released: 2023

What frightens In VR you walk dark hotel corridors with a pistol and a flashlight whose battery runs down, and infected guests come at you out of the gloom; you reload by hand under pressure and decide when to fight and when to hide.
Content: gore, jumpscares, strong language.

Propagation: Paradise Hotel is a single-player VR survival horror game. As Emily Diaz you search the dark Paradise Hotel for your sister after a strange illness turns its people into savage creatures, gathering resources, solving puzzles and choosing when to fight.

About Propagation: Paradise Hotel

Paradise Hotel is the full survival horror game from WanadevStudio, the French studio behind the free wave shooter Propagation VR. It came out on Steam for PC VR and on Meta Quest in May 2023.

You play Emily Diaz, who arrives at the Paradise Hotel looking for her sister and finds it overrun. Where the first game held you in one spot, this one lets you roam: lobbies, guest rooms, staff areas and stairwells, opened up as you find keys and solve puzzles. Your inventory is a small panel of equipment, a waist bag and quest items, and a flashlight with a battery you have to keep charged.

Its horror is in the dark and the closeness that VR brings. The infected lurch out of doorways, ammunition is not endless and every reload is done by your own hands while something comes at you. The game moves between quiet exploring, stealth and sudden fights, with survivors to meet along the way.

It suits VR players who want something closer to Resident Evil than to an arcade shooter. It is the first chapter of a longer story.

How to play Propagation: Paradise Hotel

Start in the hotel and use your flashlight to explore the dark rooms.
Open drawers and search rooms for ammunition, batteries, keys and documents.
Check your inventory panel for equipment, the waist bag, quest items and the map.
Reload your pistol by hand and aim for the head when the infected attack.
Choose when to sneak past enemies instead of fighting to save ammunition.
Solve the puzzles that open new floors and follow the trail to your sister.

Screenshots

Propagation: Paradise Hotel screenshot: aiming a pistol at a bloodied infected man standing in a dark hotel doorway

Propagation: Paradise Hotel screenshot: holding a pistol and a battery pack above the hotel's marble lobby with a compass floor

Propagation: Paradise Hotel screenshot: the inventory panel with equipment, waist bag and quest items in a red hotel stairwell

Propagation: Paradise Hotel screenshot: an elderly hotel porter faces you on the stairs as you hold up a key

Tips

Keep the flashlight battery charged; the hotel is very dark.
Search every drawer and suitcase, ammunition is limited.
Reload in quiet moments rather than in the middle of a fight.
Read the documents you find; they often hold codes for puzzles.
Use teleport movement if free movement makes you feel unwell.

Questions

Is Propagation: Paradise Hotel a sequel to Propagation VR?

It is the same studio's full survival horror game, set in the same outbreak but with free movement, exploration and a story, where Propagation VR is a free wave shooter.

Which headsets can play Propagation: Paradise Hotel?

PC VR headsets through Steam, and Meta Quest through the Meta Quest Store.

Is it scary?

Yes, it relies on darkness, close encounters and jump scares, all made stronger by VR.