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Rise of Insanity

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A psychologist, a strange patient and what happened to his family.

Platforms: PC, Linux, VR, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (79% of 961 reviews); Metacritic 62 (PC); 3.73 of 5 on the PlayStation Store (228 ratings)
Length: about 2 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse or gamepad; in VR a gamepad, no motion controller support
Made by: Red Limb Studio
Released: 2018

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store (PS4, PS VR)Xbox Nintendo eShop (Switch)

What frightens In 1970s America, psychologist Dr. Stephen Dowell tests an experimental treatment on a patient with contradictory symptoms, while something terrible has happened to his own wife and child. You walk through his past and into nightmare places, with well-timed jump scares.
Content: jumpscares, blood and gore, violence, disturbing imagery.

Rise of Insanity is a short first-person psychological horror game by Red Limb Studio, playable on a screen or in VR. As Dr. Stephen Dowell, a 1970s psychologist, you walk through his past and a patient's mind to learn what befell his wife and child, through rooms that turn into nightmares and well-timed jump scares.

About Rise of Insanity

Rise of Insanity is made and published by Red Limb Studio. It came out on Steam on 1 March 2018 for Windows and Linux, playable on a monitor or with a PC VR headset. An Xbox One version followed in June 2018, a PS4 version with PS VR support in July 2019, and a Switch version, published by Pineapple Works, in February 2020. Its makers name The Shining, The Exorcist and Silent Hill among its inspirations.

The story is set in America in the 1970s. Dr. Stephen Dowell, a renowned psychologist, is treating a difficult patient who shows distinct yet contradictory symptoms of different mental disorders, and testing an experimental treatment on him. At the same time something terrible has befallen Dowell's wife and child, and you step into his shoes to find out what, and whether the patient is to blame.

You walk, pick things up and turn them over, read notes and journal entries and now and then solve a simple puzzle. The places start out realistic and modelled on early-70s American buildings: a grey office lined with books, a family bathroom, a child's bedroom. Then they come apart into cracked asylum rooms, a masked figure strapped to an operating table under a surgical lamp, a bird-masked figure in a cell, and sunlit picnic spots and greenhouses. The sound and the voice acting carry much of the mood.

What frightens is the slow sense that something is wrong, punctuated by jump scares. UploadVR found them well timed and never random, each one expected or explained by the story. The game takes about two hours and is best played in one sitting, like a film.

The VR mode is played seated with a gamepad or keyboard; there is no motion controller support, and the comfort options are limited to rotation speed and snap turning. It suits players who like story-led horror walks such as Layers of Fear and want a short one to finish in an evening.

How to play Rise of Insanity

Get Rise of Insanity on Steam (Windows, Linux, PC VR), the PlayStation Store (PS4, PS VR), Xbox or the Switch eShop.
In VR, sit down and use a gamepad: the game has no motion controller support.
Explore each place in first person, picking up objects and reading notes and journals.
Solve the simple puzzles that open the way on, and follow Dr. Dowell's memories to the truth.

Screenshots

Rise of Insanity: a bird-masked figure stands arms spread in a dark asylum room, facing a red-lit wooden screaming figure holding a candle

Rise of Insanity: a masked figure in a bloodstained yellow suit strapped to an operating table under a surgical lamp in a dark tiled room

Rise of Insanity: a dim grey psychologist's office with a white desk, rotary phone, two chairs, bookshelves and a single ceiling lamp

Rise of Insanity: an empty old bathroom with a clawfoot tub, ornate mirror, frosted windows and a candle and wine bottle on a side table

Rise of Insanity: a dark, warped child's bedroom with a lit teddy bear on a cabinet, a glowing lamp and charred debris on the floor

Rise of Insanity: an overgrown greenhouse lit by orange sunset light, with a red-flowered plant, garden tools and a bench

Rise of Insanity: a dark derelict greenhouse with hanging chains and hooks and a shovel stuck beside a freshly dug hole

Tips

Read the notes and journal entries; the story and its twists are told through them.
Play it in one sitting of about two hours, with headphones, for the pacing and the sound.
In VR, set rotation speed or snap turning in the menu before you start; there is no option to dim the view when you turn.

Questions

How long is Rise of Insanity?

About two hours. UploadVR played it through in one sitting of roughly two hours, and Rapid Reviews UK says it takes a couple of hours.

Can you play Rise of Insanity in VR?

Yes, on PC VR headsets through Steam and on PS VR with a PS4 or PS5. It plays with a gamepad or keyboard and mouse; motion controllers are not supported.

Is Rise of Insanity on consoles?

Yes. Besides Windows and Linux on Steam, it is sold for Xbox, PS4 (also playable on PS5) and Nintendo Switch.

Is Rise of Insanity scary?

It is tense rather than relentless: a dark mood with jump scares that UploadVR found well timed. The ESRB rates it Mature for blood and gore and violence.