The Bellows

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A free 20-minute VR scare through a haunted manor and a rotting hospital.

Platforms: PC, VR, PlayStation
Stores: Steam
Price: Free
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (86% of 245 reviews); 3.2 of 5 stars from 158 ratings on the PlayStation Store; critics found it short and closer to a ride than a game
Length: about 15 to 30 minutes
Players: 1
Made by: BOT Jungle Productions
Released: 2016

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store (PS VR)

What frightens In a VR headset you walk through a dark manor where books fly, furniture moves and paintings fall around your lantern, then through a rotting hospital where people are dragged away and a madman comes after you, with no way to fight back.
Content: jumpscares, blood, violence.

The Bellows is a short VR horror experience, free on Steam and sold for PS VR, built to play like an interactive movie. You walk through a manor where objects fly around you and a hospital where a madman stalks the halls, in about 15 to 30 minutes.

About The Bellows

The Bellows is a short horror experience for VR headsets, released free on Steam in September 2016. Steam lists BOT Jungle Productions with Evan Davis, Bryce Davis and Gehrig Gosslin as its makers; the PlayStation VR version, published by Castle Steps LLC, came out on the PlayStation Store in July 2017 for $4.99. It began as a short playable trailer on itch.io. It is VR only: there is no flat-screen mode.

The makers built it with one aim: scaring you, scaring your family and scaring your friends. It plays like an interactive movie in two parts. In the manor the lights go out and a lantern is all you have, while books fly off shelves, furniture moves by itself and paintings fall. In the hospital, with its peeling corridors and rusted equipment, people are dragged off into the dark and a madman comes after you. You walk with a button and turn in fixed steps, and beyond opening doors and pulling a lever you mostly watch; you cannot pick things up or fight back.

Critics compared it to an amusement park ride more than a game. SelectButton gave it 6 of 10 and found the manor scarier than the hospital; The VR Grid gave it 4 of 10, praising its surround sound and atmosphere but calling the jump scares predictable and the walking slow. Steam players rate it higher: 86% of 245 reviews are positive.

It suits a first evening with a headset, or a quick scare to hand to a friend, rather than players looking for puzzles or a long game.

How to play The Bellows

Download it free on Steam for a SteamVR headset, or buy it on the PlayStation Store for PS VR, which also needs the PlayStation Camera.
Pick one of the two parts from the menu; the tutorial at the start shows how to move.
On PS VR use a DualShock 4 or two Move controllers; with Move controllers you hold the middle button to walk and steer with your hands.
Walk through the manor or the hospital, open the doors the story asks for, and let the scenes play out around you.

Screenshots

A ruined manor hall at night with a grand staircase, a broken round skylight, overgrown plants and a long table

A dark manor hallway with peeling wallpaper, a tin ceiling, a bench, an armchair and a table with a lamp

A ruined manor landing with a curved wooden balustrade and a glowing chandelier hanging over a gap in the floor

A bloody clawed creature looms over a hospital bed in a dark room, with a bloodied figure in green in the foreground

A dim tiled morgue with steel tables, a basin and a wall of storage drawers

A figure in a bloodied striped jacket stands in a dark blue-lit hall facing a large arched doorway

Tips

Play with headphones; both reviews single out its sound.
If the darkness makes it hard to find your way, try turning off the dark vignette comfort option, which SelectButton found made the game harder to see.
Two Move controllers let each floating hand move on its own, which SelectButton preferred to the DualShock 4.
Play the manor first: reviewers found it the scarier of the two parts.