The World

The player is only told a few lines before entering the world.

"At the edge of the Universe lies The Utility Room. The 'Behind the Scenes' where all the heavy lifting takes place. There have been no work incidents in 13.8 Billion years. You are arriving as a tourist. Don't do anything foolish."

The Utility Room is barren and rocky. The scale is immense, and in VR it feels like it. Upon arriving at the entrance to the Room, the player causes an accident, leading to them getting trapped inside. The aim is to find your way out. 

The Utility Room is a surreal and unsettling place. Players will find many areas tense and scary. It does not scare in the same way a horror game would. A pervading sense of megalophobia and fear of the unknown runs through the game. The player is trespassing. The world is a lot bigger than they are. The environments are peculiar and unnatural. Organic yet made entirely out of stone. The room is alive and hollow. Its ancient and awake.  

The Cosmic Caretaker known as 'Bin Man' oversees the room. It is rumoured that he was personally employed around The Big Bang to manage the maintenance and heavy lifting required to keep existence stable and temporal. 

The player meets ‘Bin Man’ late, ending the journey with a sequence of experimental VR environments that reprimand the player for trespassing. 

Gameplay

Whilst I refer to The Utility Room as a game, it is not gameplay heavy. There are two forms of jumping in-game. A traditional 'jump' and 'Leap'. Some gaps can be jumped normally, larger gaps will require you to leap.

Leaping is unique in The Utility Room. When the grip on both controllers is squeezed they begin to vibrate faster and faster. The faster the vibrations, the bigger the jump when the player swings their arms. By giving the player less mobility than in traditional games and disarming the player they become more vulnurable in the world. If they miscalulate a jump they will suffer the consequences. Fans of games like Boneworks or Bonelab might find this version of jumping cumbersome.

Players can both teleport and move using smooth locomotion. This is because some areas are too precarious for smooth locomotion meaning players will have to use both.

Climbing is also optional in the game but is not a major gameplay element.

In the world are collectables. 8 in total representing the different giant rocky heads that each have different jobs within the Room. Information can be learnt about them in the HEAD LOG once they are collected. 

Note: The game performs best using Oculus OpenXR. Streaming/recording is best on quality setting: HIGH. 

High Tier graphics cards should be fine with ULTRA. 

Here are some pictures from inside The Utility Room: