Eclipse: Edge of Light

In many ways, Eclipse: Edge of Light feels like my old high school field trips to the National Museums in D.C. You will invest about three hours of your day and walk throughout its long, dead world. During this, you can choose to go from hall to hall and only take in the most interesting displays. You can also choose to take your time and wander through the exhibits, learning and taking in as much as you can. The story isn’t great but it is entertaining, in its own way, to learn more about ...

As an experiential piece of software, and one with a fantastic sense of place, Eclipse ticks a lot of PSVR boxes, but don’t be surprised to come away wanting for a bit more.

At $14.99 it’s priced about right (although it’s a bit short at three hours to complete), and the game isn’t offensive, it’s just that there’s so much better available now in virtual reality, and things in Eclipse that would have been impressive at the time are fairly standard now.

There were a few things that were cool, like how the ending played out, a few scenes that actually utilized the sensory deprivation that VR thrives in, and I really liked using my head to scan objects in the world. But overall this entire game feels like a checklist of things the developer needed to do to label this a game and kick it out the door. Between the broken geometry, poor graphics, and mediocre puzzle/platforming required to complete the game I was severely disappointed.

Eclipse: Edge of Light was developed for VR systems and is meant to exist in that type of universe. So, is there enough to the game to play it on the flat screen of your Switch or TV? Well, let’s explore that.Read More

In Eclipse: Edge of Light, now on PSVR, you play in first-person as an astronaut who has crash-landed on an alien world. You are sent straight into the game without an explanation as to the game’s plot or the objectives, other than to find your fellow crew member who seems to have run off before you awoke. It becomes clear that your goal in the game is to uncover the truth about what happened to this planet by successfully travelling through it and creating the story as you go.

I’ve always considered VR to be a multiplier. It has the possibility to take good games and make them better. Likewise, it takes the bad and makes it worse. I don’t feel like I’ve played many middle of the road VR games. At least, not until I played Eclipse: Edge of Light, that is; a video game that I have little ability to formulate much feeling for other than “well, that existed, I guess.” It doesn’t do anything that wrong and has solid ideas throughout, it just doesn’t particularly do anything that interesting either.

Then we come to a completely different issue: the length. I was able to finish the game in just over a couple of hours. It felt much more painstaking than that, but that's because it all felt like such a slog – a very routine adventure that didn't really inspire me in any way. Slow progression, short game length, and a blasé narrative came together to ensure I wouldn't want to take this adventure again...unless I just didn't have much else to do on my Switch. And without VR support for this version, there's no way to even pretend you're really some explorer who uncovered an ancient civilizatio...

Unravel the mysterious history of a dead planet in a brief, overly simplistic first person walking simulator.