The Poisoner

Review

To be a police officer can be thrilling and very scary at times. That will probably depend on which jobs they are sent to. In this case, the officers are on the trail of a serious and dangerous criminal. The individual in question is very clever and manages to lead the officers into a dead end. Then, after smoothly and quietly moving behind the officers, and with two precise blows to each officer’s head, he sends them into a deep and unwanted sleep! To make matters worse, he injects the policemen with a poisonous substance and imprisons them in a house basement. You are one of these two officers, and you need to find the way out of this basement, in The Poisoner! 

The Poisoner is a VR game developed and published by PlatformaVR and is currently available on Steam. Your goal is to escape the basement as soon as possible.

In the main menu, you’ll be able to either go through a very quick tutorial or jump right into it by pressing the button, Start Game. Then you’ll be given a great introduction to the story. What is fun about the intro is that you’ll have to follow it by moving your head right as the images appear until you complete a full circle.

From here, you'll wake up in a dark basement. You’ll be able to see your two hands, and the left one will have a watch on its wrist. This watch can give you access hints by clicking it, if you are stuck in the puzzles.  The only light you’ll have access to in this game is through candles, so make sure to light up as many as possible to help you through this terrifying ordeal! (Actually, you’ll need to grab one of them to see around darker corners of the basement.)

By checking the walls and the floor, you’ll uncover objects, and some will help you to complete puzzles. It’s straightforward to identify puzzles which are items that have a light-yellow contour on them. Find and use the correct object on them, and you’ll be closer to exiting the basement. It’s very easy to pick up and drop items, but accessing your watch is a bit of a struggle as your hand’s alignment is not quite right.

You’ll experience a few jumpy moments in the Poisoner, which are very fun.  You’ll probably make your way out within 10 to 20 minutes, maximum, as there is only one room to exit, and therefore the replay-ability is minimal.

Graphically the games look great, and the tense atmosphere is well portrayed. As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the introduction, and I found the controls pretty good, with the exception of accessing the watch. It’s a short game, though!