KOBOLD: Chapter I

KOBOLD: Chapter I is the start of a fantastic interactive VR horror story, for once i had the feeling that i was inside a good horror movie. You can really feel the tension building up once further on in the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPmZRnjScrQ

Kobold is an incredible journey into a dark mythical, world like a Grimm fairytale. The photogrammetry scanning, lighting, voice acting and sound design combine to create a convincingly realistic and very specifc, brooding atmosphere that you wont find again so soon in VR. I felt there was a delicate balance between free exploration, a little bit of puzzle solving and being guided along an uncomfortable path by some invisible force, going deeper and deeper into a parallel world of darkness. The open ending left questions in my mind so I googled a bit and found the movie. It shows the little boy`s story and is worth watching: https://vimeo.com/300384362 If you like high concept horror, get this.

Wow! I absolutely love and recommend this game. To put it in a nut shell: Kobold combines awsome and surprisingly crisp visuals with a very convincing sound environment to create such a powerful immersion that makes you really feel the atmosphere and one can only wish for in the VR-Horror-Genre! I like the story very much and how the game gives you hints or clues. You have to think for your self how everything works out (with a little help from the deep voice in your head, which gives you at least some essential clues) and deside for the path you want to take. So there are actual decisions to be made and if you wan't to really understand what is actually going on, you have to gather the information with your own hands, eyes and brain. There are clues and hints to the story spread all over the game, so you probably have to play it several times to catch them all. I played it two times now (with different endings) and I feel like I still have a lot to discover. Allthough it is kinda weird not having a usual UI or a settings menu where you could save, I liked the devs approach to handling those things in VR and in an immersive way. I love the inventory bag. In conclusion I can say: nice visuals, nice story, dense and creepy atmoshpere, very unpredictable. I am very excited for the next Chapter!

[h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers. Spoiler-free Review. [/h1] [i] I received this game from the Steam Curator Connect program. [/i] This is a mystery thriller / horror walking simulator. The whole of Chapter 1 took me exactly 53 minutes, although I was taking my time trying to experience everything (read & listen to everything available). The reason it says only 6 minutes on Steam is because my internet went down after I had downloaded the game. It's finally back up and I can write this review although I did have to play an additional 6 minutes just to be able to publish this for you all. This is a narrative driven game and there is really only one puzzle that is super easy to figure out as long as you have been paying attention to some of the stuff strewn about the abandoned house. You also have to find some objects, but those are very easy to find as every interactable item is highlighted for you. There are several minor interactions along the way as well that complete the story. You'll listen to cassette tapes (kids ask your parents in case you can't figure out how to work the audio player), look at photographs, view VCR tapes (kids also ask your parents about this), read letters (and they are narrated as well), etc. So the focus is not on the gameplay, but on the experience, in other words, a walking simulator for VR. To that end, this game does a really good job of setting up the atmosphere. I don't want to say there is not a jumpscare, because there is at least one that may be considered as such, but that's not the focus of the experience. The mystery of the missing boy and you entering this place that has some dark secrets in the middle of the night and giving you this sense of uneasiness throughout, not only about what happened, but for your own safety is what is really driven home in this experience. The graphics are really well done and this game has great use of lighting. Finally, we have a VR game that gets how to make a game dark, without it being too dark, and yet still have a flashlight that is useful, even necessary. You have full locomotion with snap turning. The one weird thing that isn't explained in the tutorial, is that you press Y/B to turn on the flashlight with the Oculus Touch controller. The voice actors were good and so was the sound work overall. I enjoyed the game. I was really starting to get scared and I was wondering what is going to happen here? Unfortunately, that's when the game ended (End of Chapter 1). That was a little bit of a let down. However, I do hope that Chapter 2 comes out soon as I am intrigued as to where the story goes from there. Overall, this game has excellent production values and a good atmosphere, although the gameplay was lacking. [b]Rate 7/10. I enjoyed the experience, but at the same time, I hope people realize that there isn't a whole lot of game elements here and even the story is mostly told through the audio tapes and letters. So just know what you're getting for your $10 and decide whether it's a game for you. As a horror / mystery fan, I think it's worth it.[/b]

Okay so this game has a really cool atmosphere to it, I love the setup of the house and what's going on. Buuut, unfortunately, this game DOES suffer with the most usual problem that VR games have.. IT'S TOO DAMN SHORT. Even for Chapter 1, priced at 9.99, for someone not reading anything and going through quick, this experience is literally like 30 minutes long. I made it into a 2 hour experience because I livestream and so I look at EVERYTHING with my chat, as I love exploring and reading, which is what you will get a lot of with most VR games as, most games pad out their experiences with videos and a lot of reading. This game is padded out the same way. So devs.. if you're making a chapter 2, please make it a little longer. Like I'm super interested to know about the KOBOLD creature, but this Chapter barely even touches on that demon. Like one thing I didn't like is that the game teases you with talks of the monster... but instead of easing you into the experience of finding him, it shoves you into another 'underworld' type of level, and proceeds to just end in an odd cliffhanger. I hope the devs flesh this story out better in Chapter 2.

This was crispy af. Wonderfully scary. Best played with friends watching! For the record, I did not think this was too short. I felt it was the perfect length and achieved a subtle balance between eerie atmosphere, exploration, narrative and jump scares. Peepz need to stop being whiney divas and appreciate.

Play time 30 mins to 1 hour. No Chapter 2 It's been 6 years

All in all, it's definitely not a bad experience for the price. Mind you, it's kind of short and not very replayable, but for the price it's better than renting a horror movie. Great voice acting too. Only complaint is that there's been no updates or information on KOBOLD: Chapter 2.

This is a short game but a terrifying one. This was my first experience in the VR horror genre and i was sweating by the end of it. Took me maybe 40 minutes to read through and finish the experience but was definitely worth it in my opinion. Had alot of fun. Maybe wait for it to go on a sale though just because it is so short!

Nice Horror Experience but REALLY Short even if it was $5. Had some good jump scares and chilling atmosphere. Movement and grabbing felt a bit clunky. Wait for a sale.