Why Red Matter matters to the future of VR

In today's entry of Tales From The Backlog we'll be analyzing the critically acclaimed VR game Red Matter; a short and sweet Adventure-Puzzle game set on an abandoned Russian Mars base from developer Vertical Robot. Their only other game, Daedalus, is now available on Quest through AppLab and I'm definitely interested in playing it after finishing Red Matter. The way story is presented in tandem with the mechanics was engaging and *mostly* well executed. Level Design's focus on compartmentalization and mechanical operation presented fun, relatable setups in foreign environments (like nuclear reactors!). Lastly, this game is accessible to low energy players who scare easily while still presenting the thrill of venturing into the unknown.

Released in 2018 on PC and PSVR then later brought to Quest, Red Matter is an acclaimed Adventure-Puzzle game that puts you into the role of Agent Epsilon who's being sent to Mars to investigate a space base that's stopped communications with HQ. As Epsilon, your investigation into the matter reveals a tangled ball of events that unravels a bit with every text you scan and puzzle you solve. Thankfully, unraveling this ball requires you to explore the base and interact with large, clunky, soviet-era machinery that gives you the sweet natural dopamine release that comes with flipping dongles in VR!

When you start the adventure it's made clear that you're on a hunt for information and part of your primary loop will be reading/gathering info. While this mechanic may sound boring on paper, it actually works well thanks to the way it's presented, how frequently you engage with readable objects, and how little text is actually given to you when text is translated. Throughout my playthrough I rarely found text that translated into something longer than a paragraph. This brevity allows the text to feel pertinent rather than a detour from gameplay. Even better, most of these texts you encounter help you towards the goal of completing puzzles or figuring out the mystery of the space base!

Picture this; A 4x4 grid of buttons sit before you, each with a small label above the button to indicate what it controls. You scan a nearby work safety flyer that tells you the sequence of buttons needed to activate the terminal. With the button sequence in-mind, you begin scanning the labels of each button to find which ones match up with the flyer. You find all but the first button in the list and finally you scan the button you need. Now you either use your memory for the order of buttons or walk over to the safety flyer to scan it to see the sequence again. You use the information you sought for to input the correct sequence of buttons and voila you've opened a path to progress deeper into the space base. Next to the safety flyer may be an easy-to-miss family photo of one company employee with a note that says "Miss you" if scanned and will actually give you some context to relationships happening within the narrative you're meant to uncover.

Interestingly enough, I think it's possible to easily walk past many details within the story in this game because it's mostly relegated to side objects and a pause menu interface. The conspiracy board in the pause menu updates as you scan information in the environment but, as far as I could tell, there is nothing that explicitly tells you the story of how events unfold. There are sequences where visuals storyboard what happened to the crew as you walk through a space, but the exact details are likely tucked away in files or on the board itself which is a mostly visual representation of character relationships with notes on events. While I was able to mostly follow it and enjoyed the implementation of a “show, don’t tell” approach, I couldn't help but feel a little lost on some aspects of the narrative. In hindsight, I would've liked a way to reference previously scanned texts instead of carrying around objects to scan again later. Maybe that's for me to uncover in a future playthrough.