Journey For Elysium is the VR game that takes you down into Greek myth like never before.
In Journey For Elysium, you are dead. That’s not how most games start off, and indeed, not how most games motivate the player. Usually you’re alive and trying to avoid death; even in games where you play as a zombie, an animated skeleton, or something similar, you’re still trying to avoid your second death.
But not Journey For Elysium. In this ancient Greece-themed VR game, you play as a recently deceased hero who’s just arrived at the River Styx. Your quest is to escape the underworld and make it to Elysium and also figure out exactly what happened that landed you down there in the first place.
The game models itself after the classic ‘90s adventure games, like Myst and The Secret of Monkey Island. The gameplay is primarily puzzle-based, with the player trying to figure out how to escape and explore with the few tools they’re provided.
The biggest tool—and one that developer Mantis Games mentions specifically—is the oar. Most of the game’s traveling takes place in a rowboat with the player using their VR handsets to row down the River Styx. Players will also get a bow and arrow— another VR standby— and can climb cliffs by virtually grasping rocky surfaces.
While the textures and lighting seem top notch, you might notice a distinct lack of color in Journey For Elysium. The entire game is in black and white, a bold stylistic choice that emphasizes the underworld setting of the game. The grayscale aesthetic also serves an important gameplay function, as it makes it easier to nudge the player with golden outlines on certain puzzle pieces or places of interest.
You can check out the video above for more information on how nine guys in Belgium are making Journey For Elysium. So far, the game has a tentative fourth-quarter 2019 release date on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift VR Systems. You can wishlist it on Steam here.