Bloodious Games has finally given me something in this VR version of Madison that I've been craving in my 7+ years in VR; a game that is almost irresponsibly frightening. A game that probably ought to carry a health warning due to the sheer relentlessness of its frights. Bloodious proves here that they simply do not give a ♥♥♥♥ how badly Madison VR scares you, they will not hold back, and they do not. For a horror fan (particularly VR horror!) I cannot convey how refreshing this approach is. I came into Madison VR thankfully blind and finished the game in under 6 deliciously terrifying hours (or so the achievement I triggered told me) and I thoroughly dreaded each of them. I'll share my thoughts on The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with this one.

THE GOOD:
⦁ As stated above, the game is relentless with its scares and does not hold back. The pacing of the scares is just right, but expect to be kept in a state of constant dread and "on edge" for the game's entire runtime (for me, under six hours).
⦁ Audio design is top notch; a constant swell of atmospheric sound creates a palpable tension every moment you spend in that house, even the quiet moments where seemingly nothing is going on. Jumpscares and other spooky moments are expertly punctuated with Hollywood-quality orchestral string swells that sent my stomach into my throat even when I expected them!
⦁ Graphically this is a beautiful game (if you can consider rotting wood and blood-stains "beautiful"). DLSS and other graphics options kept the movement fluid and running smooth. I experienced this visual feast on a Bigscreen Beyond, and the deep dark blacks were inky and gorgeous on the micro-OLED display. Play this one on an OLED HMD like the BSB, PSVR2, Vive, etc. if you're able!
⦁ Puzzles felt like they had the right level of challenge; I was rarely left stumped for long, and when I did figure out the solution the puzzles felt satisfying. I'm sad to admit I did look up a few minor hints online to point me in the right direction in a couple of cases where I felt what I was supposed to do; honestly if this game felt "safer" to play I'm sure I would've puzzled these sections out on my own, but the atmosphere is so unsettling in this one it can be difficult to think straight and you really don't want to be spending longer in some of those situations than you have to.
⦁ The story is actually engrossing. As with most horror, you've generally seen all of this game's themes before, but rarely are they presented in such a compelling manner. I genuinely wanted to follow the story to its conclusion to find out what happens, even though that meant forging ahead into the terror.

THE BAD:
⦁ The game originated as a flat game and is being ported into VR, and unfortunately you're reminded of this fact when you invariably can't interact with every object that you want to, or when inventory interactions rarely amount to more than "pull this thing from your inventory and place it on this silhouette in the game world while standing in a stationary spot." The worst offenders were ladders and stairways that I wanted to physically climb but were relegated to a trigger pull and a scene fade out.
⦁ Somewhat related to above, scene transitions were of the "fade to black" sort which I found terribly immersion breaking. Fortunately there's not much of this, and it never interrupts action, but it's a shame to squander opportunities like having someone lower themselves trepidatiously down a ladder into a well by dissolving the tension with a fade-out.
⦁ Speaking of dissolving tension, a couple of Madison's most famous frightening moments I found spoiled by an over-reliance on some "video-gamey" mechanic like pointing an object at jussssst the right spot to trigger an event. I'd have really appreciated some grace in this part. I started one of these sections utterly terrified, but my terror quickly devolved into frustration as I tried desperately to end the "pixel hunt" and move on--come on guys, we get the mechanic here, let's just get to the scary stuff!
⦁ Another way the game got in its own way was its tendency to pop Steam achievement notifications in the middle of moments that otherwise would have been HORRIFYING.
+Pro-Tip+: silence your Steam achievement notifications before diving into this one! Learn from my mistakes, don't rob yourself of scares! And Bloodious, if you guys are listening, can't you have these achievements trigger a bit later (i.e. on a respawn or something?) so we aren't taken out of intense moments?
⦁ The save system is really poor by modern standards; the game arbitrarily saves with an easily missable visual indicator only when you trigger certain events, or solve puzzles--it doesn't even save when you pick up all items. This means that when life invariably gets in the way and you have to quit your game session, you'll almost certainly be doing some backtracking when you load the game back up.

The Ugly:
⦁ I don't understand the choice to make some... let's call them "character models" blink in and out of existence; they look great, they're well animated, why display them like computer glitches? That took me out of the experience somewhat.
⦁ Some of the game's more frightening ideas tend to get overused. The first time I flick the lighter back on JUST in time to see the evil presence recess menacingly into the darkness, I shriek. By the 7th time the game requires me to do this, it's just gotten old.
⦁ Having rewatched on YouTube, there are elements I missed in the game's climatic finale because I physically turned the wrong way. I recognize this is tough to get right in VR, where we can look in directions that weren't intended during a "cut scene," but I feel it wasn't handled particularly gracefully here.

While I share a healthy amount of constructive (I hope!) criticism in this review, I want to make it clear that I enjoyed Madison VR IMMENSELY. Not only was it exactly the sort of unrelentingly terrifying horror experience that I was looking for in VR, it's a game of exceptional quality. I cannot WAIT to see what Bloodious does next. If you've got the stones to play this one, it's a horror adventure journey worth taking.

This game SUCKS it took me 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do in room 2 i couldn't figure it out i left steam vr came back in it did not save my progress and the height changer system is so mess up i was on the shortest option but i was still not short enough to reach not even crouching so i sat on my actual floor that didn't work so i laid down and it still did not let me get and your probably thinking "why didn't you use the force grab IT DOES NOT WORK and on normal mode it says it'll kind of guide you it did not tell me what to do 10/10 do not recommend just play the flat screen version its probably better

First time i had to take a break from a VR Horror game. First time i doubted walking through the doorway. First time i questioned if what i was seeing was really there or Im just freaking out a little. Truly a scary experience. Needs solid PC though.