Remote maintenance as a couch co-op game: "Elsewhere Electric" tried out
Elsewhere Electric has an interesting game concept that allows VR and smartphone users to play together. However, a closer look reveals weaknesses.
The remote maintenance drama begins in the desert.
(Image: Games by Stitch)
The Elsewhere Electric game is designed for two people: One plays with VR goggles, the other on a smartphone. Together, they have to put a decommissioned plant back into operation deep underground. The person on the smartphone takes on the role of operations manager and gives instructions from the surface, while the person with VR goggles enters the underground facility to carry out manual work on site as a technician. Dark rooms, cryptic terminals and eerie creatures await there.
The asymmetrical distribution of roles involves different tools: the operations manager uses a smartphone to operate a graphical interface that can be used to control the inner workings of the facility, while the technician on site uses a special glove to work on the devices themselves.
A tough gaming experience
In the tested sections of the game, the main task is to pass codes that restore the power and light, activate surveillance cameras and open doors to lower floors. This sounds easier than it is, as the codes consist of symbols that have been deliberately designed to be difficult to describe. This shows that Elsewhere Electric is primarily a game about communication and how difficult it can be to convey what you see in language.
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As exciting as the concept sounds and actually is at first: After a while, fatigue sets in; the experience begins to feel more like work than play. The smartphone interface plays a major part in this: its complicated UI design is apparently intended to offer an additional challenge, but in practice it mainly hinders the flow of the game. What's more, many of the important symbols and maps are displayed so small that the game becomes an involuntary eye test. After two sweat-inducing hours, we abandoned the self-experiment.
Not the first asymmetrical VR game
People have different talents, which is why we swapped roles once during testing. This didn't change the tough gameplay.
This is unfortunate, because after an initial short test in spring, we were really looking forward to the finished game. Back then, the experience seemed much more accessible. No wonder: the CEO of the studio Games by Stitch took charge of the mission himself at the time and guided us through the first sections with routine.
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If you like Elsewhere Electric and are looking for other VR titles with asymmetrical gameplay, you will find what you are looking for in Acron: Attack of the Squirrels, Black Hat Cooperative, Panoptic or VR Giants.
Elsewhere Electric is now available for Meta Quest in the Horizon Store and for PC VR glasses on Steam. The companion app is available for Android and iOS. It is free of charge.
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