Theseus, along with Perseus, Heracles, and several others, is often regarded as one of the greatest heroes in the entire lineage of Greek mythology. When youre given your very own boss fight in the God of War series of video games, that alone is usually enough to mean youre a pretty big deal.

One of the most well-known and repeated stories of Theseus youll find mention of though is his battle with the Minotaur. Typically he fights the beast after navigating a deadly labyrinth. In the appropriately titled new game from Forge Reply, Theseus, that comes to PlayStation VR (PSVR) this week, youre tasked with being the star of this tale.

When I previewed Theseus a couple of months ago the build I tried was on the HTC Vive, but the first commercially available version of the game (which is being reviewed here) is launching on the PSVR. Ever since the game was first revealed back in February its drawn frequent comparisons to God of War for obvious reasons. Its a third-person action game presumably, utilizes direct references to Greek mythology, and has you doing battle with multiple, often large, monsters. But other than those surface level similarities the games couldnt really be much different.

God of War is all about action. You get new weapons, unlock flashy combos, and are constantly fighting hordes of enemies. Theseus is about slow-paced, quiet, sometimes tedious, exploration with a scattering of occasional fights along the way. The majority of puzzles consist of climbing on ledges and hiding from the Minotaur itself. In some ways, its more of a stealth game than an action game.

The first weapon I found was a torch, which I could use to scare spider-like beasts away when walking around in the dark, but you do eventually get a sword as well. Unfortunately combat never really evolves beyond mashing buttons and trying to dodge enemy attacks. While you could say similar things about games such as Chronos, another third-person action adventure game in VR, that title is much, much longer, with more varied enemies and environments, as well as an actual progression system. Theseus sort of felt like the first act of a larger game that was intended to open up more eventually and never does.

I spent somewhere between three and four hours playing Theseus before it was over. During that time I often found myself stopping to stare at the nice looking backdrop designs in the distance and can confirm that chills very often shot down my spine when the Minotaur was nearby.Speaking of which, the Minotaur itself may be the best part of the whole game. Hes massive and extremely intimidating. The sense of scale is powerful and I honestly felt scared when I sensed his presence.

The sound design was excellent throughout and did a great job of making me feel like I was actually tip-toeing through a creepy labyrinth with a twisted, evil, and relentless Minotaur trying to hunt me down.

The atmosphere and world building is so strong it feels like a missed opportunity that the actual game itself isnt better. Walking around environments that all pretty much look the same as a female wisp spirit guides me along was novel at first, but loses its luster quickly.

Just like Chronos, the entire game is played from third-person with mostly fixed camera angles. This means that each time you turn a corner or enter a new room the camera jumps to a new spot somewhere on the wall. It feels like youre spying on your character and telling him where to go more than it does youre actually controlling your character. Its a style of gameplay Ive never been a fan of with VR titles and vastly prefer an always-following camera in third-person such as in Luckys Tale or Edge of Nowhere.

One major reason is because Theseus doesnt feel like a VR game. Wherein the other mentioned titles feel like they were designed from the ground up with VR mind for the most part, Theseus does not. Several segments have me walking in a straight line, with the camera deciding to suddenly hover behind me, but my characters body is blocking my view while things are happening in front of him. Its a bizarre feeling where I cannot see what my character sees even though he is facing straight ahead and it happened frequently.

Many of the textures and areas of the labyrinth appeared as noticeably blurry and jagged to me. Granted, the PSVR isnt as powerful as the Vive or Rift, but I noticed similar issues on my Vive preview build as well. The art direction is wonderful and looks great in high-resolution screenshots, but those visuals lose their edge and luster when filtered through a VR headset. Its just another way the game feels under cooked.

Theseus is a game that had a lot of promise. The dark and creepy setting comes through with a strong, foreboding atmosphere thats often difficult to capture in VR games. But unfortunately the actual gameplay itself feels like more of a chore than anything else. Its over far too soon and doesnt feel properly designed for VR from the ground up. The Minotaur is terrifying and intimidating, but getting through everything else just to face him isnt going to be worth it for most people.

Theseus releases today on PSVR with PC VR versions (presumably both Rift and Vive) coming soon. Read ourGame Review Guidelinesfor more information on how we arrived at this score.

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Theseus Review: Exploring The Minotaur's Labyrinth In VR - UploadVR