Viveport Review: Don't Knock Twice

Go in search of your daughter… if you dare… in this spine-tingling horror experience.

By Desmond Madison, Greenlit Content

“One Knock to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead.” 

This is an echo of the grim urban legend portrayed by an award-winning developer at Wales Interactive in the gripping and paralyzing VR horror/adventure, Don’t Knock Twice. While the game was based on the feature film of the same name starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and directed by Caradog James (The Machine), Don’t Knock Twice stands on its own as a terrifying tale that requires no previous knowledge of its source material.

Searching for your missing daughter, you’ll play as a mother seeking answers as she investigates a mysterious manor full of frightening puzzles in a race against time to prevent her child from suffering an unthinkable fate at the hands of a demonic witch.

Making full support of the Vive controllers, you’ll be able to sit or stand in room-scale using either hand-forward locomotion, head-forward locomotion, or teleportation. You’ll want to find the option that’s most comfortable for you, as you’ll be haunted by demons looking to scare the pants off of you at every chance they get!

That’s an ultimate test of the experience as well. Much of the gameplay will have you wandering the manor and interacting with a wide array of highly detailed objects as you seek clues and receive text messages on your phone. You’ll solve five main puzzles before your heart bursts through your chest, across this roughly two and half hour tour into the darkest depths of your own paranoia. Who or what might be lurking behind your back?

Searching far and wide across the manor starts out easy enough, but it’s worth noting that these puzzles ramp up the closer you get to finding your estranged daughter. Occasionally, you’ll find a few axes lying around that give you a sense of security and protection from the demons lying in wait, but don't think they'll save you....

It’s often said that what you can’t see on screen is the scariest aspect of storytelling in the horror genre. While that’s true of the mostly invisible demon, the developers at Wales Interactive deserve nods for filling this creaky old house with a horrific and richly detailed environment. The manor is rife with haunting photographs, trails of blood, and mortifying Russian Dolls that are impressive to look at, but also manage to make you keep moving as quickly as you can. The same praise can be said of the dreadful atmosphere in the audio, as the sounds of the rickety floorboards and ominous babies crying engulf you with a pulse-pounding sense of fear.

Once finished with the main story, you just might find yourself looking to give it another go to see if you can test the fates to outsmart the witch. Although, the team has done such an incredible job with the terrifying atmosphere in Don’t Knock Twice, that playing through just once may be all your heart can take. Horror fans, this one is for you!

Don't Knock Twice is available on Viveport, and in Viveport Subscription.