We all loved playing hide and seek when we were kids, but what if doing so becomes a matter of life and death? Hiding and sneaking around might be the only way you get out alive and save your family.

Developed by Tessera Studios, ‘Intruders: Hide and Seek’ is a first-person stealth and thriller game, with some psychological twists and turns. When a family goes on vacation at a country house, you’d think things would be quiet and safe, unfortunately, that’s not the case. You play as Ben, the eldest of the children. After playing around and settling in, you are sent to bed, and not long after you find yourself in a situation as you watch the intruders break in and take your parents’ hostage. Now you must sneak around, find out what these intruders want, and save your family.

The story was kind of interesting with a few twists here and there, and nicely paced so I didn’t fall off and get bored, but it was a very short game, only taking me 1 and 1/2 hours to play through. It probably didn’t help that I explored the house early on before there were any threats so I pretty much knew where to go the whole time. For the completionist, it will take a little longer if you want to collect all the collectibles and documents, which there aren’t too many.

Intruders was initially intended to be a VR game with support to be played without it. Now ported to Xbox, unfortunately, Xbox does not have any VR support as of yet, so I feel I didn’t get the full experience.

For the most part, it seems the controls translated well. Starting out you get a tutorial every so often in the first chapter to let you know how to play the game. With most of what you need to know being played out in a little game of hide and seek with Ben’s younger sister.

Things were mostly explained, but a couple of things weren’t. I had no idea there was a quick turn feature by pulling back and pressing B, which didn’t seem to work all that well anyway and was inconsistent. Another thing was closing doors behind me, as I just walked through them when I wanted to open them I didn’t release you could press A and close them.

Stealth is your main mechanic here as you sneak around and try not to get seen or heard, but I found myself sprinting through the house most of the time and only slowing down and crouching when I was pretty close to the intruders. Most of the paths they take are pretty predictable and easy to get around posing almost no threat. If you did get chased, running into a nearby room, shutting the door, and quickly hiding was an easy escape. Although, I did get caught a couple of times being a little reckless.

The country vacation house is a beautiful home with great design, now it sounds like I’m trying to sell a house. Anyway, when night falls the whole atmosphere of it changes, as it rains, and the house gets turned upside down by the intruders it manages to give off a very surreal feel; feeling like you’re in danger.

The character models in my opinion don’t really match the rest of the aesthetic of the game and are kind of creepy looking but that might have been intended.

I understand this was a VR title so having a model for the character you play might not be necessary, but in this case, it might have helped a little. At the beginning of the game, you are in the car on the way to your vacation home. Here, you have the ability to look around freely as your dad rambles on but then I look down and see I have no legs, no body, and feel like a weird floating head. For me, this throws out my immersion quite a bit.

The game sound design was decent for the most part, with rain constantly pouring and footsteps from the intruders as they got closer. However the voice acting was mediocre, and at points had weird pauses between some dialogue points, leaving you wondering if it was the end of the scene or not.

Intruders: Hide and Seek, with its decent story with thrilling twists, I can’t say I would recommend it at its current price due to the short amount of playtime it offers. I would suggest waiting for a sale if it’s on your radar. As for the completionists out there looking for a quick and easy boost in achievements, this is an easy title.

Written by: MrVibeAU