Do you know the definition of insanity? Insanity is doing the same thing over, and over, and over again while expecting different results. That can easily be applied with me trying to look for a fun experience with a walking simulator disguised as a horror game. After my less-than-stellar experience with Layers of Fear, I decided to give Rise of Insanity a chance, despite signs that this was going to be yet another weak horror experience loaded with genre clichés. I should have listened to myself, Rise of Insanity is even more boring than Layers of Fear.

At its core, Rise of Insanity is a simple walking simulator dressed in a pretty horror-themed suit. It tries to create an eerie atmosphere but ends up making the exact same mistakes as Layers of Fear. It’s nothing more than a visual experience; a severely linear walking simulator where you go from one point of a hallway to another in order to trigger some trippy LSD effect, jump scare, or both. It’s not scary in the way that a proper horror piece should be, and it’s severely frustrating for this reason.

The amount of bad horror game (and movie) clichés this game features is overwhelming. Large amount of ineffective annoying jump scares? Check. Predictable plot twists copied from famous horror franchises? Check. A ghostly figure created by your own twisted psyche pursuing you? Check. Children’s toys? Check. Terrible lighting? Check. I could go on all day. Rise of Insanity features an excessive amount of horror tropes, to the point the game becomes completely devoid of any defining personality.

The game looks fine when you’re in a lit area, as everything is well designed and complete with detailed textures. The amount of environments is pretty small, though, and you’ll constantly warp between them. Players will move through a hospital, courtyard, mansionm and then back through them all over again. As you can imagine, it gets repetitive really fast. The sound design is also very lackluster. I can sum it up with this video. Those four seconds perfectly summarizes the game’s entire sound design.

Rise of Insanity is a severely generic horror game. The only “insanity” I could find while “playing” this game was the madness I experienced from severe boredom. It’s full of the worst kinds of horror clichés possible, featuring little gameplay, uninspiring story, and is just too short. Be it VR or on your desktop monitor, this game is just not worth the purchase. It’s one of the most bland horror games I’ve ever played.

Graphics: 7.0 The environments are well designed and feature decent visuals, but are repetitive and badly lit, even by horror standards.	Gameplay: 4.0 It’s not exactly bad in a technical point of view, as the controls are somewhat responsive. But it’s just another walking simulator.
Sound: 4.0 Loud noises and bad voice acting is all you’ll find here.	Fun Factor: 3.5 Uninteresting story,  little gameplay, no challenge involved, and absolutely no horror. A very boring experience.
Final Verdict: 4.5