I have to admit that I went into this review hoping for nothing more than to experience the mine cart ride from Temple of Doom, but what I got was so much more. Ghost Town Mine Ride & Shootin’ Gallery is a fantastic concept for a fun and thrilling theme-park experience loaded with plenty of scares that will have you sweating, shouting, and hyperventilating when it’s all over. The game is a mix of walking and mine cart riding that clocks in at 20-30 minutes, which honestly is just about all your mind (and heart) can take. The Steam version supports both Vive and Oculus using the newly released Touch controllers.
The experience starts off innocently enough with you entering the creepy abandoned tourist attraction that was built into the haunted Black Rock Mines. Armed only with a flashlight and a six shooter you’ll need to survive this deadly ride until the end of the rails. At first the danger appears to be simply malfunctioning animatronics and an out-of-control mine cart, but as you explore deeper into the mine all sorts of spectral evil starts to materialize, not to mention bats, spiders, and all sorts of other things to shoot.
The motion controls work nicely allowing you to light the way and accurately shoot at obvious items as well as pop-up targets. Later in the game you will be furiously firing away at demonic hordes or shooting at environmental items to take them out in bulk. The game is loaded with jump scares – almost too many – and most are there just to startle you. Interestingly enough, the designers don’t really bait you into looking in any particular direction, so it’s easy to miss a scary event happing behind you, but this only adds to the replayability on future trips through the mine.
The cart rides are easily the most exciting part of the experience as you duck and tilt your head to avoid obstacles and shoot at targets as they flash by. Some parts of the ride are very fast and can cause motion sickness just like any real-life rollercoaster, but not because of VR. The comfort for this game was surprisingly good. Moving around on foot you simply hold the trigger to walk in the direction of your flashlight beam, while your head-mounted lamp illuminates anything you are looking at. Walking speed is slow – almost too slow – but it does eliminate nearly any chance of motion sickness and is infinitely better than teleporting.
The presentation is outstanding with great graphics and detailed models; especially the animatronic characters that will chip away to reveal their sparking robotic innards. The lighting effects are intense creating moods ranging from uneasy to crap-your-pants scary. There is great use of music and sound to add extra punch to the jump scares.
While you can and likely will die a few times during the ride you will always spawn nearby so you won’t have to replay much of the game. It’s worth noting there is no mid-game save, so you need to finish the ride, or you will start from the beginning when you come back. There is limited replay value, mostly since some scary events will go unnoticed on your first (or even second) pass, but Ghost Town Mine Ride & Shootin’ Gallery could have really benefited from a scoring system like Until Dawn Rush of Blood to keep you coming back. Even so, it’s a great ride and one you enjoy watching others take long after your heartbeat has returned to normal.
