Transference focuses on the Hayes family headed by Father Raymond. His wife Catherine, a talented musician, and their young son Benjamin join him. We soon discover that Raymond embarked on a dangerous mission, which is to copy human thoughts and feelings into digital awareness. Of course, he chooses to use his family as subjects for the test, and you find yourself exploring a complex mixture of their memories that reveal a more painful story.

Most of the events in the game take place in the apartment "Hayes" where you have to solve a number of puzzles in order to progress. You find certain parts of the apartment "missing", which are indicated by a lost purpose or a mystery that must be solved. Finding the missing object or solving the puzzle will download the missing part of the apartment, which in turn opens up new targets to explore. There may be some realistic videos that sometimes tell the story, whether on different TV screens or just in the middle of the air, which come as a short but welcome change from the game atmosphere, and clearly shows how Raymond becomes disorganized as his experience progresses.

While Transference's puzzles vary by type, their solution can sometimes be frustrating. In one puzzle, for example, you have to find a missing watch, which you can solve only by interacting with a previously solved puzzle, and this was not immediately evident, as you needed about 20 minutes to walk around the apartment before you came across the solved puzzle that allowed Me to progress. The puzzles themselves also tend to become simpler as the story progresses, and given that this is all you do in the game, it's a big disappointment.

The apartment explores two very different situations, and switches between them by pressing the light button. In the first case, the apartment lives in the memories of the "Hayes" family and their times together, filled with photo frames, scattered music sheets and other memories. In the second case, the apartment is lit in sharp red color and filled with endless rows of other machines and equipment. You can download and move the tools across the two states, and you will need to remember this to be able to solve specific puzzles.

What Transference succeeds in doing well is the general atmosphere. It constantly creates an ominous feeling, interspersed with short audio recordings that you hear while exploring the apartment. Sometimes they may be happy memories that are worth remembering, sometimes they are cries of pain and terror that will suddenly make you stand in your place. You may also encounter a dark, mysterious entity at times, but it usually appears only to move the story forward, not as a looming threat to you.

The story

There are also many things that can be analyzed in the Transference story, where it turns out that the story that initially appears about a man chasing his passion is actually something darker and permeates the depths of abuse and domestic violence. Raymond's mind is in conflict because of his addiction to sleeping pills, and his strained relationship with his wife takes her in a whirlpool that pulls her towards her personal hell. This is beautifully depicted in one of the parts where you feel that you are descending an endless staircase, and with each floor you see drawings and signs on the walls that tell of her desperation and her extreme struggle to escape from her husband and his virtual prison attached to it.

You can play in Transference in virtual reality (with a PSVR in this case) to live the full immersive experience, or you can choose to play without virtual reality, but the game imposes a much greater evil when playing with virtual reality glasses. Interacting with things becomes much easier, although the game causes a degree of motion sickness due to the narrow environment. However, the combination of virtual reality and headphones provides a much better experience, while the game offers only very few terrifying moments, However, it is very enlarged when playing with virtual reality.

Conclusion

Transference deals with some of the heavy and important topics that are cleverly portrayed through game optics and its story, and shows the level of absolute madness of a man who relentlessly pursues his seemingly impossible goal. But the place where the game fails is its short duration and puzzles that seem to get easier over time. There is nothing to tempt you to replay the game again (unless you want to collect all video and audio records), which further reduces the replay value. Transference is an interesting and unforgettable virtual reality experience, but this is the only positive of the game.

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