u/Vvix0

I'm probably preaching to the choir when I say the Dark Descent is a good horror game, but I need to paint you a little background to explain just why Sclerosis is so good (feel free to skip the next paragraph if you're just in here for the VR part).

I grew up right at the point where YouTube let's plays were popping off. I haven't watched English-speaking YouTubers like Markiplier or PewDiePie at the time, so while I was heavily into ~2010 horror games, Amnesia kind of just passed me by. I knew of it, I knew who the servants were, I roughly knew the plot, but the game itself just kinda existed in the background for me. I did end up playing it around 2016, but it didn't feel very significant in comparison to other games I played at the time (which ironically took a lot of inspiration from Amnesia).

Ever since I got a VR headset a year or so ago I've been itching for a good horror game and nothing could scratch that need. I grew up watching and playing a lot of horror games and it's kind of hard to phase me anymore, so a lot of horror games which scared most people were just kinda unimpressive, then I randomly stumbled upon Sclerosis, a Unity port of Dark Descend which also doubled as a de-make (with optional PSX artstyle toggle) and a mobile port, but most importantly for this post, a VR version as well.

And let me tell you, Amnesia in VR is so far the best and scariest thing I've played and it gave me a brand new love for this game.

The most obvious thing: The physics. Not to underplay the CreaTeam's part in porting it all to VR, but Amnesia's heavy use of physics objects for everything translates beautifully to VR. You can grab objects to take a closer look, you can carry things under your arm as you would in real life, carry things up to the light if you wanna see them better, push the door out slightly to peek trough the gap. The interactivity level seriously challenges a lot of modern VR games and CreaTeam did an amazing work on making sure all the objects can be grabbed and tossed with realistic hand position and such.

Similarly, the lantern is such a good fit for VR. Actually having to lift you arm up to make it shine over a piece of debris, pushing your arm out forward to see a little deeper into the darkness and having to quickly snuff it with your other hand feels very natural.

And, this might be the obvious part, the game is just much scarier when everything is literally in your face. You can't just turn away from the monitor and surround-sound audio makes feel just how close the sounds are. You have no idea how many times I heard a grunt spawn and had to fiddle with the doors to figure out which way they open so I could hide before the monster gets me. Playing Amnesia in VR actually made me anxious for what's around the corner which is a feeling I haven't had in years. I actually jumped playing a horror game again!

Most interesting part is that I know Amnesia really well, which kind of eliminates a big draw of the game, which is the unknown. You cannot look at the monsters, but staying in the dark will drive you insane. The game is very careful about not showing too much of its hand and I bypassed it all when I went to replay the game in VR. I already know the monsters despawn, I know what they look like, I know (roughly) when or where they will spawn, but it's still so fucking scary when they do. I completely bypassed the fear of the unknown, but the game is still making me afraid due to just how good the atmosphere and sound design are.

If you've gotten all the way down here, thanks for reading and please play Sclerosis VR if you can, it's free on itch.io and only requires you owning the steam version of the game to play (you can even play it without a computer if you own a Quest headset). It's the best horror experience I ever had in my adulthood.

TL;DR: Amnesia translates to VR crazy well with all the physics stuff and is scarier than any other VR game I played

I'm not exactly transfem, but amab genderfluid who's been feeling more and more fem lately. With the recent heatwave, most of my big hoodies are too warm to wear and I resort to really loose t-shirts and sweatpants, which just makes me look like someone's divorced father. I've been looking for more loose fem clothes, like sundresses, but I'm quite tall and wide, so it's hard to find something which fits.

The ironic part is that t-shirts and sweatpants are not particularly masculine clothes, but because I have a masculine build and still subconsciously think of myself as male, it's hard to get out of that headspace unless I'm presenting very femme. Did any of you guys figure out how to wear gender-neutral clothing without dysphoria? Any advice on maybe making neutral clothes more feminine or anything like that?