Should you join the Assembly?
The Assembly is a PSVR launch title where you follow the story of two different, but connected characters. The story is set at a research facility and the game will make you play as both characters throughout as you uncover the truth about the organisation and solve puzzles.
You can only play with the DualShock controller and I would recommend sitting for this one, since it can be pretty lengthy. The game will make you figure out codes to unlock computer terminals and keypads, testing out Petri dish samples under a microscope and solving puzzles that vary from a hypothetical whodunnit murder mystery to trying to divide up scientists between different countries to stop a deadly virus taking over the world.
The Assembly has a number of control methods, including teleporting and moving forward with the left stick, while switching perspective with a tap of the right stick. The other gives you full control like an FPS, but this can be very sick inducing and I wouldn’t really recommend it. The game handles well for the most part and solving the puzzles is fun, but the load times are a bit on the long side and the story isn’t the most engaging of the PSVR launch games.
Another downside is that there’s no chapter select or way of keeping track of what collectables you’ve gathered, or any way of backtracking either…meaning that once you’ve cleared an area, that’s it. You’ve missed your one and only chance, if you want the trophy for collecting all dossiers or something else you’ll have to restart the whole game. I’d recommend looking up a collectable guide if you are trophy hunting.
Visually, The Assembly isn’t the strongest looking game…but it’s far from the worst either. The lab is nicely detailed, even if the character models aren’t. I also love the Super Mario Easter Egg during the whodunnit test. Voice-acting is a mixed bag and like I said, the story isn’t the most engaging…but it does enough to carry you through to the end…as long as you don’t mind the long load times and have the right control method that works for you. In terms of VR, The Assembly works well and makes good use of the tech.
The Verdict
The Assembly is a decent PSVR game, it has decent puzzles and is memorable in it’s own way. It’s just held back by long load times, a mediocre story and no way of replaying individual sections.