"In the ride for your life, choose your path wisely and try to stay alive."
Switchback VR is a horror video game developed and published by Supermassive Games and released on March 16, 2023. It is a VR Rail Shooter spin-off of The Dark Pictures Anthology.
The game puts the player in the shoes of an unnamed person traveling on a train to meet their sister in New York. Suddenly, one of the train's passengers is possessed by the demon Belial, who attempts to drag everyone on the train to Hell. The player finds themselves on a roller coaster cart going through various locations from the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me. Along the way, the player can save, kill, or ignore their fellow passengers trapped within the nightmare, before finally facing Belial.
This is Supermassive's second VR rail shooter, after Until Dawn's Rush of Blood spin-off.
Switchback VR contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Most of the game's bosses. The Sailor Girl from Man of Medan is now a supernatural poltergeist, the Burned Demon from Little Hope is a major threat, and Du'Met's Murder Castle is far more extensive and terrifying.
- Adaptational Villainy: Several of the enemies were just props in previous games, like the mannequins from Little Hope and Sherman's corpse from The Devil in Me.
- Can't Move While Being Watched: Certain enemies only move when the player blinks or looks away.
- Creepy Doll: An optional Burning Trials and Enjoy your Stay track brings the player through areas infested with tiny, evil dolls that attack the player. If you take the other tracks, they'll come back in the final level.
- Dead Guy Puppet: Most of the enemies in The Devil in Me levels are animatronic corpses.
- Death by Adaptation: Du'Met dies at the end of The Devil in Me levels.
- Death Trap: Anthony and Robert are put in one and can be saved, killed, or abandoned by the player.
- Demonic Possession: Belial possesses the passenger Laila.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Belial, a member of the Ars Goetia, is the main antagonist.
- Downer Ending: If the player fails to defeat Belial in time, they die and Belial promises their fate is far worse than they could imagine.
- Dragged Off to Hell: What Belial is attempting to do to the player.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: The final level of the game is Frozen Hell, after all.
- Featureless Protagonist: Nothing is ever revealed about the protagonist beyond their relation to Charlotte.
- Gender Flip: Belial, a typically male demon, is female in this game, referring to herself as the "Mother of Lies."
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The player is briefly stuck in one at the start of Abandon All Hope.
- Hellhound: Similar enemies can be found along an optional track in Into the Ship's Heart. If you take the other track, they'll come back in the final level.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Du'Met is ultimately killed by his own acid trap, when the player pushes it back so it spills acid onto Du'Met's glass container and leaks through, killing him.
- Interface Screw: The Little Hope level Burning Trials has the Drowned Demon, who occasionally pops up and vomits to cover the screen. Later, the House of Ashes level Into The Abyss feature parasites that will jump onto the player's face, covering parts of the screen until they are killed.
- Jump Scare: The main way the game tries to scare its audience.
- Karma Meter: The difficulty of the final fight depends on how many of the train passengers you save.
- Latin Is Magic: Belial can be heard whispering in Latin throughout the game, with her favorite phrase being "Animam tuam vorabo" ("I will devour your soul").
- Mirror Scare: In Maiden Voyage, several zombies climb out of the mirrors rather than simply being reflected in them.
- Murderous Mannequin: There is a variety of mannequin enemies.
- Reused Character Design: None of the passenger models are new, but this is especially noticeable with Anthony and Claudia, who look just like Mark and Jamie from The Devil in Me.
- Scary Scarecrows: There are optional scarecrow enemies and obstacles in the Little Hope levels. If you take the other track, they'll come back in the final level.
- Stalactite Spite: The player must avoid falling ice stalactites in the final level.
- The Swarm: Swarms of beetles attack in the House of Ashes levels.
