Ctrl is Astonishing Proof that VR Storytelling is Growing Up
Ctrl is unlike anything else I’ve seen in VR, both in terms of subject matter and delivery.
It’s cleverly set inside a videogame, and we get to watch a young boy named Liam take part in the finals of a tournament that could win him some money that he could sorely use. Over the course of around 20 minutes Liam’s desperate situation is made ever clearer as he struggles to balance play and pain.
It’s a story about power, escalation, silent suffering and, as the name suggests, control. It explores these themes with uncompromising conviction, making full use of VR to lose you in an experience you won’t soon forget. Its setting is a gateway into looking at issues that will be close to home for many and although VR empowers the storytelling, it remarkably makes you feel utterly helpless.
That said, VR is crucial to just how well the story pulls you in.
“It’s more about that with the use of the sound and the use of the 360 space that people get so absorbed and so immersed into it that accentuate all the emotional feelings behind it. And it’s very much not just the actual themes itself; it’s a combination,” Frankland tells me.
See the full story with video here: http://uploadvr.com/ctrl-preview/