The same guys that brought us Linger in Shadows now focus on the PlayStation Move.

Datura is a mysterious game from start to finish. You start by waking up in an ambulance before going back into unconsciousness. Things start to get weird the minute you wake up in a forest and have no idea how you got there.  The forest, it seems, represents your mind, and contains challenges that will test you morally.

The challenges are usually represented by an object within the forest that you interact with. For instance, there’s a wooden statue and when you get close to it you’ll be prompted to interact with it. Once you interact with it you the have to rip the face off the statue with gestures using the Move, to reveal an ice pick. Once you pick up the ice pick, you black out and wake up on frozen ice.  Under the frozen ice is a PlayStation Trophy, but there’s also a drowning person. You have to make a choice whether to save the person or to unlock the trophy. The game is scattered with moral challenges like this.

The choices you make are mostly clear cut, but there are a few that will catch you out. The best bit about the choices is that they directly affect the final scene of the game. You could waste a few hours going through the game again to see the results of playing a challenge differently and seeing how it affects the end. That being said, don’t expect anything to deep.

For a budget PSN game the graphics are really good. The forest is rendered beautifully from the foliage quilted floor to the nicely textured trees with leaves swirling around. The Anti-Aliasing also does a great job of keeping ugly jaggies at bay. One bad point to mention, there is quite a lot of slow down at random places but not enough to make it unplayable.

This being a Move compatible, we were interested to see how they made use of it. The way you move the character, using one Move controller, would have been their biggest challenge but they nailed it. At first I was disappointed that I couldn’t use my navigation controller for this game because I thought it would be awkward to control something that isn’t on rails with one Move controller. After being baby-stepped in to the control system I was running around the forest with no difficulty. You walk with the move and the trigger is to run, move the Move left or right to go that direction, press X to turn on the spot and O to walk backwards. Sounds simple but the way it’s implanted into the game should be used by other developers. Other things like shooting and throwing are also done well using 1:1 motion. Some things like opening a door can jar the affect that you’re in control of the character. To open a door you have to wait a few seconds to be prompted to line the Move controller with the handle and push down. Instinctually you move the controller towards you to open the door, but you don’t have to because the character opens the door automatically and spoils the illusion that you are the character.

You can play the game with the Dualshock 3 but we recommend using the Move for a better experience. To be honest, this feels like one big tech demo to demonstrate to us and to other developers what the Move can do. However, don’t be fooled by that statement. If you have the Move and you like playing something different then get this. For a budget price you will get a few hours of fun and a great experience and a totally unique game that should be applauded.

7.5/10