End of Night explores the tormented memories of a World War 2 refugee’s escape from Denmark, and it’s out now on Quest 2.
Released yesterday to coincide with Victory in Europe Day, End of Night is an award-winning short cinematic VR story. Directed by David Adler, it focuses on Josef (Jens Jørn Spottag), a refugee escaping from Nazi-occupied Denmark to neutral Sweden in 1943, placing you opposite him in the passenger seat of a rowboat. It’s a fictional story based on real accounts, and developer Makropol presents this experience “like dimly recalled fragments of a painful memory.”
Created using an “artistic mix of advanced technologies such as photogrammetry and volumetric video,” End of Night blends these together to depict war-torn Copenhagen. “The experience reflects on the theme of survivor’s guilt and the impossible choices that people on the run have to make in order to save their own lives,” states the App Lab page.
“Hopefully, this means that we can start a conversation – across backgrounds, cultures and distances – about some of the heavy and unfortunately eternal topics dealt with in End of Night,” says Adler in a prepared statement, citing the challenges of connecting with an audience in new media. “[It’s] about what makes people flee and how the traumatic flight is subsequently stored in the body and inherited through generations.”
End of Night is available now on the Meta Quest platform via App Lab for $2.99, while a PC VR release on Steam is coming soon.
