The Amusement Review: A Poignant Story Wrapped In Thin Roomscale Puzzles

The Amusement is a terrific VR narrative adventure centered on roomscale interactions and an intimate family story. The storytelling carries the game through some of its weaker puzzle elements and late-game struggles.

I have to start with the movement because that was my primary issue when I played The Amusement’s demo during February 2026’s Steam Next Fest. I played in a very large open room with more space than I needed for the game, and it wasn’t until I watched developer Curvature Games’ excellent developer video that I realized that I created my own issue. The Amusement is meant to be played in a relatively small space. Curvature Games’ redirected roomscale style, once understood, is the optimal way to play the game for maximum immersion and presence.

The final release adds (slow) smooth turn and stick-based locomotion options that seasoned VR gamers will welcome. After finishing the game, I went back and played two chapters again with stick-based movement and teleport separately. Both lose some of the game’s charm and luster, though admittedly, they do allow for seated play, so points for accessibility and player choice.

The Amusement stars Samantha, a young woman dispatched by her mother to her late father’s amusement park in the 1920s. Samantha is tasked with inspecting the abandoned park’s attractions in preparation to sell it off.

The Amusement’s story is told via hand-drawn stop-motion interludes between chapters and intermittent conversations, including a younger Samantha, her parents, and some of her father’s coworkers, depicted by marionette-like shadow puppets throughout the park. These scenes never overstay their welcome thanks to strong voice acting and a concise, snappy pace.

The Amusement’s story is its strongest element and arguably the selling point for the game. You can feel the uneasy tension between Samantha and her mother in all of their conversations, a relationship clearly strained by grief from the absence of their father/husband. This game also takes place post-World War I, with references throughout that history buffs will appreciate. VR storytelling can sometimes be perfunctory at best, only serving to get the characters from one stretch of action to the next with shallow or impersonal characterization. Curvature Games tells a moving family story with confidence in a way that works for VR.

The story is strong enough to carry the game to the finish line as the puzzle elements start to run out of steam. By the game’s midway point, you will have been introduced to every tool, traversal method, and environmental interaction available. The backend simply repackages all of these in different scenarios.

These are not complicated mechanics either. Figure out a way to return power to a dead control panel, deploy ladders (with a creatively used yo-yo), maneuver across chasms using wooden platforms, elevators, and a fun grappling gun. Everything is grounded in real-world interactions that pair nicely with the redirected roomscale movement. There’s just not enough of them.

I finished The Amusement in three hours, and the back half of the game, when I knew what metaphorical signs to look for, went much faster than the front half. There’s a lot more hand-over-hand midair movement in the second half, which can border on tedious depending on how quickly you figure out what needs to be done. Compared to other recent puzzle games like Fixer Undercover and Ghost Town that continually change things up all the way to the end, The Amusement comes up short on variety.

Hans, Samantha’s father, is omnipresent throughout the game as a voice offering navigational guidance and filling in the blanks after story points that Samantha was too young at the time to understand. Hans also serves as the game’s hint system and this is one of the issues with the game. He often gives a clue less than a minute after approaching a new obstacle, totally unsolicited. Hint systems in puzzle games are fine, even welcome, but the player should choose if they want a hint or not. It comes off like unnecessary hand-holding.

Visually, at least on PC (I have not played the Quest version yet), The Amusement gets the job done with sharp visuals and a general look of grimy rust and decay that befits an abandoned park. It does show clear signs of concessions for a standalone port that holds it back visually, but just barely. The sound design is strong. Every creaky turn of a rusty wheel or groan from an elevator that hasn’t been used in ages resonates. I do wish the game made more effective use of controller haptics, particularly during the climbing and pulling mechanics.

The Amusement Review: Final Verdict

The Amusement’s affecting story about a broken family is some of the finest storytelling I’ve experienced in a VR game. The redirected roomscale movement, once properly understood and embraced, adds a sense of immersion and presence few other games can match. Unfortunately, even with a short runtime, its limited number of environmental puzzle mechanics hold it back from being truly exceptional. It still remains an excellent entry into any VR puzzle lover’s library.

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