Giant spiders, killer clowns & heights in VR: I took on the Nope Challenge on Quest 3
Nope Challenge for Meta Quest will challenge you with over 40 phobias. A mixture of entertainment and therapy? I took a closer look.
Nope Challenge is a mix of VR game and confrontation therapy, where you are confronted with various fear-inducing situations and objects. The concept is based on the idea that confronting fears in a controlled virtual environment can help you overcome them, or at least understand them better. I tried out Nope Challenge on my Meta Quest 3 for you to see how scary it is and if the balance between entertainment and phobia fighting works.
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This is Nope Challenge
Nope Challenge offers nine different challenges, each divided into three levels of intensity. These range from easy to extreme and cover a wide range of phobias. I can deal with fear of heights, arachnophobia, or fear of clowns — sometimes even a combination of these.
A central element of the game is the so-called "Nope Button". It is located on my virtual wrist. If I tap it, I can withdraw from a situation I find too stressful at any time and end up in a calming beach environment. No danger awaits me here, just peace, sun, sea, and beach.
It is a very useful feature that allows me to set my own limits. It's just a shame that in all the hustle and bustle, I didn't think of the Nope button at all.
Among giant spiders and killer clowns
Since I don't want to spoil too much for you, I'll only describe two of the nine challenges in this article. The app begins in a drab office room where a voiceover, which will accompany me throughout the game with some very funny comments, introduces me to the basic game mechanics.
I am then handed a stressed, squawking banana and given my first unofficial challenge: to guide the trembling tropical fruit through a dark corridor to a long ladder at the end. As I crawl through the darkness, I expect jumpscares at any moment.
But the game is lenient with me, and I end up in the safe place, a small Caribbean oasis, to which I am immediately returned when I press the Nope button on my wrist during the challenges. Here, too, I can choose one of nine challenges.
Climbing to lofty heights
My greatest weakness is spiders. These mostly harmless creepy-crawlies send me into a completely irrational panic that has hardly improved over the course of my life. Clowns, on the other hand, I find exciting in horror movies like "It", but I don't really find them frightening. Heights can be a real challenge in reality, but I can handle them quite well in VR, so I decided to start with a climbing tour.
At the lowest intensity, I first take the elevator to the top of a skyscraper and "enjoy" the view through a window. Then I walk along a plank in the style of Richie's Plank Experience until the voice tells me that the elevator has just gone down, and I have to take a little detour.
In other words: I have to climb over scaffolding, shimmy along pipes and climb creaky ladders. All along the facade of a skyscraper and in the company of whistling wind and pigeons flying around me. In this, Nope Challenge is very reminiscent of The Climb, using almost the same tried-and-true climbing mechanics.
However, Crytek's climbing simulator is much more convincing in its depiction of lofty heights. The main disappointment of Nope Challenge is its reduced graphics, which neither shine with originality like Walkabout Mini Golf, nor with realism. This means that — at least for me — there is no particularly intense feeling of height when I look down at rudimentary building silhouettes and barely visible streets.
On the run from a giant spider
Inspired by my resistance to VR heights, I skip intensity level 2 and jump straight to level 3 - a big mistake. I find myself facing a steep climbing wall, just like the ones you see in bouldering gyms. Looking up at the wall, I see several paths leading up and am reminded once again of The Climb. How difficult can it be?
I walk across the narrow bridge to the climbing wall and press the start button on the barrier. As I stretch my hand toward the first climbing point, I hear the commentator say something like: "Oh yeah, and by the way, this is your climbing buddy". In the distance, I hear loud roaring and the stomping of numerous legs. I look around and only now notice the remains of cobwebs in the corners.
I feel a shiver run down my spine and climb the wall at a monkey's pace, not realizing where I am. The roar of a monster and its crawling noises are always at my back. At some point, I can finally bring myself to look over my shoulder and I see exactly what I feared: A gigantic, hairy, giant spider with a voracious appetite.
My initial verdict on the Nope Challenge
Admittedly, I had some respect for this test. After all, like most of us, I am not free of the fears that can be triggered by well-designed VR games. Especially when it comes to spiders, it always requires great effort for me. This is also the case in Nope Challenge. If you have problems with one of the scenarios in reality, you will most likely have problems in Nope Challenge as well. So be always aware of that.
However, as an experienced VR gamer, neither the height nor the shock effect of the clowns worked well for me. I partly blame the art design and animations, and partly the graphics on Quest 2 level. The developers also don't manage to create an intense feeling of height, especially in the first climbing level.
Even though I was initially shocked by the giant spider on the climbing wall, my fear disappeared after I fell several times and took a closer look at its sometimes very unnatural and graphically not always clean movements. While assembling a killer robot, I kept getting stuck in the wall while removing and inserting parts, and the precision while climbing was not always perfect.
Overall, I can recommend Nope Challenge to anyone looking for an entertaining experience with a few moments of shock. Depending on your state of mind, the intensity of the challenges will vary from person to person, so the only thing that helps is to try them out and to be aware of the Nope button. However, I do not see any therapeutic effect in this app. Nope Challenge is a pure entertainment product.
If you are interested in real VR therapy and its effectiveness, read our interview with psychotherapist Felix Eschenburg (only in German) or the article about the anti-phobia app oVRcome.
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