Zengence: Take Aim With Every Breath is a relaxation action game that’s close to serenity, provided it refines its breath detection.
When I first learned about Zengence, I could hardly believe the premise. When I first heard about Zengence, the concept was hard to believe. This is a crazy idea, and it’s perfect for VR. The core gameplay revolves around silently inhaling and then loudly exhaling, with every exhale revealing enemies hidden across the levels as you slide forward. Exhaling is the only way to reveal hidden enemies, which makes it important for you to slow down your breathing and focus on taking aim. You can easily avoid incoming fire by ducking, moving and standing still. Exhales also make the environment more clear. Shooting is simple, just aim and fire. There’s no need to worry about ammo, only various magic spells which change with each level. It’s intuitive. Let the minimal environments and relaxing electronica soundtrack wash you over. Deaf people can use vibration and visual prompts. Zengence is a powerful tool for cathartic meditation. It’s sitting somewhere between Flower on the PS3 and Pistol Whip, which is an incredible combination!
Well, except for one hitch.
You see, I’m fairly congested at the best of times, and well… that seems to very easily throw off the microphone detection used to register if you are or aren’t taking deep breaths. Instead of exhaling normally, why not just breathe out? To reveal my enemies, I started making “Whaaaaaam!” noises like in Inception. To be perfectly fair, I was laughing afterwards, so it still functions as a release mechanism, but I was scared a family member might walk past my office door when I started
bellowing
.
If you’re living alone, this obviously isn’t an issue, but I’d say the calibration needs a touch more attuning. Zengence is a fun game, but needs more updates. You can play the Zen Garden Mode to practice deep breathing. There are also daily challenge maps which change the locations of the enemies across all 30 stages. The game has a good amount of replay value. If this sounds up your alley, I’d recommend giving it a whirl, but be prepared to test your lung capacity if you plan on hitting 100% on each stage.Zengence: Take Aim With Every Breath is available now on the platform.