Sentenced VR

Sentenced VR is an experimental virtual reality narrative experience inspired by social psychology experiments. You play the Executioner for Ulrichshafen, a fictional early-modern European city, carrying out punishments on behalf of its Lords and being assessed on your performance across multiple scenarios. The experience lasts around an hour and explores conscience, obedience to authority, obligation, institutionalized violence and the power structures that shape individual behavior.

Public executions

A crowd gathers as the town Beadle announces a convict’s crimes and sentence, then gives them a chance to speak. They may ask for divine forgiveness or remain unrepentant. You then carry out the execution, in a drama framed around sin and redemption.

Virtual reality

Designed for VR, the game has you look convicts in the eye and physically swing the sword to behead them. Its execution scenes use physical actions rather than reducing violence to a button press, and convicts are not treated as dehumanized enemies.