Elsewhere Electric Hands-On: Curious Mystery With Fun Co-Op

Elsewhere Electric promises a curiously unsettling co-op puzzle mystery, and we went hands-on to learn more.

I'm an advocate for letting other platforms join VR players where it's feasible. Whether that's working with a flatscreen player like in VR Giants, crossplay like Among Us 3D, or mobile devices like Acron: Attack of the Squirrels, we all win when there's more people involved. By splitting co-op across VR and mobile, I believe Elsewhere Electric can find a wider audience.

I recently joined Games By Stitch founder Evan Jones for a demo at Reboot Develop 2025, using a room code to pair up as I played on both mobile and Quest 2. Starting outside from our fully equipped camper van, an unassuming entrance to this building soon reveals an eerie facility underneath, and my unease quickly begins setting in.

As two employees of the titular company, you must investigate the abandoned facility to get it back online, and clear communication with your colleague is integral to succeeding. Some rooms allow you direct camera access to see what your partner is up to, though this isn't available every time you reach a new area.

The VR player is onsite exploring each floor directly, and your van provides juice used for powering up machines or turning on the lights, letting you advance. Games By Stitch have opted for a strangely memorable approach that sees you transfer and collect energy via your glove's finger. Powering up devices requires sticking said finger into a socket, going against all the advice I received as a kid.

Elsewhere Electric is basically an escape room that becomes more advanced while progressing across floors, starting with more straightforward puzzle solving like the VR player providing door codes to the mobile player. That isn't a simple sequence of numbers, though. You must physically describe symbols that range from typewriters to vending machines.

Once the mobile player inputs these symbols to unlock the door, it's time to advance. Some of these symbols continue to reappear at later doors, though I've yet to decipher the significance of this, and Jones tells me there's a specific purpose for this. The exact symbols displayed are randomized between runs, and it's successfully contributing to the wider sense of mystery.

The opening stages ease you into this premise well, and I've yet to encounter anything especially tricky to solve. Games By Stitch have previously called Elsewhere Electric a “spooky roguelike” and this description made more sense as I descended to the third floor. Suddenly, I can see strange creatures that are just lying there on the floor.

Jones doesn't explain to me what these creatures are, only that I should try to turn the lights on as quickly as possible. Frankly, that's all the incentive I need. After later finding my arm inexplicably covered with mysterious goo, I shook that off and got to work powering up this room.

We didn't have time to explore much further, so there's a lot I've yet to see from Elsewhere Electric, but I enjoyed my demo. There's an intriguing mystery at the core that's caught my attention, I'm having fun working with someone else, and I'm told that completing a run will likely need 10 hours. I'll be interested in finding a co-op partner when it's ready to launch.

Elsewhere Electric reaches Quest and Steam this summer, and the free mobile app can be found on Android and iOS.