Virtual Reality Reviews

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Review: Gloomy Eyes

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There's a wonderful 'living clay diorama' feeling to this one. As if Tim Burton, at his peak, had found a way to make real objects scurry and dance to his tune.

The thing that really struck me though, amongst the slick set-pieces, and the quieter loveliness of driven snow effects scudding over the scene, was how well they'd handled the 'directing' in VR:
  • The set-up is that the sun is in hiding. This pitch-black back-drop places the tableaux scenes in a centre stage focus, and then allows them to draw your attention around further with the use of light sources.
  • They treat it like theatre in the round, but you are in the centre. You swing around in your chair to follow the chains of story action as they unfold around you, (rather than be forced into viewing angles by camera direction). It adds a feeling of narrative progress, has an illusion of free investigation, and also doubles down on the feeling of these being physical objects and locations arrayed in front of you.
  • The locations themselves rotate and pitch to reveal new aspects of themselves as the protagonists scurry and slide about them. (Again avoiding camera pans and zooms etc.)
The story proves a strong enough strand to pull you along with it, and the art style was never less than charming.

As lovely as a tale about zombie love during the apocalypse could be, really.

4+

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VR Golgot

VR Golgot
FIRST LOOK: PROZE: Enlightenment

I'm enjoying this 'escape the lab' / 'walking sim' adventure so far. It is definitely an indie offering aiming for AA adventure, and falling short, but I'm enjoying their over-reach so far. The NPC companions dropping by, the many vibe touches and generous sources of audio narration, the select use of physics, the daft / plucky attempts at variety in the puzzles and interactions. And I guess the big stereotypical cold war conspiracy storyline, from what I've seen of it.

I've hit a couple of minor QoL issues and bugs along the way, which required a restart, but think I'm going to enjoy the 3 hrs or so of adventure here.


Short Story: Vestige

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Didn't really rate this. Based on the genuine post-trauma thoughts of a bereaved wife, it had potential to pack an emotional punch, but instead felt as austere and thin as its presentational style. The flickering, neon post-work on the 3D capture worked fine enough as an evocation of memories, and a person feeling personally fractured, and was interesting to stand amongst. But I just didn't feel they did enough with the source material. It ended up feeling like it just exploited her grief by reworking it like this, searching for gravitas for the art itself, more than transforming or elevating it in any meaningful way.
 
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VR Golgot

VR Golgot
REVIEW: PROZE: Enlightenment

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This 3hr+ 'first chapter' of a grander adventure is clearly punching above its indie weight the whole way, but it achieves a remarkable amount for all that. For every under-animated NPC or failed experiment there was a fitting interaction that worked, or a lovingly detailed environmental touch.

There are some great open locations, seen through various lighting and gameplay lenses. Swishing torchlight around a rumpled forest at the foot of a dam, or piercing the dripping interiors of an abandoned facility, was tense and evocative, without being full-blown horror territory. The large-ish areas allowed for a certain amount of mystery to settle in the corners, and for poking around to feel somewhat rewarded. (Not so much in the sense that there are many hidden easter eggs, or that solutions are 'search all the drawers' in nature, but more in the sense that something you saw in a bush, or over a hill, might inform you of what to do in a future conundrum. Might give you the lay of the land.).

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The rumpled moon-lit forest, explored by torch light

Their use of minor physics interactions, 'flip all the switches' experimentation over explanation, and the odd daft NPC interaction (I left a guy hanging for a return thumbs up for a helluva a long time...) didn't always work, but the intent was almost always welcome. And although the locational puzzles settled into some familiar 'VR russian lab' tropes (equalise the coolant pressure valves Vladimir!), I did enjoy their overall take on the genre, and the staple 'logic gate' puzzle was enjoyably solid.

Minus points accrue throughout for things like protagonist NPCs not moving their mouths, or outright bugs requiring a restart. (At one point a key NPC glided along a corridor with such a bizarre lope, his shirt clipping through his jacket in absurd counter-point to his supposed elan, that it was just all too silly. But still enjoyable for all that ;). And again the attempts to actually layer narrative through the locations and puzzles were still welcome).

I would have welcomed a faster walking speed for some of the larger sections, especially when back-tracking between locations. But other than that I was a pretty happy irradiated bunny hopping about the place. Tapped out at 4 hrs for me. I was fine with the minor escalation towards 'action puzzling' at the end, and with the daft cold-war fantasy-fusion story getting left hanging in mid-air. I'd happily play another 4 hrs if they ever get back to it ;)

3.5 +++
 
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Jakester13

Jakester13
This thread made me:
A. Install the VR mod for GTAV - Had some fun blatting around and getting wanted.
B. Watch the MOH gameplay videos, which are very funny (and I remember playing the MOH I assume it's derived from)
Cheers!
o7
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
The Mage's Tale

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Really conflicted on this. On one hand it's a 10 hour dungeon-diving adventure, with some lovely comic and quality touches throughout. On the other hand it sometimes degenerates into a crappy wave shooter (99 carbon copy opponents, seriously?
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), hobbles along with slightly dated mechanics, and wobbles wildly on the puzzle quality.

To break it down though:

Full of quality of life touches, especially early on. From cheeky dialogue asides and throwaway characters, to the litany of arcane objects, menus and settings, there's a real attempt to lavish some AAA quality. Who doesn't love stashing ornate potions in a giant mystical frog?. (The floating guide character is naturally very annoying though...)

The puzzles are uneven, sometimes uniquely engineered just for a novelty collectible, sometimes feeling rehashed for a key piece of progression. They're at their best when they use VR in a novel way, such as when you suddenly realise your gaze is important, or when challenged to hurl planets into the gravity wells of a living orrery. But these moments seem like rare (and sometimes glitchy) experiments amongst the more standard fare. The safe tumbler technique for collectibles stood up to constant use though.

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The dungeon designs show similar cracks. At points they're great, looming over you with cartoonish eeriness or closing in claustrophobically. But others felt like the filler of a game that's over-reached itself. The 'airlock' style double door sections that separated zones could get tiresome to backtrack through, and didn't lend themselves to the more spread out puzzles. (Several times I was left foraging around large, fairly empty, multi-tier rooms, wondering what the hell to do, and idly setting fire to bats with fireballs, in case that was it). Did love the giant talking mouths though, with their kitsch vibe of TV show Knightmare (a D&D oddity with blinded participants).

It shows its age with the clunky motion options (not transitioning smoothly when changing directions of travel); strange interaction points to pick up objects; and unreliable physics reactions. But kudos for adding the first modernisation, and for having the last two at all.

Creating your own twists on the core magic spells via the potion cauldron is a fun combination of two VR staples. Swooshing a new mix together and trying it out on the next level works well by the final chapters. But on that note...

Combat levelling is poor. With little threat felt early on, and the Emperor-style lightning spell being the no-brainer combat crutch for many levels, it all feels a bit samey. Ice, wind and fire remain a novelty used more for puzzles. They mix the threat up to good effect for a while, with increasing tiers of complementary enemies, then bizarrely turn to endurance wave shooter mechanics instead. Tuning up all of the spells does become useful at this point, but the attrition combat is ultimately tedious.

3.5(-)

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Dreams of Dali

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A short teleport dash around some Dali motifs in a pretty desert expanse. Very slender, but seeing the giraffean elephants totter past was certainly cool.

3- [FREE]
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Short Story: The Book of Distance

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An impressionistic recreation of Japanese Canadian internments during WW2, told through the lense of one family's experiences.

As the viewer you are invited somewhat into this world, taking photos, packing bags, perusing imagined family notes, or hard bureaucratic evidence.

The factual content bites the hardest in many ways, with the 'all people of the Japanese race' phrasings cutting through the years. But it's the wisps of familial recollections, as technologies, then family members, then the possessions of a lifetime get stripped away, that brings it all home.

Always a bit under-cut by the cartoony depictions of internment and 1930s Japan, the mix of audio, softened visuals, hard facts, and personal tales still work as a whole though. Effective and touching at points, both as a reminder of a forgotten tragedy amongst a larger one, and as a personal take on it all. (Even if not all of the lines he draws around his ideas are successful overall)

3.5(+) [FREE]
 
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Arioch

Arioch
Hope you don’t mind me doing a sort-of mini review of:
Warhammer 40k - Battle Sister
Quest 2 only.
Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=InD9u6mbT5Y&t=3s

I’m about half-way through the game and it’s been pretty fun so far. My thoughts:
  • It’s a Warhammer 40k FPS - so there is jankiness 😅
  • Impressive visuals for a stand-alone VR title - but still PS2/Xbox quality
  • Reminds me of Fire Warrior, an early 40k shooter
  • Shots can be blocked by invisible geometry when firing near corners
  • Ammo pouch and hip holsters can get confused, especially when crouching
  • Psyker gestures can be a bit hit’n’miss
Not bad for what I paid for it (with an £8 discount from Oculus) and, well, it’s WartyKay, grim-dark grimness turned up to eleven 😁 Worth it just to blast bits off Chaos cultists with a Bolter rifle 😅

I haven’t tried the Horde mode yet - it’s single or co-op - but I’ll get around to it once I’ve finished the story.
 

Arioch

Arioch
I’ve recently discovered the Quest 2’s ability to record gameplay by itself - so I’ve revisited the Vader Immortal trilogy, playing the native Quest version, and taken a few videos.

I’ve compared it to the PC over AirLink and the graphics are almost identical - only character shadows are greatly simplified, being either subtle blobs or missing entirely. Playing again but without being tethered by a headset cable? Top stuff! 😁 I’ve had to unlearn what I had learned (only turning 180deg before twisting back in the opposite direction) and I’m now doing a whirling dervish on occasion 😅

The story mode was great fun, great set pieces, and a steady ramp-up of abilities and gadgets through the three episodes. The lightsaber dojo is where this shines: lightsaber-only in the first dojo (blocking and strikes), Force powers introduced in the second dojo, and just about everything in the third 👌
Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B7yXsNktOUg


Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W_VV2ovXtlM
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Oh my...

Source: https://youtu.be/2MXcoZZP37I


So you have to subscribe to LukeRoss's patreon to get access to the mod currently. ($8pm for advance access etc). But presumably you can just grab and go. More than happy to chuck him $8 if that's the case.

Pretty damn tempted overall. RDR2 currently 33% off on Steam too.

As much as it's a shame he deliberately doesn't pursue motion controllers for these ports (he feels the prolonged game sessions etc would be too fatiguing - boo, LukeRoss, boo 😄 )... he opened up the whole damn game and campaign for GTAV this way, and it was a blast to play :)
 

Arioch

Arioch
Warhammer 40k Battle Sister has now released on PC VR; looks like massively improved environment textures, effects, and added shadows, as well as a new Horde map:[

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YgIS3bxsG50&feature=emb_logo

Think I’ll have to restart my game and play via AirLink 😁

Edit: turns out it’s got Cloud saves, so I just picked up from where I left off. Impressive upgrade to the visuals - like going from Medium to Ultra 😁
 
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Arioch

Arioch
VR Golgot said:
Review: Red Matter

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The biggest selling point here is that the game looks absolutely spectacular at points. This almost can't be over-emphasized. The Soviet-era architecture is a wonderful setting (and even turning over tiny wooden astronauts in your future claws is all good too). There were times when I was gawping around, as I adjusted some laser puzzle, genuinely feeling like I was in some Bond villain's lair :D

Every other gravity-defying hop it takes falls short though unfortunately.

The setting is undercut by the woeful pastiche of oppressive Soviet culture throughout, which was never witty or insightful, just fired out of a blunderbuss at you. (In pellet form, via the tortuously-slow text of your translation device)

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The locomotion system fitted well enough with the lugubrious tone, with its 'low gravity leap' version of teleportation. And when deployed for minor puzzles it was effective. The walking scheme felt like a late addition though, and although preferable for getting about, was remarkably slowwwwww.

This may be a personal thing, but I also find walking sims with simmering danger in the background kind of annoying. If there's a hanging menace, give me occasional action sequences to actually tackle or dodge the danger. Without that catharsis all those ominous musical scores and sudden sound effects, no matter how effective, just get a bit wearing. I did find tracing the stories of some of the protagonists, to explain parts of the environmental ire, effective on that score, and the game did build towards some slightly active sequences. But earlier sections were a trial on that front.

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The biggest negative of this game though is that the majority of the puzzles just... weren't... great. There were a few highlights towards the end, with some grand sets and a few neat wrinkles. But the vast majority were of a 'find tab A for slot B' tier. With one notable wild leap in difficulty (some form of number substitution puzzle that I had to cheat on).

The 'horrer-esque' twist in the storyline, and the powerful aesthetic, mean it's worth pushing on through. But really at points, it was more a case of 'let's get this done and see the next bit', rather than a challenging search for a eureka moment, which is what you really want from puzzle scenarios.

Worth the ride ultimately at 3hrs. But if you visit this planet, go mainly for the views...

3_5---
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I’ve just picked up Red Matter in the current Oculus sale (for just over a tenner) and I’m playing the standalone version on Quest 2 - while you didn’t like the slow pace, it’s something so far up my alley it’s kicked the bins over (in low-G 😁).

The quality of the graphics is frankly amazing and I’m impressed by being able to interact with virtually everything - and then chucking it around in the low gravity 😁

Oh to be able to explore Odyssey’s abandoned settlements in a similar manner…
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Review: Buzludzha VR

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A very slick little tourism title, this recreation of the abandoned Buzludzha building allows you to nose around it in its pomp, while hearing about its past, and revealing its current state with sweeps of your magic torch.

Bizarrely they also included flight physics via dual wielding fire extinguishers, and a fairly functional helicopter!

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7RMn_Hkc6g


Wouldn't pay full price for it necessarily, but poking around the interior, and swooping around the blue skies, was definitely intriguing.

Rating: 3.5 (-)
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
First Look: The Room VR: A Dark Matter

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Liking this on the whole. It has that classic 'move between puzzles' format of pushing one puzzle along, getting a new item or hint, and applying it to another puzzle. All in a fusty archaeological-detective setting, with some light Cthulhu tentacles thrown in.

I don't mind the teleport-only control scheme in this format, as you're mainly wanting to dash quickly between the key puzzles. So far they've mainly done a decent job of leaving just enough rope for you to tug on when it comes to hints and hitting impasses. And the actual hand interaction (and occasional pleasing twist on scale) has been pretty well executed to date. Executing the puzzles themselves is normally pretty straightforward once you've figured out what you should be doing, but the contraptions are all fitting for the theme. And the general locations look decent.

Saying that, I am currently totally stuck at a seeming dead end, with a small bundle of clues and items which absolutely refuse to intersect 😁

First Look: Eye of the Temple (demo)

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I genuinely liked the Indiana Jones trappings here, from the teetering on rolling stone barrels in roomscale, to realising you could grab levers with your pliable whip.

Throw in some mid-puzzle fights with flying scarab beetles, and the general 'piece together the zone' puzzle approach, and it was all pretty pleasing.

Unfortunately they were absolutely right to insist on 2mx2m playspaces as a minimum, and my 1.5mx1.5m just wasn't cutting it. (It's a shame, as if they'd just allowed some snap turn I reckon I could have kept myself within the play area pretty easily. But they only allow a 'rotate room' option in the menu, and it didn't work in all locations, so I just ended up wedged in corners or bumping into stuff. Ultimately unplayable :/)
 

Arioch

Arioch
VR Golgot said:
First Look: The Room VR: A Dark Matter

E63B3342509783823FD043B2BB7AAC13D349C404


Liking this on the whole. It has that classic 'move between puzzles' format of pushing one puzzle along, getting a new item or hint, and applying it to another puzzle. All in a fusty archaeological-detective setting, with some light Cthulhu tentacles thrown in.

I don't mind the teleport-only control scheme in this format, as you're mainly wanting to dash quickly between the key puzzles. So far they've mainly done a decent job of leaving just enough rope for you to tug on when it comes to hints and hitting impasses. And the actual hand interaction (and occasional pleasing twist on scale) has been pretty well executed to date. Executing the puzzles themselves is normally pretty straightforward once you've figured out what you should be doing, but the contraptions are all fitting for the theme. And the general locations look decent.

Saying that, I am currently totally stuck at a seeming dead end, with a small bundle of clues and items which absolutely refuse to intersect 😁

First Look: Eye of the Temple (demo)

ss_9ceb7e05b435dc3ecd632fd3e77b041cb67de79e.1920x1080.jpg


I genuinely liked the Indiana Jones trappings here, from the teetering on rolling stone barrels in roomscale, to realising you could grab levers with your pliable whip.

Throw in some mid-puzzle fights with flying scarab beetles, and the general 'piece together the zone' puzzle approach, and it was all pretty pleasing.

Unfortunately they were absolutely right to insist on 2mx2m playspaces as a minimum, and my 1.5mx1.5m just wasn't cutting it. (It's a shame, as if they'd just allowed some snap turn I reckon I could have kept myself within the play area pretty easily. But they only allow a 'rotate room' option in the menu, and it didn't work in all locations, so I just ended up wedged in corners or bumping into stuff. Ultimately unplayable :/)
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I’ve been looking at The Room for my next game, though A Rogue Escape looks very tempting as well 🤔

Lone Echo II has now got a release date towards the end of August, so I might just replay the first one instead.
 
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