Preview: Dead & Buried Arena – Oculus Take a Shot at Warehouse Scale VR

Oculus has been notoriously hard-nosed about the location-based entertainment (LBE) market for virtual reality (VR). Prohibitive clauses in the use of their hardware and a reluctance to offer a more rugged version or a ‘business edition’, has seen the company responsible for the modern rebirth of VR seems almost ignorant towards one of its most rapidly growing sectors. There’s always an opportunity to change however, and the Oculus Quest could well be the device to do it.

Oculus Quest - FrontDuring the Oculus Connect 5 keynote, wherein the Oculus Quest was officially announced as a product evolved off of the Santa Cruz prototype, Mark Zuckerberg spoke openly about the device’s large area capabilities. This is a stark change for a company that insisted just two years ago that modern VR should be led by seated experiences, but undoubtedly a welcome one. There’s room for all types of experience in VR, from seated to standing to moving several feet very quickly.

Dead & Buried Arena is Oculus’ first attempt at the latter. Built on the Oculus Touch launch title developed by Gunfire Games (it’s not yet been confirmed whether or not the studio worked on this follow-up, but is more than likely) Dead & Buried Arena is a fantasy wild west shooting experience for six players. Forming two teams of three, players took to the arena using cover to avoid one another’s fire.

The basic mechanics include destructible scenery (boxes that exist in the real world and fade out to blue when shot in-game), a 10 second respawn to allow players to find a new cover position when killed and collectible weaponry. It’s nothing revolutionary on the surface, but in the minutiae Dead & Buried Arena makes some interesting design decisions for a robust LBE title.

Dead & Buried Arena - The Arena
The design of the arena itself.

In order to keep the players apart and prevent collisions, the centre of the arena has a train which passes through. This is automatic on occasion, but it also can be manually triggered whenever a player steps upon it, this results in instant death and no respawns until you’re back on your side of the map. The destructible scenery doesn’t send particle effects flying it alter the polygons presented at all in order to allow for accurate real-time mapping for all players – VRFocus was informed that the map and the player’s location within were networked via wi-fi even in a local environment – and the weapon variety (although plentiful for this short demonstration) was far more limited than the original title.

Dead & Buried Arena is a strange beast: at once presenting an argument for Oculus to join the push for the LBE agenda yet at the same time feeling less complete than the year-old original. It may well be that Dead & Buried Arena was purely a technical demonstration designed specifically to showcase the capabilities of Oculus Quest, but it’s definitely not a huge leap to see a market for this kind of experience.

Preview: Face Your Fears 2 – Why’s it Always Spiders?

Every time a new piece of virtual reality (VR) technology is revealed, a horror experience is offered alongside it. As if the promise of heightened jump scares hasn’t waned over the last five years, Oculus Connect 5’s debut of the final Santa Cruz hardware – now known as Oculus Quest – comes complete with its own haunted house courtesy of Turtle Rock Studios.

The sequel to 2017’s ‘fear and phobia’ experience retreads familiar ground. The sequence available at Oculus Connect 5 begins with the player standing in a clearing by a wood, tasked with finding your missing younger sister. As you walk along a pathway and approach a house, a few simple clues tell you you’re heading in the right direction, while some boundaries trigger events that inform you it’s not going to be a simple case of hide-and-seek.

A later sequence has you explore a woodshed, in which nasty things and apparitions are designed to halt your progress. The phobia that this sequence is excited to push the boundaries of is arachnophobia: beginning with a small spider that jumps on to your hand there’s soon floods of them all over the floor, giant ones reaching through walls at you and swinging from the ceiling literally straight into your face. Yet all the while, all you want is to find a key.

The biggest issue here is that the design of the experience still relies on players moving beyond the boundaries of the demonstration area. Oculus Quest allows you to freely move and walk within an experience unlike any other VR device out there, so why are we still being constrained by analogue sticks for locomotion? While the demonstration build of Face Your Fears 2 was perfectly adequate for showcasing a lowbrow scare sequence in VR, it seems to somewhat fall short of expectations for a totally wireless 6 DoF head-mounted display (HMD).

Oculus Quest - BackEssentially, Face Your Fears 2 is hamstrung by the last two years of VR design. It’s built for a VR device that’s more limited than Oculus Quest, and uses the benefits that the new hardware adds in a purely superficial way: you can move freely, but the design if the videogame completely ignores that possibility. The additional comfort Oculus Quests offers is still welcome of course, but whether that alone is worth a $399 (USD) upgrade is definitely a matter for debate.

The demonstration build ends once you’ve faced the seemingly-endless aggression of spiders and manager to unlock the door to the house with the key you acquired along the way. So while Face Your Fears 2 presents a haunted house experience for Oculus Quest, we haven’t yet been given the chance to step inside. That, it seems, will have to wait until the device launches in Spring 2019.

Hands-On with Oculus Quest – The Way VR Was Meant To Be

Modern virtual reality (VR) has been making promises for five years. Since the initial reveal of a duct-taped Oculus Rift through the development kits and up until the consumer launch, we’ve all been promised that the technology will eventually offer truly revolutionary experiences. It’s gotten closer to this Holy Grail, step-by-step, but it’s never been quite enough. Two years ago Oculus revisited that promise in the form of the Santa Cruz prototype, and today, it has come good: accelerating VR hardware in its goal of reaching mass market adoption through ease of use, so that we can all eventually experience something groundbreaking.

Oculus Quest (OC5)Santa Cruz, or Oculus Quest as it is now known, is an elegant piece of hardware design. It’s a recognition of the fact that everything we’ve seen so far has been good, but still falls quite short of one-size-fits-all. The Samsung Gear VR, the Oculus Rift and even the Oculus Go have changed the technology industry forever, but VR is still yet to change society: Oculus Quest takes all of the technological, market penetration and form factor lessons learned over the last five years and repackages them into something believable. Quite simply, Oculus Quest could have what it takes for VR to push beyond the novelty and cash-in on that promise.

Originally unveiled as a slightly fragile prototype back at Oculus Connect 3 in 2016, the device has come a long way in two years. The level of comfort offered is actually better than Oculus Rift despite including all the processing hardware on-board and, while we’re yet to get any official statements regarding field of view (FoV), it does upon initial (limited and controlled) testing appear to offer a slight improvement. The tracking of the head-mounted display (HMD) still occasionally suffers on erratic movement (sharp 180 turns or diagonal upwards swings) but for the most part it performs just as well as the Oculus Rift itself.

A slight issue that appears to have become part of the Oculus Quest since last year is controller tracking. Face Your Fears 2 – a horror experience from Turtle Rock Studios – didn’t rely on swift arm movement and so the predictive tracking worked seamlessly, however Project Tennis Scramble – a colourful tennis experience – required much faster movement often seeing your racket disappear from the field at the worst possible time. Whether this is a hardware issue or the software remains to be seen, but given the quality of the demonstrations seen when the Santa Cruz controllers were initially revealed last year it’s more than likely to be the latter.

Oculus Quest - Hero / Lifestyle ImageTechnical specifications of the Oculus Quest, such as processing power, GPU clock rate, battery life and storage capacity, have not yet been revealed. It’s not likely that such information will come to light any time soon, but the fact that it uses USB-C for charge and houses a much more efficient focal adjustment is good news right from the start.

So what does this mean for the Oculus hardware family? Oculus Go will continue to be the entry level device, but will the Oculus Rift represent the high-end? Will we see the minimum PC specification for Oculus Rift experiences increasing above and beyond that of Oculus Quest? Or will we see the Oculus Rift receiving a price-drop and being positioned as the awkward middle child? Only time will tell, but the next six-or-so months as we await the Oculus Quest launch will undoubtedly be very exciting.

Preview: World of Tanks VR – Well On Track

A long time ago VRFocus questioned Wargaming about the possibility of a virtual reality (VR) edition of World of Tanks. Given the success of competing online war machine simulator War Thunder within the new medium it seemed only natural for Wargaming to be looking into doing the same. At the time a representative of the company explained that it wouldn’t work for tanks in the same way as planes, and that a great deal of experimentation would have to be undertaken before World of Tanks could make such a jump. That jump, it seems, is into location-based entertainment (LBE).

World Of Tanks VR - LogoWargaming, with the support of Neurogaming and VRTech, unveiled World of Tanks VR earlier this year. It’s most definitely an aside to World of Tanksa spin-off experience designed for fans and newcomers alike – opposed to integrating VR into the existing online videogame. That brings both strengths and weaknesses into play, but also allows for Wargaming to pitch the experience perfectly for LBE execution.

Limited to four players, each dons their HTC Vive and prepares for war by choosing their preferred tank. In a significant update from when VRFocus first experienced World of Tanks VR, there are now a small selection of tanks available each one with statistics bars demonstrating firepower, reload speed, acceleration etc. Players are no longer limited to fast or slow, heavy or spread. Tactical ambition is now at play not just in the positioning of your tank, but also in the way you engage your enemies.

The World of Tanks VR controls are complicated at first, but soon it becomes natural. The tank will accelerate forward towards the direction the player faces, however given the large bulk of machinery may take some time to turn tight corners. Meanwhile, the player’s central viewpoint will always represent their firing arch in real-time. The player must combine navigation and maneuvering with lining-up that shot on the weak point in the enemy tank’s armour for maximum efficiency, and their best chance of escaping unhindered.

World of Tanks VR - Key Art

With a new map also on display at Gamescom 2018, Cologne, players were invited to work on new strategies revolving around a central chokepoint. The previous map VRFocus experienced was designed to grant a height advantage to those who lied in wait upon a hilltop, with an open plane providing little in the way of cover below. This new map, conversely, is too uneven to offer much in the way of an overview, but pushing into the busy central area looking for a kill can leave you open to attack from every direction; a bridge that provides access to spawn points at either end of the map makes you an obvious and easy target even for those shooting from the hip.

Matches in World of Tanks VR are only a few minutes long and consist of two rounds. It’s very much a simplified experience; one designed less for the passion of tanks and more for the thrill of battle. That’s no bad thing however, as World of Tanks VR stands as an interesting LBE title that may introduce new audiences to the core online experience in a sort of role-reversal for Mario Kart Arcade GP VR: World of Tanks is a franchise set to benefit from VR, opposed to being a benefit to its reputation.

You can also check out our hands-on with augmented reality (AR) counterpart World of Tanks AR Spectate from Gamescom, here.

Preview: Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner – M∀RS

Konami’s virtual reality (VR) efforts have been somewhat muted thus far. Rumours of experimentation with various franchises and unofficial third-party adaptations of the likes of P.T. do not inspire confidence in the medium. So then, it’s fallen to the unlikely candidate of Zone of the Enders to properly take Konami into the world of VR for the first time.

Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner-MARS YEBIS image 2Thankfully, Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner – MRS (upside-down A included) sets the bar remarkably high for the publisher. While the retail package offers a 4K remastering of Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner, it also includes a completely new way to play the videogame. And this doesn’t just mean with a head-controlled camera or motion-control implementation, as some developers would let you believe warrants the label ‘VR’; in Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner – MRS this is genuinely playing the videogame from a brand new perspective.

While the original Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner is a third-person experience, MRS adapts the videogame for VR by placing the player inside of the giant mech JEHUTY’s cockpit. For the first time, Zone of the Enders can be played in first-person, and it’s one hell of a ride.

Played with a standard control pad (VRFocus experienced the title on both PlayStation VR and HTC Vive) the input and information relay is modelled closely to that of EVE Valkyrie. The player can manoeuvre the mech they are enclosed within with both ease and grace, with a visual representation in the form of a 3D model on-screen at all times thus offering constant feedback as to the player’s orientation. Changes in speed, height and front-facing direction can be sudden and disorientating at first, but it’s only a few minutes of practice before players will be boosting and shooting their way through hordes of robotic enemies.

One of the greatest complications in adapting Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner to VR undoubtedly comes in the form of the melee combat. The transition from third- to first-person would be difficult alone, but throwing VR into the mix adds a challenge of the nth degree. Surprisingly, the title manages to break all of the rules of VR design by throwing the player about an environment at high speeds with reckless abandon and – perhaps even more shocking – commits the cardinal sin of forcefully taking control of the player’s viewpoint. Yet somehow, with a cunning use of blinkers and visual cues, Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner – MRS manages to remain a comfortable VR experience.

Due for release on PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality head-mounted displays (HMDs) next month, Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner – MRS is promising to deliver a deep VR experience unlike anything else currently available for the medium. It’s fast-paced, challenging videogame where failure is always just a miss-timed dodge away; in that it’s exciting to see that Konami’s first attempt at a commercial VR product is a daring one.

Preview: Crazy Machines VR – Crazy Like A Fox

The Crazy Machines series has made a name for itself as a popular problem-solving experience across multiple formats. Having begun life on PC, we’ve since seen instalments on Nintendo DS, Wii and iOS formats, each making use of the unique input devices hosted by the platform. Now, with the forthcoming Crazy Machines VR, it’s the turn of virtual reality (VR).

Crazy Machines VR - Key ArtCrazy Machines has always been about experimentation. The player is given a non-working contraption, inspired by the Rube Goldberg-style of un-associated items with unique properties cobbled together for a singular outcome, with the task of using a small selection of additional components to fix the machine. While on the surface Crazy Machines VR may look and sound like a Fantastic Contraption clone, the truth is that the experience is in fact far closer to Coatsink’s Esper.

It’s a videogame about using logic. Players must examine where the contraption is failing and what function is needed to fix the issue, while also looking over their available components for items that offer said functionality. Assisting the player are catch-points on the contraptions to which objects must be attached, but ensuring they behave correctly is not necessarily a straight-forward affair.

To enable the player to perform all of this constant assessment they are granted the use of a time-controlling potato. Pressing the green button on the potato will remind time, resetting the contraption and affording the player unlimited time to add objects as required. A second press will release the control and allow time to advance as normal, with the contraption either seeing success thanks to the player’s interference or providing new clues as to how it may be fixed.

Crazy Machines VR - ScreenshotCrazy Machines VR plays very similarly to the Wii edition of Crazy Machines, with motion-control affording the player direct interaction with the contraptions which – in the playable build available at Gamescom 2018, at least – are displayed on an almost 2D plane. Whether or not later levels will make greater use of the great depths of immersion VR offers or even a simple sense of scale remains to be seen.

There are other issues that need to get addressed before this however. While the development team assured VRFocus that the PC build is further along than the PlayStation VR version on offer, there’s no denying that the hit-and-miss physics on many objects were a disappointing problem. While the team seem confident that they can entertain PlayStation VR owners with an expansive core experience, dozens of mini-games and a playground of construction as an alternative gameplay mode, getting the fundamentals right before any of this is a much greater concern.

Of course, Crazy Machines has been established within the videogame world for more than a decade now, so there’s no reason to believe the team can’t fix the issues that remain prior to launch. Crazy Machines VR certainly has the potential to be a refreshing puzzle experience in VR and, given the high level of challenge offered by previous titles, will likely be a brain taxer that goes far beyond most of what the medium has yet dared to offer.

Hands-on with Mario Kart Arcade GP VR: Leave Your Red Shells at Home

It’s a common belief that modern virtual reality (VR) needs the power of IP to succeed. In the world of approachable videogame entertainment, few franchises come as highly regarded as Mario Kart. For more than 25 years mushrooms, plumbers and princesses have been charging across varied landscapes and attacking one another with shells and banana skins trying to reach that pole position, and now you can join the action in VR.

Mario Kart Arcade GP VR is the first step into VR for the Mario Kart franchise, though not in the out-of-home entertainment sector. There have been three previous Mario Kart Arcade GP releases, all of which have been developed by Namco Bandai Games under license from Nintendo. Mario Kart Arcade GP VR doesn’t break this rule, but of course the experience you’ll get when entering the lifesize kart replica is wholly different.

The most obvious change is one of perspective, of course. Mario Kart Arcade GP VR puts the player into the kart in first-person, with a full range of head-movement perspective offered by the HTC Vive that is coupled with every kart. The player chooses their character – Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach or Yoshi – and once in the HMD can see the position of their virtual hands thanks to Vive Tracker pucks which are attached via a velcro strap to each of their real hands. This is a surprising but important aspect of Mario Kart Arcade GP VR.

As will be familiar to any fans of the Mario Kart franchise, the player is tasked with getting around the track as fast as possible while racing through landscapes themed around the Super Mario titles. Mario Kart Arcade GP VR does only offer one course, but it includes a range of locales such as Bower’s Castle, Kamek’s Laboratory and Donut Plains, separated by boost ramps that fade into cloudy whiteness. A variety of dangers exist in the course – potholes, Thwomps, Piranha Plants and Bullet Bills, to name a few – and of course Mario Kart Arcade GP VR features some weaponry to assist your efforts to gain first place.

Mario Kart Arcade GP VR screenshot

Sadly only three weapons have made the cut: the banana skin, green shell and a hammer. These weapons are no longer confined to question mark blocks however; as mentioned earlier the player wears Vive Tracker pucks on each hand which allow them to reach out and grab the chosen item from balloons drifting across the track. The banana skin and green shell can then be used similarly to every other edition of Mario Kart (however the effort to accurately throw the item in the desired direction seems to be replaced with a rather inaccurate approximation) while the hammer allows you to bash opponents close to you with physical swings of your hand. This of course is the most entertaining item available.

Elsewhere Mario Kart Arcade GP VR differs from the chosen formula of Mario Kart a little too much to be taken seriously by avid fans of the series. While lacking the commentary of Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 and Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, there are no powerslides or boost tricks in Mario Kart Arcade GP VR and in fact no real reason for a brake pedal. The rubber banding of opponents is extreme in all instances (a design for tension rather than fairness, no doubt) and the impact of weapons realistically has no effect on the outcome of a race until the final straight.

Mario Kart Arcade GP VR screenshot

For more casual players however, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR is certainly going to offer a welcome step into the world of VR. The visual quality is almost parallel to that of Mario Kart Arcade GP DX – a decidedly bright and colorful world perfectly recreating the Super Mario aesthetic seen in more than 100 videogames, cartoons, books, clothing and other paraphernalia across the years – and the VR optimisation is without flaw. It’s a simple and intuitive experience designed to welcome anyone, and in that Mario Kart Arcade GP VR is certainly a proficient piece of content design.

Essentially, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR could never be everything to everyone, and so the development team has opted for a light-hearted and enjoyable – if forgettable – adaptation of a beloved franchise into VR. Fans of Mario Kart will certainly enjoy a flirt with the experience but are unlikely to become too involved, and so too are those who may have purchased one-or-two of the home videogames but never found themselves wishing for a recreation of their favourite Mario Kart 64 track. Given the high asking price for a single three-and-a-half minute experience (£7.99 GBP at the time of going to press) that might well be a good thing.

Hands-On with the HP Omen X: A Beast Made for VR, But Not for Portability

While the virtual reality (VR) community eagerly awaits the inevitable tether-free future, the demand for high-end PC hardware to power the current generation of head-mounted displays (HMDs) has never been higher. The launches of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive early last year put some demand on the wallets of early adopters, but 16 months is a long time in the technology industry, and the demands of consumer-grade VR are no longer demanding the top tier of PC hardware.

HTC ViveWhere once there was only $1,200+ (USD) PCs capable of reaching the minimum specification required for the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, now there’s a variety of laptops also purporting to be ‘VR Ready’. MSi was quick to get out of the gate and has established a strong reputation for portability and reliability in the industry, however there’s still often a question of performance over many of their devices. HP, then, can be seen to have gone in entirely the opposite direction.

Expanding the HP Omen range of laptops (of which the higher end devices were already capable of running a VR HMD adequately), the HP Omen X is a performance beast. An Intel Core i7-7820HK processor, 32GB DDR4 RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 as standard (an upgrade to an NVIDIA GeForce 1080 is optional), all the basic elements are there to run near-any VR application exactly as the developers intended.

Of course, the HP Omen X laptop offers 3x USB 3.0 ports as well as both HDMI and Display Port Mini connections, coupled with the above hardware for compatibility across the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and even HTC Vive Pro HMDs. However, having such a comprehensively capable machine does of course come at a cost elsewhere.

HP Omen XWeighing in at 4.35 kg, the HP Omen X is nearly twice that of MSi’s 7RF Apache Pro (2.4 kg), which for the typical VR adopter is a comparable device in all but the consideration of a lower tier graphics card: an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060. This may not seem much of an issue for some, but for developers looking to showcase their wares at trade events or meetups, or enthusiasts intending to use their new laptop to debut the joys of VR to newcomers, the HP Omen X suffers significantly in the area in which laptops are supposed to excel: portability.

The HP Omen X is designed to be the high-end laptop: the only laptop you’ll need for the next five-or-more years. If that’s what you’re in the market for there are few better options in the field. However, if you’re looking for a more flexible option there are laptops at lower price points that are able to deliver similar performance without the intense back strain.

 

Hands-On with the HP Omen X: A Beast Made for VR, But Not for Portability

While the virtual reality (VR) community eagerly awaits the inevitable tether-free future, the demand for high-end PC hardware to power the current generation of head-mounted displays (HMDs) has never been higher. The launches of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive early last year put some demand on the wallets of early adopters, but 16 months is a long time in the technology industry, and the demands of consumer-grade VR are no longer demanding the top tier of PC hardware.

HTC ViveWhere once there was only $1,200+ (USD) PCs capable of reaching the minimum specification required for the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, now there’s a variety of laptops also purporting to be ‘VR Ready’. MSi was quick to get out of the gate and has established a strong reputation for portability and reliability in the industry, however there’s still often a question of performance over many of their devices. HP, then, can be seen to have gone in entirely the opposite direction.

Expanding the HP Omen range of laptops (of which the higher end devices were already capable of running a VR HMD adequately), the HP Omen X is a performance beast. An Intel Core i7-7820HK processor, 32GB DDR4 RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 as standard (an upgrade to an NVIDIA GeForce 1080 is optional), all the basic elements are there to run near-any VR application exactly as the developers intended.

Of course, the HP Omen X laptop offers 3x USB 3.0 ports as well as both HDMI and Display Port Mini connections, coupled with the above hardware for compatibility across the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and even HTC Vive Pro HMDs. However, having such a comprehensively capable machine does of course come at a cost elsewhere.

HP Omen XWeighing in at 4.35 kg, the HP Omen X is nearly twice that of MSi’s 7RF Apache Pro (2.4 kg), which for the typical VR adopter is a comparable device in all but the consideration of a lower tier graphics card: an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060. This may not seem much of an issue for some, but for developers looking to showcase their wares at trade events or meetups, or enthusiasts intending to use their new laptop to debut the joys of VR to newcomers, the HP Omen X suffers significantly in the area in which laptops are supposed to excel: portability.

The HP Omen X is designed to be the high-end laptop: the only laptop you’ll need for the next five-or-more years. If that’s what you’re in the market for there are few better options in the field. However, if you’re looking for a more flexible option there are laptops at lower price points that are able to deliver similar performance without the intense back strain.

 

Preview: Arca’s Path VR – A Beautiful World to Explore, On the Surface

Wave shooters. Wave shooters are everywhere in virtual reality (VR). What once felt like a good stepping stone to full first-person shooter (FPS) experiences has become the dam that is preventing more inventive ideas from being noticed in the new medium. Dream Reality Interactive’s Arca’s Path VR, set to be published by Rebellion later this year, is not a wave shooter, but it’s certainly looking set to become an experience you should seek out in the muddle.

Arca's Path keyArtGaze-controlled experiences seemed to be the exclusive property of VR 2015-2016, but here in Arca’s Path VR Dream Reality Interactive is breathing new life into the simplistic control scheme. Played on a PlayStation VR (though according to the studio the videogame will be coming to ‘all’ VR formats) the player commands the movement of a ball around elevated platforms by moving their gaze-based cursor to the alignment from said ball they wish it to move. It’s essentially a case of relaying the traditional left analogue stick control onto the centre of the player’s viewpoint, but it does work well.

During this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, VRFocus got to experience the opening two levels of Arca’s Path VR. The first was a simple no-fail journey along a linear path. Without instruction, the player learns the pacing of manoeuvring the ball – the delay between the ball’s momentum and their own intangible push/pull, the acceleration and near-instant stop caused by the level design and player’s focus on the ball, respectively – upon this simple back-and-forth, before entering a second level which showcases the true ethos of Arca’s Path VR’s physics-based platform action.

The second level brings in new challenges immediately and without warning; lifts, bridges without barriers to prevent falling, high-speed descends similar to the infamous bonus stage from the Mega Drive edition of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Along with this comes a number of collectibles – which currently have no indication of what they might do – requiring additional skill to pick-up, and the final build will offer time trails in which the player must rampage through each level as quickly as possible to set a high score.

The story of Arca’s Path VR is delivered without dialogue nor narration, instead opting for short graphic novel-inspired cut-outs. These static images tell the tale of a girl who lives in a junkyard, but as a new shipment of waste comes in she finds a magical mask that – for reasons not yet explained – allows her body to take the form of a ball and teleport her to beautiful, brightly coloured worlds populated only with brightly coloured flora. However, a glimpse at later levels offered at the end of the E3 preview build suggests there’s much more going on under the surface; that not every land you’ll be visiting is a lush shade of green.

Arca’s Path VR is by no means a revolutionary experience; a question remains over whether or not the videogame benefits from VR at all. However, it does appear to have the potential to deliver a satisfying platform experience which the player can take at their own pace: the antithesis of those wave shooters, and for that alone it’s a title worth watching.