I had never played Riven before. Its VR remake blew me away
If you've never checked out the world of Riven before, its new remake is an unmissable experience.
‘RIVEN’ Review – An Okay VR Port of an Awesome Game Still Worth Playing
RIVEN (1997), the sequel to iconic point-and-click puzzle-adventure MYST (1993), just got the VR treatment in its new remake. Unlike Myst, which felt a little too game-y and obtuse at times, Riven plays a lot more like a modern title, which thanks to Quest and SteamVR support, is true in every sense of the word now. Granted, you’ll need to look past some VR implementation issues which keep it from feeling like a ground-up VR native, although however you play, you’ll be exploring a fascinating world that’s both puzzle-dense and undeniably beautiful at every turn.
RIVEN Details:
Available On: Quest 2/3, SteamVR
Reviewed On: Quest 3, Quest 3 via Link
Release Date: June 25th, 2024
Price: $35
Developer: Cyan Worlds
Gameplay
I know Riven pretty well by now, having shuffled my way around its five PlayStation 1 discs a number of times as a kid. This is the first time popping back in as an adult though, so I kind of get the chance to not only relive a bit of the past, but rediscover puzzles long forgotten, this time in the immersive first-person view of a VR headset.
While I really can’t stop nostalgia coloring some of my experience with the new 3D-rendered Riven, I’ve spent enough time in VR to know where things fit on the VR-port-continuum. Some games feel unnecessarily forced into working with VR, some are indistinguishable from VR-natives, and somewhere in the middle are great games that still feel like ports, but that’s okay because they bring enough to the table on their own. That’s where Riven sits—great game that works pretty ok in VR.
If you’re playing it for the first time, you’re in for a patently Cyan experience of deciphering codes, shuffling puzzle pieces around, and visiting (and possibly re-re-revisiting) places, doors, and enigmatic set pieces to figure out the world around you. That’s reason enough to play if you’ve never had the chance. Riven’s puzzle can be tough for the uninitiated, but ultimately more rewarding than Myst thanks to its heaps of environmental storytelling that feels less formulaic, and a lot more organic. More on that in the Immersion section.
If you have played before though, many of the game’s puzzles and gadgets are slightly modified from the originals, likely due to the spatial nature of real-time 3D graphics as opposed to the single-frame point-and-click original, which was much more static in how its presented interactive elements. A 27-year-old walkthrough guide that works with the original may still be useful to help with the broad strokes, but you’ll definitely notice differences here and there, with some puzzle elements simplified, or complicated in new ways separate from the original.
One thing that hasn’t changed is there’s still a ton of walking and looping around to do, which is just a feature of the game due to its wide and varied puzzles. You’ll spend a good amount of time circumnavigating one of the game’s five islands for the umpteenth time turn on a thing, to return to a puzzle across the map to see what it did. Then again, that’s just the old school charm and hands-off approach Riven brings to the table.
Not only that, but the old school approach to game design makes you rely upon your own spatial memory. There are no map markers, signs, or ‘helpful’ NPCs to guide your way—an aspect of the game that still makes it one of my favorite experiences.
And unlike Myst, you can go a pretty impressive distance through the game with only a few hard roadblocks to stop you, making progression feel very natural. Then again, Riven is beloved for being more organic in level design, and less formulaic than Myst overall, feeling much less like of a jumble of toys, and more like Cyan’s modern titles Obduction (2016) and Firmament (2023).
Knowing Riven’s past, I shouldn’t really complain about loading times—they’re certainly faster than shuffling through a broken jewel case filled with PS1 discs—however on Quest you’ll be sitting there for a while waiting for levels to load, the longest of which is the initial startup screen which the game warns “could take a few minutes” to do (it does). From there, whether on Quest or SteamVR, vehicle transitions will constantly toss out 10-second loading screens, which doesn’t sound like much, but happen on both sides of transfers between islands.
Another niggle: there’s no practical way to write down notes so you can remember clues or sketch out solutions, which is precisely what you’ll need to do to decode stuff. You can take a screenshot with the game’s built-in camera system, and that’s about it. I just wish there was a spatial pencil so I could annotate found letters, or somehow keep myself from taking off the headset to write stuff down.
Immersion
I had a chance to play both on Quest 3 natively and PC VR versions. Here’s the breakdown between the two, which most anyone can guess.
On the Quest version you’ll notice a ton of low-res textures and geometry that dynamically chunk-loads into place the closer you get to it. Once things are in place though, at times Riven can be one of the prettiest games on the Quest platform. That’s if there aren’t any NPCs around, which are bloated and a little too cartoony for the game’s lush, natural environment.
It also seems Cyan is throwing the entire toolbox of Quest performance tricks at you at all times, including what feels like always-on asynchronous spacewarp and glaringly obvious fixed foveated rendering.
Since it was primarily developed for the flatscreen PC crowd, the PC VR version is a fair bit ahead of the Quest 3 native in terms of visuals. Even on ‘Epic’ settings though, you’re bound to notice some oddly applied shaders that make shadows dance about and move when they shouldn’t, and also discrepancies in how shaders work in both eyes, leading to some pretty visible mismatches in shadows and lighting. Still. chunk-loading of areas is mostly minimal and textures are fairly high, making it rightfully a more graphically intense version of the game.
Like Myst, Riven suffers from middling object interaction, which is a shame considering how many items are strewn about in the game. Oftentimes I’d find myself trying to interact with something, only to find out I wasn’t pressing it correctly, or it wasn’t interactive at all in the first place, making it more of a guessing game than it should be. Here’s me fruitlessly grasping at a weird banana-kiwi thing, then trying to grab a strangely unusable pencil on the same table. Again, I wish I could use that damn pencil.
There is a physical inventory though where you can keep the various books you collect throughout the game, although you can’t use it for anything else.
Whether you’re on Quest or SteamVR, something that never fails to impress is coming to a precipice or turning a bend to find a new, breathtaking scene in front of you. Riven is all about natural beauty, punctuated with megalithic structures that don’t feel nearly as abandoned and lonely as Myst did.
There’s wildlife, sprawling villages, shrines, and plenty of environmental storytelling here to dig into, putting exploration at the forefront. There’s even inhabitants in the world, albeit too skittish to interact with such an obvious outsider.
Comfort
Riven features the full gamut of comfort options in addition to some quality of life options that make things a little easier, but likely less immersive as a result. Traveling between islands is always done on some sort of vehicle, which can be a little jarring for some since it’s fast and a bit jerky.
You can turn vehicles transitions off entirely though, essentially letting you jump right to the next island’s rail station, or put in the option to make windows dirty, which helps ground you a little more in the vehicle’s cockpit. The game also offers similar options for instant traversal of stairs and ladders, which otherwise a manually climbable.
Check out the full comfort checklist below:
‘RIVEN’ Comfort Settings – June 25th, 2024 |
|
Turning |
|
| Artificial turning | |
| Snap-turn |  |
| Quick-turn |  |
| Smooth-turn | |
Movement |
|
| Artificial movement | |
| Teleport-move | |
| Dash-move | |
| Smooth-move | |
| Blinders | |
| Head-based | |
| Controller-based | |
| Swappable movement hand | |
Posture |
|
| Standing mode | |
| Seated mode | |
| Artificial crouch | |
| Real crouch | |
Accessibility |
|
| Subtitles | |
| Languages |
English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish
|
| Dialogue audio | |
| Languages | English |
| Adjustable difficulty | |
| Two hands required | |
| Real crouch required | |
| Hearing required | |
| Adjustable player height | |
The post ‘RIVEN’ Review – An Okay VR Port of an Awesome Game Still Worth Playing appeared first on Road to VR.
Riven’s upcoming remake is only happening because Cyan can do it justice
Cyan Worlds is remaking its PC puzzle game Riven: The Sequel to Myst. We spoke to the team to learn more about the challenges of modernizing a classic.
PC VR Exclusive Puzzle Adventure ‘Firmament’ Coming to PSVR 2 Later This Year
Firmament (2023), the puzzle adventure from MYST creators Cyan, announced they’re finally bringing the game to PSVR 2, making good on their original Kickstarter promise.
The studio announced the news in a Kickstarter update, stating Firmament may arrive on PlayStation as early as this fall, which the studio has confirmed will include PSVR 2 support.
“We still have more work to do to get the game running well on the platform and to conform with various platform requirements that we must meet prior to submitting to certification, but we have high hopes that we will be able to ship Firmament on PlayStation this Fall,” the studio says in the update.
Released in this time last year on PC and PC VR headsets, Firmament is very much a spiritual successor to MYST, offering up modern beauty and narrative finesse alongside a ton of environmental puzzles that are sure to make you scratch your head.
While it’s VR implementation feels a little bit like an afterthought, its puzzles and setting are so substantial you may forgive it entirely for feeling a bit like a good VR port of a really great game. Check out our full spoiler-free review on PC to learn more about what make’s Cyan’s latest new IP tick.
Speaking of Cyan games, we’re also waiting to hear more about the upcoming re-release of Riven, which is confirmed to launch this summer on PC VR headsets and Quest.
The post PC VR Exclusive Puzzle Adventure ‘Firmament’ Coming to PSVR 2 Later This Year appeared first on Road to VR.
Don’t worry, the Riven remake won’t feature any AI-assisted content
Cyan confirmed its upcoming Riven remake will not feature any AI-assisted content, unlike the studio's 2023 game Firmament.
Classic Adventure Game ‘RIVEN’ to Launch on Quest & PC VR This Month
Cyan Worlds announced that RIVEN (1997), the sequel to iconic adventure game MYST (1993), is getting VR support when the remake launches on Quest and SteamVR headsets, which is now set for a June 25th release.
Cyan has revealed that Riven a is now available for preorder on Quest 2/3 (re: not Quest Pro), discounted to $31 from its launch day price of $35.
You’ll also find it on Steam for flatscreen, which comes with launch-day support for PC VR headsets. The original article announcing Riven’s VR support follows below:
Cyan Worlds says Riven will launch on the Quest 2 and Quest 3 as previously speculated, which will come in addition to SteamVR headsets, and both on Windows and Mac.
There’s no update yet when to expect the game’s launch. The game’s Quest Store page indicates however we should expect it sometime in “Summer 2024,” so we may be in for a release date fairly soon. The original article announcing Riven’s VR support follows below:
There’s no word on whether we can expect Cyan to build a Quest-native app as well (see update), but at least we can confirm it’s getting SteamVR support.
The studio has been an active developer of VR modes for a number of its games, including the Quest-native version of MYST (2020), Firmament (2023), and its first VR-supported game, Obduction (2016).
The remake is said to blend the original’s intricate puzzle-solving with modern technology, offering stunning visuals and a fully explorable 3D world—which is in part thanks to being built in Unreal Engine 5.
We still only have a teaser to salivate to, although as soon as we see a proper gameplay trailer, you’ll be the first to know.
The post Classic Adventure Game ‘RIVEN’ to Launch on Quest & PC VR This Month appeared first on Road to VR.
‘Firmament’ Review – Complex Puzzles & Visual Richness Lacking a Native VR Touch
Firmament was created in the spirit of Myst, the studio’s genre-defining puzzle adventure which maroons you in a strange realm with some very imposing architecture, all of which houses a smorgasbord of some patently challenging puzzles. In this respect, Firmament is kind of an old dog with a few new tricks, as it brings modern beauty and narrative finesse, although the game’s VR implementation sadly feels like a bit of an afterthought.
Firmament Details:
Available On: SteamVR, PSVR 2 (coming later)
Release Date: May 11th, 2023
Price: $40
Developer: Cyan Worlds
Reviewed On: Quest 2 via Link
Gameplay
Firmament: from Latin firmamentum—that which strengthens or supports. In an ancient cosmological sense, the word was also used to refer to the sky, or the vault of the heavens fixed above Earth. You’ll have plenty of time to ponder meaning that as you teleport between the four realms via the game’s conveniently located conveyance pods, which automagically shuttle you Dr. Who-style atop wind-swept mountains and steampunk botanical gardens just waiting to be explored (and fixed).
Firmament dishes out real moments of awe between serving up maddeningly complex puzzles—basically a Cyan Worlds game through and through. The game’s gigantic machines will leave you scratching your head as you run back and forth just to make sure the figurative pilot light is on. While you have some narrative-based voice recordings and found notes to go by, you’re basically on your own when it comes to puzzling, meaning you won’t be babied by a ‘helpful robot’ who feeds answers into your ear. You’ll need to pay close attention to everything, and really get a grip of all the pieces in play before you can make sense of things. Beating your head against puzzles rarely works, so you’ll be greeted by some very familiar frustration if you’ve played any of Cyan’s most recent games, like Obduction or Myst VR.
Anyway, here are some useful hints: Watch out for every ladder. Watch out for every socket. Keep your head on a swivel and mess with everything a little just to see if it moves, but not so much that you scramble puzzles beyond their intended solvability.
Interacting with the world is done by way of activating a swath of standardized sockets, which pair to your hand-held ‘adjunct’ tool—kind of like a remote-controlled sonic screwdriver that lets you tether and interact with machines. Some sockets only have a single function, like opening and closing a door, while others have multiple functions that you’ll need to flip through. More on that in the Immersion section below.
There is a lot of running back and forth, which feels more like a chore in VR than on traditional monitors. That frustration is compounded by moments when I wasn’t sure whether the game was borked, making me wonder whether it was me who screwed up or the game. It seems Firmament came well prepared for this eventuality at least, as you can safely reset back to a central location, which typically also resets puzzles too. While complex and mostly logical, a minority of puzzle solutions can be downright obtuse. I was provided with a solutions guide, which included hints as well as solutions, and I’m not ashamed to say I needed a few of those hints to complete the game, which I did in about nine hours.
In the end the juice is generally worth the squeeze with Firmament, as you’re whisked off to new, even more impressive areas of the game. While the ending left me feeling a little perplexed, the overall level of world-building is extremely high. I only wish I could be more present in the game and given more agency than casting my tether to manipulate glorified on-off buttons.
Immersion
Firmament is a sumptuous and potentially beautiful game that I wish I could be more present in. My aging GTX 1080 was able to play along decently on medium graphics settings in most areas, which is more than I can say for Obduction. Still, some of the inherent beauty of the game is marred by jagged edges and a muddiness in some areas that feel like it’s really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. My GPU, which is probably the minimum spec for VR at this point, was much happier sipping along on all low settings, so make sure to curb your expectations if you’re running an older or less powerful setups like mine.
I touched on some of the frustration of puzzle solving above, or rather, when solving puzzles goes wrong, but there’s another frustration that has more to do with level design, and not whether things are actually working properly. While slick and in line with ‘AAA’ games in terms of graphics, level design is still very much rooted in the studio’s point-and-click past, which means you’ll have less physical agency than you’d probably think is rational given the expectation of working hands and feet.
In VR, I’m used to being able to not only do what I can in physical reality, like climbing and jumping, but even more. Some of the game’s level design feels like a step backwards in terms of what should be logically possible, like scrambling over a simple banister railing, or sidestepping a box to get to another area. I know that’s part and parcel of the studio’s puzzle style, but if I’m not offered some explanation beyond “no, you just can’t because of reasons,” it negatively impacts my perception of the inherent solidity of the world around me.
And while the world is so rich with possibility, the only meaningful way to interact with it is by using your adjunct tool to manipulate sockets, save a single other tool you’re given that disperses ice and other crusty bits in your way. This raises the question whether Firmament is making good use of VR beyond giving you a more immersive view of the game. Sadly, it doesn’t. It feels more like a flatscreen game with an optional VR mode that hasn’t really informed many of the game’s puzzles or much of its level design. While the amount of backtracking from place to place isn’t such an issue on traditional monitors, it feels way more like a chore in VR.
And yet, all of the frustrations of Firmament never seemed to completely overwhelm me. The game’s score is excellent, complementing both its strong voice acting and mostly well-reasoned narrative. I only wish it were just a little more sympathetic to the modern VR gamer, and a little less of an optional mode that basically works, but not as well as you’d hope.
Comfort
The game’s a bit at odds with standard VR movement schemes. While teleport and smooth movement are options, the game default movement scheme puts turning on one stick, and forward movement on another—something I’m not generally used to. Besides a few cart ride-style vehicles, the game is ultimately comfortable enough for most players.
‘Firmament’ Comfort Settings – May 18th, 2023 |
|
Turning |
|
| Artificial turning | |
| Snap-turn | |
| Quick-turn | |
| Smooth-turn | |
Movement |
|
| Artificial movement | |
| Teleport-move | |
| Dash-move | |
| Smooth-move | |
| Blinders | |
| Head-based | |
| Controller-based | |
| Swappable movement hand | |
Posture |
|
| Standing mode | |
| Seated mode | |
| Artificial crouch | |
| Real crouch | |
Accessibility |
|
| Subtitles | |
| Languages | English, Italian, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America) |
| Dialogue audio | |
| Languages | English |
| Adjustable difficulty | |
| Two hands required | |
| Real crouch required | |
| Hearing required | |
| Adjustable player height | |
‘Firmament’ Trailer Spotlights Core Puzzle Mechanic Ahead of May PC VR Launch
Last month we got an eyeful of Cyan’s upcoming VR puzzle adventure Firmament in an extended preview trailer that showed off some of the game’s impressively looming set pieces. Now, prepping for the game’s May 18th release on PC VR, the studio released its first look at some of the game’s puzzle mechanics.
There are a few new things shown in the video that we haven’t seen before, notably what appears to be the final version of the most important tool to your puzzle-adventuring.
Called an ‘Adjunct’, the tool lets you interface with the various devices strewn about the Realm of Firmament, which Cyan says will help you on your quest to unlocking the secrets this place holds.
We previously saw the Adjunct very briefly in Firmament’s initial Kickstarter video, although it wasn’t clear at the time what it was, or whether or not it would be a one-off object. Whatever the case, it’s clear now that the adjunct is a mainstay that ostensibly works like and extension of the player’s arm.
Also, it appears the ability to shoot the bit from the holder has let Cyan develop a wider range of far-flung puzzles, as you can manipulate locks and various receptacles you wouldn’t be able to physically reach otherwise.
Firmament is launching for PC VR headsets and traditional monitors via Steam on May 18th. In the new Steam page, the studio reveals a few more tidbits of info about the narrative and structure of the game:
You are not entirely alone in Firmament. In addition to The Adjunct, you are joined by a mysterious apparition, who has a story of her own to share with you. As you explore you will be introduced to 3 Realms – each with secrets and mysteries to reveal. What purpose do the Realms serve? Can the spirit who accompanies you be trusted?
Are the realms of Firmament abandoned? What are these giant, mysterious machines scattered throughout the world? What is their purpose? What part do you play in this grand mystery? Explore, Discover, Solve, and Reveal the mystery for yourself by playing Firmament!
In the game’s Kickstarter November update, Cyan said Firmament is also set to come to PSVR 2, PS4 and PS5 at some point “down the line.” There’s no word on whether Quest 2 will ever get a native version of the game, i.e. one that can be played without a PC and Link or Air Link.
‘The Last Clockwinder’ Review – So Much More Than Just Robots Picking Fruit
The Last Clockwinder is casual puzzle game that tasks you with building moving contraptions out of your own clones. While constructing complex factories essentially populated by just yourself is good fun, the game also excels in delivering a world that feels alive, which isn’t an easy task when you’re basically (ok, not exactly) in one room the entire game with a bunch of automatons picking fruit and pumping levers. Thanks to its seemingly Studio Ghibli-inspired setting and series of audio logs which tie it all together with a heartfelt story, The Last Clockwinder makes for a charming little adventure that may just pull a heartstring or two.
The Last Clockwinder Details:
Available On: Quest, SteamVR
Release Date: June 2nd, 2022
Price: $TBD
Developer: Pontoco
Publisher: Cyan Ventures
Reviewed On: Quest 2
Gameplay
Humans have become a multiplanetary species, but even with our space ships and fun steampunk-style gadgetry, someone has to watch over the ancient clocktower built into the trunk of a colossal tree growing on a watery planet. The massive water pump inside is broken, and if you don’t fix it the universe could lose an irreplaceable landmark from centuries past as the tree becomes increasingly waterlogged and the rare plant life inside could perish. The tree-bound clocktower and the fate of its caretaker is a mystery worth unraveling, so I won’t say anymore for the sake of spoilers.
Entering the tower from its balcony, you find a pair of gloves that let you record your actions and loop them so you can complete more complex tasks. Creating an automaton is pretty effortless: a button press on your left controller lets you start recording your movements for a set amount of time—a duration of one, two, or four cycles—and another button lets you delete any bot you deem unworthy. I found it best to mimic each action first and work through the chain of events before committing to recording and setting the bots in motion. That said, you’ll still find yourself spawning and killing a lot of bots as you inevitably biff a critical throw or mess up timing on a catch.
There’s likely an effective limit to how many robots you can spawn, but that’s not really the focus. If you’re like me, you’ll obsess over recording perfect automaton behavior, like slicing a fruit from its base, handing the fruit and knife simultaneously to two different robots, and letting them do their chain of events. There’s a lot of satisfaction there when you can get those complex bits to come together just in the nick of time.
Ultimately the aim is to feed machines with the auto-generating fruit you find hanging off plants discovered throughout the game, and all of them have their own unique characteristics. A bomb fruit explodes if you hold it in your hand for too long, making it a game of hot potato. A squash-thing (whatever it’s called) needs to be cut from its base to be released and—you guessed it—there’s only one knife to go around. A Luftapple floats into the air like a balloon, so you have to knock it about and guide it into its receptacle, or it will fly off with a mind of its own. Here’s a good visual of how you might juice the game’s starter fruit:
I call The Last Clockwinder a ‘casual’ puzzler because the speed of production is up to you. The assembly line can be simple and slow, or increasingly Rube Goldberg-ian to max out the amount of fruit you can process. As puzzles become more complex, you’ll certainly be tempted to keep it simple though since setting up an entire chain of events can help you increase production, or make you pull your hair out trying to get just the right arch as you pitch a fruit halfway across the room. Interspersed throughout the fruit-gathering sections, which make up a bulk of the game, are a few one-off puzzles that present what I’d consider a medium difficulty level.
Optimizing your ad hoc factory for the fastest possible processing speed is an optional part of the game, since you can get by with just waiting for your tally of each of the fruits to go up at a slower speed provided you don’t mind bebopping around. You’ll need each of those fruits in abundance to unlock areas on the globe-shaped map, which lets up call up and plug in room-sized platforms held within the tree itself.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s not too casual of a puzzler. Near the end, which took me around four hours to reach, there are some genuinely complex puzzles to navigate. Really reaching for max efficiency on each room puzzle will no doubt add extra value to your gameplay session, provided you like to get into the nitty gritty of streamlining systems. Eg. have a robot cut a squash, toss a knife, and deposit the squash from half court. But again, you can always get by with the bare minimum.
And while you could play the game ‘easy’, it doesn’t treat you like you can’t follow basic instructions. One of my pet peeves is being led by the hand to solutions and ‘helpful’ voices over your shoulder, but thankfully the game doesn’t over tutorialize or butt in when it isn’t wanted. Voice overs are almost purely focused on delivering narrative, leaving you to ask for hints when needed via a single mechanism that gives you push in the right direction. You can take it or leave it, and I like that.
I also never felt like there was a down moment in The Last Clockwinder. Most rooms (not all) present a different puzzle, fruit, or fruit product to navigate, so the variability of tasks is pretty high. And those tasks build upon each other naturally until you get to the most complex machine near the end of the game which requires you to put all of your knowledge together in a satisfying way, making you feel like you’ve learned something and effectively used that skill to good effect.
Immersion
There’s no arguing that the world of The Last Clockwinder is small; it’s a multi-purpose room in a tree that you never leave. But it’s also such a cozy and familiar environment that I don’t think I would want to even if I could. It’s like the cool treehouse hangout I always wanted as a kid, but way more sci-fi and steampunkish than I ever could have imagined. I definitely left with the feeling of wanting more: a broader outdoor vista, better object interaction, and more narrative byways to get lost in, like books and messages that help fill out the story, if only to soak in all of the game’s expertly-crafted atmosphere.
That’s a wishlist, I know, but if I could really have one thing it would be better object interaction, or at least a better expectation of object interaction. I see tomes in front of me I want to read, chairs I want to sit in, and things I wish I could (pretend to) eat, yet the only interactive elements are the fruit and the machines themselves, leaving all of those painstakingly built set pieces a little more transient and less solid than they ought to be. That’s not such a damning thing when a good game is behind it all, although it’s just a shame I can’t inhabit more of The Last Clockwinder. That’s how beautiful and inviting the game feels.
Outside of impeccable visual detail, the game also includes high quality voice acting which is delivered via balcony-based comm system and tape recorders littered throughout the many rooms. Those narrative bits are numerous and triggered at key points in the game, but well worth your time as the mystery of who you are (or were) unfolds.
Another high point is sound design. The game’s piano-heavy soundtrack is warm and rich, underlining the cozy and homey feel of it all. To top it off, the game even challenges you to play the main tune, if only to wring some more fun out of the game’s looping mechanic. I could play the piano (keys are actually large enough to use) and the harp for a good while.
In the end, it certainly feels like the game’s developers, Pontoco, have taken strong inspiration from the likes of Studio Ghibli. That’s an ambitious target to shoot for, but I think they’ve built something that recalls so much of that quiet and honest home-spun charm whilst being distinct enough on its own that it doesn’t make the same mistake that many games do when aping such an iconic visual style.
Comfort
This may come as a shock in this day and age, but this is a teleport-only game which consequently also makes it one of the most comfortable of VR games out there.
You spend a good amount of time moving about back and forth to the same places, so it does save you a bit of time moving from point A to point B, although this does come at the cost of immersion. You can also snap-turn if you like playing seated, although this sort of game begs for room-scale interactions. There’s no artificial locomotion to speak out outside of those methods, since you’re essentially staying in a single room the entire time.
The Last Clockwinder – June 2nd, 2022 |
|
Turning |
|
| Artificial turning | |
| Smooth-turn | |
| Snap-turn | |
| Adjustable increments | |
Movement |
|
| Artificial movement | |
| Smooth-move | |
| Teleport-move | |
| Blinders | |
| Swappable movement hand | |
Posture |
|
| Standing mode | |
| Seated mode | |
| Artificial crouch | |
| Real crouch | |
Accessibility |
|
| Subtitles | |
| Languages | English |
| Alternate audio | |
| Languages | English |
| Adjustable difficulty | |
| Two hands required | |
| Real crouch required | |
| Hearing required | |
| Adjustable player height | |
The post ‘The Last Clockwinder’ Review – So Much More Than Just Robots Picking Fruit appeared first on Road to VR.
Firmament Is Your Next Confirmed PSVR 2 Game, But PSVR Version Canned
Your next confirmed PSVR 2 game is Firmament, the newest title from the developer of Myst.
You might have heard of Firmament already. It was actually announced all the way back in 2018 (and we even played it back then). In 2019, the game launched a Kickstarter campaign, where it raised just shy of $1.5 million. It is developer Cyan Worlds’ latest expansion of the adventure formula it helped shape with 1993’s Myst and subsequent follow-ups including Obduction and 2020’s Myst remake. Last we heard, the game had been delayed to 2022 but expanded in scope.
Firmament PSVR 2 Version Confirmed
But, in an update today (first spotted by Distrito XR), Cyan confirmed the game is now coming to PS5 and will have support for PSVR 2 to boot. The PS5 version will release this year but PSVR 2 support may arrive later down the line depending on when Sony’s headset actually ends up launching. This makes Firmament one of only a handful of officially confirmed PSVR 2 games, including the recently-revealed Horizon Call of the Mountain. Keep track of every confirmed and rumored game for the platform right here.
Firmament actually passed a stretch goal for PSVR support during the original campaign but, while the game is still planned for PS4, Cyan also confirmed that PSVR 1 integration was no longer possible. In its stead, anyone that backed the PlayStation tier for the campaign will be given both the PS4 and PS5 version, meaning they’ll eventually get PSVR 2 support instead.
The game’s also coming to PC, where it will support more headsets. Given the project started before the launch of the original Quest, and the fact that the PSVR version has been canceled, we wouldn’t expect a release on Meta’s standalone headset either.
Will you still be looking to play Firmament on PSVR 2? Let us know in the comments below.