MarineVerse Cup, the VR sailing simulator first launched on Steam early access in 2019, has left App Lab and made its way to the official Quest Store.
Billed as “approachable, but authentic,” MarineVerse Cup is a simulator that primarily focused on teaching you the ropes on how to sail two crafts: a dinghy and a small yacht.
Once you get the hang of both tutorials, you can take on time trails, mini games, and engage in some daily racing practice via procedurally-generated races, all featuring leaderboards.
With some more knowhow under your belt, you might also opt for the ‘Sailing Pass’, an in-app subscription that allows you to sail in multiplayer races—both solo or co-op mode—pro races, and access a third vessel, a pint-sized hydrofoil called ‘WASZP’.
Image courtesy MarineVerse
For now, it appears multiplayer is available without a Sailing Pass, but the developers warn that may change in the future.
Founded in 2016, indie developers MarineVerse was born out of lead developer Greg Dziemidowicz’s love for programming and sailing, two passions found at a young age. Recreating that sailing experience was something Dziemidowicz wanted to do since trying out the Oculus Rift DK2, which has some pretty obvious benefits over the real deal.
“With VR, we can let you experience a bit of sailing joy at home, removing some of [the inherent] barriers. Moreover, we can put you in risky situations in a safe environment, allowing you to practice without the risk of harm to yourself, your boat, and others,” Dziemidowicz says in a Meta blogpost. “Sailing can put you in a special state of mind—flow—and VR has such an uncanny ability to bring that feeling quickly. Playing a game can “feel like sailing,” and Marineverse Cup is our way of bringing that incredible feeling of flow to as many people as possible.”
MarineVerse Cup is now live on the Quest Store, priced at $20. The Sailing Pass is priced at $13 per month. Again, it appears multiplayer is live without the pass for now, but that may change. Alternatively, you can join the game’s Patreon to get the pass, which is also a $13 per-month recurring charge.
Upon opening MarineVerse Cup you’re greeted by a beautiful, calming vision of deep blue waters with hazy landscapes in the distance. There’s a sense the developer wants this sailing simulation to feel slightly exotic. This is amplified in the sound design, with splashing water that seems to wash up all around you, and the howling wind as you open up the sails.
The first impression is a good one; not only is the environment welcoming, but the tutorials are deep and expansive. However, sometimes first impressions can be misleading. The infinite blue of this ocean is truly infinite, there’s no sense of place beyond the landmarks in the distance. Sailing in one direction brings you to nothing but more water, shrinking the grand idea of sailing out into the blue.
The tutorials, while informative and helpful, are dry and can get rather boring after a while. That’s the feeling across the game generally – it starts well, then gets rather boring. For example, a large portion of the game is dedicated to racing.
Once you’ve chosen the craft you want to use – dinghy or yacht – you’re teleported to the water in preparation for the race. You wait a couple of minutes, edging close to the starting line, before finding the wind and dashing out towards a buoy marker. You circle the markers and head home to the finish line. At first, it feels exciting, but after a couple of minutes it’s tedious; there is no atmosphere, there’s no sense of racing against anyone but yourself because the bots are spread out, and then there’s the monotonous voice that constantly reminds you “the sail is flapping”.
Sailing is a niche activity and usually, these work well for gaming experiences both in and out of virtual reality, however, in this instance there’s just no spark. There’s no excitement beyond that first impression. This is, in part, because the game’s structure is so obtuse. There is no career mode, the multiplayer can only be played if you give over your email address by opening an account with the developers and the mini-games and challenges simply aren’t fun – there are only so many times you can sail to collect stars or fish.
At the moment, that multiplayer option is a little quiet. I had a handful of races and only in one could I link up with another person. Thankfully bots can be used to fill out the playing field and whenever you finish a race your time is uploaded to a leaderboard, giving a nice sense of competition.
MarineVerse Cup feels like a hodgepodge of ideas thrown together with no cohesion. Choosing races or tutorials is all conducted on a boring looking board in the marina clubhouse, there’s no sense of scale. No grandeur, glamour, or adrenaline. In fact, the best thing in the marina hub is a cat that sits behind you meowing cutely. And yes, you can pet the cat.
I don’t want these flaws to sideline those genuinely interested in sailing in reality, however, I can’t imagine those die-hard sailors finding a lot to love here. Take the yacht as an example, there are several places you can stand on the ship – next to each wheel, at the centre compass, toward the bow, or centre of the stern. You can teleport to these by holding the trigger button.
But you don’t need to be stood at the wheel to steer, nor do you need to be sat to port or starboard to winch the sails. It can all be done from anywhere, with a few controller shortcuts. It completely removes any idea that you’re doing this in virtual reality, where actions make up the experience.
Which brings me to comfort levels. Personally, I rarely get motion sickness in VR nowadays, but here we’re combining seasickness with VR motion sickness. There are options to smooth turning and reduce some movement aspects, but after about 45 minutes of playing I began to feel the creep of light-headed nausea. I tried playing standing and sitting, the latter is a far better experience, but neither eased the feeling.
I’m aware that I’ve been pretty negative about MarineVerse Cup, which frustrates me because there were some genuinely great moments, fleeting though they were. I loved sitting in the boat and looking up towards the sails as they billowed in the wind, and the feeling of catching the wind just right and hearing the air whip past was exhilarating. Though, as you’re probably sensing, these moments were few and far between. MarineVerse Cup feels more like a sedate Sunday at a boating pond, rather than the thrill ride of sports sailing.
Welcome to another VR Drop, that time of the week where gmw3 looks ahead at what’s to come in the world of virtual reality (VR) videogames. It’s a nicely packed week ahead, whether that’s brand new releases, older titles getting some love on a new platform or indie creations seeing an official launch.
Paper Birds – 3DAR
An oldie but a goldie if you love interactive VR stories, Paper Birds originally hit Meta Quest back in 2020 and now it’s the turn of PC VR headsets. From 3DAR, the creators of Gloomy Eyes, Paper Birds is a 30-minute tale that tells the story of young musician Toto (played by Jojo Rabbit star Archie Yates) as he searches for his lost sister. You can then interact with the world to aid Toto’s journey.
Time for some dark, suspenseful VR horror in the form of Deadness from ALIEN Studio. Set in an old research facility that has seen better days, you have to explore this hell hole whilst sitting in a wheelchair; thus adding to the tense atmosphere. Carefully manoeuvre through the corpse-filled corridors and try to find clues as to who you are and why you’re there. Not for the faint of heart.
PlayStation VR may not be the hot ticket it once was but developers are still showing the headset some love. After a Meta Quest and PC VR launch in 2021, HappyGiant is bringing Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual! to Sony’s headset next week. Join the crime-fighting duo as a rookie and complete various training challenges whilst helping Sam and Max solve a selection of otherworldly crimes.
Supported platform(s): PlayStation VR
Launch date: 23rd February
Admiral Wars – DB Creations
Get that thinking cap on as you need to formulate the best naval strategies in Admiral Wars. Set for a Meta Quest App Lab release, Admiral Wars features both single-player (against AI) and PvP multiplayer gameplay modes. Order your fleet into position and look out the window whilst they take down your enemies or watch as your carefully planned attack backfires and your ships disappear into the depths. As this is an early access launch, in the future DB Creations expects to add additional features including a solo campaign.
Another VR experience on the high seas but without all the carnage and mayhem (sort of). MarineVerse Cup has been on Meta Quest’s App Lab since the distribution platform launched last year. Now MarineVerse Cup is making the official leap to the main store, a competitive sailing game offering three boat types with realistic mechanics so you can learn how to sail – without worrying about falling off.
MarineVerse Cup, a competitive VR sailboat racing game, is coming soon to the Meta Quest store.
The game first launched for PC VR in mid 2019, before first arriving on Quest via SideQuest in late 2019 and then launching on App Lab in early 2021. Now, the app is making its way over to the official Quest store on February 24.
The store description says the experience is “approachable, but authentic” and is designed for “people who enjoy simulation games and want to test their skills in a competitive setting.”
The game also has daily and weekly races with different wind conditions and leaderboards to compete on. There’s two boats that come with the base game (the yacht and dinghy) and seven locations – Sydney, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Enoshima and Cape Town. There’s also a bunch of modes, including daily practice races, multiplayer leagues, co-op and competitive multiplayer racing in real time, and more.
While there’s no price listed just yet, we’d expect it to be a paid experience based on the pricing of the Steam version for PC VR. In the description on the Quest store, it also says an additional in-app purchase, the “Sailing Pass“, is required for access to multiplayer, pro-racing and a third boat, the Waszp.
Australia-based MarineVerse specialises in virtual reality (VR) sailing experiences, having previously released VR Regattaand Big Breezy Boat for PC VR headsets. These are fairly leisurely sailing simulators, whereas its current Early Access project MarineVerse Cupis all about competitive racing. Today, the studio has announced a partnership with boatbuilder WASZP, bringing its boats into the competition.
The two companies have been closely working together to create a realistic digital version of WASZP’s foiling boats for the MarineVerse Cup so that sailors and gamers alike can learn to control these high-end boats.
This means that the VR title now has three types of boat to race, with players able to jump into daily races to climb the leaderboards. There’s also a league system where players can rise from the Standard to Pro league via the daily races mode.
“WASZP is a perfect boat to showcase virtual reality and introduce gamers to sailing – WASZP is fast, fun & exciting. Not only do you get to sail, but you can fly in VR! Our goal with MarineVerse Cup is to develop a fun sailing game that is authentic and approachable. Collaborating closely with a Melbourne based WASZP team, is a fantastic opportunity to make it happen,” said Greg Dziemidowicz, Lead developer, MarineVerse in a statement.
Marc Ablett, Head of Product and Global Sales at WASZP adds: “The immersive technology and experience is so life-like. We have engaged some of the best WASZP sailors in the world to help us with the physics of the boat within the game.”
Additionally, WASZP will be launching a platform called RACEHUB to help connect sailors worldwide with competitions, both on the water and virtually. Those who signup to RACEHUB will get a copy of MarineVerse Cup.
MarineVerse Cup is available through Steam for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Oculus Quest users can find it on SideQuest. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
