Steam, Oculus Store and Viveport all had Halloween sales and next month all three are more than likely to be having winter sales as well. So if you’ve not already spent all your cash (or don’t plan on saving it), then publisher GexagonVR is holding a small Steam sale for all of its virtual reality (VR) titles.
GexagonVR has three videogames in its sale with additional DLC add-ons also on offer. They are Qbike: Cyberpunk Motorcycles, Ultimate Booster Experience and Nevrosa: Escape. The latter is probably the best known of the bunch, a horror style escape room experience where you have to escape a laboratory.
VRFocusreviewed Nevrosa: Escape, giving it four-stars whilst noting: “While the atmosphere, attention to detail and the reasonably deep storyline are noteworthy, it’s the puzzles that are most imperative to making Nevrosa: Escape shine. Luckily they do, offering enough variety and difficulty that as previously mentioned, can annoy you at first before realising that answer was right in front of your face.”
Ultimate Booster Experience, on the other hand, is an adrenaline-filled ride across several theme park style amusements, while Qbike: Cyberpunk Motorcycles is a multiplayer racer inspired by the bikes from Tron.
Nevrosa: Escape currently has a 34 percent discount available, dropping the price from £11.39 GBP down to £7.51. Qbike: Cyberpunk Motorcycles has a massive 65 percent off, reducing the cost from £6.99 to £2.44. And Ultimate Booster Experience can be purchased for £1.99 instead of £3.99, a 50 percent saving.
Or there’s also the GexagonVR Collection Bundle which includes all three videogames plus some additional DLC for £6.49 rather than £17.75. All these offers are running until 21st November 2018.
For any further VR deals and offers, keep reading VRFocus.
Virtual reality (VR) escape room experience Nevrosa has been received positively by the Steam community, and the development team at GexagonVR have tried to respond to player feedback and introduce new updates and features. The latest update concerns the music behind the VR experience.
Though often underestimated, music and sound design can have a serious impact on the feel and atmosphere of a videogame, and this is especially true in the immersive environment of VR.
Responding to this, GexagonVR are releasing the full soundtrack on Soundcloud, with a preview already available to listen to. The symphonic soundtrack was created with the aid of the Saint Petersburg State Philharmonic Orchestra, who produced the music heard throughout the Mist World and Conway’s Manor New Rosa.
Nevrosa is an escape room title which contains elements of horror and action, along with an art deco artistic theme which informs the design of the strange laboratory you find yourself trapped in.
The story revolves around one Mr. Conway, who has inherited an old manor in Northern Europe. His grandfather was famous for his scientific work, but he mysteriously vanished some years ago. Travelling to the manor house, Conway finds his Grandfather’s laboratory, and a mystery that ties together his family history with strange events happening in and around the manor.
VRFocus covered Nevrosa: Escape in a review, where it was said: “The atmosphere, attention to detail and the reasonably deep storyline are noteworthy, it’s the puzzles that are most imperative to making Nevrosa: Escape shine. Luckily they do, offering enough variety and difficulty that as previously mentioned, can annoy you at first before realising that answer was right in front of your face.”
The soundtrack update will come with a host of bug fixes and changes to the sound manager of Nevrosa, giving a new feeling to the sound experience. This update is due to hit in a couple of weeks. Further information can be found on the Steam store page. As usual, VRFocuswill bring you further information as it becomes available.
The Christmas period was quite good for giveaways on VRFocus, we had a couple of competitions you could enter for both PC and PlayStation 4. But such things are in the past and those who won have been given their codes. It’s time to move on to bigger and better things. New year, new competitions. And if we’re going to begin let’s start with a title we reviewed very recently.
The idea of the escape room is simple: You’re locked in a single room, there is an obvious way to get out but there seems to be very little you can do to accomplish it. Your only way out is to follow the breadcrumbs. Performing various tasks in order to solve various little mysteries that will take you one step closer to freedom. The door takes a key? Okay, well, where’s the key? Is it in one of these cupboards? No, but there’s some marks scratched into the cupboard – and there’s a keyboard with a bloody fingerprint on W. One answer leads to the next puzzle, and so on and so forth, etc, etc.
More and more virtual reality (VR) videogames are looking to the idea and the mechanics of the escape room – it’s a topic a couple of our guest writers have even mentioned in articles coming soon to VRFocus . In Nevrosa: Escape, GexagonVR have woven a number of challenging puzzles into their title. A title that is heavy on details and atmosphere as we mentioned in our recent review:
“Make no mistake however that just because Nevrosa: Escape is a puzzler at heart that it can’t get the blood flow pumping with some atmospheric horror to add to the experience.” Explained regular reviewer Peter Graham, on his way to awarding it four stars. “Finding yourself in an old manor somewhere in Northern Europe, you’re there because of your characters grandfather who disappear several years previously. Hidden away in a dark mysterious laboratory you begin to unearth what the old man was researching and needless to say it isn’t pretty.”
We’ve got five codes for Nevrosa: Escape up for grabs, courtesy of the generous folks at GexagonVR. And, as usual, all you have to do to be entered into the draw is interact with our social media accounts. You get an entry for every one of the following actions below: Be a follower of us on Twitter, subscribe to us on YouTube, or visit our Facebook and Google+ pages. A lot of you probably do that most every day anyway, so why not get an entry into a competition for it.
The competition is open for a week starting today, 5th January 2018, and will end shortly at midnight UK, the beginning of January 13th. Winners will be drawn and contacted after that period. The best of luck to all!
Frustration can come in many forms when playing videogames. Sometimes it can be from making a stupid mistake that costs you precious milliseconds in a race, or having an awesome kill streak online then someone snipes you in the head. Both of these are situations when you have complete control and complete lack of control, yet some titles manage to weave both. These are quite often puzzle games, and escape room experiences in particular are very good coercing those different frustration levels until you either succeed or smash a controller. With Nevrosa: Escape, indie developer GexagonVR has done just that, creating a challenging (but not impossible) escape room that’s certainly one for puzzle fans.
Make no mistake however that just because Nevrosa: Escape is a puzzler at heart that it can’t get the blood flow pumping with some atmospheric horror to add to the experience. Finding yourself in an old manor somewhere in Northern Europe, you’re there because of your characters grandfather who disappear several years previously. Hidden away in a dark mysterious laboratory you begin to unearth what the old man was researching and needless to say it isn’t pretty.
The entire videogame revolves around this laboratory, and whilst that may seem confined and short on content, GexagonVR has managed to create a world that intertwines locations to beneficial effect. The actual lab itself is gorgeous to look at, a tapestry of rustic colours, old furniture, and decorations that would be perfectly suited to any Victorian themed horror movie.
You can’t freely move around as such in Nevrosa: Escape. Instead the lab is split into locations for each level, so you can see everywhere, you just can’t access it. GexagonVR has decided to fully employ virtual reality’s (VR) roomscale system, requiring you to fully explore everything in close proximity. While the minimum play area recommend is 2m x 1.5m VRFocus would recommend an area slightly larger as sometimes objects can be right on the outer edges.
While the atmosphere, attention to detail and the reasonably deep storyline are noteworthy, it’s the puzzles that are most imperative to making Nevrosa: Escape shine. Luckily they do, offering enough variety and difficulty that as previously mentioned, can annoy you at first before realising that answer was right in front of your face.
So Nevrosa: Escape is an awesome videogame all the way through? Well almost. It’s on the gameplay side of things that issues occur, namely collision detection. For a title that has only one main mechanic, grab, it can be twitchy at the best of times. Picking up a candle to light a darkened corner the entire object dances around in your hands until you drop it – or try to swap it into the other hand. This doesn’t always happen – a particular puzzle involving test tubes became particularly annoying – but often enough that it did spoil the experience to an extent.
Escape room videogames can also suffer with the issue of longevity, once you’ve completed them there’s little reason to return. Nevrosa: Escape includes the tried and tested method of multiple endings – a good single-player extender – rewarding those who dig further into the experience.
There are a number of VR escape room titles available like Chair in a Room and I Expect You To Die which do the genre justice. Nevrosa: Escape is another that can be added to that list of entertaining puzzlers, with beautiful visuals and brain taxing challenges that’ll fill a good few hours.
And so it came to be that the last edition of Something for the Weekend before Christmas falls appropriately enough on Christmas Eve. So if you’re still unsure as to what to get yourself, are looking to get something new for the family to enjoy as they try out virtual reality (VR) over the holidays or you’ve suddenly realised that you’ve forgotten someone and you need to get them a present sharpish a purchase on Steam might just be the ideal present buying get out of jail free (Christmas) card.
Also, before we look at some of the VR titles available a reminder that you can set the date for when people receive your gift as well so it doesn’t have to show up immediately. Look in to the options when you purchase.
Anime Girls VR
Compatibility: HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
There’s not exactly any way to sugar coat this one. Yes, Anime Girls VR is a videogame. Yes, it features anime girls. Yes, the content is… exactly what you think a game called Anime Girls VR would end up being about. It possesses the nudity tag on the Steam listing. Say no more, eh? Get to know middle school teacher Yoko, maid Mizuka and sport loving Kaori all of which love to dance. According to the publishers you’ll need to go some to keep up with them.
If you’d like to take a waifu home this Christmas, Anime Girls VR is currently at 20% off until December 30th 2017, and you can get it now at £7.43 (GBP) as opposed the usual £9.29.
TrainerVR
Compatibility: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
The first thing to say about this one is that no, despite the name this is nothing to do with physical fitness.
When I was very young the toy I wanted most of all was a BRIO train set. If you’re not familiar with the name BRIO are the makers of the wooden train set with the grooves in the wooden track pieces (sort of an inverted track). Nowadays there are all kinds of knockoffs of it around the place but BRIO are the originals. TrainerVR give you your own virtual train set in that BRIO-style. Not only that but the whole thing is physics based, so if you want to create a steep incline your train will struggle. Also if you lose your temper the entire thing can be flung to the four winds.
An Early Access title from developers sumalab, until December 30th 2017, TrainerVR is available at a30% discount. Bringing the total to £7.97 (GBP) from £11.39.
Little Einar
Compatibility: HTC Vive
Released onto Early Access only yesterday by developers MADBones Games, Little Einaris currently available for £8.09 (GBP) from £8.99 and will in the future be coming to Oculus Rift also.
“This release comes with seven levels with the last three of the chapter to fast follow. The intention is to incorporate feedback into the last few levels and go through an optimization pass before moving into chapter 2, chapter 3 and eventually full release.” Explain MADBones Games. “While developing Little Einar, we wanted to rekindle the old school feeling of retro video games without creating a retro game. The classic experience of a side-scrolling platformer is revitalized in VR. We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to your feedback to make Little Einar better.”
Light Strike Array
Compatibility: HTC Vive
Our last Early Access title for a while, Light Strike Array is a room-scale action strategy videogame by developers Unwieldly Systems.
In Light Strike Array two teams (Bands) battle over a mysterious resource called “salt” – we’re pretty sure it isn’t actually just salt – you’ll need to mine it and gather your strength up if you’re going to take on your opponents. The end of the game is to take your crystalline ‘Shards’ and destroy the enemy’s Heart. You’ll need to first wear down the protective shield that surrounds it, however, and the shield referred to as a ‘cornoa’ is more than capable of obliterating the light that makes up your crystal soldiers.
What would Christmas be like without a little blood and gore, eh? Um… well, actually just peachy, thanks. But GexagonVR’s puzzler Nevrosa: Escape isn’t exactly about bringing cheer to the world.
GexagonVR describe it as “an escape room game with horror and action elements, where you are trying to find your way out of laboratory through solving puzzles while being locked with a strange creature. Mystical machines, old family curse and various endings depending on your ways of play.”
Nevrosa: Escapeis available at a rather generous 40% off – £8.99 (GBP) from £14.99 – until December 29th.
Tactera
Compatibility: HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality
If there’s one developer we have remained consistently impressed by on VRFocus it would be E McNeill. Other VR titles Darknet and Skylight have both performed well in reviews with the latter already featuring once on the site this week as part of our Best Gear VR Titles Of 2017 list.
In our Gear VR review of Tactera from last year we explained how the videogame felt like to play: “Tactera actually plays out in two phases: grand battle strategy and real-time combat. The player is first greeted by a grid-based map which plots their advance on enemy territory, taking it in turns to deploy troops and move across the map until combat is initiated. Once enemy units meet yours, the player may choose one of the combat instances (if more than one occurs simultaneously) to play in direct command of, whilst others will be simulated. While still learning the ropes this may seem like an unfair advantage on behalf of the AI enemy, however once some knowledge has been attained planning and forethought will avoid any unnecessary weakness in your strategy.”
Developed for VR, but playable out of it if you like, in Red Chain Games’ Boxed In you need to clear the various rooms of multicoloured blocks which can appear from above, the left or the right. There’s 36 variations of play and it’s a good title for those of you looking for a casual gameplay experience this Christmas.
“Quantized is an audio reactive, procedurally-generated sensory experience. Play your own local songs to generate a fun, exhilarating musical journey.”
A videogame by developers Chris Mahoney and Kenny Bier and published by Abstractron, Quantized has a 15% discount on its regular price of £10.29 until December 28th. Meaning you can pick it up for only £8.74.
And finally, whilst it is a Steam week here on Something For The Weekend, here’s a bonus couple of entries for our PlayStation VR owning readers.
Virry VR: Feel the Wild
Bafta award nominated experience Virry VR: Feel The Wild is currently on promotion on the US PlayStation Store for $3.99 or $1.99 for PS Plus users – a 60% and 80% saving respectively on the regular price.
Filmed on location in 4K, get up close with lions, elephant and a zebra, you can even wallow in a mud bath with a rhino. That or take in some of the more tranquil sights as you take a virtual safari down an African river.
The discount is part of a PS Store Flash Sale. Whilst there’s not many PSVR titles in there is another PlayStation VR entry which will definitely be of interest to people…
“PlayStation Move arguably increases immersion in the world of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR ten-fold. The realism of interaction and combat is a huge part of VR, and this is no different here; reaching out to grab an item, swing your sword, draw an arrow to your bow, or cast your spells. It all simply makes much more sense when it’s your hands doing the work.”
It might be an older title given a fresh lick of paint but it remains one of the most in demand PlayStation VR titles this holiday season.
Up until January 2nd 2018 you can journey back to Tamriel for 33% off. Based on the US store, with the price at $40.19 (USD) from $59.99.
GexagonVR has three videogames in its sale with additional DLC add-ons also on offer. They are Qbike: Cyberpunk Motorcycles, Ultimate Booster Experience and Nevrosa: Escape. The latter is probably the best known of the bunch, a horror style escape room experience where you have to escape a laboratory.
Nevrosa: Escape currently has a 34 percent discount available, dropping the price from £11.39 GBP down to £7.51. Qbike: Cyberpunk Motorcycles has a massive 65 percent off, reducing the cost from £6.99 to £2.44. And Ultimate Booster Experience can be purchased for £1.99 instead of £3.99, a 50 percent saving.
We’ve got five codes for Nevrosa: Escape up for grabs, courtesy of the generous folks at GexagonVR. And, as usual, all you have to do to be entered into the draw is interact with our social media accounts. You get an entry for every one of the following actions below: Be a follower of us on Twitter, subscribe to us on YouTube, or visit our Facebook and Google+ pages. A lot of you probably do that most every day anyway, so why not get an entry into a competition for it.
TrainerVR
Little Einar
Light Strike Array
Tactera
Boxed In
Quantized
Virry VR: Feel the Wild