Oculus Quest Reviews – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 17, 2022

Review: Barn Finders VR

Playing Barn Finders VR feels a bit like one of those reality TV shows you watch when there’s nothing else on, or you’re stuck at home ill, with only daytime TV to get you through. There’s a sense of being watched by cameras as you pick through old barns looking for value, or bidding on a storage unit which contains a valuable item. Half the time I was playing I wanted to look directly into a camera lens and raise my eyebrows at the audacity of those trying to outbid me.

The Barn Finders, that’s the player and their redneck relation, operate a store which seems to sell bits and pieces pulled out of random barns. At first, the store is barren; every shelf holds only dust, floor displays are broken wooden pallets. Utilising the store’s handy (and ancient) computer, customers will get in contact asking the Barn Finders to search a property for a particular item – we can keep everything else we find and sell it in-store.

I went out to the first barn looking for a taxidermy deer. I seemingly had superhuman strength as I could pick up huge wooden crates, vehicle tires and myriad large knick-knacks. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. At one point I picked up a taxidermy… I think it was an otter (it was bad taxidermy) and when I placed it down a countdown timer appeared with no other prompts. Eventually, I worked out that when the timer hit zero, I had to pick up the item again which would package it into the truck out back.

Using the controllers I pointed at cans, bottles, and random rubbish which could be recycled with the press of a button. Now I knew what the timer meant I began picking up everything to see if it could be collected. Eventually, I found the deer we’d come for, threw it into the truck and headed back to the shop.

Around the store are areas designated for cleaning items or repairing them. Of course, these took cash to unlock, so I began placing the items I found in the store. The shelves still looked bare, so I chose to bid on a storage unit next. After driving out, and watching one of the many bizarre cutscenes which feel as if pulled from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it was time to bid. Of course, I won the unit, bidding seemed a bit pointless as I assume clearing the unit is part of the campaign.

I repeated everything from the barn, this time finding more mechanical parts and an entire truck which could be sold in the yard of the store. I was quietly enjoying the concept of the game, it’s not going to win any awards, but there was something oddly relaxing and satisfying about roaming these cavernous spaces looking for potential treasures.

Also oddly pleasing is the shopping experience offered to the customers back at the store. Patrons enter and stand by the item they want, sparking a conversation, which leads to some haggling over prices. Using a slightly wonky UI, you can hold out for a better price, refuse the sale or let the item go for the offered amount.

Frustratingly, a moving bar must be stopped in the right zone to trigger a successful haggling attempt and the motion controls just aren’t good enough. In fact, anytime I had to ‘physically’ press a button it took a few attempts. Several times I sold an item for lower than I wanted because the sensitivity is skewed.

Otherwise, I was enjoying my time in this faux TV entertainment. The attention to detail in the environments and items is quirky and the developers have committed to the redneck family stylings in a wonderfully ironic way. The idea of rooting through these spaces is always appealing, but like many similar games (House Flipper I’m looking at you) it’s enjoyable but gets repetitive quite quickly.

There are odd driving forces aside from the core concept – the store can be upgraded visually, there are comic book pages to discover and hidden items which require revisiting areas and exploring again. Your mileage will vary depending on your patience.

It’s hard to say whether VR really offers anything to the concept here. There weren’t really any moments where I marvelled at something I was manipulating in virtual reality; the whole experience could be played with mouse and keyboard and affect nothing within the game. While that’s not a major detraction, it would be nice to have some features that justify the need for VR.

June 15, 2022

Review: Mothergunship: Forge

They say that variety is the spice of life and videogames epitomise this with their almost endless customisation options; if they have the of course. Being able to chop and change equipment, tools, and clothing, nay your entire loadout and inventory can mean spending hours fine-tuning everything before you’ve even started a mission. Doing away with all that faff whilst staying true to the joy of perfecting an absolute beast of a gun is Mothergunship: Forge, a roguelite shooter that has the spirit of Doom and the versatility of Inspector Gadget.

Mothergunship might be a familiar name to those of you who love a good roguelite as the title originally arrived as a PC and console videogame a few years back. Now it’s had a virtual reality (VR) makeover, keeping all the ludicrous gun options whilst adding all the physical interaction you’d expect in VR. That means no menus to swap components, simply grab them and move them almost however you please.

You’re fighting a bunch of aliens and their mechanised creations because, you know, nothing makes for a good shooter than an attack on Earth by some nasty extra-terrestrials. Standard sci-fi narrative aside, whilst there are several characters to give a bit of life to the whole experience with some mildly humorous dialogue, uncovering some deeper plot isn’t what you’re here for. So don’t expect a deeply rich adventure because there really isn’t any.

Mothergunship: Forge centres on its single-player modes, running through each one trying to collect as many upgrades and useful items along the way. That being said, there is a co-op multiplayer mode where a mate can join in the frenzy but with that mode unavailable prior to launch this review is based entirely on the solo modes. Of which there is a selection. Starting with the catchy titled Main Mode, you can unlock Recruit Mode, Nightmare Mode, Challenge Mode, Megaship Mode and Ironman Mode by fully completing previous ones, adding a nice replay factor to the experience.

What we’re all really here for though are the guns, or more specifically what you can build with the components that become available to you. The variety on offer is such that it’s easier to say the combinations are almost limitless, as each run you’ll never make the same loadout twice. To begin with, you’re given a couple of components, usually a weapon part and a connector. These connectors are crucial to each build as they’ll only have one way to attach to your arm cannon yet 1, 2, or 3 additional sockets to build upon. These can face forward – great for weapons – or upwards and left or right, all of which make for ideal placement of ammo upgrades or other perks.

Make each of your guns taller, wider, and shoot a range of projectiles with different ammo types like chain lightning or poison. Pop on a Railgun, shotgun, machine gun, or pizza slicer, each hand can have an entirely different setup to mix and match your strategy. Or you can recombine the parts in between levels should the loadout need a slight tweak.

Half the fun is seeing what you can build but there’s also plenty of strategy involved if you want to make it through to the end. Like any roguelite, all the levels are procedurally generated, with the waved-based gameplay throwing dozens of enemies at you in each room. Afterwards Mothergunship: Forge gives you 1-3 random doors to choose from, these can be anything from health and armour to the shop and, of course, gun parts. Keep choosing gun parts and you’ll build an awesome setup yet you might not have enough health to survive a boss encounter. Most of these are lost upon death, with only the purple crystals remaining. These unlock new items to choose from during your next run, making them the most valuable items to select when they become available.

The boss fights are where Mothergunship: Forge shines, there big, brash and the kind of old-school battles that arcade games were so well known for. There were times during the normal levels when the enemy repetition and lack of diversity did become noticeable, especially where the attack patterns were concerned. This is made slightly worse due to the lack of freedom you have, unlike the original Mothergunship in the VR version you’re fixed to a particular roomscale supported area, so there’s no environment exploration.

On the plus side, this does make for a very comfortable experience. You can smoothly walk around the area to dodge projectiles or physically duck and move, making for an energetic experience. Developer Terrible Posture Games has also ensured that Mothergunship: Forge is accessible to all players by including a seated mode, this adjusts enemy’s attacks to suit seated play. This option isn’t available in the multiplayer mode, however.

Mothergunship: Forge is a classic wave shooter just like Blasters of the Universe, taking the ability to swap out weapon components to a whole new level. The variance in parts is almost like stepping into a Lego store to build your ideal model. Get far enough and the guns can get ridiculous, filling the screen with components. Then again, that’s kind of the point. It would’ve been nice to have a sandbox gallery to experiment in, even so, the variety of gameplay modes keeps the gameplay entertaining. Just don’t go in expecting a slick, tactical shooter, Mothergunship: Forge is 100% an absurdly frantic FPS.

June 14, 2022

Review: The Last Clockwinder

Nobody likes repeating themselves but where videogames are concerned repetition can often function as a core mechanic. Having to rinse and repeat (grinding) skirts a fine line between replayability and lazy game mechanics, however, precisely looping yourself over and over becomes an art form in itself in The Last Clockwinder. Almost like creating Rube Goldberg machines with yourself, The Last Clockwinder is a casual puzzler that can almost tie you in knots.

Casual because The Last Clockwinder provides calm, steady gameplay that you don’t need to rush. In fact, trying to complete tasks as fast as possible can be detrimental to the whole thing, because efficiency really is key in Pontoco’s indie gem of a virtual reality (VR) game.

Set within an ancient tree on a sprawling water planet, it serves as a home for seedlings from across the galaxy. Why did humans decide that a tree was a good place for this purpose, you’ll have to play to find out but the water is seeping in and endangering the collection. So you have to fix the pump and other areas of this complex by growing and harvesting fruit to power the various machines housed within.

The developer has been clever with its use of space within the giant tree. Rather than expansive areas to explore or winding corridors to navigate The Last Clockwinder takes place entirely in one room, with a giant globe set to one side allowing you to switch between the various floors. It’s a novel approach making the game world easy to navigate for VR beginners whilst adding that extra level of immersion veteran players demand, being able to grab levers and physically move the globe with your hands.

Physical interaction is very much core to The Last Clockwinder’s gameplay because that fruit isn’t going to harvest itself. Picking and dropping it into a container is just the very start of piecing together ever more complex puzzles that do offer a brain-taxing challenge by the end. All you have to do is record yourself in action and then it’ll loop, creating a whole line of handy robot replicas to do the harvesting for you.

Whilst the Meta Quest 2 didn’t seem to struggle even with a room full of clones going about their looped business, The Last Clockwinder’s real challenge is to optimise that process. That inevitably meant throwing fruit across the room, trying to not only make a perfect throw for the next robot to catch but ensuring the process is so smooth that the harvesting is at peak efficiency. Or not, in which case you just need to be a little more patient trying to build those stores up.

You can, of course, continually record and delete these clones as many times as possible, altering them between 1, 2 and 4-second intervals depending on that overall harmonious machine you’re trying to build. There’s no hand-holding either. Some rooms do offer a hints system that’ll enact a small holographic demonstration to get you started but after that, you’re left to your own devices. The Last Clockwinder’s difficulty never lay too much in figuring out the process as so much in the actual deployment of the solution.

Fruit varieties nicely mix up the puzzle complexity, where the bomb fruits will explode after a couple of seconds in your hands whilst the water fruit can only be flung using catapult-style devices. There’s a certain level of satisfaction once there’s a room full of busy robots toiling away. That’s when you’ll notice the slight imperfections and want to redo just one clone, completely unravelling the whole system.

Complementing the puzzle gameplay is the charming sci-fi narrative where mankind might be exploring the stars yet there’s still room for nature. There’s a very eco-friendly message to the whole narrative partially played out in between levels whilst tape recorders can be found to further reveal the plot. Aside from the odd tape player and the puzzles themselves, The Last Clockwinder doesn’t contain a lot of other interactive features. So if you like little side additions in your VR games then this is a little lacking.

That’s not what bothers me with The Last Clockwinder though. It instead features two of my VR pet hates, disappearing hands and teleportation-only locomotion. Grab anything and the hands vanish which always seemed immersion-breaking to me. I understand it’s easier to build yet suddenly seeing whatever object I’ve just picked up floating in mid-air just doesn’t fit.

Likewise with teleportation. Of course, it should be in there as the mechanic makes the whole experience comfortable for all players, especial when paired with snap turning. The Last Clockwinder works great as a roomscale videogame and having that bit of extra freedom with smooth locomotion would’ve been a real boon when fine-tuning a clone placement. Not game-breaking but a real omission.

The Last Clockwinder is a delightful puzzler all about robots, picking fruit, and the frailties of our natural world. If you love creating Rube Goldberg contraptions but want a game with a bit of a twist on that idea then here’s a good alternative. Overall it’s well crafted, lovely to look at, and for those that desire perfection in their puzzle-solving, The Last Clockwinder should provide a good few hours of entertainment.

June 8, 2022

Review: World of Mechs

What makes giant fighting robots so cool? Whether it’s in movies like Pacific Rim or classic Japanese anime such as Evangelion, humungous war machines never seem to get old, and franchises like Transformers have literally milked that fact. But seeing mechs wage battle and being inside one offer two completely different perspectives and virtual reality (VR) is the best way to jump in the driver’s seat to unleash all hell. Vox Machinae has ruled the roost for a while in that respect but now there’s a new challenger, one that embraces a far more arcade-like dynamic for quick-fire battles; World of Mechs.

Just like its rival, World of Mechs’ speciality is online multiplayer warfare, pitting teams against one another until one comes out victorious on points. Developer Studio 369 has kept things nice a simple when it comes to modes, you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your modes, they automatically revolve in multiplayer. And it’s purely 4v4, whether it’s Team Deathmatch, fighting to hold an area or trying to destroy the opposition’s VIP. The only caveat to that is the all-out death match where everyone is game.

There might not be much in the way of multiplayer options but you do get a few more where the mechs are concerned. These are glorious looking machines of war, and they really do look impressive as you stand on a platform flicking through the 32 models available – once you’ve got them unlocked of course. Starting with the mid-range Trooper model which has average armour, movement and weapons – the “Mario” choice from Mario Kart if you will – to gain access to more requires cash and XP. Both of which can be earnt by winning matches as well as found on the maps as hidden icons.

There are eight classes of mech in World of Mechs, unsurprisingly from the small, lightweight walkers which can nip around the battlefield and hide, to the huge behemoths that you can see from a mile off. These do, of course, have colossal amounts of armour and the most formidable weaponry because they are the biggest walking targets. With cool names like Wraith and Cyclone, these all have their own specific loadouts rather than providing a frame which you can customise endlessly.

With no way of tailoring a specific robot to your needs World of Mechs very much relies upon players happening upon one that suits them instead. Not particularly easy or simple when you have to earn valuable cash and XP to purchase them, easily picking a mech that you might hate. What you can customise once a mech is unlocked is a hull perk and one upgrade for each weapon. These can range from increased health or faster shield regen to more damage or faster projectile speed for your guns. These can then be further upgraded to add some extra oompf.

Further ticking all those arcade gameplay boxes is the control scheme. Now this will likely divide VR fans as to whether the lack of immersive controls detracts from the whole experience or not, but for me, World of Mechs’ system works for the kind of experience it wants players to have. The cockpits are quite sparse with a notable lack of virtual buttons to push or big clunky levers to operate. Apart from several screens giving you ammo counts, radar and other info depending on the match mode, there’s a sizeable amount of glass real estate to view your teammates and opponents through.

That means everything is left to classic controller scheme operation, pressing one button to reload whilst another operates the brief flight capability. So yes, you’re not quite as involved in the whole mech operation as you are in other titles so that’s something to be very aware of before going in. However, I’m not as sad about that fact as I thought I’d be. The Quest controllers are shown inside the cockpit which is a nice touch and the whole thing allowed me to simply get on with the fun of shooting other robots. I still felt connected to the mech and its moving cabin – a feature that can be turned off – and honestly, when surrounded by a couple of opponents having quickly accessible controls is a bonus. Plus, all the aiming is gazed based which makes life super straightforward and intuitive (a thumbstick aim is an option though).

This makes matches feel fast and sometimes over before they’ve even begun. You can dive right in and cause some mayhem, coordinating with teams or going rogue if you so wish. World of Mechs is an instantly enjoyable experience. There is a massive chasm between the single-player campaign and multiplayer, however. There are only five maps available at present which the campaign reuses to the point of saturation. The 20 levels are essentially the five maps reused four times each, just with a different objective. The best is always the final one as it’s a boss battle. None of which are particularly difficult, more like one extended training mission than a campaign. Oh, and your teammates like to talk which unfortunately highlights the repetitive dialogue the single-player suffers from.

So it falls on the multiplayer to carry World of Mechs, which it does so admirably. You can invite mates in or join a group but there’s only that one quick match option. World of Mechs isn’t barebones yet there are certain features you’d expect to see in a multiplayer notably absent like lobby options. And with that controller focused gameplay approach, button mapping would’ve been nice because having the reload on the same side as locomotion was awkward. Trying to strafe and hit reload just wasn’t an option.

There’s no denying that World of Mechs has been an absolute blast to play, from unlocking new mechs to unleashing a barrage of missiles in an opponent’s face it definitely scratches that mecha itch. That exuberance comes at the price of any narrative depth or reason to care about playing against the bots, they’re just too dumb to provide any challenge. Occasional matchmaking issues did occur with a “Pending connection failure” appearing but not enough that it was game-breaking and Studio 369 has been releasing regular patches to smooth launch issues out. World of Mechs has the beginnings of a great mech brawler and with a few more maps and multiplayer options could easily stand 50 feet tall.

May 17, 2022

Review: BlazeRush: Star Track

Six years ago indie developer Targem Games released BlazeRush for Oculus Rift, a top-down racer that offered arcade action whilst being comfortable to play. BlazeRush’s history actually extends far earlier to the Rift DK2 and that presence continues into 2022 with the launch of BlazeRush: Star Track for the Meta Quest platform. But as developers strive to make virtual reality (VR) titles even more immersive, can a top-down racer like BlazeRush still hold its ground?

Not much has changed over the course of the last few years, BlazeRush: Star Track could almost be called an optimised update for Meta Quest 2 rather than a brand new experience. Looking down over the miniature cars instantly feels familiar and the control scheme remains as simple and easy to grasp as ever. The stick points you in the direction you want to go, another button shoots whatever collected weapon you’ve acquired and then there’s a nitro for some extra oompf.

That’s essentially it for controls but what I do love about BlazeRush: Star Track before getting into racing is the accessibility of the control scheme. All of it can be mixed between one or two controllers, so you can play the entire videogame just with your left hand, for example. Don’t like using the face buttons for shooting and boosting, switch to the grip and trigger buttons. I actually settled on a fairly standard setup, controlling the vehicle with the left stick and mashing the buttons on the right.

As for the racing, it’s your fairly standard toy car racer, you look down on the track and drive a selection of bouncy racers to the finish line; some bouncier than others. Brave any of the flying cars and you’ll benefit from decent acceleration and handling but boy do they flip and ping about should a competitor get a shot in. The heavy, caterpillar tracked vehicles aren’t so easily shoved but their acceleration is poor.

Then you’ve got the on track perks to contend with. As mentioned a nitrous boost is available although you can just as easily launch yourself off the side. When it comes to the weaponry you can only pick one gun up at a time and these will depend on whatever race you’ve selected. The always fun mini gun peppers the opposition whilst the mine thrower fires forward, creating a hazard for you and others alike. Once the Taser and laser are available that’s when carnage really begins as the taser can momentarily disable multiple vehicles. Similarly, the laser cuts through and ignites any unfortunate opponents directly in front.

As you can probably imagine this makes for the type of racing that wouldn’t be out of place in Wacky Races. Trying to stay in front by keeping a racing line is absolute folly, you may as well drive with your eyes closed. It’s all about being devious with the tools available, saving that laser-guided missile for your mate who’s about to take the corner up ahead. Yes, there’s a single-player campaign with 30-odd missions to gain multiple trophies on but it’s the local (up to four players) and online (up to eight) where the action is at its most heated and entertaining – especially in the BlazeBowl.

It can be sheer madness trying to get around three laps and there’s none of that rubber banding to help those at the back. You all have access to the same limited arsenal, if you can pick it up that is. Some of the best tracks are the chase ones, where some giant ship or mechanical behemoth is just behind the group, snapping at your ankles ready to take everyone out of the race until only one remains. These had to be some of the most taught and exciting BlazeRush: Star Track had to offer.

However, I’m not entirely sold on all aspects of BlazeRush: Star Track due to a couple of things. Firstly, the game really needs some alternate cameras to select between or at least a bit of flexibility to alter the viewing angle. You have the ability to look everywhere yet there are certain track angles where a different viewpoint would’ve been preferable. Not in-car, just a wider field of view for example.

The other gripe is track variation. They’re just not outlandish enough, where are the big jumps, death-defying shortcuts, silly pyrotechnics and environmental hazards? It feels like Targem Games is playing safe with the design rather than truly experimenting with the gameplay. A shame in all honesty after so many years of VR support.

BlazeRush: Star Track isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s just had a sci-fi makeover with spaceships and lasers. Which works fine as a racer that you can jump in and out of when mates are available. It looks good, the controls are quick to pick up and it’s as comfortable a racing game as you could want. What BlazeRush: Star Track lacks is that new sparkle, the gameplay needs to evolve into a fresh experience that remains fun whilst adding an extra injection of VR mayhem.

May 12, 2022

Review: Painting VR

Despite painting, in reality, being reliant on tactility, VR developers keep trying their hands at creating the perfect art app. With every art-based app, it’s increasingly difficult to produce a masterpiece, but Painting VR gets pretty close.

Not that this new entry to the market does much differently – there’s a canvas, plenty of paint colours and mediums to try out. If you fancy being a graffiti artist, there are sprays and fat drippy markers, if building up layers of paint is more your bag, then there are a variety of brushes to slap on big, splotchy brushstrokes.

The paint, whether dolloped with a brush or slathered with a roller, has a great feeling of fluidity. Everything drips and runs with the application of water, or more paint. Mixing colours is a simple affair, but also plays into experimentation. Usually, I’d be mixing paint on a palette, which can be done, but after messing around with open cans of paint, I found you can simply pour one into the other, gradually changing the hue. It’s a simple pleasure.

As is becoming the norm, the canvas can be accompanied by a web browser, positioned to the side. Here you can follow your favourite artists on YouTube or a website. This feature may be common but it never stops being a great addition, allowing for proper learning or step-by-step guides.

While Painting VR strives on authenticity, it does fall down in studio customisation – there’s no quick and handy way to change canvas size, nor the size of your tools. Also, the canvas is situated within an indoor skate park, yet you cannot break away from the canvas to paint random walls, so this seems a little pointless.

Of course, your success with Painting VR is only as good as your skills, but this app supplies enough materials and easy shortcuts to achieve that. Being able to pick up brushes from a distance means it’s easy to paint while sitting, and the ability to move through the studio space with the left stick allows for proper manoeuvrability.

The difficulty Painting VR or any other painting app has is the moment the brush, or any other tool, touches the canvas. The motion controls will nearly always cause a bad brushstroke or a daub of unwanted paint and it’s here where Painting VR needs an ‘undo’ action – far too many of my projects were ruined by overly sensitive motion controls.

‘Fun’ is a very simple word to describe a game or app. It’s a bit too simple, but here, it fits. Painting VR is just simple fun. It doesn’t feature all the bells and whistles of other apps, but the devs are focusing on enjoyment. Want to throw your paint at the canvas, then do it. Attach your paintbrushes to a drill and swirl your art, then go for it. This is painting as you remember it from your childhood.

It feels as if any painting app is going to suffer a markdown in a review because it will never compare to creating in reality, however, Painting VR gets the closest, despite a lack of customisation options. Why? Because the paint acts like paint, rather than a disjointed liquid which creates a disconnect between you, the tool and the canvas. If you’re looking for perfection, it’s still in the distance, but for something that feels genuine, and honestly, great fun to experiment with, give Painting VR a try.

May 11, 2022

Review: Little Cities

After a couple of previews, it’s finally time to give our verdict on what was almost going to be the first proper city building game on Meta Quest 2, Little Cities. However, low and behold it never rains but it pours, bizarrely seeing two arrive within weeks of each other, the other being Cities: VR. Yet in another strange twist, both videogames sit at opposite ends of the genre, with Little Cities providing a far less stressful, almost therapeutic experience for those that want to build without all the finicky financials.

The first virtual reality (VR) title from British indie team Purple Yonder with publishing help from VR veterans, nDreams, Little Cities is just that, build your own miniature metropolis. Rather than a plain expanse of land with a few environmental features all of Little Cities’ locations are sun-drenched archipelagos, so you’ll inevitably have at least one major island to build upon, with smaller islands to expand to.

Whilst you don’t get much choice, to begin with, the aim with each location is to reach level 25, unlocking new areas in the process. Before that, it’s time to get building, with Little Cities featuring one of the easiest and most accessible buildings menus you’ll have seen in a game like this. All the details required for planning, how much money you have, is there enough water/electricity, are the residents happy are found by looking at your watch which is bright, bold, easy to read and minimal.

Almost like a Swedish furniture store, keeping things minimal is certainly at the heart of Little Cities so while those stats are informative there’s no in-depth tweaking. Die-hard construction simulator fans may even be a little aghast at the fact you can’t play around with finances, raising or lowing taxes, diverting funds to build something more practical or taking out loans to create an absurd monstrosity. None of that here in Little Cities. Think of it more like a quaint English village on a Sunday, there’s one pace and that’s with your feet up on the sofa.

Construction wise everything is housed in bubbles, press one to open the utility options to find your water, cell, and wind turbine towers. Or open up the services bubble which houses the police station, fire department and so on. The menu can be swapped between your left and right and in the options menu if you need to.

Like any city builder, roads are your first step with placement in Little Cities a doddle. These are all placed in straight lines – no bendy roads here – so cities always do end up in a similar grid structure. This is also necessary due to the fact that certain buildings like the fire station have a set service area, necessitating a central location for maximum coverage. After that, there are three main districts to build, Residential, Commercial and Industrial. Residents need places to live, places to work and places to spend money, balancing all three creates a booming economy so you can spend even more frivolously. You can’t build homes next to factories as residents will become unhappy and that’ll hit your wallet.

In practice, if you follow Little Cities building suggestions – i.e.when there aren’t enough houses – then you’ll almost never run into an issue. The game balances things so well (almost too well) to maintain its calm, tranquil settings that even as a volcano in the middle erupts, spewing lava and molten fireballs at your city you’ll not be bothered, shrugging it off and replacing whatever’s destroyed.

Little Cities mixes up the gameplay via a selection of environments and region-specific buildings. As mentioned, one area has a giant volcano to build around, not only causing occasional havoc but also blocking network signals and other amenities. Or then there’s the desert location filled with sandstorms that can only be controlled through the planting of trees. As for the buildings, some areas will let you build a theme park or a stadium or a campsite, each having its own bonuses to adjacent buildings.

The problem is once these are built and you’ve hit level 25 to unlock everything you can’t do anything else. You have no option to build a whole row of airports just for the fun of it or see how happy you can make residents building 20 theme parks at once. The only option is to start a new map and see what new buildings there might be; Little Cities really could have done with a sandbox mode of some sort.

Even with that in mind, Little Cities is hard to get annoyed with, each map delightfully engrossing from start to finish. Sure, it does start to grate a little when in the middle of building a new housing complex you level up, instantly stopping you from doing anything until you look at your watch and accept the notification – which happens 25 times per level, of course. But on the flip side, bringing the camera down to street level to see the bustling city is always satisfying.

And because Little Cities has been built for Meta Quest, there are no building pop-ups or graphical glitches that were noticeable. It’s definitely not as visually complex as Cities: VR and it doesn’t need to be. There are nice little visual and audible touches here and there, you’ll hear seagulls squawking or a small plane flying across your eye line.

To describe Little Cities in one word it would have to be ‘pleasant’. Much like an afternoon game of Wordle, it’s the sort of VR experience you want to sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy. There’s no friction to the gameplay, accessible and intuitive in minutes, which makes it great for those new to VR. What it lacks is additional depth and flexibility, not complexity. I don’t want to balance budgets or get into horrendous city planning fundamentals, what I would like is to build my own floating city that’s entirely populated with wind farms and Yurt Villages. Until then, Little Cities provides a straightforward slice of utopian city creation.

April 8, 2022

Review: Green Hell VR: Quest Edition

Ever since Incuvo announced that it was working on a virtual reality (VR) version of Green Hell, the prospect of trying to survive the Amazon in VR has been an exciting one. Dealing with a highly hostile – yet very real – environment, containing a myriad of creatures and plant life just seems too good to pass up, especially as the flatscreen mechanics have been entirely reworked for immersive gameplay. And Green Hell VR: Quest Edition does deliver if you’re new to the franchise, whilst those who’ve lived in Green Hell will find a more cut back experience.

The core principle and narrative of the original title remain the same, you play Jake Higgins, an anthropologist who finds himself alone in the Amazonian rainforest, having to survive on what little equipment he has and what he can scavenge from the jungle, all whilst looking for his lost colleague. You’ll have to avoid eating deadly mushrooms and try not to get killed by even deadlier jaguars, and just like every good VR survival videogame, Green Hell VR: Quest Edition is about getting physically stuck in rather than menu and inventory management.

Once the tutorial and 2D movie presentation – never a great addition to a VR game but expected when porting a pancake title – you’re then left on your own to find the right path through the dense jungle. And it is dense. Incuvo has done a remarkable job on the visuals, creating lush, thick green foliage to cut through that also hides plenty of threats. If the jungle had been fairly sparse due to the Meta Quest 2 hardware you could understand it yet you’d be disappointed the atmosphere wasn’t there. Nope, no need to worry on that front, Green Hell VR: Quest Edition looks the business. Not PC level quality, of course, but still enough that when the rain starts coming down and you’re trying to build shelter you almost feel drenched.

That atmosphere doesn’t purely come from the variety of plants that make up the undergrowth. Hacking them back you’ll quickly spot Capybara run and hide or see fish in the clear streams to catch. For more dangerous animals you get a slight audio warning. At the first appearance of a snake, I was proper wary having no items to heal or properly attack it apart from a big stick. Not fancying a poisonous bite it was best to steer clear rather than testing the stick out. Plenty of other beasties also litter the floor like scorpions and spiders, so it’s always worth keeping an eye on where you’re walking.

Bigger enemies, on the other hand, were more intermittent, thankfully. Crocodiles, pumas and even indigenous enemies rarely appeared, although that’s likely a bonus considering the simplified nature of the combat. Especially as one attack from them can easily take a large portion of your health bar creating serious wounds to heal.

And that’s where utilising the jungle comes into play. You’ve got a backpack that can be grabbed from over either shoulder to store vital supplies, maintaining stats like hunger as well as your psychological condition. Set to the medium difficulty these vitals weren’t too difficult to manage, for the most part, so if you want a true challenge you’ll want to up that. Even so, this led to a fairly well-paced 10-hour campaign, great when compared to other VR videogames, a bit short when compared to Green Hell.

The trump card here though is that physical gameplay. You have to use a machete (or craft an axe) to chop down trees to gather wood, creating fires by placing sticks in silhouettes before striking flint to make that much-needed spark. You’re more involved in the process unlike Green Hell, and because of this, the development team have reduced the resources required for crafting. As is the amount of things you can build and find in the jungle, streamlining the whole experience for the standalone headset.

Green Hell VR: Quest Edition’s reworking features dozens of awesome little VR-specific mechanics. Use any rock face to smash open coconuts or break a stone up to gain flint, grab the journal off your chest to look up crafting/plant information or press the face of your solar-powered smartwatch to sleep, check vitals or use the compass. All seemingly mundane actions that add up to form a cohesive, engaging whole. Healing is another good one, actually wrapping leaves around your arms when you’ve sustained an injury. That coconut half you’ve just created, use it to drink water from a river or use both hands cupped together when nothing else is available.

The experience isn’t all beautiful survival synergy though. There were a few little glitches and stutters along the way. The first happened before the campaign had even begun, offering no hands or pointer to select the movement system going in, not a great start. In the main menu the right-handed pointer didn’t work. Occasional stuttering came from too many items in view, so don’t suddenly empty your entire inventory onto the ground, Green Hell VR won’t like that. Whilst the hand and arm modelling is okay, there were times when trying to interact with the watch was awkward due to my virtual wrist being at an odd, almost breaking angle.

Even so, playing Green Hell VR: Quest Edition was a great deal of fun and satisfied that expectation. Moments like the first time I noticed leeches on my arm instantly grossed me out as I plucked them off, a completely new VR experience for me. Or deciding out of the two different mushroom species I held in both hands which I should eat and the effect that would cause. Fighting crocodiles is all well and good but I do love the smaller elements as well.

When it comes to accessibility and comfort Green Hell VR features all the options that are becoming standard in VR. Walking and teleport locomotion, snap and smooth turning, a blink mode, left-handed support, vignette, and seated/standing swapping.

Incuvo has become a pro at porting flatscreen titles like Blair Witch and now Green Hell into VR because the team know the level of interaction players expect. There is a linear element to the whole thing – you’re not given complete free roam – with a general path laid out before you, yet the jungle has enough pathways and hidden nooks that you can still explore and find a cave to safely bed down for the night. Then, once the campaign has finished there’s always Survival Mode, to keep the jungle experience alive. As long as you don’t judge it by Green Hell and take Green Hell VR: Quest Edition on its own VR merits then you’ll find a rewarding survival experience.

April 1, 2022

Review: Cosmonious High

Job Simulator, Rick and Morty: Virtual-Rickality, Vacation Simulator, what do all these virtual reality (VR) videogames have in common? Well, Owlchemy Labs for one but the other is the child-like gameplay that each one has. Like a five-year-old trying to lend a hand when you’re baking, all they want to do is get their hands in the bowl and squidge batter through their fingers (or fling flour around the place). That’s the essence of Cosmonious High, hands-on fun-filled VR with all sorts of hidden delights.

To say that Cosmonious High is aesthetically in your face is an understatement, it’s visually the most striking VR title Owlchemy Labs has ever created. Apart from the very odd black item here and there, the pallet range is entirely in the vivid spectrum with lashings of light blues, oranges, reds, yellows and so many more. This flamboyant colour range makes even more sense as you get further into the videogame mixing up all sorts of liquids to create new concoctions as well as unleashing your inner painter.

Cosmonious High is built around the premise that you’re the new kid, who’s crash-landed into the school on your first day. This being an interstellar school you’re a very special alien, one who can gain abilities as required at a critical time. So when things start to go a little haywire in class (and they will) you’ll suddenly gain a new skill that can be shot from your hands. Unleash a fountain of water, for example, set things on fire, freeze them if you so please or why not make an item tiny or huge. There are eight abilities to discover all of which have their practical uses around the school.

This being an Owlchemy Lab’s title there’s plenty to do. Not only do you have classes to attend – where those new abilities are unlocked – but there are extra credit challenges to complete, students to help, random blobs to find and a school to fix. Yes, the school is falling apart so you need to put out fires, plug leaks and fix electrical systems to get things back in order; essentially busywork.

Those credits are how you unlock more of Cosmonious High, where you’ll find chemistry labs, the art school, astronomy, the sports hall and more; all your usual school stuff. If you’ve played any of the aforementioned videogames then you’ll know almost everything is interactive in some way. Even down to the smallest of details where particular substances interact with one another showcases the level of technical achievement that’s gone into this seemingly childish game.

Take water for example. This is the very first ability you can use, firing jets out your palms to extinguish flames. Find the paint pot and dip your hands in, you can now literally paint any surface in a multitude of colours that’ll blend on their own. Want rid, switch back to water and you can clean up, watching the liquid run down the walls is such an impressive feat considering this is all on Quest 2.

I was also happy to see Owlchemy Labs improve the ability selection function from my initial preview. Previously it was really fiddly to press the back of my hand to activate the selection wheel. Now, no such issue, easily being able to alternate powers on each hand without worrying about smacking the controllers together.

There are a lot of other good ideas employed in Cosmonious High that aid user interaction. Simple things from waving at characters to draw their attention and start a conversation. You can’t talk but you can pull a speech bubble from your mouth with a bunch of what are essentially emojis, where you can encourage a talking point or express how you feel about a particular question posed. This extends to accessibility as well, you can play seated or standing, flicking a switch in your backpack to activate the shorter mode. Or the fact that the only locomotion system is teleportation and snap rotation, making for a very comfortable experience that’s very light on options.

And that’s kind of where Cosmonious High begins to lose its sparkle, particularly if you’re a more experienced player. I’m all for as many accessibility and comfort options as a developer can squeeze in, however, I’ve got to a point – as I’m sure many of you have – in my VR gaming experience where I find teleportation immersion-breaking and just too damn finicky when all I want is to walk around. It feels antiquated to only have this option and gives the impression that the aim is to cater for new players only.

This also seems to be the case in the fact that Cosmonious High offers no challenge whatsoever. Without breaking a sweat you’ll probably be through the main campaign in around five hours, and as mentioned, there’s plenty to keep your hands busy solving little puzzles here and there. Yet it gives the impression of a puzzle game without any truly solid puzzles. Almost as if Owlchemy wants to cater to the pre-teen market when Meta itself doesn’t advise children under 13 using the headset.

Cosmonious High is Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory in VR, with a myriad assortment of sounds, colours and stuff to stick your finger in. It’s technically solid as I’d expect from a developer so well versed in VR with diverse characters and a deep, organic sandbox world to be entertained by. But it sticks to a very well-oiled system of simple task completion with the complexity never raising high enough to satisfy mature VR players. Cosmonious High provides just the right flavour of gameplay for younger players or those new to the VR scene looking to learn how interactive these titles can be. If you played Job Simulator at the original launch then you may want to look elsewhere.

March 30, 2022

Review: The Tale of Onogoro

Virtual reality (VR) games don’t often have central characters you can connect with as, for the most part, you are that character. But every so often a developer tries just that, Polyarc’s Moss, for example, Ghost Giant or Astro Bot Rescue Mission. This connection with a virtual character, where you cooperatively work together to form a bond is key to Japanese studio Amata K.K’s work, from the brutal escape room title Last Labyrinth to the studios’ latest project; The Tale of Onogoro. This time around there’s no blood and gore, just a chained high priestess and some big ol’ monsters to fight.

To begin with, The Tale of Onogoro has the feel and presence of an adventure RPG, promising and engaging story, big boss fights and some rather magical weaponry. And it does have those elements yet the package is very different, this is a puzzle experience through and through, with action elements to add some pace and drama to the proceedings.

If you like Japanese narratives then this is quintessentially traditional, you play the hero, there’s a damsel in distress and, of course, you’ve got the old friend who’s betrayed you turning into the villain of the piece. Where things take a more unusual turn is in your relationship with this heroine, Haru, a priestess who has summoned you from another realm to aid her due to the fact that she’s attached to a massive rock. Yes, queue up those outdated ball and chain jokes because that is literally one of the core mechanics in Onogoro. Haru’s actually more of a warrior priestess as she fights giant creatures called Kami but because of the betrayal, she and the Quelling Stone are now best of friends thanks to a chain around her ankle. Thus you need to pick her up and carry her everywhere.

Is this a fun mechanic? Umm, not by the end of the game as she continually moans that you’re movements are too fast and to be careful not to drop her. To begin with, though, it’s one of the main ways the videogame builds that partnership between you both, as you’re both useless without each other. You need to defeat five of these Kami to succeed and she has the knowledge to do so – and no, you can’t throw the Quelling Stone at the giant monsters sacrificing Haru. In fact, there’s no ability to throw.

You’re in Haru’s world in spectral form so all of your interactions are confined to using the Celestial Weapons, two hip-mounted guns that can remotely pick up the stone as well as pull in elemental energy that can flip switches or be used to shoot enemies. The only other interaction you can have in the world is with Haru, holding hands to regain energy or to answer a question by nodding or shaking your head.

So when it comes to interactivity The Tale of Onogoro isn’t exactly dripping stuff to play with. The focus is on puzzle solving, with no exploratory deviation required. To begin with, Onogoro is a very slow starter, like trying to warm up on a cold day. Haru provides all of the background narrative, in-game rather than annoying, immersion-breaking cut scenes. This means she talks a lot, so much so that there are points where I just wanted to get on with things rather than stand there listening for another two minutes.

The puzzle mechanics are wonderfully simple, colour-code elements with yellow acting as earth, green for wind and red for fire. You extract the magic from a corresponding stone to then shoot foes or hit a switch, that’s it in a nutshell. This isn’t playschool though, the depth comes from mixing all these up with the environment to set things on fire, carefully navigate balls through the skies and trying to keep your cool when Haru gets continually shot.

Amata K.K. has managed to fit a massive amount of puzzle variety into The Tale of Onogoro making for a pleasant, engaging puzzler. There were certainly moments where it did get a bit mundane, saved by the inclusion of those boss battles. Because of the way the Celestial Weapons work these action sequences are more like giant puzzles themselves, just with the added danger that you could die. These scenarios require even greater management of your and Haru’s positioning, because if either of you both takes too much damage then it’s over, doesn’t matter how far away from you she is.

Should that happen then the only way to heal is to grab both of her hands, slowly recharging the health meter. This is quite possibly the most annoying and engaging part of the entire videogame. It’s a powerful moment between you both, grabbing each other’s hand to save yourselves. But, and there’s always a but, trying to do this mid-battle quite often not attaching the first time and thus dying, does ruin that emotional moment.

If you like a challenge then don’t expect a hard slog from The Tale of Onogoro. The difficulty does gradually increase yet there’s isn’t a sudden steep arc, everything is fairly self-explanatory and at no point did I get stuck, only dying a couple of times on the last boss due to that hand-holding debacle. So you should expect to complete Onogoro for the first time in around five hours without too much trouble.

What the developer has cleverly done is include some much-needed replay and speedrunner mechanics to add further value to the whole experience. In a very arcade fashion, the levels are split into chapters that are timed with a three-star score awarded at the end. Two Nexus Points are also hidden in each area for those completionists. Just enough that you might be tempted to blitz that awkward area once more.

The Tale of Onogoro really is a mixed bag of tricks, with some clever yet not too tricky puzzling in addition to the epic boss encounters to get the energy pumping. It would’ve been nice if Haru wasn’t so dependent on you, you can’t venture too far away and for someone who was a badass Kami fighting priestess, she really is demoted. I’d have liked the puzzles to have been a little more outlandish considering the setting, there are no hints and I never felt like any were required. Whilst not as striking as Last Labyrinth, The Tale of Onogoro definitely feels like Amata K.K. settling into a solid VR rhythm.