Shores Of Loci Is A Sumptuous VR Puzzler For Quest, PC VR

If you like your VR puzzling to be a little more otherworldly than Puzzling Places (or if you literally just want more of that winning formula) then you’ll want to put tomorrow’s release of Shores of Loci on your radar.

Releasing on May 24 in early access for Meta Quest (formerly Oculus Quest) App Lab and Steam, Shores of Loci is sumptuous in its aura, tasking players with piecing together dioramas of fictional landscapes that, upon completion, set down on the horizon in front of you at full scale. Each scene is split into pieces akin to a 3D puzzle, and you simply have to find which piece goes where, at which point the game will automatically stitch parts together.

It sounds very similar to the brilliant simplicity of Puzzling Places and, in truth, it is. But Shores of Loci does vary quite a bit in its approach to puzzles.

Each challenge, for example, provides only a handful of pieces at a time, waiting for you to slot them all into the right place before presenting the next pack. This is a useful bit of staging given that the exquisitely detailed designs — ranging from ancient civilizations to rickety fishing villages — can be tough to make sense of at times. It can often be tough to make head or tail of the parts you’re dealt and, while the game focuses on relaxation, it’s sometimes frustrating not being able to clearly see how things fit together. Nonetheless, there’s an instant hint button that will highlight two attachable areas upon pressing, and the game is judgment-free on using it.

But, if it’s easy to lose yourself in the puzzles, that’s largely down to the game’s irresistible presentation. Visually this is a dreamy world of marvels, from the soothing views you’ll take in from afar to the tiny miracles dotted around the puzzles themselves. The soundscape, meanwhile, is airy and wonderous, proving to be the perfect companion to the pacing.

Naturally, games of this type aren’t for everyone, but I found myself enraptured with Shores of Loci’s soothing blend of puzzling. With five main worlds and multiple puzzles between them, there’s a fair few hours to kill here and we hope to see more added over the course of early access. Even now, though, VR puzzle fans will find themselves swept up in this whimsy treat.

Shores of Loci will cost $15 when it launches tomorrow. We’ll have a keen eye on where it goes from here.

App Lab Roundup: Puzzles and Destruction

Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.

This week we’re solving puzzles and causing carnage!

Unblocking Demo

To say Unblocking is a Tetris-style clone does it a bit of a disservice. There are definitely Tetris elements at play; you’re presented with Tetris shapes and you must use them to solve puzzles or clear lines from a board. However, they don’t fall from the sky, they’re selected purposely.

In the puzzle mode, you’re tasked with clearing all of the blocks from the playing area. To do this, you must select a shape and overlap it against the blocks, making them disappear. Sometimes it’s as simple as using a cross over a cross-shape, other times you must clear one shape in order for the blocks above them to fall and create a new shape to erase.

In the arcade mode, things feel a bit more Tetris-y. Only again, you’re placing the blocks wherever you like. Here you are presented with four shapes, of different colours and the goal is to create horizontal lines to erase those blocks. You can chop and change the shapes and colours you place in the hopes of creating the perfect lines, but often you’ll need to overlap colours, blocking progress.

Unblocking is a devious little puzzler. On the surface, it appears simple, and the opening puzzle levels are exactly that. However, as you progress things become rather taxing. Sadly, as this is only a demo, there’s not much to experience, but what’s here is certainly an enticing opportunity for the developers to bring us a great puzzle game. The virtual reality doesn’t lend much to the game beyond playing in a fancy room, but it’s hard to complain when the puzzling is as good as this.

No More Rainbows Beta

I’m going to get this out of the way. I love this game.

At first, when No More Rainbows informed me I would need to use my arms to scoot along the floor I rolled my eyes and gave a sigh of exasperation. So many of the App Lab games recently have used the same technique. Whether you’re pretending to be a baby, a squid or a dog, there’s a game that wants to mimic crawling forward, and so far, I’ve hated each one.

But this? This works. You play as a snarling gorilla monster who seemingly hates happiness (much like myself). You wake up, smash the alarm clock and discover the land has been taken over by unicorns, fruity cute gumballs and bright colours. The tutorial tells you that you can take small leaps forward by swinging your arms. Then, if you do that with more force, you’ll kind of ‘Incredible Hulk leap’ all over the place.

What transpires from here is a literal assault on joy. You get to explore these bubblegum worlds leaping around, climbing vertical surfaces, bounding over bottomless chasms to smash anything cute you can see. Busting open the gumball creatures causes their soul to vanish inside of you, which then opens new worlds for more smashing.

I played this on a day where I was a little aggravated, which may have helped. However, the locomotion controls and the concept itself would have stood out to me anyway. Who doesn’t want to smash the smug happiness out of something so saccharine? As with Unblocking above, this is only a demo/beta, but it’s a generous one. Still, I reached the end and found myself craving more. I’ve never felt so happy destroying the happiness of others.

Resident Evil 8’s VR Mod Might Be The Best Fan Conversion Yet

With 2022 relatively slow out of the gates for major new VR releases, the VR modding community has more than picked up the slack with a slew of fantastic new mods.

Last week we saw a great mod for Elden Ring, and there’s also been support for Wolfenstein II and more. But Praydog’s Resident Evil 8 VR mod might just be the best of them.

Praydog already impressed with fantastic conversions of Resident Evil 2 and 3 in VR, which brought both games into first-person and implemented motion controls. But next week’s Resident Evil 8 mod — which releases alongside identical support for Resident Evil 7 on PC — ports a game that was helpfully already played in first-person. That makes this a much more natural transition.

And it shows. There are moments — long sections, even — where this mod feels like an official conversion of the horror game done by Capcom itself. Check out over 35 minutes of gameplay just below.

Resident Evil 8 VR Mod: 35 Minutes Of Gameplay

The most impressive part of the mod is the implementation of motion controls, which makes aiming a much more natural experience whilst retaining the challenge. Plus there’s some brilliantly funny moments, like holding Ethan’s newborn child, Rose, in your arms, only to discover she sticks to your left hand.

There’s some trickier points, of course. Watching cutscenes in VR is an incredible novelty at first, but forced camera movements — a big VR no no since the early days — quickly makes you queasy and they happen very often.

All-in-all, though, this is easily one of the most impressive and polished VR mods we’ve ever seen, up there with the fantastic support for Alien Isolation and The Outer Wilds. Now we can only hope that Capcom learns a few lessons from this unofficial port if/when it finally decides to bring Resident Evil 8 (and remaster 7) to PSVR 2 and PC VR. We’ve still got our remaining two fingers crossed for that. Lycans got the rest of them.

Are you going to be checking out the Resident Evil 8 VR mod? Let us know in the comments below!

App Lab Roundup: Memory, Grapples and Racing

Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.

This week we’re testing our cognitive function, swinging through the air and building racetracks.

Upgrade VR

Remember when every platform was bringing out a Brain Training game or app? That feels a bit dated when it comes to VR platforms, but the use of motion controls and freedom of movement opens up that formula. With Upgrade VR, you won’t really be exercising too much of the old great matter, though it’ll nudge you occasionally. This app tests your coordination, concentration, reaction and memory.

This is achieved through various mini-games, which start off very simply. Reaction, for example, fires balls towards you from portals. If it’s a green ball, you use the green coloured hand, if it’s blue, then it’s the other hand. At first, the balls move through the air slowly, over time they speed up and introduce balls that must be avoided. In memory, you’ll be shown strings of 3D models and must remember the order they appeared and place them in the correct spots.

All of this adds up scores, which depict your cognition ability. This all takes place within a sci-fi environment which feels pulled straight from a Hollywood movie. Everything is clean and well designed, there are no errors in the motion controls, it can be played standing or sitting and when you come back to the games in order to break your high score, it feels tremendous. 

Grabble

Straight out of the gate, I have to say, the soundtrack to Grabble absolutely slaps (do people still say ‘slaps’?). The music has this great futuristic, funk feel which goes really well with the action. What’s the action? Well, I guess you could say this is a Spider-Man simulator. You have a grappling hook in each hand and they must be used to move through the air, between blocks.

The game ends if you fall into the infinite void below, which seems to happen quite a lot. You see, when grappling, the player moves very quickly. Often before the blocks even get a chance to spawn in. Thankfully, also attached to your hands, are boosters which can help propel you in particular directions saving you from danger, or even slowing your speed a little.

Grabble is pretty ‘bare bones’ currently, but the basis is there for a bigger and better experience. Plus, who doesn’t love swinging through the air on grapple hooks?

Racemaker VR

Full disclosure – I pride myself at being able to play pretty much all VR games without feeling ill. Racemaker VR broke me, however. 

Before we get to that, let me first recommend the game, because it’s kind of brilliant. You start in front of a gridded table with a toolbox of racetrack sections in your hand. The goal is to create a fun and frantic racetrack using curves, tunnels, speed boosts, jumps and straight sections of track.

Aside from some moments where the track pieces sometimes don’t snap together easily, building a track is engaging and enjoyable. You can make it as simple as you like or create a complex track of inclines and bridges constantly running at high speed. Once the track is complete, it’s time to race, and here is where I almost threw up my lunch.

Getting behind the wheel of the car is, at first, very smooth. Almost too smooth. Taking the corners felt like my view was overshooting my brain and stomach, cresting the bumpy track was like being thrown into a washing machine and when I hit a speed boost to jump through the air, I felt like I left my stomach behind on the track. Now, you might fare better than I. So, I would never not recommend the game, but be aware that the actual racing might cause some stomach upset.

Preview: World of Mechs – Having a Mecha Blast

There aren’t many mech titles in VR let alone for Meta Quest 2, with Vox Machinae being the one notable one and then you’ve got Ultimechs which is due out in 2022. So the announcement of World of Mechs from Studio 369 this week was welcome, giving us giant robots fans something to look forward to. And you definitely should, gmw3 was treated to a preview of this team-based shooter, stepping into all manner of assault mechs and coming away pretty darn impressed.

World of Mechs

Studio 369 has a solid history in the mecha game space with CEO Matt Candler having previously worked on MechWarrior 2 during his time at Activision. Just like those other games mentioned, World of Mechs’ primary focus is on competitive matches, dropping players in 4v4 matches across a range of maps and gameplay modes.

The maps gmw3 got to play with ranged from an industrial, dockside location with a massive aircraft carrier in the middle to an arid, undulating canyon with rocky outcrops to use for cover. Whilst the gameplay modes switched between your usual selection of free-for-all deathmatch and team-based dominion involving A/B/C objectives to hold and accrue points at.

Even though there’s a tutorial to get acquainted with the basic control scheme, what’s noticeable is the simplicity and functionality of the system. World of Mechs is designed for fast-paced, arcade-style combat so the team has dispensed with any traditional VR mechanics like physical inputs. Everything is located on the controllers, heck, you can even see the controllers in VR just in case you forget where the face buttons are.

World of Mechs

That might seem a little silly but it’s highly useful, especially if you’re new to the headset. To jump and hover is the A button, the B button is your special ability whilst Y reloads your weapons. There’s also an additional utility depending on the mech, some can stomp by pressing the right stick in whereas the small machines can quickly strafe with the grip. Yes, there’s a lot going on but it’s far less daunting than having to grab a lever to activate one function while a different stick does something else. What this means is you can focus on the battle at hand, not where your virtual hand is.

As for the mechs themselves, there is a huge range of choices, once you’ve managed to unlock them. There are 32 to choose from (8 classes with 4 models in each), ranging from light Scouts which are nimble to the huge Juggernaut that stomps across the battlefield. To begin with, you get the Trooper, a mid-range mech that’s nicely balanced with a medium laser to whittle down enemy shields and a mini-gun that’s great for chipping away at the main health bar.  

Once a few battles have been played and some cash and XP have been earned – there are additional cash, XP, shield, health and cooldown bonuses hidden on each map – there’s the option to upgrade. World of Tanks provides an extensive array of customisation options, from upgrading the main hull and its various components like the health bar and shield to the main guns themselves. There was no way to change the actual gun-type though, they’re fixed to each model, so changing loadouts means changing your mech as well.

World of Mechs

Thankfully this can be done in each match, dying brings up your roster of unlocked mechs to select from. Thus each match could dynamically change as players mix and match their mechs and tactics to the environment or game mode. I’m not always the best player when it comes to these types of shooters but I found World of Mechs both easy to pick up and hugely enjoyable to play. The weapon options were varied whilst the control scheme with its head controlled aiming reticule made combat intuitive.

Being inside a mech also made for a comfortable experience thanks to being sat down and surrounded by a cockpit. For those that are sensitive to motion sickness Studio 369 has employed various comfort options to reduce this issue.  

Worlds of Mechs has all the ingredients for what could be the essential mech game on Meta Quest 2, it is loud, brash and unashamedly entertaining. It’s not even solely multiplayer as there’s a single-player campaign mode plus the ability to jump into a bot match to test a new mech or level. Currently, World of Mechs doesn’t have a release date, it’s just “coming soon” so keep an eye for this mechanized brawler as it’s firmly on gmw3’s wishlist for 2022.   

    

Hands-On: Elden Ring VR Mod Is An Incredible, Surprisingly Smart Conversion

Let’s get this out of the way first. No, Elden Ring doesn’t really ‘work’ in VR.

That is to say the RPG masterpiece was never intended for this medium, and trying to tackle any boss or enemy with a first-person camera, constantly diving to the floor to roll or getting lost in a chaotic mash of textures as you move into attack, is majorly disorienting. It’s not so much putting a blindfold on you and asking you to hit a pinata as it is constantly spinning you on the spot and demanding you take wild swings at one. Simply put, you shouldn’t try and play the game right the way through in first-person with a VR headset on unless you’re the kind of masochist that likes to finish Souls games without leveling up or using a Guitar Hero controller.

But that’s far from the end of the story for this VR mod.

Elden Ring VR Mod Gameplay

Developer Luke Ross has been releasing unofficial VR ports under his R.E.A.L. VR label for a while now, starting out with No One Lives Forever 2 and moving on to the likes of GTAV, Red Dead Redemption 2 and, more recently, Cyberpunk 2077. Not only has Ross been able to refine the performance and compatibility of his mods with each successive release, but he’s also gradually implemented an increasingly robust set of options. Clearly, the developer realizes that very few people are actually going to play the entirety of Elden Ring in first-person in VR. Malenia simply wouldn’t allow it, for one thing.

And so this incredibly impressive release has a few key options to help you get the most out of it. Beyond the standard third-person camera and the new first-person option, there’s two other modes. ‘Closer’ brings you, well, closer to your character without fully assuming their perspective. Then there’s ‘R.E.A.L. Close’ with brings the camera even further towards them. The idea is to give you a more meaningful VR experience that capitalizes on seeing the world in 3D without necessarily sacrificing the gameplay itself.

And that’s not all. Using the incredibly intuitive VR quick menu — which actually pauses the entire game, something you can’t do in the base Elden Ring — you can enable tourist mode, which means NPCs and bosses ignore you, even if you attack them. This means you can take in the stunning, haunted world of Limgrave and beyond without having to worry about combat. Certainly, if you’ve already got a near-complete save file on PC, it’s worth jumping in to fully appreciate From Software’s storied style in VR for the first time.

All that is to say is that, yes, you can try and beat Elden Ring in VR in first-person. It’s a really fun novelty to see towering bosses stand before you, or sneak through bushes to get a sneaky critical attack. There are novel issues of course, like armor clipping out in front of you and a disconnect between your camera and attack direction, but it’s undeniably entertaining to take in and this world hides from real treasures that you can see from a fresh perspective.

But this mod has far more useful options that also give you the best of both worlds, making it an unofficial port of the game that you might actually want to see through to completion. There aren’t many VR mods you can truthfully say that about. Ross will be releasing the mod via his Patreon campaign soon, and signing up gives you access to his past work, too.

Preview: Rogue Ascent – A Blast of Hand Tracked Action

Roguelite shooters are all the rage at the moment – some games are even adding roguelike elements in updates – but if you’re looking for one that definitely tries to do something a bit different then Rogue Ascent is what you’re looking for. Why? Because it’s the only roguelite shooter that’s dedicated to utilising Meta Quest’s hand tracking feature, for better and worse.

Rogue Ascent

Meta Quest needs more hand tracked videogames to showcase how much fun the technology can be. It’s a very bold move by developer Nooner Bear Studio to go for a fully hand tracked experience though, as there are some things the tech does very well such as interacting with objects and menus, for example, whilst locomotion is by far one of the weakest areas. All of which is required in a game like Rogue Ascent that’s mostly wall-to-wall action.

Rogue Ascent pulls on those nostalgia strings with its core gameplay component, shooting stuff with your fingers. The classic childhood activity of making a gun by pointing your index finger forward whilst putting your thumb in the air has very literally been used, turning your hand into whatever virtual gun you have equipped at the time; a pistol, phaser, revolver or sub-machine gun are the four options. Add to this the fact that reloading simply requires pointing your finger in the air, whereby the gun spins around in your hand like some futuristic western and you’re all set for some badass shootouts.

Dual wielding is totally an option so you can just stand there firing away, reload, and then shoot some more like you’re a kid again. Just this time it’s in VR and you don’t have to imagine all the visuals and sound effects. The premise is cool and there are moments playing through the levels where you get that 80s action hero vibe, where endless enemy projectiles meet a wall of your own and there’s that sense that you’re invincible. Oh, and shooting is automatic, no controller means there’s no trigger button to press.

Rogue Ascent

Hand tracking being what it is Rogue Ascent is less running and gunning and more about standing your ground and pummelling enemies. This is because the locomotion is entirely point-to-point teleportation, pointing your palm at the next location to move to, taking less than a couple of seconds to do so. In non-combat moments it’s quite easy to move about a level becoming more erratic when several hostiles are present. You can sacrifice one gun so one hand can shoot whilst the other teleports but after a few levels, it was plainly easier to stand my ground and go for an all-out attack.

There wasn’t any indication of a narrative, you’re plonked on a space station of some sort and have to kill everything on each level before jumping in the elevator up to the next area. Being a roguelite, the endless runs add greater depth by giving you several character classes to choose from, each making the gameplay tougher in their own way. Whilst in-game you collect coins to buy new guns or perks that can up stats like critical hits or adding fire to your projectiles.

Rogue Ascent on App Lab is doing some amazing things with Meta Quest’s hand tracking technology, pushing it to the limit of what’s possible with its accuracy and speed. It’s easy to get the hang off and the perks in combination with the procedurally generated levels make for an experience with plenty of scope to come back time and again. However, the hand tracking can be a mighty bit twitchy with all the action going on especially if you want to multitask, combining moving with reloading or quickly swapping between hands for certain actions. With Meta’s upcoming 2.0 hand tracking update on the horizon, hopefully, Nooner Bear Studio has plans on implementing it as this could really take Rogue Ascent to another level and make the experience shine.

These 2 Games Reminded Me What VR Gaming Is All About

It’s easy to forget what VR gaming is all about. The hunt for deeper, longer experiences often leaves us chasing well-worn cliches: multi-hour epics with character progression, cinematic action sequences, stat buffs and complex systems.

These are all well and good and can lead to rich, moreish games, but too often we see them taking precedent over the features that are truly unique to the platform. Zenith is a fine MMO and certainly benefits from additional VR features, but in its current state you could hash out a fairly comparable flatscreen version of most of the game. Cities: VR has the joy of realizing the Skylines experience in 3D, but the original offers a deeper, more technically proficient game. Only rarely are we seeing titles that could truly only be done in VR.

Two promising new games reminded me of that this week.

They were Kayak VR: Mirage and Blacktop Hoops respectively. Kayak is a visually-arresting tour of the world by water with smart, authentic controls, whereas Blacktop has the beginnings of VR’s most physical and enjoyable take on basketball yet.

If you’ve played Phantom: Covert Ops then you’ll have a headstart with Kayak VR. Developed by Better Than Life, the game uses your VR motion controllers as paddles to realistically navigate crystal-clear waters. This isn’t just about holding forwards on a gamepad and watching the camera glide past; every stroke is accurately calculated to mirror real-world movements. Dip your paddle deeper into the water and make a wider stroke and you’ll move quicker than you would if you made a fast, shallow movement. Hold it still on one side and you’ll steer yourself in the given direction.

Even navigating the straight segments of a river is an achievement here, and your reward is some of the most stunning sights you’ll find in VR. Similar to when you finish a gruelling hike or bike ride, stumbling upon these places comes with a sense of pride and accomplishment and you can feel yourself slowly start to improve your technique the more you play. That’s a very rare, and meaningful thing in any game, letalone VR.

Currently the Kayak VR’s planned for an early access release on Steam in June with a handful of maps, race modes and free roam options.

Blacktop Hoops, meanwhile, is Vinci Games’ effort to bring at least a bit of the playful culture and exhausting intensity of street basketball to headsets. It needs a bit of polishing, but there’s something special at the core.

Unlike other VR basketball games, for example, Blacktop dares to be about more than simply shooting hoops. There’s a dribbling system that is smartly somewhat magnatized; the ball tends to snap back to your hand and will even stay there for a second or two before you throw it back down. It’s a little sticky and takes some getting used to — especially if you want to pull off tricks — but it feels like Vinci is really onto something here.

It’s even better being on the attack; trying to swipe the ball out of your opponent’s hand is a concentrated moment of focus, the exact same type you’d apply to real life, and you have a real sense of your physical presence in the world as you try and block the ball.

Perhaps my favorite part, though, is the experience. Allow your opponent to score and they’ll get up in your face to brag, conjuring a genuine rivalry between you and an AI opponent. It helps, too, that the game is absolutely gorgeous in its own right, which a wonderfully realized street-side court and diverse crowds of onlookers.

The controls definitely need a little work; jumping with the click of a stick isn’t the best button layout, as I’d normally press it in expecting to sprint and unexpectedly leaping into the air. Similarly, the grip button is an odd place to toggle running. Overall there’s just a little too much finger-knotting going on. The more Blacktop can remove its dependency on button inputs and hone in on intuitive gestures like the dribbling, the better it’ll be. But even in its current state it’s the best expression of basketball in VR I’ve seen.

You can try the game’s first phase of early access right now for free on Steam and App Lab, with future updates introducing a price tag.

Two very different games, then, and two very compelling reminders of where the real magic of VR lies. If both Kayak VR and Blacktop Hops can make it to full release with robust offerings and refined controls then they could join the ranks of Walkabout, Golf+ and Eleven Table Tennis; games that get damn real close to the real thing. It’s nice to be reminded that contemporary VR is capable of that, every once in a while.

App Lab Roundup: Basketball, Cables and Rabid Babies

Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.

This week we’re shooting some hoops, untangling wires and… running away from babies?!

Blacktop Hoops

I feel like basketball games, or games which have a basketball mini-game, are a dime a dozen. It’s an easy sport to replicate in VR, although it’s difficult to get it right. So, those that feel like playing the sport for real are more of a rarity. Enter Blacktop Hoops, probably the best basketball game I’ve played in VR, hands down.

In order to get a sports game right, everything needs to feel natural – you need to forget you’re in VR, holding motion controls. With just a few buttons, Blacktop Hoops transports you into a pick-up game in a one on one game. The ball feels intuitive; pretend to dribble the ball and it bounces to the ground and back to your hand; bounce it on a diagonal towards your off-hand and you’ll perform a crossover dribble.

When you want to shoot, simply pull the trigger and use your off-hand to steady the shot. Once you let go, the ball soars cleanly, there’s no awkward physics, it makes you feel like you can shoot threes all day. There’s even a jump button to dunk or set up a fadeaway throw. My only issue is with movement. Using the thumbstick to move feels like wading through jelly at times, which often gives the AI an advantage. Even on the easiest setting, I was finding myself turned around looking for the ball while my opponent was swishing the hoop.

It’s only in alpha at the moment and it’s completely free, so it’s worth downloading to stay in the practice mode and feel like Steph Curry for a while.

Cable Salad

Weird name, right? It’s easily explained if you’ve ever seen film footage of old telephone centres, where receptionists would pull out random wires and shove them into random holes in order to connect a call. That’s Cable Salad in an elevator pitch. You stand in front of a socket and must plug in the right cable to send a message to a person on the screen. The only issue is, the cables trail over, under and roundabout, so it’s like solving a maze.

You get points for connecting the right person and the mazes get harder and harder. It’s a pretty simple concept, really. Oddly, in between rounds of playing telephone, you get to grab a toy dart gun and shoot some holographic floating targets. I’m not sure why, but it’s still good fun to be had.

It might all be very simple – though the cable mazes can get deceptively tough – but the game takes place in a kind of workshop which is wonderfully animated and realised. There are sparking robot arms, junk cluttering the shelving and a general sense of mild chaos. I’d love to see this fleshed out with a story.

Baby Tag

Okay, stick with me on this one. Remember that scene in Trainspotting where Renton is desperately trying to kick heroin and he sees the scary baby crawling across the ceiling? Yeah, well, someone put that into a game. Kind of.

Baby Tag does exactly what it says in the name; you play as a baby in a nursery and have to avoid being tagged by other babies. You use the motion controls to crawl or slide across the floor, but weirdly, you can also climb sheer surfaces by tapping the grip buttons. Personally, I began to treat this game like a survival horror, instead of the cute mini-game it’s meant to be.

Dashing away from rampaging babies covered in green slime, which I believe represents the germs that most kids carry, is frankly terrifying. Looking around the room, as the babies charge towards you is worse than staring down hordes of zombies in Left 4 Dead! It certainly spurred me on to avoid being tagged.

Sadly, there’s not much game here, but if you want a laugh, or to be frightened like a 1990’s drug addict, give it a shot.

App Lab Roundup: Magic, Dreams and Godlike Power

Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.

This week we’re getting involved with some proof of concepts featuring magic, nightmares and God-like abilities.

Fantasy Arena

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think a MOBA would work in virtual reality (VR). Ultimately, it shouldn’t. A genre that is usually viewed from a top-down or isometric camera, has been adapted so that the player takes a first-person view of a headline hero. 

Here, in Fantasy Arena, you’re equipped with a magic staff and a squad of soldiers. As the genre dictates, you march on, capturing strategic points along a path until you reach the enemy spawn point. Playing as a magic character, you can fire off energy bolts or sticky goo which damages or traps the enemy respectively. Better than that, a vast Area of Effect (AoE) attack can rain down lightning and decimate any bad guys within the circle.

Now, before you go running off to download Fantasy Arena, and you should, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is very much a work in progress. The environments are bare with only a few buildings and there is no variation in the enemies. Taken as a proof of concept, it shows that a MOBA can work very well in VR as it puts you into the shoes of the heroes. With two maps available, Fantasy Arena showcases its potential very well.

The Client VR

A much chunkier demo comes from The Client VR and is perhaps the most interesting title this week. You play as a disembodied pair of hands that can wield a form of magic. You have a magic wand and a crystal ball and these must be used to solve environmental puzzles.

You play as a guardian of sorts, watching over people trapped within a nightmare. The aim is to guide the dreamer from point A to point B – point B just happens to be a nice cosy bed where they will enjoy a better night’s sleep. The path to decent slumber is made dangerous due to horrible little demons who will attack the dreamer, plus a maze-like environment to hold them up. You use the wand to blast the demons or distract them, while the crystal ball opens gates and moves aspects of the maze.

There’s a sense of late-90s puzzler to The Client VR in its gameplay, but also its quirky aesthetic. This is a major highlight for me because the game then stands out from so many other titles available in VR. It’s bizarre in places, oddly funny, and while the puzzles may not be overly taxing, the game stretches itself out by challenging you to complete each level with certain requirements.

On the whole, the design of The Client VR is lovely – spooky and surreal while being outlandish in a seemingly Japanese presentation. I found myself taking off the headset and wanting to put it straight back on to play some more. 

Project Demigod

Project Demigod feels like a sandbox playground. You start in a lab of some kind, where you will learn how to use weapons and abilities before spawning into the main playing area, with or without AI enemies. In this area you’ll find moving targets, crumbling buildings, and giant platforms – it’s a violent version of Total Wipeout!

Where this demo comes alive, is in how it makes you feel. There’s a lot of inspiration taken from comic book superpowers. Each hand can take on a different ability for some mixing and matching. For example, at one point I had a web-shooter on my right hand and a pillar of flame in my left. This allowed me to swing through the obstacles, let go of the web, and then hover in mid-air by angling the flame downwards.

Once my feet hit the ground again, I spawned in some goons to fight and switched my abilities for more combat-focused powers. Now I had a sword in one hand and an energy blaster on the other and I was laying out the bad guys left and right.

For anyone looking for some depth, you won’t really find it here. As a sandbox experience, however, it will spark joy, for sure. The physics are great, the abilities are varied and give a real sense of power. In essence, this is a superpower simulator, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. I only hope the game that sprawls out of this manages to capture this sense of fun.