PaigeFTW: VR Whirlwind
As promised last week, here are some thoughts about the VR titles I sampled when I paid a visit to Lost Inside VR in Kaimuki to play with the HTC Vive. I spent about 10 minutes or so on each title.
theBlu: This ocean simulator is precisely that: an ocean simulator. You can stand on a shipwreck, or in a coral reef, and watch different kinds of marine life drift by. Meh.
Waltz of the Wizard: You stand inside a magical workshop and brew potions. While not especially groundbreaking, I did find this one quite realistic. I spent a long time irrationally trying not to fall off the virtual bridge into the virtual gorge.
Space Pirate Trainer: The expected first-person, arcade-style shooter is fast-paced and demands full attention to both your visual and aural surroundings. It’s simple, but executed very well.
The Lab: Longbow: Valve’s archery simulator feels pretty much like real archery, right down to the way my arm was getting tense lining up shots. It comes in the form of a tower defense game, but I would have preferred simple target practice. It has a Wii Sports feel.
The Brookhaven Experiment: A zombie survival shooter that inexplicably comes with no targeting system, for extra realism and extra frustration for the experienced FPS player. It’s supposed to be scary. I didn’t think it was.
Raw Data: Another co-op space shooter, but this one is where androids try to kill you. Pick between a dual-pistol gunman and a sword-slinging ninja to do battle. Hint: the ninja is at a major disadvantage, even if the VR sword is fun. Its teleportation offers a solution to mobility in VR games.
Job Simulator: A very happy, satirical batch of mini-games that let you take on “archaic” tasks such as car repair, fast food, PowerPoint presentations and more. Surprisingly fun.
Google Tilt Brush: My personal favorite out of everything I played, because who can deny the appeal of three-dimensional, high-tech Microsoft Paint? Extremely relaxing and beautiful, with a lot of artistic potential (if you had enough time)
