BRINK Traveler
Beautiful & breathtaking views look great in this VR experience. Looking forward to more locations to be added. One problem I faced during launch of the program (using my Oculus Quest-2) is the audio remaining on the PC speakers and not on the headset. Every time I have to manually change the audio device to the headphone of headset. Other thing I did not like is to separately downloading each scenery which takes a lot of time as they are pretty large and waiting during this time spoils the experience somehow. If during installation all the destinations are downloaded at the same time with the option to delete the ones I do not like later would be great. Otherwise a great experience.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experience Realistic Games.
This is a great little piece of virtual tourism and provides a little inobtrusive education along the way. The night view appears to be just a filter over the day view with a different skybox but that’s a minor niggle when the rest of the experience works so well.
An undocumented feature I discovered accidentally is the ability to reframe an ingame screenshot; Take a picture (with Valve Index just point one palm away and one towards you in the “photo framing” gesture), and if you don’t have the shot aligned perfectly you can grab the image card and move it around the scene to correct it before saving - very handy.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Spellbound Spire
Can’t beat free. Must try if you have the space for it.
There needs to be an MMO that uses this sort of non-euclidean design. That would be something else. Should experiment more with different patterns on the floor, spirals, wavier paths, you know? so you could have different environments that have different feels, and you would know which one you were in just by how the “terrain” changes (terrain meaning, how you’re traversing around you play-space) there’s a whole world of potential for new and interesting level design and it really would be a WILD multiplayer experience… not THIS game specifically, just the concept. you see someone on the other side of a fence, strike up a convo, but they’re miles away in the game world. Again, this game is single player, I’m not talking about Spellbound Spire, I’m just raving about how cool it’s core concept is.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experience Singleplayer Games.
Disclaimer: Got a free key pre-release. I am not affiliated with the developer in any way. I will also keep the review spoiler-free.
for tl;dr - scroll down
Spellbound Spire reminds me a bit of Anti-Chamber. The game uses clever Teleportation and Projection to trick you into thinking you are in an impossible (non-euclidean) space. There is no combat. Just puzzles and alot of thinking outside the box while being trapped inside an ever-changing box.
You only have playspace locomotion. The whole game plays within a 3 by 3 metre space. No Teleportation (besides the obvious coded ones), no smooth locomotion. Just your feet to carry you through the game. I like that! To prevent players from running against walls all the time, the game lets you configure the size of your playspace. That doesn’t change anything in the game environment itself. Instead, if you change your playspace to 2 by 2 metre, you will be transported 3m ingame for every 2m you move physically. I hope that explaination makes sense. I played in 2,5 by 2,5 metre mode and it wasn’t nauseating. I can imagine that, especially with new VR players in small playspaces, this could cause issues because of the dissonance of physical and virtual movement.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Zen Universe
Caution: App/Game looks already abandoned by now. With a release in May 2020 the last update came two weeks later. Last message of the developers was in September 2020. Unfortunately that looks a bit like a quick money grab. Also the homepage ZenArt is telling they got a nice grant by epic games in March 2020.
So what you get is two locations you can explore. Admittedly they are well done and some nice edutainment but still demanding some polishing and not worth 25 euro. Maybe give it a try on a very deep sale and just don’t expect the other two locations to be released.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experience Early Access Games.
Stunning graphics, love for detail. I really enjoyed the encounter with Zeus, listening and learning about greek gods. Or riding a ZIP line down the rocks at night. I night full of fireflys. Wish the experience would have lasted longer but I understand there’ll come additonal places to explore. Can’t wait to see them. For sure this is more about contemplation than action! As the developers' name ZenArt already tells…. thumbs up!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Buzludzha VR
A long forgotten time ago I must have paid the creators of Buzludzha a few coffees, for suddenly I received a free code for their much reworked new Steam version. If I am biased, and I probably am, it is because I love and enjoy all «arty» VR stuff: from «Dreams of Dali» and van Gogh’s «Night Cafe» to the fabulous «Sistine Ceiling» and Google’s «Versailles».
Buzludzha, no doubt, plays in the leage of the latter two ─ or in many respects is even better. «Sistine» and «Versailles» are based on photogrammetry. From a certain distance that looks very nice, but when you come closer you notice errors (this critic does NOT apply to the Sistine’s ceiling itself, where hires pictures are applied to fully rebuilt architecture). A distinct difference between the photogrammetry architecture and added 3D-objects is often disturbing, too.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Well Executed and Entertaining
While I have enjoyed many free educational/historical VR experiences, the UI and movement options always leave a lot to be desired. I feared Buzludzha VR might be the same way and was reluctant to opt for a paid product of this nature, but I decided to give it a shot on a sale. It far exceeded my expectations. There are several options for smooth locomotion, teleport, and snap-turning and a robust and user-friendly UI.
When looking at the store page for Buzludzha VR, I wasn’t sure how I felt about some of the quirky elements, such as the wine gun. I thought the developers might be trying to throw in too much extraneous stuff, like a 90’s web page, full of animated gifs and midi files. After playing, however, I have to admit that all the strange little interactables were well done, fun, and contributed to the immersion. Unlike most educational VR titles, Buzludzha VR has some features more common to games, such as an inventory system, climbing mechanics, and a helicopter that you can pilot. These things make the experience more dynamic and enjoyable without detracting from the museum feel. It’s just the right balance of formal and fun.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Pluviophile
First, I’ll mention that this is only a slight negative review, and mostly for reasons of polish. Given how cheap it is, if you like rain, and have any interest in an imaginary walk through a (mostly) rainy woods, it’s probably worth it.
Now, for the criticisms:
First, the mechanic of needing to collect a very brightly glowing thingamajig and take it to a stone slab to continue seems very out of place. Instead of a nice walk through a rainy woods, you’re interrupted by a series of inconspicuous dead ends that get magically opened up, for no apparent reason. This is exacerbated by the fact that the first one actually points you in the exact opposite direction of the path it opens.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
This game is amazing!
Yes, its a short experience but its a good one. If you ever want to wander around in another world, this is the “game” for you. No killing stuff, no scary stuff. Just a forest and some rain.
You can escape to this world whenever you like. Just hit the play button.
This world looks gourgeous and it reminds me of the thought I had for many years already: if only there were more short linear games again. Nowadays everything needs to have a large and open world. Many of the processing progresses go to that.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Indecision.
Indecision was a neat psychological experience with a few jokes. If you like these games I would recommend not reading this review to keep a fresh mindset. The game is made out of small escape rooms and sometimes there is more than one way to leave. All exits seem to lead to the same linear path unless I am missing some clues. The length is maybe 20-30 minutes. However, I am not convinced that you are done with the game after the first playthrough. I won’t give any spoilers but I have found something different later. We could be dealing with one of those sneaky developers.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
What can I say about Indecision other than the fact that I wasn’t too indecisive to buy it?
Maybe the fact that I should have been.
Did you watch the trailer on the store page? If so, you already know almost everything of what this game is about.
Did you watch someone else play it? If so, you’ve already experienced everything this game has to offer.
For such a short and cheap game, I must say it was enjoyable. Most puzzles have straightforward solutions but getting to figure them out (which, for a first time, is usually a surprise all its own) feels… Well, for lack of a better word, rewarding.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Lusitania
I absolutely love this game. I’d recommend making the list smaller when it is at it’s biggest. Her largest list was 25 degrees to starboard with her smallest list being 6 degrees. If it is gonna be that big then don’t make her settle up that high at first, it makes it look unrealistic. Make the lifeboats launch later as that was too soon. Lastly, add a head trim to it. Nevertheless I do recommend this game. TBH, for now I could care less about the mistakes now since as it was released an hour ago as of writing this review.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
This is a great game you should make another game like this one make a game called Carpathia and oceanic and queen Mary on steam make it simulation games like this one with the ship I named the next game make the one called Carpathia it got hit by a torpedo to just like the Lusitania and in the next update of the game make the funnels fall but make the next game called Carpathia
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
SoundSelf: A Technodelic
tl;DR: I am genuinely amazed at how effective this “game” is at its stated goal of inducing transcendental states of consciousness. Was skeptical, but then profoundly amazed. Literally helped transform my consciousness. (More on what that even f***ing means down below.) It can have the same sort of power (and therefore danger) as psychedelics, be careful. Lay down or get a neck pillow with a HMD.
I have a lot of experience with meditation, hypnosis, LSD, mindfulness, and healing complex PTSD, so I did have some background in mental restructuring before going in. However, I didn’t take the claims or warnings seriously, I figured it was marketing fluff. “Ask my doctor? Don’t operate heavy machinery? What the hell, I mean, it’s just some computer program, how much could it really do to me? I’ve done heroic doses of acid, I’ve even done DMT man. I bet it’ll barely do anything outside of a placebo effect.”
– Real player with 108.0 hrs in game
Tibetan Monk Simulator 2020
Seriously though, SoundSelf isn’t like any other “game” I’ve ever played. It’s not so much a game as a piece of software that’s designed to induce an altered state of consciousness. I don’t think it’s fair to liken it to a drug trip because it’s not like being high; it’s more like doing an extended meditation session but you don’t necessarily have to meditate for half an hour.
The visuals combined with the audio feedback and modulation of your own toning helps to lull your analytical mind into passivity so that you can enter a purer state of being. You can literally feel the shift in your consciousness as you slip into that meditative state. My opinion is that this is a fantastic tool for those that have been looking for a way to start a meditation practice or enhance one they already have. In my case it got me meditating again regularly after years of neglect.
– Real player with 34.1 hrs in game
Spirit of the North
Spirit of the North is a visually stunning game with a sound track that creates waves of emotion. You control a fox, journeying through a magical northern landscape, accompanied by a spirit fox/entity. Along the way, you have the option of ‘waking’ the dead by matching corpses with staffs. You recharge your spirit energy by finding blue flowers and then light towers and destroy darkness to create a path to the Spirit World. As you progress, you earn additional abilities and new fox ‘skins.’ Puzzles are about finding things and activating spirit stones in the proper order to open new areas. At this point, I am deep into Chapter 5 (with 70% achievements) but I have enough hours invested that I think I can fairly assess the game. While you learn a bit of regional history from the stone carvings, there is no real story up to this point. I don’t know if more will be revealed when/if I make it to the Spirit World towards the end of the game.
– Real player with 29.2 hrs in game
Spirit of the North is a single-player, adventure, puzzle-platformer walking simulator game. The game doesn’t have any text. It is suitable for anyone without any foreign language knowledge (well, other than the main menu).
– Real player with 14.0 hrs in game
Little Brother Jim
Little Brother Jim is an interesting game that is a bit of a departure from Mr. Bodur’s previous titles. The story begins with a taxi/parking simulator that is colorful, fun, and challenging at times. I had little previous experience with driving games so I crashed into cones, left and right, as I built my skills up. By the end, I was speeding through turns and jumping over obstacles!
In between the parking levels, there is a beautiful story about family, love, and the brevity of life. The scenery is gorgeous and I enjoyed reading the letters left by Jim.
– Real player with 9.9 hrs in game
Overall good game depending on price paid - it’s worth noting that I received this for free via a competition and though I would pay for this game I wouldn’t pay more than £3. This is due to the fact that it is a very short game and there is a statement in the credits which undermines the whole perception of the story
! as you are lead to believe it is a true story but it is in fact fiction which really ruined it for me
At first, I felt like I was reading someones diary or invading someones personal life in some way. However, after playing for a short while I found the story intriguing and continued to complete the game. The driving game is easy and basic but surprisingly fun if your looking for a chilled play. The walking sim is beautiful and accompanied by a peaceful, pretty soundtrack.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game