Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: 360 Video and Animation
Supported Platforms: Oculus Rift, Rift S
Supported Controllers: Oculus Remote
Best Playing Position: Standing, Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: 15+
Description: A new historical VR experience that’s part documentary, part virtual theatre. Step into one man’s memories and journey back to a moment that changed Irish History forever: the 1916 Easter Rising. Each scene in this 13 minute story has a fixed point of view, the viewer can look around a full 360-degree environment and see the action while listening to recollections of the events in various locations. Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel was created by BBC iWonder, Crossover Labs and VRTOV. The story revolves around a tape recording of Willie McNeive from the1970s. In these recordings, Willie talks about his involvement in the Easter Rising 60 years before. When you’re playing The Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel VR experience, please be sure to follow any safety info from the manufacturer and/or supplier of the device you’re using.
Starting off sat in a chair as Willie McNeive tells his story to the tape recorder the environment soon moves from 3D images into a full 3D environment. While basic looking it is still good enough to make you feel part of the narrated story being told over the visuals and towards the end, you will start to really understand the things he saw thanks to the great immersive environments laid out before you. There is nothing to interact with other than looking out of windows and around a few street corners so just the Oculus Remote is needed.
The BBC has always been good at making informative and interesting documentaries and moving into VR is a great way to make those stories even more powerful. This political history is not going to be to everyone’s tastes and indeed some people will disagree with some of the subject matter expressed in it. But for most of us, this app will be little more than a little bit of history told in a powerful way. IT does have to be said that this is much better than many of the other BBC VR experiences.
