David Attenborough’s First Life VR (PSVR)

System: PSVR 1
Price at Time Of Review: £5.35
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: 360 Video and Animation
Input: DualShock Controller
Best Playing Position: Sitting, Standing
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

---

 

Description: David Attenborough’s First Life VR is an award-winning fully immersive virtual reality experience produced by Alchemy VR. In stunning 360 VR, go on a journey of discovery to unearth the secrets of the evolution of the first life on Earth. Travel back to the Cambrian Oceans of 540 million years ago as David Attenborough reveals the dawn of life on Earth and introduces you to its earliest inhabitants exploring ancient oceans & interacting with extraordinary extinct sea creatures. Using top paleontological research and state of the art computer technology, long-extinct animals such as the five-eyed Opabinia, the fearsome looking Anomalocaris & the spiny, worm-like Hallucigenia are brought vividly alive in a fully immersive CG VR experience.

Review: David Attenborough’s First Life VR is available in a range of other formats, but today we are taking a look at the PSVR version. This true 360 degrees experience, takes you through some extraordinary scenes as you jump aboard a time machine and go back 540 million years to witness the dawn of life, including strange creatures like the Anomalocaris that is basically a giant shrimp.

While David Attenborough’s voice is like an old friend that you have known for years, the graphics are a sort of 3D animation without it being in 3D. You can look around wherever you want, but obviously, can’t walkabout. There really is little to do here other than sit back, relax and let David Attenborough be your guide through life itself.

Here we are once again looking at a piece of educational content that might be some people’s cup of tea, but the majority of PSVR owners will be game players meaning they will not enjoy this at all. This is not to say everyone will hate it, just the majority of people who brought their consoles to play games. Even those people who might enjoy this will be disappointed by both the length of the experience and the quality of it. I suppose the narration does make this app worth downloading for the soft tones of David Attenborough’s voice, but other than that I would struggle to find another reason to download it.