Observatory: A VR Variety Pack (Steam VR)

VR Shop Score – Bronze Award

System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £6.99
Comfort Rating: Red
Genre: Interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers, Gamepad, Keyboard & Mouse
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: 15+

 

Description: Observatory is a four-pack of VR content for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and potentially other headsets later on. It includes three games and a music video – but we’re halfway through a (hopefully) two-year development cycle, so all of the items in the pack are in different stages of development. Two have been cleaned up to be suitable for launch, and these are accessible by default (“Phantasmagoria” and “Hamster Slide”). The other two are only available if you’re curious enough to opt-in, as they are significantly less developed. These will be added to the default branch over time.

Review: Observatory: A VR Variety Pack is an odd little collection of games and VR experiences designed to showcase all there is to love about VR. I really do think the developer was thinking too big with this. It should have been some short VR experiences that anyone can enjoy, instead, most of the things are nauseating with full-forward motion and they don’t even look that good. Even the game is not worth playing for much longer than a few minutes. So all that put together makes it hard for me to recommend, but I also know this is one VR project that has been abandoned so it will never get any better. So this is one you really are better off avoiding.