System: PSVR 1
Price at Time Of Review: Free
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: Allumette tells the story of a young orphan girl who lives in a fantastical city in the clouds. After enduring tragedy, she grasps at hope for her future. Loosely inspired by ‘The Little Match Girl’ by Hans Christian Andersen, Allumette is an account of the love a mother and daughter have for one another, and the sacrifices they make for the greater good.
Review: Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s short story “The Little Match Girl”, Allumette (French for “matchstick”) is a rather sad story about someone who just wanted to bring people the joy of matches. Mostly focused on the love of a daughter for her mother this is a tragic story of death, sacrifices and goodwill. The scene is loosely inspired by Venice floating in the sky and does have that dream-like look and feel.
I will keep the story under wraps, needless to say, it gets quite emotional, but it is the incredible visuals that really carry the story. I have seen thousands of animated short movies in my time, but this is quite simply mind-blowing to look at, the character animation is nothing short of jaw-dropping as is the detail gone into each and every set piece.
I have to say I found the PSVR version of Allumette nowhere near as good as the Oculus version. Allumette is all about detail in the animation that really brings the characters and scenery to life and on the PSVR you simply don’t get that. Sure, it still looks OK and because it is free it is obviously well worth a look, but things like Allumette (for me personally) have really started to show the flaws in the cheaper PlayStation powered system. It will be very interesting to see the download numbers to find out if the PS gamers are willing to look at something they simply can’t play.
