System: Valve Index & HTC Vive
Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: Non-interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers, Keyboard & Mouse
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG
Description: Dr Aldrin is an American astronaut best known for piloting the Lunar Module on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, and one of the first men to set foot on the moon. While it was a historic achievement, he wants his legacy to include laying the groundwork for a permanent human settlement on Mars, and he has a plan. In Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars, journey with Dr Aldrin from his landing site on the moon to Mars as shows you first hand his plan for inhabiting the Red Planet.
Review: Apparently, Dr Buzz Aldrin wants to be remembered for something more than simply “kicking up moon dust.” He wants his legacy to include laying the groundwork for a permanent human settlement on Mars, and he has a plan. As NASA prepares to send the first humans to Mars, 8i and Time Inc’s LIFE VR have collaborated with the celebrated astronaut and historical icon to create a one of a kind virtual reality experience.
In the world’s first holographic legacy VR project, created by 8i, you get the unique opportunity to ‘meet’ Dr Buzz Aldrin through his hologram and the idea is future generations will be able to experience Aldrin’s legacy, long after mankind has made the journey to Mars. To create the hologram, Aldrin was recorded by 8i using volumetric capture and proprietary technology that brings photorealistic holograms of humans into virtual, augmented, and mixed reality in an easy and scalable way. What this means is he looks pretty real and everything around him looks pretty impressive as well. There are no controls needed for this app, simply look at the circle to start and away you go!
While I can’t see Dr Buzz Aldrin’s dream coming true in my lifetime, I can see his dream of staying alive in this app. The man himself is still a legend and this app is for anyone who has even the slightest interest in space exploration or space science. It looks great, sounds fantastic and is completely free meaning there is very little to hate upon. Sure, this is little more than a NASA aimed Kickstarter campaign video, but it is still worth a look.
