Diorama No.3 : The Marchland (Steam VR)

VR Shop Score – Silver Award

System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £1.99
Comfort Rating: Yellow
Genre: Non-Interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers
Best Playing Position: Standing
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

Description: A diorama is NOT a game, nor is it a demo. Simply put, a diorama is a painting you can visit with a simple goal of inspiring a sense of wonder. They are an ideal retreat to ponder and be somewhere else. The Marchland is the third entry in ‘The Shoebox Diorama’ series, an ongoing series of fantastical dioramas for VR devices by interactive illustrator ‘Daniel Ernst’. A diorama can be explored as a standalone experience or as an interconnected experience through the ‘Table of Contents’ diorama (coming soon), which serves as the central hub.

Visit a tollbooth where the visitor can experience what it feels like to be in between the real and virtual world and become a poltergeist of some sorts. You’re invisible, but you will see, feel and hear objects in the environment react to your touch. You can walk through walls, knock on windows, and ruffle the plants. Or take a seat in the rain and watch as the invisible cars pass by. Before you know it, you have crossed over into ‘The Marchland’.

Review: Much like Diorama No.1 : Blocked In before it (what happened to Diorama No.2?!?) this is once again a non-interactive set piece that gives you the feeling of being in a tollbooth with all sorts of things going on outside making it an oddly interesting experience. But like the first one, this would have been better off being free because even with its small price it simply isn’t worth downloading. Let it looks cool, yes it can feel oddly immersive, but it doesn’t last long at all and you will probably never play it more than once.