System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £7.19
Comfort Rating: Yellow (Mild Movement)
Genre: Interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG
Description: Step into a first-person, photo-realistic experience like no other, as you join an expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Developed by VR studio Sólfar in partnership with RVX – the Nordics’ leading visual effects and animation house – EVEREST VR is designed from the ground up for virtual reality.
Review: Have you ever dreamed of being able to climb a mountain? What about the tallest in the world? Everest VR is a 3D, photo-realistic representation of Everest and some of the other surrounding peaks. Most of us will never be in the peak physical condition you need to climb it in the first place, let alone want to do it so this allows you to experience the main point of the climb, from basecamp to the Khumbu Icefalls, then onwards and upwards to the summit.
While you can pick from several starting locations there is essentially only two modes to this app. a ‘God Mode’ and an ‘experience mode’. God modes lets you fly about and explore all of the mountains while displaying the paths historical expeditions took. This gives you a good view of how easy or hard each one is. The other is practically a story more, taking you to key points in the climb. Starting in Basecamp you need to make a crow land on a flag pole to get the luck needed to climb (local folklore believe it is the only way to get permission to climb the mountain. Without it you will die attempting to climb). This takes you on some amazing sights that you would have otherwise missed in a ‘God Mode’ flyover. While far too short this is the most interesting and even I was amazed by what I learnt.
While most people are not going to get much use out of this app, those who plan to climb Everest or one of the surrounding mountains will find it invaluable. With so many facts and interest points crammed into it, you can tell the team who made this have put a lot of time and effort into making this. It looks great and even I found most of it interesting even if I have no intention of climbing it. Anyone with even the slightest bit of interest in mountain climbing will enjoy this, but it’s more an instructional experience than any game or enjoyable experience, but that only goes to show how much effort was put into making it.
