Mission:ISS (Oculus Rift)

Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Red (Extreme Movement)
Genre: Interactive Experience
Supported Platforms: Oculus Rift, Rift S
Supported Controllers: Oculus Touch
Best Playing Position: Standing, Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

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Description: Take a trip into orbit and experience life on board the International Space Station! In this Emmy-nominated simulation, learn how to move and work in zero-gravity using Touch controllers. Dock a space capsule, take a spacewalk, and let real NASA astronauts guide you on the ISS through archival video clips.

Review: Since 1998 the International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting the earth at around 15.54 orbits per day. This amazing artificial body is only been seen by a few well-trained astronauts and Tim Peake said this about it: “Living and working on board the International Space Station is the best place you could be…” but going through astronaut training now something most of us wouldn’t even survive, let alone qualify for. So it’s a good job Mission:ISS is here to give you that incredible experience.

This fully interactive experience is a stunning simulation with some very realistic graphics. Going to the windows feels amazing, even if it is in VR. While I found getting around hard at first it started to feel pretty natural after just a few short minutes. You can easily see why astronauts go through so much training, with several videos and fact clips showing the ways of life on the station and how dangerous it is. I found the story of the water in the Spacesuit particularly terrifying. With a good training mode and some missions to complete this is a wannabe space explorers dream come true.

Now obviously I have never been to the ISS not will I probably ever, but I would imagine this is pretty damn close to being there. The highly detailed simulation model of it is amazing and while I can’t confirm how accurate it really is, it looks stunning never the less. Sadly the truth of being is space is accurately portrayed with this simulation and it does get quite nauseating very quickly. This is not the games fault, it would most probably be a thousand times worse in real life, but it does go to show how accurately they have tried to replicate it. I would have happily paid a few quid for this experience, but giving it to us for free is a nice bonus. Sadly, this is one of those experiences when I wish VR wasn’t so close to real life, but what a stunning experience this is and everyone should try it.