Realities (Steam VR)

VR Shop Score – Silver Award

System: Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift & Windows MR
Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Yellow
Genre: Interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers, Gamepad
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

 

Description: Realities brings real-world locations into VR – interactive & with stunning photo-realism using photogrammetry. Too many amazing sites are too far away, too expensive to get to, closed off to the general public or too dangerous to visit. Explore those places and discover their stories.

Walkthrough the desolate vastness of Death Valley. Explore the eerie abandoned hospital Beelitz Heilstätten in the former GDR. Marvel at the amazing architecture of one of the largest cathedrals of the world, the Cologne Cathedral. Feel the confinement of a cell in Alcatraz. Set foot inside the ruins of an 800-year-old Staufer castle. Realities is regularly updated with new locations!

Review: Realities is such a mixed bag of joy it makes me angry just thinking about it. On the one hand, the rendered 3D environments are nothing short of jaw-dropping and are so revolutionary they could easily change the face of tourism and education of these sites as we know it. But then, on the other hand, this is so over branded and controlled that it makes it a nightmare to experience. I just wish you were let loose to explore at your heart’s content. Then there is the fact that it is all DLC and should have been installed when you install the app itself! There is a crazy amount of potential here, but Realities is not the form it should have taken.