System: Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift & Windows MR
Price at Time Of Review: £6.99
Comfort Rating: Red (Extreme Movement)
Genre: 360 Video and Animation
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers, Keyboard & Mouse
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG
Description: We Are Stars is the most immersive science documentary in the Universe! This 360°, 3D, high-framerate experience seeks to answer some of the biggest questions of all time. What are we made of? Where did it all come from? Explore the secrets of our cosmic chemistry, our explosive origins and connect life on Earth to the evolution of the Universe. We join the Time Master narrated by superstar Andy Serkis, a Victorian gent with his very own time tent who whisks us off on a 13.8 billion year adventure. With expert input from leading scientists, cosmologists, astrophysicists, astrochemists, planetary scientists and astrobiologists we present humanity’s current understanding of where everything, including us, came from. With an original immersive score by acclaimed New Zealand composer Rhian Sheehan. We Are Stars is produced by NSC Creative, The Immersive Storytelling Studio based at the National Space Centre, UK.
Review: We Are Stars is a non-interactive science documentary about the Universe and many of the common questions about it that people ask. Narrated by Andy Serkis (who features in hundreds of films and TV shows like The Jungle Book, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and even Avengers: Age of Ultron to name just a few) he does it in the role of a Victorian gentleman taking you on a 13.8 billion year adventure. A journey through space and time, then onwards and inwards to the unknown.
Starting off you are given the option of ultra or standard settings. If you are not sure which setting to use or using codecs to play it stick with the standard version, it is much easier than messing around. The only other options are to play or read the “about” page (which does look pretty awesome). From the fairground fly through to the walk of dinosaurs, it all looks and sounds amazing, plus as a bonus, it can also be quite educational.
This experience is of such high quality, that they have been running it for visitors inside the Space Centre planetarium in Leicester, UK, itis that good! (and it goes on to promote VR which is also nice.) But the VR version is a lot clearer and the 3D a lot better obviously. While this is probably one of the best 360° animated video experiences you can watch (so far anyway) I just feel it is a little over-priced. If it was just a few quid lower it would have been good value for money, but the lack of game and interactive parts means as soon as you have watched it once, that is pretty much it unless you plan to show it to other people. There just isn’t enough depth in the science of it neither, it all feels amazing to watch, but short on content and knowledge.
Having said that, this is a fantastic step in the right direction and it is good to see the quality of 360° video and animation getting better and better. As a Lower School educational tool this is perfect and has just the right amount of knowledge depth as to not bamboozle them. Then people with a more inquisitive mind can find out more about the topics covered in this video in their own time. Experiences like this will make virtual reality the success we all hope it will be.
