You step into the shoes of Serdar, a doctor whose personal quest to help his ailing wife leads him through the dangerous underground world of the Metro. Without spoiling anything, I can say the narrative is one of the game’s strongest elements, featuring several compelling twists and turns as you uncover various truths along your journey. The writing really shines throughout, delivering both emotional depth and narrative complexity across the game’s 12 chapters. The story manages to feel both personal and consequential, maintaining the series’ trademark blend of human drama and post-apocalyptic survival.

Bullets, Beasts & No Workbenches

At its core, this is quintessentially Metro, though with some notable streamlining of mechanics. The gameplay loop alternates between narrative sequences, atmospheric exploration, and intense combat against various mutants. You’ll encounter everything from dog-sized creatures to more imposing threats, each demanding different tactical approaches. Your arsenal starts with a pistol and gradually expands to include a semi-automatic rifle and other weapons. While the selection isn’t extensive, the gunplay is exceptional, ranking among the best I’ve experienced on Quest alongside titles like The Light Brigade and Arizona Sunshine.

Unlike Metro Exodus, for example, there’s no crafting in Metro Awakening. You won’t be crafting grenades or Molotov cocktails, and weapon modification is extremely limited – the only weapons mod I found was a silencer for the pistol, which was automatically added once found. In that sense, Metro Awakening keeps it simple: no workbenches, no crafting systems. While some might miss these features from the mainline series, this streamlined approach works well in VR, keeping the focus on immediate action and survival rather than resource management.

Don’t Blink: The Art of Metro Terror

The game masterfully straddles the line between action-adventure and survival horror, and this is where it really shines. While it comes with an explicit arachnophobia warning, it never ventures too deep into pure horror territory – something I appreciate as someone who typically “nopes out” of VR horror games. Instead, it excels at building a persistent sense of tension and anxiety. You’ll experience moments of frantic panic in dark corridors, managing limited ammo while mutants scurry about, creating intense situations that feel challenging but manageable. The game keeps you perpetually uncomfortable without crossing into overwhelming territory, striking an impressive balance between tension and playability.

Tunnel Vision Never Looked So Good

Metro Awakening is visually impressive, with strong art direction and effective real-time lighting that contributes significantly to the atmosphere. The game consistently maintains its foreboding atmosphere through excellent environmental design. While much of the game takes place underground, each area feels distinct and purposeful, avoiding the potential monotony that could come with a subway-based setting. Some locations are intentionally revisited as part of the narrative – this isn’t lazy asset reuse but a deliberate story choice that adds to the overall experience.

The attention to detail is remarkable, especially in the interactive elements. You can physically check your remaining ammo by looking at your weapon’s chamber, and small touches like functional fans add to the world’s believability. While it’s not an immersive sim where you can interact with everything like in Half-Life: Alyx, the interactive elements that are present feel purposeful and well-implemented. Character animations are notably smooth with minimal jank – even while recording, which is particularly impressive for a Quest title. The environmental storytelling is subtle but effective, with each area telling its own story through careful visual design.

The Sound of Survival

The audio design stands as the game’s crowning achievement, creating a deeply immersive experience that elevates every other aspect of the game. The soundtrack expertly emphasizes emotional beats throughout the story, from moments of creeping dread to brief instances of hope and optimism. While it pays homage to classic Metro themes, it establishes its own unique identity that fits perfectly with the VR experience.

The sound design is exceptional, leveraging every trick in the horror game playbook to maintain tension. You’ll hear unsettling radio murmurs that you can’t quite make out, precise directional audio that keeps you on edge, and the nerve-wracking sounds of mutants moving through nearby tunnels. These audio elements work together to create a constant sense of unease that enhances every aspect of the gameplay. The voice acting is consistently strong throughout, adding authenticity to the experience and helping sell the emotional moments in the story. The way sound echoes through the tunnels, the mechanical clinking of your weapons, and the environmental ambiance all contribute to making the Metro feel like a living, breathing place.

Mind The Gap: Performance & Playtime

I encountered very few technical issues during my playthrough. There are some minor control quirks, like occasional overlap between mask and reload detection zones, and a few moments where gameplay systems don’t quite sync with narrative elements (like conversations continuing normally while running out of oxygen). However, I experienced no crashes or significant bugs throughout my entire playthrough, which is impressive for a VR title of this scope.

I completed the game in about six and a half hours on normal difficulty. While some players report longer playtimes of 10-14 hours, especially on hard difficulty or when pursuing a stealthy approach, my experience was focused and satisfying. There are collectible postcards to find, which unlock with a satisfying musical cue, but replayability is limited as you’d expect from a narrative-driven single-player game. While there’s no new game plus or challenge modes, Vertigo’s track record with post-launch support (as seen with Arizona Sunshine) suggests we might see additional content in the future.

Last Stop: Final Thoughts

Metro Awakening stands as a testament to how traditional gaming franchises can be thoughtfully adapted to virtual reality. While it doesn’t include all the systems and complexity of its non-VR counterparts, it succeeds by focusing on what works best in VR: immersive storytelling, tense combat, and atmospheric exploration. The combination of great gunplay, impressive visuals, outstanding audio design, and an engaging story kept me coming back for more – I found myself playing about an hour and a half each day until completion.

The game’s greatest achievement is perhaps how it maintains the series’ signature atmosphere while adapting it for a new medium. Every element, from the sound design to the visual presentation, works together to create a compelling and often unsettling journey through the Metro. While some might wish for more weapon variety or crafting options, the streamlined approach serves the VR format well.

It’s very easy to recommend Metro Awakening to all but those who might find themselves too unsettled by its tense atmosphere. It’s easily one of the best games I’ve yet played on Quest, and despite the somewhat brief run-time, it presents a dense and gripping experience from the first cinematic intro to the moment the final credits roll on screen.

Yet, as you dive deeper into its dark caverns and sprawling alien cities, the game reveals a duality: it’s a technical marvel at first glance but begins to stumble as you push toward its conclusion.

Exploring the Abyss

You step into the shoes of Ben Mitchell, a deep-space scavenger who, alongside his AI sidekick Jonathan, finds himself on an alien world after being sucked through a wormhole. The central hook of Into Black is simple: explore, gather resources, upgrade your equipment, fight alien creatures, and try to repair your ship to escape. But this isn’t just a solo experience; you can bring along up to three friends to take on the campaign in co-op, adding a social dynamic to the core gameplay.

The game also offers several different modes. The main campaign propels you through caverns, magma chambers, sunken cities, and more, with Jonathan providing some humor and light commentary throughout the journey. Outside of the campaign, you’ve got resource-gathering missions, perfect for players who want to grind without focusing on the story. There’s also a PvPvE mode, “Singularity,” where 12 players battle it out in an ever-shrinking map, hunting for resources while fighting both aliens and each other. On paper, this package is immensely appealing—offering variety, action, and a healthy dose of replayability.

Mining for Gameplay Gold

The first thing that stands out in Into Black is the fluidity of movement. The Binary Mill’s VR pedigree is on full display as you run, jump, and shoot your way through a vast and dangerous landscape. The mechanics feel polished—there’s no jitter or clunkiness in how you interact with the world. The controls are intuitive and smooth, making even the most mundane actions, like mining for resources, feel satisfying.

Shooting in Into Black is a real treat. You get an array of weapons—pistol, shotgun, SMG, and even a returning axe that gives off major God of War vibes. The game also doesn’t shy away from borrowing mechanics from other iconic games. You’ve got Gears of War’s quick reload system, Super Mario-esque mushroom bouncing, and some clever nods to other classics scattered throughout.

That said, the gameplay does start to show cracks. While the shooting feels good, the combat loop does wear thin after prolonged play. Boss fights, in particular, are disappointingly lackluster—these bullet-sponge encounters drag on and don’t offer much in the way of tactical depth. You’re left dodging projectiles and pumping rounds into alien statues that hardly animate. It’s a shame because the game’s combat has such potential, but these moments feel undercooked.

Cavernous Eye Candy

Graphically, Into Black is an absolute stunner. The stylized visuals work wonders in VR, especially when combined with the game’s fantastic lighting effects. One of the most memorable moments comes early on, when you fire a flare into a cavern and watch it illuminate the alien landscape in real time. It’s breathtaking. The game’s biomes are varied—magma chambers, ancient alien ruins, and underwater caverns all offer a sense of discovery that keeps things feeling fresh, at least for a while.

However, the longer you play, the more technical issues you encounter. There are bugs—literal and figurative—clipping through walls, getting stuck in the environment, or not reacting properly to the game’s physics. I’ve had moments where a teammate in co-op would suddenly start levitating, or plants would hover slightly above the ground, which chips away at the game’s initial immersion. These bugs are jarring, especially when you’re playing a game that feels so polished at the start.

Stand Up Jonathan

Audio in Into Black has its highs and lows. The standout here is Jonathan, your trusty AI companion. His witty banter and occasional comic relief do wonders to break up the sometimes bleak atmosphere of the game. Some players have even confused his voice for that of our very own Pete Austin from 6DOF Reviews! The weapon sound design is punchy and satisfying—guns sound like they have weight, and the feedback you get when firing is palpable.

But the game stumbles when it comes to music. The soundtrack is repetitive, especially during combat encounters where you’re fed the same adrenaline-pumping track over and over again. This repetitive score feels like a missed opportunity to enhance the emotional beats or dramatic moments in the game.

Bugged Out, Blacked Out

The deeper you get into Into Black, the more it feels like the game is held together by duct tape. Small issues accumulate: creatures glitch out, environmental elements don’t react as they should, and some aspects of the game design feel underdeveloped. The puzzles, for example, could have been a great way to break up the action, but they remain simplistic throughout the entire game. There’s no ramp in difficulty, and they often feel more like time fillers than real brain teasers.

Fabricating resources, a crucial aspect of upgrading your gear, becomes an absolute chore as well. The interface doesn’t allow for batch crafting, forcing you to sit through long animations for each individual item. It’s an incredibly tedious process that really grinds down the pace【31†source】.

Long Play, Short Patience

On the plus side, Into Black offers a lot of content. Between the main campaign, the co-op options, and the PvPvE mode, there’s plenty to keep you engaged for dozens of hours. But as mentioned, the longer you play, the more the game’s flaws start to reveal themselves. There’s a real sense that the scaffolding holding this experience together could use some more structural support.

Into the Light, but Not Quite

Into Black starts out like a dream—fantastic mechanics, gorgeous environments, and charming voice work. The experience is immersive and addictive, sucking you into its alien world with blistering confidence. However, the deeper you go, the more the game starts to feel like it’s losing its grip. Bugs, repetitive music, and lackluster boss fights prevent it from achieving greatness.

Still, all these issues, apart from maybe the dull boss battles, are fixable, and if The Binary Mill supports the game with patches, Into Black could easily rise to become a standout in the VR world. If you’re seeing this review after those updates, consider it an 8.5/10, but for now, it’s not quite there.

This dynamic of anticipation and dread, combined with the stark contrast between the agent’s cautious exploration and the alien’s predatory stillness, brings an unsettling atmosphere to the game. It feels reminiscent of certain asymmetrical multiplayer VR experiences like Panoptic, where two sides use different strategies and abilities. Here, though, the tension is cranked up a notch because you never know exactly when danger will strike.

Mannequin Mayhem

Mannequin‘s gameplay offers more depth than it might first appear. What starts as a straightforward hide-and-seek game quickly develops into a mind game where both teams need to rely on strategy and communication. As an alien, one of the most enjoyable elements is setting traps. For example, one alien could purposely get caught moving, luring agents into the open where others are waiting in ambush. The aliens have a short dash ability, so the moment they get close to an agent, it’s usually game over.

For agents, though, it’s not so simple. Their detection equipment can help spot moving aliens, but they have to be careful with their shots—accidentally shooting a real frozen human means their gun jams, leaving them vulnerable to attack. This constant balancing act keeps the stakes high. I found this part of the gameplay particularly satisfying, especially with how easy it is to slip up as an agent if you’re overconfident.

What really makes Mannequin stand out is the emphasis on teamwork. Even after you’re “killed” and turned into a ghost, you can continue helping your team by scouting out aliens or agents and communicating their locations. This keeps the experience engaging even after death, similar to how Echo VR kept stunned players involved with team coordination even when they were out of action. The revive mechanic also adds another layer of strategy, with the potential for thrilling comebacks if your teammates are quick on their feet.

Frozen in Time

Visually, Mannequin does an excellent job at crafting an eerie atmosphere. The stylistic graphics complement the gameplay well, with its frozen humans scattered in mid-movement, as if life just paused around you. This is enhanced by little details like objects suspended in the air as though frozen in time, reminding me a bit of the surreal environments in Into the Radius, where floating objects give an otherworldly feel.

The color palette strikes a balance between vibrant and unsettling, creating environments that feel frozen in more ways than one. That said, the levels can start to feel somewhat repetitive. While the frozen environments are distinct, they don’t vary much between rounds, and the art style, while effective, could benefit from more diverse settings. Hopefully, future updates bring more variety to the maps, which would help keep things fresh for players long-term.

Listen Closely, or Else

If the graphics set the mood, the audio in Mannequin makes it essential to your survival. Spatial and locational audio play a huge role, especially if you’re playing as an alien. Your ears are your best defense, letting you track the movements of agents by listening for their footsteps or the beeping of their detection equipment. There’s a strong sense of tension as you’re frozen in place, relying on sound alone to plan your next move.

On the flip side, agents need to pay close attention to these same auditory cues, using them to pinpoint mannequin movements. The audio design is exceptional here, elevating the suspense and making every game feel like a high-stakes dance of patience and precision. In this regard, it shares a bit of DNA with stealth games like Phantom: Covert Ops, where audio is critical to both tension and gameplay. The way sound influences your decisions adds to the immersive quality of the game, making it as much about listening as it is about looking.

Live by the Community, Die by the Community

Like many multiplayer VR games, Mannequin’s longevity will largely depend on its community. The game has all the tools to be successful—a fun and accessible concept, depth for strategy lovers, and enough tension to keep things interesting. However, whether it thrives or falters will come down to the player base.

During my time playing, I noticed a mix of younger players and casual gamers, which isn’t surprising given the straightforward mechanics. The game doesn’t demand the kind of dedication you’d expect from more hardcore VR experiences like Population: One or Onward. It’s the kind of game you can jump into for a few rounds and still feel like you’ve had a good time. But without a solid community to keep the lobbies full and the matches engaging, it could be tough for Mannequin to sustain long-term appeal.

Memory Lane

For all the positives, Mannequin does have one major flaw that threatens to undermine its long-term replayability: the frozen NPCs aren’t randomized between rounds. Once you’ve memorized where the real frozen humans are, playing as an agent becomes significantly easier. If you have a good visual memory (like I do), you’ll quickly start recognizing which figures are NPCs, making it much harder for aliens to blend in.

This is something I pointed out during playtesting, and I was surprised to see it hadn’t been addressed in the latest update. Randomizing the placement of NPCs seems like a no-brainer for a game like this, where unpredictability is key to maintaining suspense. Until this is fixed, the game risks losing its edge for more observant players, and that could turn away some of its more dedicated audience.

A Mannequin with Potential

Mannequin is a unique and suspenseful multiplayer experience that brings a fresh concept to the Quest’s lineup. The game offers moments of high tension and strategic depth, with its simple yet effective mechanics. The graphics, while not groundbreaking, create a memorable atmosphere, and the audio design is top-notch, integral to the core gameplay.

That said, its future success depends on two key factors: the community and continued updates. If the player base stays active and the developers address some of the current issues—particularly the non-randomized NPCs—Mannequin could become a go-to casual multiplayer experience. For now, it’s an entertaining game with a lot of potential, and with a free trial available, there’s little reason not to give it a shot. Whether you’re a kid looking for some fun or an adult who enjoys casual, strategic gaming, Mannequin has something for everyone.

Note: I’d happily give it a 7.5 if they add NPC randomization! So if you’re reading this at some point in the future when that’s been done, then it’s a 7.5!

Now, as Fracked makes its way to the Quest, the question is: Will nDreams update their design choices to once again play to the strengths of the hardware? If not, will the design choices from 2021 hold up, or will Fracked feel like a relic of the past?

FRACK TO THE FUTURE

At its core, Fracked is a narrative-driven shooter with a straightforward premise. Players step into the boots of a lone soldier who unwittingly stumbles upon an isolated mountain fracking operation. This isn’t your typical energy extraction site, however. An alien corruption has spread throughout the camp, turning miners into grotesque enemies and threatening the very world itself. Alongside a trusty “eye in the sky” sidekick, players are tasked with investigating the mysterious outbreak and eradicating the alien menace.

The story unfolds over a 3 to 3.5-hour campaign, taking players through a series of 8 fairly linear levels. The game’s structure alternates between intense action set pieces, thrilling skiing sequences, and climbing sections that, while serviceable, don’t add much to the overall experience. The action sequences, particularly those where players ski down slopes while shooting enemies on snowmobiles, are exhilarating at first but quickly lose their novelty.

Despite the initial bursts of excitement, the campaign’s short length leaves much to be desired. What could have been an epic, sprawling adventure feels more like a bite-sized thrill ride—fun while it lasts but over too soon.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CLUNKY

Fracked offers an interesting mix of classic run-and-gun gameplay with elements of traditional cover shooters. The game’s cover system is one of its standout features, allowing players to physically move in and out of cover using their off-hand. This adds a level of immersion and physicality that a simple button press fails to achieve. The action is fast-paced, with set pieces that serve up waves of enemies for the player to mow down. However, these set pieces often feel like filler content, with limited objectives beyond surviving the onslaught.

Unfortunately, Fracked is hampered by some clunky design choices that feel inherited from the PSVR controllers and detract from the overall experience. Holstering weapons, for example, is far from intuitive. Rather than the accepted standard of using the grip button to grab and holster weapons from intuitive locations on the body, switching weapons is done via a button press. New weapons instantly materialise in your hand in a way that is jarring and immersion breaking. Holstering involves an awkward long press while holding the gun by your hip, a process which felt cumbersome at best.

The inability to dual-wield or two-hand weapons seems to be a deliberate way to force players to engage with the cover mechanics, but it makes the gunplay feel one-dimensional. For the cover based elements it makes sense, but the run-and-gun elements are sorely let down by the inability to rush into a situation guns akimbo.

WHO NEED’S STAIRS WHEN YOU CAN ZIPLINE?

The game’s limited weapon selection further exacerbates this issue. Players have access to only two main weapons and three special weapons, the latter of which cannot be holstered and can only be used for a single clip. This severely restricts the variety of combat encounters, especially when paired with the limited enemy types. There are only three main enemy types, and while they are mixed up by arming them with the same limited weapons available to the player, the overall combat experience can feel a little repetitive.

On the plus side, Fracked does incorporate some enjoyable environmental interactions. Zip lines and exploding barrels are scattered liberally throughout the levels, providing ample opportunities for creative kills and quick escapes. However, the sheer abundance of these elements raises questions; what does a fracking operation need with so many zip lines, and why the hell are there explosive barrels absolutely everywhere?!?!

The climbing sections, though present, are mercifully few and far between. They serve as brief interludes between the more action-packed sequences and do an ok job of delivering a few cinematic thrills. But, like so many games that incorporate a superficial climbing mechanics, these sections lack the tension and nuance delivered by more dedicated climbing games like The Climb series. As a result, these sections lack the impact that could easily have delivered.

THE FRACKED AND THE FURIOUS

If there’s one area where Fracked truly excels, it’s in its visual presentation.

The game’s art direction is nothing short of fantastic, making superb use of a stylized cel-shaded art style. Textures are bold and vibrant, with strong outlines and a thoughtfully conceived palette that make the game pop that ensures the world feels consistent and vibrant. One odd quirk, however, is the giant hands that seem to be nDreams’ calling card (Ghostbusters, I’m looking at you). While not a deal-breaker, it’s an unusual design choice that might take some getting used to.

The audio experience in Fracked is equally impressive. The soundtrack dynamically shifts with the action, adding to the intensity of firefights and the tension of quieter moments. Voice acting is top-notch, showcasing the difference that a proper budget can make when securing professional voice talent. Sound effects are crisp and impactful, and the use of spatial audio helps players subconsciously navigate the chaotic battlefield, adding another layer of immersion to the experience.

FINAL ACT

Fracked is a game that oozes style and accessibility, serving as an excellent entry point for players new to VR shooters. With outstanding art direction and some thoroughly engaging set pieces there is a lot to enjoy in the Quest port of nDreams’ 2021 PSVR hit.

That said, Fracked can’t help but feel slightly hampered by its heritage and struggles to keep up with more modern VR shooters. Despite this, Fracked is a still a fun and engaging experience, especially for those looking for a short, stylish romp through a visually stunning world.

Woof, Woof, Mankind

Humanity has you controlling a dog, a Shiba Inu to be precise, as you shepherd human beings across its levels and lead them to the..well, to the light. Take the vaguely religious and intellectual conceits away; what you seemingly have, at least initially, is a game with much in common with Lemmings or Kartoffl. As a result of this ‘guide the idiots’ to their destination gameplay, Humanity reduces the agency of its throngs of humans to that of potatoes that barely have control of their limbic system. But let’s not get insulted on behalf of the human race; any god that may exist knows we’re scarcely worth the carbon it takes to hold us together.

When I said throngs, by the way, I wasn’t exaggerating. If there’s one thing Humanity impresses you with right away, it’s the sheer number of humans it can casually fling on screen simultaneously. Masses of humans emerge, and they keep coming, hundreds of them, sometimes thousands. The game appears to be able to push them out in limitless quantities. I remember first playing this game on PSVR2 when it came out and thinking it took the power of a PS5 to throw around this many animated bodies. When I heard it was coming to Quest, I had my doubts about whether this turbas flagrantes could be accomplished on Quest. Well, guess what? The teams Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Yugo Nakamura led have somehow done the job. Humanity, meet Quest. Quest, meet masses of human sheep led by a Shiba Inu.

Essentially, each level is a challenge to solve, and there are plenty of levels broken down into chapters. Some exposition between the chapters reveals the grand narrative that serves as a backdrop to all this puzzle-solving.

Your Shiba Inu has an evolving and sometimes diminishing set of powers; you can order them to turn, you can order them to jump or jump high, you can place markers that make them light as feathers, etc. Each level is a three-dimensional grid, and you can mark squares with those commands, making humans follow them whenever they reach those squares. It’s well-designed and quite elegant. Most levels also contain some larger-than-life golden humans called Goldys. These serve the function of stars, in the sense that if you can collect all the Goldys in a level, you can consider it well and truly finished, and in the sense that you need a certain amount of Goldys to unlock the final level of each chapter.

As you progress past the midway point of the game, the stakes increase, but I won’t say much about that since it would constitute a spoiler within the game’s narrative. Let’s just say that Humanity does a fantastic job of constantly evolving the gameplay to the point of breaking genre and almost making its way halfway to another genre as the game progresses. But hey, spoilers…

Spatial Computing

The overall design of Humanity gives it a lot of its appeal. The menus are elegant, the art direction is uniformly excellent, and the controls are quite intuitive, with one button switching between commands and the other placing command markers. The right grip button allows you to fast-forward through time, and the game doesn’t try to needlessly punish you. If you mess up or want to try again, perhaps to catch more Goldys, the game lets you restart a level with all your command markers intact.

Humanity also rewards you with frequent unlocks. Most of these come in the form of skins that you can unlock for the characters; one that’ll dress your humans in 70s-style clothing, one that’ll make them blocky, one that’ll make them spherical, another will make them shiny, etc. The other unlocks are more statistical, showing detailed stats on your performance history throughout the game. None of these impact the gameplay, but they add to the experience and give some sense of accomplishment.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that Humanity has a good deal of longevity built into it; the game features a level creator, allowing players to design their own puzzles.

To Err is Human

Humanity has a distinctive style, which I enjoy, but some might consider it relatively bare and even drab. The people are colorful, but the levels are primarily grey, and some players might tire of that. If there’s anything about its overall presentation that I didn’t enjoy, it’s the soundtrack. There are a few different tracks, and once you get past a certain level, you can switch between them, but they’re all the same sort of minimalist electronica. I understand that the music in the game is supposed to be ambient and unobtrusive, but it didn’t really do it for me.

The biggest issue with Humanity might be that it doesn’t justify its existence in VR at all. When it first came out on PS5, it was playable in pancake and VR modes. So, some people may prefer to play it flat. Having said that, if you don’t have a console or simply like the immersive nature of VR, then that’s not an issue.

To Forgive, Divine

Humanity is a cryptic puzzler with a lot of atmosphere, a great set of evolving mechanics, and a wealth of levels and challenges. It has a distinctive style that minimalists will like but might seem drab to others, and its execution on Quest is excellent so long as you’re okay with a graphical downgrade from the PS5 or PSVR2 version. It straddles a fine line between being challenging and rewarding, and if you’re a fan of puzzle games, it will keep you hooked until you get to the other side of the light. The game has been nominated and won more awards than you can shake a significantly large stick at, and I can’t say it’s undeserved.

Dive in and enjoy.

Concept 8
Gameplay 8.5
Graphics 7.5
Audio 6.5
Longevity 8

Overall 8

Bedazzled

I began by dissecting the individual components of the game, weighing their merit, cataloguing their strengths and weaknesses, comparing elements with notable peers, and mentally scribbling down a list of bugbears to discuss. It was a tedious business, really.

After my first session, I had amassed a reasonable list of irksome traits, but I was enjoying myself. Diligently, I continued. A short time later, however, something unexpected occurred. Even though my gripes remained intact, they barely registered anymore. My former complaints now seemed trivial—the small and petty nonsense that bearded folk say to appear credible.

By this stage, I knew better, for I was no longer Pete, the reviewer. Transformed, I was now Pete, the 7-year-old sitting cross-legged on my loungeroom floor playing Super Mario World. I was Pete, the smelly 15-year-old dodging my homework to play Crash Bandicoot again. Finally, I was Pete, the 44-year-old forever child standing inside a video game while Max Mustard gently reminded me to sit down, shut up, and have fun. 

ASTROBOT OR ASTRONOT

Max Mustard is an immersive 3D platformer that mixes inspiration from games like Super Mario 64 with the universally loved Astrobot Rescue Mission. Developers Toast Interactive have aimed to deliver an experience that captures the charm and excitement of a traditional platformer, fused with the immersive elements that only VR can provide. For the most part, they have succeeded. 

Max Mustard launches straight into the gameplay, offering only the most rudimentary preamble before having you bounce your way into the fray. The game is intuitive from the first instant, a fact that Toast Interactive seems to be counting on, as the game offers almost nothing in the way of a tutorial. Instead, a masterful combination of the genre’s most notable conceits eases the player into the action with the unconscious comfort of putting on a well-worn pair of slippers.

Within moments, you will find yourself guiding your plucky heroin through a range of cleverly creative and forever-changing obstacles as you work your way towards…something. Thanks to an entirely superfluous narrative set-up, I don’t know your character’s motivation, nor do I care. Max Mustard gracefully (and perhaps unintentionally) sidesteps the need for cramming in a redundant plot and proves that when the gameplay is so utterly delightful, none of that stuff matters.

BOUNCY, BOUNCY. STILLETTOS ARE A NO NO

Max Mustard is a well-designed and expertly delivered platform experience. From the first bounce, the game focuses on simple, intuitive controls that “feel” good. As in most classic platform adventures, the protagonist can jump on their opponents or use a spinning attack to vanquish them. There are a few other attacks, but these feel more like window dressing than meaningful additions to the gameplay. Jumping and jet boosting will get you through almost every challenge.

What sets Max Mustard apart in the ambiguous world of “feel” is the implementation of weight and bounce. Traditional platformers are all about timing, and how Max jumps, bounces and uses her jet boots are delivered more or less perfectly. Jumping on boxes or enemies results in a pleasingly buoyant response, and mastering the glides and pseudo double jumps administered by the jet boots is simply joyful.

ASTROBOT OR ASTRONOT

The level design in Max Mustard is fantastic, with each stage offering a new range of environmental traps to navigate. For a game that exists entirely to see players jump from platform to platform, there is plenty of variety to prevent things from becoming boring. The difficulty is pitched just right, offering enough challenge to be compelling and achievable enough to never become frustrating. Throughout the game, every interaction remains consistent, fun, and fair.

Mixed into the traditional 3d platform faire is a smattering of first-person interactions that are the hallmark of modern platformers in VR. Rather than the interactive puzzles of the Moss franchise, Max Mustard implements these elements in more of a carnival shooting gallery style affair. Although there were a few sections where this worked, overall, they felt less like a thoughtful blend of first and third-person gameplay and more like an obligatory addition to justify the game’s place in VR.

This is not to say that the game is bad. Far from it, Max Mustard has provided me with the most enjoyable third-person platform experience I’ve had in decades. It’s excellent; it’s just not setting a new benchmark in hybrid VR gameplay. 

GRAPHICS & SOUND

Max Mustard has a great visual style reminiscent of the classic 3D platformer of the late 90’s. Bright and vibrant environments are well defined with a clear visual language that makes everything easy to interpret, no matter how busy the screen gets. The camera is set closer than many similar games, which makes seeing everything slightly challenging at times, but it goes a long way towards immersing the player in the game world. 

Where Max Mustard trips over slightly is in its delivery of character. Max herself lacks the small interactions and details that make you connect with her in the way that characters like Quill or Astrobot did. Sure, Max will look at you while idle or walking nearby, but she does it with the absurdly lifeless intensity of a ventriloquist’s dummy, and it just runs short of completing what is, otherwise, some really top-notch art direction.

The sound is similar insofar as it is broadly very good but just missing something that stops it from being excellent. The sound effects are spot on, landing all the right notes to immerse players into a living, breathing game world. The end-of-stage music is gloriously triumphant without being cheesy or annoying and makes that sense of satisfaction from completing the level all the more impactful.

However, with no voice acting, most of the game’s sense of sonic character rests on the soundtrack, and while there are moments that really work, for the most part, the score feels slightly muted. There is nothing wrong with it per se other than, at times, the music lacks density or urgency in a way that muffles the playful, energetic tone that the game otherwise creates.   

FINAL BOSS

Max Mustard is a delightful platforming experience that melds heartfelt nostalgia, rock-solid mechanics, and the wonderment of modern technology. Despite some broadly superficial shortcomings, Toast Interactive has delivered a masterclass in solid fundamentals. Put simply, Max Mustard is about as close as I’ll ever come to stepping into the dreams of my 9-year-old former self, and I’m all the happier for the experience. 

These assassins were the original John Wicks, born long before Keanu ever had his puppy killed by some idiot, and went on to lead a massive franchise. 

As a result, Assassin’s Creed was born, and Ubisoft gave us all the beginning of an enduring franchise that’s still going strong. 

With its conceit of using the now famous Animus Device to put users into the first-person memories of historical assassins, the meta of the franchise is practically built around VR, so in some sense, we can say that Assassin’s Creed: Nexus was born all the way back in 2007. It was, in a very real sense, inevitable. 

And now, long-awaited and eagerly anticipated, it’s finally here for Meta Quest headsets. We were hoping to have a review ready for you right when the game released, but alas, our stealth got the better of us, and we only got it on release, then, after I’d finished eight levels, I managed to run out of battery while it was saving, corrupting my save file and forcing me to start from scratch. 

So excuse our delays, and put on your wrist daggers, my friend, we’re going on a grand adventure. 

Where Eagles Soar

Assassin’s Creed Nexus puts you in the role of a hacker who’s been recruited by a rogue Abstergo agent who wants to assemble blueprints for a supercomputer of unknown, and possibly alien origin. You do so by, you guessed it, inhabiting the memories of Assassins throughout history and finding artifacts that hide the blueprints to this miraculous device. 

Rather than introduce new characters, Ubisoft allows VR gamers to play as some of our favorite characters from the franchise; Ezio Auditore in Renaissance Italy, Kassandra in Ancient Greece, and Connor Kenway in Colonial America. It’s a great mix, and I don’t think there’s an AC fan on the planet who doesn’t love Ezio, even though I can’t help but wish they’d let me also play as Altaïr from the very first game. 

The game is spread out over 16 missions and jumps back and forth between these characters and locations to keep things fresh and engaging. It even lets you play in different cities within each period, so there’s quite a lot to see here. It doesn’t skimp.

Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, to use its full title accomplished something I did not expect; it largely fulfills the promises that Mirage made, returning the franchise to its roots, with pick-pocketing, social stealth, and almost none of the RPG clutter that the more recent console releases have suffered from – or enjoyed – if you feel that way. Nexus takes AC back to its basics and is all the better for it. 

Another thing that AC does well is that it understands – to its core, that we want to feel powerful in VR, but it might have erred a bit too far in that direction, with auto aim practically making it impossible to miss knife throws or archery shots. The parkour is automatic as long as you keep the A button pressed down when you sprint, with you choosing the path, and the game handling all your jumping for you. Climbing however is a manual exercise, unlike the console versions. Ubisoft have clearly tried to marry comfort and accessibility with immersion, and I think that, on the whole, they’ve made some pretty good choices. They may not please everybody, but with so many iterations of the franchise’s mechanics, it’s anybody’s guess as to what people might consider perfect. 

So let me destroy the suspense; Assassin’s Creed Nexus isn’t perfect, sometimes it won’t jump when you thought it might, bringing a halt to your parkour flow, sometimes the auto-aim feels cheap, sometimes the melee combat feels a little clumsy, and sometimes you’ll grab a table instead of the object on it..but who cares?

It brings much more to the table, generally fluid gameplay, fantastic environments, more characters on screen (even if many are clones) than I’ve ever seen or thought I’d see on the Meta Quest, real motion captured and nicely expressive character animations, a variety of skills and weapons, an interesting story with you as a hacker caught between Abtergo and the Assassin’s trying to sabotage their efforts.

It also brings a slimmer version of what people have come to dread from Ubisoft titles, an open-world game with maps full of to-do’s. In this case, the maps are open but smaller. Still larger and more detailed than almost anything else we’ve seen on Quest, but thankfully, smaller than those to have to deal with on consoles. There are enough challenges to keep you entertained if you don’t want to just follow the story sequences, but not enough to feel like they just want to stay it takes a few dozen hours to complete. It doesn’t. 

It also does something very few games, let alone in VR, manage to achieve; it has moments. I’m a sucker for moments and will forgive a second-rate movie if it pulls off even ONE good solid moment. Nexus accomplished that in one of the first few missions when you find the fabled Bow of Odysseus and bring it to one of your allies. She holds it gently, amazed that it’s real, in awe at its craftsmanship. The soundtrack punctuates this moment wonderfully, and for a few seconds, it feels like something magical has happened.

This is why we like story-driven games, and it reminded me of that one moment in Half-Life: Alyx when the Vortigaunt says “Our paths diverge. But remember: There is no distance between us. We are coterminous.”

Goosebumps. 

Ancient Splendor

The graphics in Assassin’s Creed, which I played on Quest 3, but are not enhanced for Quest 3, are some of the most impressive I’ve seen from Quest, perhaps not in terms of fidelity, as you’d see in Red Matter 2, for example, but certainly in terms of scope and size. The UI/UX is excellent, and the general polish of the game shines through all the design elements. The cities are large, the draw distances are impressive, and they all feature realistic crowds even if you see the same faces way too often. Despite the scale, the baked-in lighting effects and some reflections all work together to create an impressive environment. The only janky thing you’ll really notice is that the legs the game provides you with are sometimes..a bit more contortionist than they should be. The frame rate is generally good, very occasionally stuttering a little, but considering the scale of things, I wouldn’t complain. 

Auditore Delights

As briefly touched upon before, the music in Nexus is fantastic, and changes in style and theme depending on your local, and on events taking place. The sound design is equally satisfying, with everything making appropriate sounds, from the bows you shoot to the steps you take, to the locks you pick. The voice acting ranges from the good to the excellent, all complimented by facial motion captures. The one issue I have is that the lip-syncing is often broken, which can, at times, break immersion. 

But the overall package is great.

Animus Glitches

My general feeling about Assassin’s Creed Nexus is that it does a lot of things very well, and provides an authentic Assassin’s Creed VR experience, something that I’d been very careful not to fully expect because I feared I’d be disappointed once I got my hands on the game. Instead, I’m pleasantly surprised and quite impressed. There are some issues with the game; I once had to restart a level because at some checkpoint the game decided I no longer possessed a sword, and another one because at some point the game lost track of what I was supposed to do next, but those are minor things to complain about, and the scale of what’s been accomplished far overshadows such issues. The occasional frame rate dips are slightly annoying, and I fear that perhaps they might be worse when running the game on a Quest 2, but they were occasional and usually disappeared quickly or were gone on a restart.

And remember the corrupt save file I mentioned earlier? It happened again on my second playthrough after reaching level 12 when I put aside the Quest with the game still running one evening. It seems like going into standby with the game on somehow corrupted my save file. I don’t know if this is a Nexus problem or a Meta Firmware problem, but it’s annoying as hell. It’s taking some willpower for me to ignore this issue, but I don’t want it to impact the score since I’m not sure who’s to blame. 

Overall, though – Nexus isn’t absolutely perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s mostly what we wanted, a real Assassin’s Creed game on standalone VR. If you’re a fan of the series, moments like visiting the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni will make you grin from ear to ear.

Hashashin Bliss

Assassin’s Creed Nexus is a fantastic game that, against all odds, succeeds where many others have stumbled. It brings the gameplay of the older titles to the Quest without all the RPG baggage that had left fans clamoring for something like AC Mirage. It gives you air assassinations, leaps of faith, smoke bombs, social stealth, motion-captured acting, an interesting story, great environments at various times and locales, and ample fan service to round it off. If you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan, you will find a lot to enjoy here, and if you’re not, well, it might just make you one. Overall, this is easily one of the best games you can play on Quest, and very easy to recommend as long as you’re a fan of story-based action adventures.

Inverse is nothing like that. 

MassVR, the team behind Inverse, brings substantial experience in crafting location-based VR experiences to the table. They have already demonstrated their prowess with titles such as VR Champions, a team-oriented first-person shooter, and Hallow Realm, an asymmetric horror experience. Inverse marks their debut in standalone VR gaming, yet their rich background in multiplayer VR design shines through distinctly, a fact that became apparent from my initial encounter with the game.

Perhaps influenced by Hallow Realm, Inverse immerses players in a 4-against-1 multiplayer survival horror scenario. In this narrative, an entity known as The Foundation inadvertently opens a gateway to a mysterious and hostile new world dominated by an unwelcoming monstrous entity.

Portal Perils

As the game kicks off, a team of up to four players assumes the role of agents, venturing through a portal with a unified goal: to activate terminals dispersed throughout each map. Success in this endeavor unlocks weapon caches, granting the players the arsenal needed to confront the creature stalking them. Cooperation accelerates the activation process, as two players can work on a terminal simultaneously, unlocking it faster. However, this strategy is not without its risks, as it grants the NUL heightened opportunities to track and incapacitate pairs of agents, especially given the agents’ initial lack of weaponry. 

Opposing the agents is a solitary player embodying the NUL, a creature from a world accessible through the portals. The NUL manifests in two distinct forms: the Reaper, a swift and agile entity delivering melee damage, and another variant, slower yet armed with devastatingly potent attacks capable of long-range stuns to catch up to players. While the Reaper offers an easier handling for players, mastering the slower, yet more lethal variant could be a preferred choice for veteran players.

Prior to unlocking the weapon caches, the agents’ defensive capabilities are limited. They possess traps to temporarily halt the NUL, defibrillators for reviving fallen teammates, and a single-use self-revive gadget. Moreover, agents can seek refuge in rooms, sealing the doors to stall the NUL, albeit temporarily, as the creature can breach the barriers with repeated assaults. Agents are not completely defenseless in this scenario, armed with drills to repair the damage and buy time as they strategize their next move. They also have traps that can temporarily slow down the Nul. 

Inverse Realities

The graphics in Inverse are nothing short of excellent, leveraging Meta’s ASW to bring a rich layer of detail and immersion to the quintet of maps available at launch. The environment showcases eerie shape-shifting rocks and floating objects, evoking scenes reminiscent of Into the Radius. The addition of textured glass imparts a heightened sense of realism to the surroundings, immersing players deeper into the game’s unique world.

Players also have a range of skins at their disposal for modifying their agent’s appearance, with some options available right off the bat and others set to be introduced as in-game purchases later on. This visual splendour successfully transports players into a strange, new world, with a sense of being relentlessly pursued by the Nul adding to the haunting experience. In certain respects, the atmosphere conjured bears a likeness to a mysterious and eerie vibe reminescent of Stranger Things.

Acoustic Dimensions

Not to be outdone by the graphics, the audio in Inverse offers atmospheric audio that plays a pivotal role in the gaming experience. The spatial audio is adept at facilitating the localization of fellow agents and alerting you to the stalking Nul’s presence. Voice chat is a remarkable feature, allowing seamless communication amongst players.

Moreover, the game innovatively mutates the Nul’s voice to resonate with a grotesque and monstrous tone, enhancing the eerie atmosphere. This cool effect oscillates between being silly and effective, heavily reliant on the player embodying the Nul and their choice of utterances during the hunt, adding an unpredictable and entertaining element to the chase.

Parallel Pains

Inverse lays a robust foundation for an asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror experience on Quest, with MassVR’s expertise in creating location-based multiplayer VR experiences clearly reflecting in the game’s design and execution. However, like many online multiplayer platforms, it faces the common predicament of player base unpredictability, which invariably affects the matchmaking process. The future remains uncertain — it can either foster a community where matchmaking is seamless and the company enjoyable, or it might attract individuals who indulge in disruptive behavior, dampening the gaming experience for others.

At launch, the game promises a substantial amount of content with five well-conceived and beautifully designed maps, offering a playground ripe for exhilarating adventures and lots of fun. The quality and potential enjoyment hinge on the community that builds around it, making the player base a critical element in determining the game’s long-term success. The long term success is impossible to predict right now.

Endverse

In conclusion, Inverse by MassVR emerges as a standout title in the asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror genre, especially on the Quest platform. Leveraging their substantial experience in crafting immersive VR experiences, MassVR offer a game replete with atmospheric graphics and sound design. Their meticulous attention to detail extends from the audibly grotesque mutations of the Nul’s communications to the visually immersive landscapes. The gameplay encourages collaboration while also teasing the thrilling risk of ‘going solo,’ offering a great experience whether you’re an agent working against the clock or a Nul delighting in the chase.

However, the unpredictable nature of the online player base casts a shadow of uncertainty on the long-term enjoyment of the game. It stands at a critical juncture where the community that congregates around it will play a pivotal role in defining its success. 

For now, however, and as it stands, Inverse is an excellent, well made and polished experience that should provide hours of enjoyment for fans of the genre. 

We’ve had titles like Rogue Ascent, Cubism, and Unplugged, that use it very well and, despite occasional glitches, provide a fully playable and enjoyable experience, and then…we have titles that struggle with the promise. 

The real problem with hand-tracking, of course, and that most titles still suffer from, is that, unlike controllers, even the best hand-tracked games don’t work 100% of the time, which means that sometimes, even with the titles mentioned above, the worst thing that could happen in a video game takes place, you lose without it being your fault. 

With games like Cubism, it’s not a big deal. Cubism is a relaxing puzzle game, and the occasional hand-tracking failure costs you nothing but a few lost seconds. With games like Unplugged and Rogue Ascent, however, it could cost you a combo, or worse, avatar damage. 

Know Your Shadow

Silhouette is a puzzle game where you use your hands shadows to solve puzzles, that you find littered throughout the game’s environment. Solving a puzzle rewards you with one of many black triangles that adorn a bracelet worn on your right wrist. Together, those triangles act as keys to unlock doors that open up more areas, leading to yet more puzzles.

Locomotion is also based on hand-tracking, there are teleportation stations littered throughout the environment. You can move to those that you find nearby by pointing at them with an open palm, as though you’re presenting them to an unseen audience. 

When you reach a puzzle station, there’s a light behind you, a puzzle illuminated on a wall, the shadows of your hands. All the puzzles are based on guiding a small shadow character to the exit of the puzzle, often navigating him/her/it to pick up a key that’ll they’ll use to unlock that exit once reached. 

To that end, you’ll use your hands’ shadows as platforms for the character to walk across, or elevators that they can ride as you lift them to a higher spot. Occasionally you’ll use your shadows to form a gun to destroy obstacles in the character’s path, etc. 

Shadow Play

The gameplay is interesting but inconsistent. When I first heard of the game, I imagined it might involve real shadow play, making shapes of objects or animals with your hands to solve puzzles. I imagined a game where you might make a dog to scare off a cat, or a cat to scare off a mouse or match silhouettes with nimble hand-coordination. 

Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and aside from shadow-casting a gun, occasionally, the shadows you make are mostly of the platform variety. Make a platform and move it sideways! Make a platform and move it up! The novelty comes not in how you use your hands but in the design of the puzzles themselves, and I consider this a massive waste of a great opportunity.

The puzzles do become progressively more difficult, but not for the reasons you might expect. More on this in a bit.

The Shadow Knows

The environments of Silhouette are pretty, if very simplistic and cartoony. They offer some variety, but not much. They’re good enough that they didn’t bother me, but at no point did I feel compelled to take a screenshot to show off to a friend. They are…adequate. 

The music fares a little better. It’s upbeat and chill, keeping you calmly motivated until the controls come along and beat some of the motivation out of you.

So let’s talk about that.

The Heart of Darkness

The real problems with Silhouette all revolve around its greatest selling point; hand-tracking. With puzzle games, the difficulty should revolve around figuring out the puzzles, not executing a solution that you’ve already figured out, and this is where Silhouette has issues.

After solving some of the simpler puzzles very quickly, I started getting stuck on some puzzles not because I couldn’t figure it out, but because hand-tracking, as implemented in the game, just wasn’t always up to the task. It’s incredibly frustrating to see the solution to a puzzle, know exactly what you need to do, and fail repeatedly because the hand-tracking keeps glitching out at inopportune moments. These glitches often result in your trusting shadow character falling to a miserable death, or you accidentally squeezing them to death. 

One time, I couldn’t move the character because the pinching movement used to select a target location simply stopped working until I exited my session, returned to the main menu, and came back in again. 

The same annoyances even happen while moving through the environment using the teleportation station, the palm open towards a station gesture is supposed to draw an arc from your hand to the station, whereupon its rotation accelerates for a couple of seconds before you teleport to it. Luckily you can speed up the teleportation system so that it takes far less time to activate teleports, but even then, sometimes it just doesn’t work.

Prince of Darkness

I don’t mean to come down on Silhouette too much, after all, it’s a budget title, priced at just $9.99, and it will keep you busy for 3–4 hours, more or less, even if some of that time is wasted on occasional hand-tracking issues. The environments are colorful, the music upbeat and relaxing, and the puzzles engaging if not particularly challenging. It’s a simple way to while away an afternoon or a few brief sessions, but the puzzles might only prove challenging to younger players.

Having played the original Colossal Cave, you have some idea of what the game is all about. You know that you explore a large cave found nearby your starting location. You know that you’ll collect treasures, examine and pick up various strange objects, and use those objects to get past some of the obstacles you encounter, including a dragon…because…who doesn’t like dragons?

You wonder if Colossal Cave is any good, as the game begins you notice that the game has limited locomotion options. One is called Classic Locomotion and lets you move around the environment using the thumbstick. Although there is an option to switch between snap and smooth turning, there is no option to have the motion follow your head. You find this somewhat annoying, so you try the other option. The other option is called Comfort Locomotion. The menu screens tell you that this is the favored control method of the remake’s lead designer. You try it. It’s odd and unwieldy, it maps all motion controls to the left controller and all inventory controls to the right controller. You advance by holding down the trigger button, as though it’s some kind of gas pedal, and you reverse by holding down the grip button. 

You try it for a while, but hate it.

You revert to the so-called Classic Locomotion, despite its lack of head-follow options.

Colossally Crippling

You find yourself in front of a cabin in the woods, you approach it and try to open the door with your in-game hand. 

You can’t do that. 

Your in-game hands function merely as cursor pointers, making you feel as though you’re stuck in some kind of point-and-click adventure game made in the mid-1980s. You wonder why a 2023 VR port of a text-based adventure game originally made in 1976 is using a control system traditionally used by DOS-based PC games made in the 1980s. 

Your hand, now merely a pointer for an eye-shaped cursor, points at the door’s handle. You click on the use button, mapped to your trigger button, and Colossal Cave’s narrator confirms what you can already see; that the door is closed. 

You cycle between the trigger button functionality by using the grip button, and it now turns your cursor into a hand, signifying that you can now take or use things with your cursor. 

You click the hand-shaped cursor on the door handle, and it opens. 

You wonder why you could not simply have grabbed the door handle and pushed it open yourself. Why am I pointing at things to use them, you wonder to yourself, but soldier on.

Inside, you find a few objects, although you can clearly see what they are, you can still click your eye cursor on each to have the game tell you what they are. It seems redundant and useless.

You pick up some food, not by using your hands, but by pointing your hand-shaped cursor at the food and clicking the trigger button. It goes into your inventory. 

Wanting to eat the food you just picked up, you open up your inventory screen, find your food, and click your cursor on the food, virtually picking it up. You then click on the ‘eat’ button above your inventory, and thus, eat the food.

You wonder if just grabbing the food and putting it in your mouth would have been easier, and perhaps more immersive.

You soldier on. 

Tedium Tremendous

Finally, after picking up a couple of more items, you leave the cabin. To the left, you notice a path. You follow the path, thanking the lords above that Colossal Cave at least allows you to change your movement speed. 

You see an owl in a tree. On the ground below, you find a metal grating. You remember that you cannot just pull on it because your hands aren’t really hands, merely cursor pointers. You examine it instead, and the game dutifully tells you that it’s locked. 

You remember you have keys. 

You pull up your inventory with a controller button, then you select the keys by pointing at them and clicking the trigger button, then you point the keys at the use button, and then finally you point them at the metal grating. It unlocks. You descend the stairs and make your way into a cave. 

As Colossal Cave progresses, you wonder why a text-based adventure game released in 1976 has been ported to a Virtual Reality platform in 2023 with the click-and-point mechanics of games made in the 1980s. 

You wonder why you can’t use your hands as hands. 

You wonder if these design decisions are an attempt to remain faithful to the original Colossal Cave, but quickly remember that the original game was not, in fact, a point-and-click game, but a text-based game.

For a moment, you think it might have been better if this game started you off in a computer lab, where you could sit down on an old PDP-10 computer and just play the original text-based game. Surely, that would have been more in keeping with the spirit of the original if that had been the intent. 

Then you think that would make for a terrible VR experience, although it might have worked well as an intro to a far better game than the one you’re now playing. 

Cavernous Despair

You explore the caves for a while. Knowing that others will ask you what you’ve experienced in the cave, you begin taking notes.

There is no combat in Colossal Cave, at least not in the way that most gamers would define it, you can ‘use’ objects on things or characters, like a bird that you trap in a cage, and then unleash to have it attack a cobra, for instance.

There is some diversity in the environments found inside the cave; the ruins of an ancient temple, an area in which there’s some construction going on, an area with glowing plant life, etc. Many of these have many exits, and many of those just go around in circles.

Colossal Cave, you take note to inform them does have puzzles, mainly about figuring out which object to use in what situation, but most of the puzzles are, to use a kind word, ‘quirky’. Others would simply call them irrational, or, to use another generous word, ‘whimsical’. 

As Colossal Cave continues, you realize it’s all about exploring, finding objects and treasures, using the right objects at the right time, and finding your way around the world.

You Shall Not Pass

After wandering around in the caves for a while, you put down your Meta Quest 2 Virtual Reality Headset and do other things which are far more enjoyable than playing Colossal Cave. 

You come back to it the next day, hoping your second session will be more fun now that you’re inside the cave system, you find out that although the game offers nine save slots, it does not feature auto-save, and you realize this must be another ill-conceived way to remain hypothetically faithful to the fictional point-and-click game that the original never was.

Curses, I say! Curses!

You remember that this game, priced at $39.99, costs as much as Resident Evil 4, and shudder as you imagine the disappointment it will deliver to anybody who buys it and misses the refund window. 

You conclude that the game is nostalgia-bait for older VR players who will recognize the name of a game known mostly for being there first, and that this version delivers neither the text-based authenticity of the original nor the fun that you can enjoy for games costing half as much from the Meta Store.