Edge of Nowhere is a third-person VR survival horror game recently released for the Oculus Rift that places you in 1932 in the boots of Victor, a biologist and adventurer attempting to track down his lost fiance Eva.

Eva had decided to join her professor Dr. Edwards, a fanatical biologist, on a journey that they hoped would uncover an ancient species that has existed undiscovered for centuries. Edwards had been dismissed by the scientific community for his ungrounded theories about ancient life existing in the far reaches of the world but, both Eva and Victor were inspired by his research and thought that it had some credibility. When Edwards and Eva miss their first check-in radio call in Antarctica, Victor hops on a plane to find out what happened to them.


Edge of Nowhere Details:

Official Site
Developer:
 Insomniac Games
Publisher: Oculus Studios
Available On: Oculus Home (Rift)
Reviewed On: Oculus Rift
Release Date: June 6th, 2016


Gameplay

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Edge of Nowhere strands you in the icy wasteland of Antarctica leaving you with only a pick-axe, a shotgun, and some rocks to defend yourself against a bloodthirsty ancient species that lurk inside the snowy caverns. The lack of supplies makes for tense gameplay and forces the players to be creative and conserve resources. This creates many tense moments when you’re forced to decide whether you should use that last shotgun shell and blow the head off the horrible beast lurking nearby or just try the more risky route and sneak past.

When you’re forced to engage enemies, combat is intense and satisfying. You can either strike at the ancient beasts from behind with your pickaxe or blast away with your shotgun using the head tracking of the Oculus Rift to aim. Players are also given the option to distract enemies with rocks. Throwing them far away from you can be a good strategy when low on ammo and not wanting to draw any more enemies in your direction, as attacking them will often lead to a swarm making quick work of your flimsy body. You will most likely have to try some encounters several times before figuring out how to get by.

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The enemy types are varied and interesting. They range from pulsing spheres with spikes that shoot out of them when you get close, to horrible lobster-centipede like creatures that use echolocation to search for their prey. Monsters are animated realistically, crawling around their environments in creepy bug-like ways. Edge of Nowhere does a wonderful job of introducing each type to you slowly and then shoving different combinations of enemies at the player for interesting and challenging encounters, forcing you to use all of the game mechanics you learned along the way to progress.

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Edge of Nowhere’s pacing is excellent, splitting up sections where you sneak around and ice climb with more intense action packed platforming sequences. Running through a cave while it is collapsing with beasts chattering and chasing after me as I pick which ones to shoot and which I can just run by was some of the most intense fun I have had in VR.

The game makes you feel like you’re an inch away from death at all times. You never know when a creature is going to fall down from the ceiling and strike at you from behind, or if the ice is going to give way underneath you, forcing you to make quick jumps in order to survive. I found myself always walking around with my gun drawn, clearing corners like I was a member of a SWAT team; this game keeps you on edge. It is like a combination of The Thing (2002) and Dead Space (2008), and if this sounds like it would be fantastic you would be correct.

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Some may take issue with the game’s exceptionally linear design. Insomniac Games chose to craft a very directed experience; many times there is only one way to climb through a section or to get past an enemy which does remove some choice from the player. On the flipside, this allows developers to place impressive set pieces and action sequences in the player’s way, adding to the awe and fun.

Immersion

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I absolutely love a good scary game. I have played through FEAR (2005), FEAR 2 (2009), Dead Space 1 (2008), 2 (2011) and 3 (2013), Outlast (2013), Slender: The Arrival (2013) and many more. All of these of course succeeded in being frightening and entertaining but were limited to a flat screen. Horror games in VR are on a completely different level.

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When a game makes you so ‘crawl-out-of-your-skin’ uncomfortable that you actually can’t bring yourself to look at what’s happening on the screen, you know there’s something different about this than what came before. Edge of Nowhere succeeds in creating this sensation several times throughout the game. While it does use some jump scares, many times I found myself experiencing a feeling of true terror which will be absolutely wonderful for those of you that enjoy horror games. The sense of Presence that VR brings to each monster makes each encounter in Edge of Nowhere feel like a struggle for survival; death is always lurking nearby.

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One of my absolute favorite parts about this game was the level design. Climbing ice walls, jumping from spire to spire, and crawling through caves felt like I was really exploring an undiscovered realm. There were many times where I would wonder how high I would have to climb or how deep I would have to go inside a cave, adding to the sense of dread and suspense that already exists within the game. Edge of Nowhere looks beautiful and the environments vary from bleak but stunning ice cliffs to the inside of caves populated with undiscovered flora and fauna. The ability to look around the environment instills a great sense of scale which again adds to the intensity of the experience.

A minor note: I didn’t like that my character would frequently say things like, “this is crazy” or, “out of rocks” when I was literally right behind a monster that uses sound to hunt its prey. In a small way this broke the believability of the moment.

The story is compelling and drives the gameplay forward nicely. During loading screens you get to see exactly what Victor is thinking and occasionally you will get visions of the past to provide some backstory. Journals can be found along the way to help you piece together what happened to the exploration party that has gone missing. The story was enjoyable all the way through; I found myself truly wanting to find Eva and help her and Victor escape this nightmare.

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Comfort

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As a third-person VR game, Edge of Nowhere does an excellent job of managing to maintain immersion without sacrificing comfort of the player. The camera, which is fairly far away from the character, is controlled by your head movements and the actual character movement (even at full sprint) is relatively slow. Aiming while shooting your gun or throwing rocks is completely controlled by head movement.

In my 5-6 hour playthrough not once did I feel as though I needed to take a break or experience any discomfort. Some newer VR users may experience discomfort in segments where the player is required to slide up or down a rope in order to advance but most VR users will find the entire experience comfortable.

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Since Edge of Nowhere is a seated experience, it uses the Rift’s Xbox One gamepad for controlling movement and interaction. The controls for are as comfortable as any console game, and the buttons are mapped in a way that will be familiar for anyone who has played video games on consoles. Despite not being able to see the gamepad in my hands (due to the Rift worn on my head), after being taught the initial controls I never found myself panicking and accidentally pushing the wrong button due to confusing controls (and you will be panicking often), so cheers to the developers for keeping it simple. Occasionally the controls did not respond as I expected them too. I would sometimes think it easy for my character to grab onto a ledge but he would miss by a mile, which could be frustrating at times but never took away from the overall experience.


road-to-vr-exemplar-ultimate-by-avaWe partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Gameplay
9.6
Immersion
9.5
Comfort
9.3
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  • TaxPayer

    E3 can’t come fast enough, Xbox one vr is coming!!!

    • Rayza

      Xbox One VR lol

    • Jason Lee

      Not unless you want to pick up a newer version of the Xbox One as well. Still it would be a more cost effective VR solution similar to the PSVR.

      I am pretty excited to see if and what Xbox does come out with. I am hoping for Vive support though. I’d love to get some of that roomscale VR going.

      • popupblocker

        Won’t be Vive. Too many freaking wires – It is great but damn those wire and plugs!

  • Foreign Devil

    Nice to see some finished games for VR that are really fun to play.. even without touch controllers and locomotion.

  • Muddy

    Won’t be supporting this or any other exclusive vr title.

    • Mike W

      lol – what a knob. No one cares about your head-in-the-sand, dinosaur opinion buddy.

      • Muddy

        Actually a good deal of the vr community does care that oculus are trying to split the pc platform with DRM and exclusivity… especially when only 5 months ago Palmer publically declared they would never do that. But please, feel free to keep your “head in the sand” about what that means for the future of vr.

        • jlschmugge

          I don’t think Palmer is as responsible as you may think anymore of Oculus’ decisions. He did want once for VR to be affordable and open. Now every other headset is focused on that, while Oculus tries to lock it like it like a console model. If OSVR remains affordable, it might be what Oculus was supposed to be before Crescent Bay. I have been keeping an eye on that one.

          I’m still waiting for my Rift, and not really interested in roomscale, but I worry that their choices will affect the adoption of the HMD I am invested in. As long as others don’t lock out their games, I figure I should be fine once the touch controllers are out.

          • Muddy

            You’re right of course, Palmer has no real power anymore but he still manages to do some serious PR damage every time he opens his mouth or launches into print. But that doesn’t change the fact about what Oculus are doing.

            DRM is a scourge for consumers. I do strongly believe that what Oculus are doing is anti consumer, anti VR and fundamentally wrong. Because of this, myself and many other passionate vr enthusiasts will never support Oculus unless they reconsider their position and I would urge anyone else who cares about the future of virtual reality to do the same.

            Even OSVR are taking a stand against it…
            http://imgur.com/9zagmFo

          • johann jensson

            Well said. Couple weeks ago i still was pro Rift, but now i’m in the process of finally ordering my first HMD and it’s a… Vive! I don’t care much for room scale ATM so Vive is a bit overkill, but i’ll not support Oculus’ anti-consumer practices. Like Apple, Oculus will never see a single cent from me. :)

          • Muddy

            The wallet often has the loudest voice, I applaud you for voting with it. Wish more could see the bigger picture :)

          • Dario Cannizzaro

            Just want to say, you should care for Roomscale, because it’s unbelievably funny – once you try it, you cannot go back :)

          • Pete

            100% Agree. One of the main reasons my Rift is lonely most of the time. Hopefully Oculus will support some kind of room-scale when the touch controllers release.

          • popupblocker

            Well it already does room scale perfectly well.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_HlXzELHgo

            And that’s with one camera. The touch comes with another that you could place diagonally or at a cross over point…. but wires…

          • Daniel Passmore

            Are you talking about that mythical product they are supposed to release?

          • popupblocker

            The touch? I have them… :)

          • John Miller

            They are now called vive controllers

          • popupblocker

            No. Oculus touch

          • jlschmugge

            I at most, and most definitely, want a standing experience with touch controls. Standing also meaning that I am allowed to take a step or two to reach some detail if I have to, but anything beyond that does not interest me. Even if I have the space to play roomscale, getting my whole body involved is not how I want to play games. I was never excited about the Wii, never excited about Kinect, but I sure like stereoscopic 3D. I’m sure roomscale is neat once in a while and I would likely have fun, but I like to sit and relax when I play games.

            I suspect what is making people mostly excited about roomscale right now is not the actual playspace, but the touch controls. With teleportation, I barely see people move much anyway except when the game requires it.

          • Dario Cannizzaro

            I wasn’t that in favour of room-scale as well. I had your same thinking. I bought the Vive because of Steam really, and the fact that I could have it earlier, and also, being a first-gen product, I picked the one with more features.

            But boy once I tried it. You will want to move around your pool table, you will want to jump and dodge when someone is attacking you, you will want to walk on a ledge.

            So yeah, Roomscale is there to stay. Now we only have to solve transportation for open world and we’re set.

          • Nate

            Perhaps the Virtuix Omni and others like it will be the answer?

          • Daniel Passmore

            You are mostly right about not mlving much. Congrats on the vive. Try the lab first. Its great fun.

          • jlschmugge

            I’m actually getting a Rift in a month. Do you hate me now?

            Any of the Vive games I want to play like Job simulator I think are coming to Oculus Touch. Till then I have plenty of racing games, plus I already own Adrift and Solus Project just waiting.

          • Daniel Passmore

            No. I actually own both. The rift is a nice piece of tech. I just dont approve of them trying to look down content to their peripheral. That would be like if a new game came out thay only worked on ben q monitors.

          • John Miller

            Yep room scale makes VR. I got my rift the other day its VR lite compared to vive

        • Daniel Passmore

          Can confirm. I care.

          • John Miller

            I care buying only a few games on oclus everything else is steam

        • Greg Dietz

          I care as well. If i can get it on Steam instead of the Oculus store I’ll get it on steam. For the same reasons you do. :)

        • Mike W

          Good point – the knob is, in fact, me, for not reading properly. I thought the dude was talking about VR exclusive over normal PC game. However, games/products being exclusive is a reality of business and examples are everywhere. In the case of the Oculus, they’re not forever, mostly and people trying to complain about a business reality are of course welcome to do so but should realise they’re ignoring reality.

      • Pete

        No one cares? What an ignorant thing to say. Maybe only have of the VR community does, or probably more.

        Even though I have both Rift & Vive, I won’t support exclusive titles either. Plus games are funner on my Vive as it gets about 85% game time vs the Rift anyways.

        • care package

          have you ever supported exclusives on console? You are missing out. Chronos is brilliant.

    • ZG120

      Thats like saying you won’t buy Halo because it’s only on xbox

      • johann jensson

        I never played Halo, because i play on PC. I don’t even have a TV. Same as most of my friends. So what was your point again? :)

        • popupblocker

          What the hell is your point? You butted in and answered a question that wasn’t aimed at you? Sarcastic Smiley face

          • johann jensson

            Well, unless you have difficulties with comprehension, it should be clear what i meant. Some of us gamers don’t support exclusivity, and yes, i don’t play games that aren’t published on my platform of choice (and i’ve chosen wisely; if the publishers make the wrong choices it’s not my fault ;-)

          • popupblocker

            well as you clearly have learning difficulties yourself adn don’t understand they are different devices with different capabilities – and designing for both is NOT as easy as you might think. They have all sorts of different APIs, let alone the hardware differences.

            A triple AAA production house may have the resources to compartmentalise these differences from the game but not a small studio.

            In time this will change as the game engines put in more middleware but it doesn’t exist yet… so back in your rude box and go learn a thing or 2.

          • johann jensson

            LOL.The only one who’s rude here is you. You should get out and have some fresh air.

          • popupblocker

            righto. You are the one that shamed me without any understanding of the situation JJ. And is incapable of actually responding to points.

      • Muddy

        No it’s not. Oculus are dividing the PC Platform with DRM and exclusive content. How would you like it if you bought a game for your ps4 and then discovered you could only play it if your ps4 was plugged into a samsung tv. That amounts to what oculus are doing. At the end of the day it is us, the consumer, that loses.

        • Matthew Scholle

          Makes no sense considering you are only comparing hardware with hardware and not software with the hardware. For example, you cannot play a game like Halo on PS4.

          • Muddy

            I don’t expect to be able play Halo on PS4 but I do expect to be able to buy a PC game and play it on a PC regardless of the monitor or HMD I’m using.

          • popupblocker

            How do you not get that they are not just ‘monitors’ and have very different ways of doing things.

            I will concede on one single game instance. One that purely uses a standard controller. That uses NO specific technologies of a headset other than Headtracking.

            What about when the Fove arrives with eye tracking… you goig to bleat on about that too…’why can’t I eye track on my Vive’

        • It is relatively analagous. The choice a consumer makes when they purchase a PS4 or XBONE is really no different than the decision they make when they choose Oculus. They are deciding to live in a walled garden. You may not like it because there were previously less walls, but the decision on the part of the buyer is essentially the same; certain games being tied to certain hardware.

          Substitute the words “PC Platform” for “Windows” and a few of the walls you’re already living in are revealed. You’re surrounded by business decisions on the part of giant corporations already. The decisions Valve is subject to are in another realm from Oculus. Their business is essentially selling games, exclusive or otherwise, on their platform, Steam – and they’ve become incredibly wealthy based on this. No company has a chance of competing with Steam in this way. They’re the Netflix of computer games. Good luck cracking that nut.

          Oculus’ only real path to profitability when Valve released their own VR system was to try and create an ecosystem of their own. If Valve wanted to maintain an open atmosphere they made last possible move to encourage this. They attempted to abuse their near-monopoly and forced Oculus’ hand. This is the same reason Microsoft is not allowed to manufacture PC hardware, though even they have skirted that particular supreme court ruling with their Surface tablets and XBOX game consoles (which, incidentally, are poised to provide another reason to justify a Rift purchase).

          It’s also a bit disingenuous to compare a VR headset to a simple dumb display.

          • popupblocker

            It’s not specifically a walled garden. You can install games and apps from other sources. You can see why they would want to protect their free studio titles and the others are probably only exclusive for a while.

          • What is not specifically a walled garden? As far as I know you can’t “install games and apps from other sources” to Oculus Home, a PS4, or an XBONE?

          • popupblocker

            Not to oculus home – which is only a launcher anyway and makes sense as you woudn’t have the meta data / graphics / info pages.,,,but sure you can run any non oculus reviewed app. You just need to allow it in Settings/general – I’ve got video players and all sorts of appls

            http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/f81dec31090927fef4b0eb8e18c12aaf-650-80.png

          • Gotcha. So it’s only a one way wall. You can use the Rift to play any game, but you can also only use the Rift to play games purchased through Oculus Home. Best of both worlds if you own one I suppose. I still think it was their only option once the monopoly holder in PC game distribution released their own headset. The $ has always been in games sales vs hardware sales. Bad Valve. Bad!

      • Pete

        No, the Rift is not a system, it’s a peripheral. It’s like saying Asus is to put an exclusive on a game to play on Asus monitors only. Sounds pretty stupid right.

        • Dario Cannizzaro

          Are you familiar with DRM? it stands for Digital Rights Management. So basically it’s a “lock” on software so that it cannot be reproduced on anything that is not allowed. Example: sometimes, if you plug a non-compliant TV to your Macbook and fire up iTunes, your purchased media won’t play.

          What Oculus is doing is using DRM to “lock down” games to be played only on the Rift. It means that you need the Rift to play those – any other headset won’t work.

          What will happen in 3 years after you’ve spent hundreds of dollars in games, and another company comes up with a better HMD? You won’t be able to buy it because you’d lose all the existing content you’ve already bought.

          That is what the fuss is all about.

          • popupblocker

            Only their free own produced games as it stands – and games like this have been part funded by oculus so sure they can be exclusive.

            Elite is cross playable no matter where you buy it. It’s up to the developers to allow that.

        • popupblocker

          the hardware and capabilities are different in each VR headset. That’s the problem.

    • cdm283813

      I don’t mind exclusive titles, I get why they do it. What I don’t care for is when the same game is offered on both Steam and Oculus store. 9 out 10 I buy on Steam because of the sales and because I may own a different headset a year from now. Steam so far is catering to both Vive and Rift.

    • popupblocker

      Hmm. That’s like not going to a exclusive party you are invited to because the whole world is not invited… then realising you have to stay in on your own.

      • Muddy
        • Roger Anthony Essig

          i totally agree, don’t buy it if you have a vive, it’s not supported. It’s as risky as me buying SteamVR titles with vive support to play on my rift.

          • Muddy

            Steam VR titles that have no DRM restrictions.

          • Roger Anthony Essig

            best reason to buy a rift, you get access to oculus exclusives, SteamVR oculus titles and also all the vive supported titles, although they may not work great. Here’s hoping things will improve with openvr eventually.

          • Muddy

            Here’s hoping :)

          • enjoyVR

            that is if you don’t care being forever tied up to a brand, or losing all games you bought on Oculus Home if you one day in the future you decide to buy an headset from a different brand. Not even considering game ethics.

          • popupblocker

            Then don’t buy it there. Buy the game separately. It’s still supported. And who knows what HTC will do

          • Roger Anthony Essig

            correct, i’ll always keep my rift to play oculus store-bought games.

          • popupblocker

            Except the fact you HAVE to buy from steam…

          • Pete

            Maybe you haven’t visited SteamVR lately. There are 126 VR titles that have Oculus Rift support. LOL. Risk? About as much risk as walking across the street.

          • Roger Anthony Essig

            i’m talking specifically about all HTC vive roomscale games, which i buy and play on rift using leap motion and razer hydra.

          • John Miller

            Razer hydra work for the rift and room scale? Hell I might have to pull those out again

          • popupblocker

            Which loads don’t. Cos despite what some idiots think on here it’s not some magic ‘support all VR’ button. Not yet anyway.

    • Kev

      There is a huge difference between being released “first” on a platform than being an exclusive. Looks like OVR paid them for some of the development and therefore it is released initially on the OR. I have a Vive and don’t have a problem with this as the game probably wouldn’t exist at all for VR without OVR. They will probably release it for the Vive as well and I haven’t seen any comment from the companies saying they can’t or won’t.

    • Dirk Disco

      Then you are a tool.

    • Hans Wurst

      That’s just stupid. Exclusives often tend to be the best and most dedicated games. They also are important system sellers.

  • JesusIsGay

    Any VR games of me getting on the cross?

    • Demongo

      Yes but the problem is they are single player and you can never hammer in that last nail.

  • Muddy
    • popupblocker

      Sorry that is complete bullshit. As a VR developer making s cross compatible VR title is not a one click process. Not to do it right anyway and certainly not with the different controller methods of the vice and the oculus touch.

      This is the case and always has been. Kinect PlayStation move and eye are example where the hardware dictates the device.

      I am developing on oculus as the SDK is more developed (at the moment) and potential user base is higher than the Vive – which is great but the wiring and setup is nuts plus the ability to port directly to android.

      If my app sells enough I’ll port to Vive but at the moment it’s not easy.

      • Muddy

        And that’s just the type of weak ass excuse Oculus are banking on from developers like yourself to justify and build their walled garden. Shame on you.

        • popupblocker

          Screw you. You a developer? You know anything about it? So the Lab work on the oculus? Or Google Tilt Brush? Don’t be such a ignorant douchebag.

          When the Touch is released it will be more so. The vive has no Hand recognition controls… in the same way that the Rift has no camera on board or chaperone.

          “Weak ass excuse” – You are a twat.

          • Muddy

            Oh dear, struck a nerve? Please remain calm, name calling only weakens your position.

            Once again you miss the point. No the lab doesn’t currently work on the Rift but if you really are a developer you will know that just as Oculus games can be patched to run on the Vive (using the the ReVive software), so the same could be done for the Rift.

            Tell me, what is so bad about legitimately purchasing an Oculus game and playing it on any HMD? Oculus still get their money, the developer still get’s their money, the PC platform remains undivided and this fledgling VR industry is better off as a whole. But no. Oculus have now gone and introduced DRM in an attempt to thwart the ReVive patch and lock down their selfish garden.

            Well as much as the ReVive developer didn’t want to, he has been left with no other option but to modify the ReVive patch so that it now disables the ownership check to get around the DRM. Take a guess what that means for piracy and all because Oculus stubbornly refuses to play with the other kids in the playground.

            As far as we are concerned, developers like yourself that support Oculus’ anti consumer, walled garden mentality are as bad if not worse than them. And please, spare us the “oh it’s too hard to develop for both HMD’s” excuse. If you can’t do it, then up-skill. If you can’t up-skill, become a librarian. And if you’re just too lame to even try, then again, shame on you.

          • enjoyVR

            you don’t know what you’re talking about. Valve released Hydra drivers just so that it could be used with Oculus.

          • popupblocker

            What the hell have Hydra drivers got to do with anything. I have a hydra it’s not remotely a solution – You’d have to buy a hydra – which is stupid as it’s wired and had a very limited range oh and the fact you can’t buy them new anymore. 3rd party controllers are not any solution in the short term.

          • enjoyVR

            the point is that, opposite to what you wrote, yes The Lab works with Oculus, because Valve made proper drivers for Hydra so that Rift owners can play motion controlled games. Or do you wanna blame Valve because Oculus doesn’t sell motion controllers yet, so Rift users have to use existing third party solutions for the moment?

          • popupblocker

            But you know that someone has to code that in right? They won’t just work… and I as a dev would not bother with the hassle of taking the abuse for the hydras crappy tracking… oh and once again… they don’t make them anymore – there is the vapourware http://sixense.com/wireless but they are are insanely expensive and well… non existant.

          • johnredford

            They actually do if you have the razer hydra, and Valve will support Oculus Touch once it releases as well. You stupid Twat.

          • popupblocker

            Again nothing to do with anything. No developer is going to support something they don’t sell anymore… and the touch is complete unknown regarding sales.

            When Microsoft stopped bundling the Kinect it basically killed it as a game dev tool for the masses. If you knew EVERY one had a kinect you had a baseline number of potential customers. Oculus have done the same thing with the Rift and touch. I as a dev will have no idea how many of them will be out there… but I do know that every Vive has Controllers and every rift has remote and Xbox controllers. I wouldn’t touch the Pointless Obsolete Hydras – interestng for a tech demo / google Tilt brush but not for anything else.

            the AP

            Oh and back in your box… I was swearing at the other guy as he was being abusive and calling me out saying I am lazy for not developing for Both. Nothing to do with you.

            I am also not Developing at the moment for the FOVE, OSVR, Hololens, Meta, Magic leap, Commodore 64, MSX or odyssey. Why because they have no market at all and/or all have completely different APIs and supporting everything takes a massive amount of time and effort… oh and something no one has remotely mentioned here is complete crap shoot of getting your app on Steam in the first place.

            Oculus accepted mine without reservation. And they are willing to give me money to make it exclusive… which is fine by me… as I a have stated it uses things you plain CANNOT do with the Vive as it stands.

            And the other thing with the Vive, as much as I love it, is it’s still no where near as refined as the Rift – heavy clunky uncomfortable – no audio API – and the rift you can plug in and it just works. The Vive loses connection sometimes and it way more complicated to set up.

          • Dario Cannizzaro

            Which Vive do you have? Because unless you’re doing something wrong, or there’s some issue with your HMD, it shouldn’t lose connection. Plus, it’s not uncomfortable, nor heavy.

            Regarding your comments, wha too you mean no audio API? of course there is… plus, you cannot develop for Hololens or Magic Leap as there are no public APIs out there (Magic Leap is super-secretive, no one even knows the hardware).

            Just curious as I work in tech and your comments sounded a bit extreme to me.

          • popupblocker

            It’s a great bit of kit but still a dev kit as far as I am concerned. they lose connection now and again.

            It is noticalbe heavy 555 grams over 470 and that doesn’t include the triple wires…. which are heavy on their own. Multiwires to the machine and the breakout box are things that oculus did away with during the dev kits. the Vive feels rushed to make the release date. It’s also front heavy.

            Of course it supports audio, but not binaural positional like the rift. lack of headphones is a bit a of shame too as they do work really well on the rift.

            But the the Vive’s Camera, chaperone and the Controllers are it’s killer feature and something the Rift cannot compete with as yet.
            The Rift orignal RC1 design way back was spec’d with dual cameras!
            http://i0.wp.com/www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/oculus-rift-consumer-version-prototype-3d-depth-camera.jpg

          • Muddy

            And there you have it folks.

            So what you’re basically saying is, “I’ll take the money from Oculus and make exclusive titles to fuel my greed and be damned the future and shape of this fledgling industry.”

            Strike three! SHAME ON YOU.

      • ThirdSharo

        We’re not demanding support for all platforms, just that support made by third parties isn’t actively sabotaged. Which is what Oculus does.

        • popupblocker

          well it’s not is it… It’s part funded by oculus so if they want a exclusive they can have it.

          It’s the sense of entitlement on here which is making me angry.

          It’s up to the games companies to allow access via other means… if I bought elite on the OR store I can then log in on via the normal way and play.

          Oculus have every right to lock down their own games – which are free to prevent them from being played on a competing system.

          • Muddy

            But there is no point. Everyone loses something.

      • Sam Hamed

        In this case the controller is the same. The Vive can use an Xbox one controller.

    • Roger Anthony Essig

      This sentiment is like kicking water uphill, it won’t stop the eventual hundreds of thousands of rift owners purchasing OCULUS FUNDED exclusives off their store. I don’t see anyone being upset with not being able to play GearVR games on google cardboard devices. Are you against that also? Can anyone tell me if and why it’s a different situation?

      • Muddy

        ps4 is a platform. xbox is a platform. PC is a platform. Oculus are trying to divide the PC platform. Kicking water uphill? Maybe, but I’ll not lay down, I’ll scream as loud as I can even though I may get wet :)

        • popupblocker

          PC is a platform that is hugely divided between the supported and non-supported GPUs and CPUs It’s the most fragmented there is infact.

          But again you ignore what Roger said. Gear VR is android. Cardboard is android. Dreamdream is android. they all have their own APIs

          • Muddy

            Of course older older cpu’s and gpu’s might not support current gen games, that’s just natuarl technological evolution. The fact remains though, until Oculus came along, I could go out and buy any pc game and play it on a pc.

          • popupblocker

            you still can… to play a game designed for Rift… you’d need an Rift.

            Why do you think this is some massive consipracy? You know you can play a game on the rift from ANY source right? You don’t have to run it though Oculus Home at all. It’s one tick box in the settings.

            It’s really going to ring your bell when MS announce the xbox Rift version.

          • Dirk Disco

            My God you are an idiot.

          • Muddy

            That’s it? That’s the best contribution you could make to this discussion? Happen to have any intelligent thoughts or insights on the subject?

      • ThirdSharo

        The difference is that usually the ‘excusivity’ is just because nobody has made it happen. Oculus exclusives are not only not supported on other HMDs, they are deliberately prevented from working on other HMDs and third-party patches are targeted and sabotaged.

        • popupblocker

          Damn right. The few OR exclusive title have come directly from them or funded in part by them – some are free – so it; sutterly right they can lock them down. You can bet HTC will be doing the same.

          • Muddy

            But without DRM. Pay attention.

      • Dario Cannizzaro

        There’s no hundreds of thousands of Oculus Rifts around. Install base is actually in favour of the HTC Vive.

        I think when Touch controllers will be released, there’s gonna be a fairer comparison, but so far, HTC Vive offers a more complete experience. If you’ll ever try room-scale, you’ll be blown away!

        • Roger Anthony Essig

          all over it, i’ve been using vive DK1 and vive pre for months. i use razer hydra and leap motion playing vive roomscale games, i prefer rift.

          • Dario Cannizzaro

            Razor Hydra and Leap Motion =/= Vive. We can continue to compare apples and oranges but what’s the point? Vive, at the moment, offers a different experience from the Rift. You might like it or not, but that’s what it is, different.

            So when Touch will be released we will be able to compare the two headsets, on a fairer level. I am sure the experience they’ll offer is gonna be a different one, which is good for consumers.

            I was on the edge if to buy a Vive or a Oculus, and after having tried both, I decided for the Vive, because the experience it offered was the one I wanted, and because I already know and trust Steam and Valve.

            DRM for me is the death, but many people don’t care about that, so thankfully the market can cater to everyone!

  • jlschmugge

    I appreciate that you distinguished new and accustomed VR players. As more people get VR and get their VR legs, I think this is important as a seasoned VR player might want a more involved experience.

  • Strawberri

    Looks cool. Purchased! :)

  • yag

    $40 for 4 hours and it gets 9.5 ? o_O

    • benz145

      Not every game needs to be a 10 hour experience to be great and worth playing.

      • yag

        You missed my point.

        • benz145

          If I did it would be helpful if you elaborate : )

          • yag

            Yeah sorry Ben (I even didn’t see it was you)
            Well I meant, some game reviewers take into account the length/price ratio (extremely bad here), but of course you do what you want, you’re the boss ;-)

  • Sam

    9.5 is a ridiculous score. You are suggesting the game is just a fraction off a perfect score? With 40 USD for 4-5 hrs of gameplay? Come on Road to VR we expect better

  • Rico S Mario Melchert

    Love Insomniac so I had hopes for this.
    Time to start up ReVive and throw some money at Insomniac.

  • Peter S

    reviews elsewhere are not as flattering for a game that lasts only 40 minutes. Doesn’t matter i’m not interested in any exclusive VR title anyway.

  • Myrontrue

    Exclusivity is a no no. Such a shame that a game like this is going to be kept exclusive by Faculus Rift. They wont get a penny from me im afraid, and ANYONE who ownes a PC shouldn’t be supporting this. Especially since Oculus is owned by facebook who are now in the PC gaming space which means NOTHING but trouble.

    Vive gets my purchase or any other HMD that doesn’t bother with the exclusive route.

    • popupblocker

      Except that vive IS getting exclusive apps. HTC are investing $100m into them.

      • Muddy

        Without DRM. Pay attention.

    • Dirk Disco

      Moron.

      • Myrontrue

        Please explain.

  • fllysurfer

    Just expressing a personal opinion but I believe the sweet spot for VR is 2020… at least for games. The other content, wider adoption and mass consumption will probably take longer.

    I´m not against early adoption but anyone would agree that this is in it´s infancy.

    So much weeding out problems and improving the experience will happen in these 2 first years and soon after the technology will make a considerable leap. Although tempted I rather wait this one out a while before purchasing any VR kit.

    Most articles focus on a single aspect of VR and rarely do they focus on what needs to be improved, not including specs (software and hardware wise) but I wont go down that rabbit hole.

    This (game) rating system though… needs a revision.

  • Vuvux

    I’m not worried about the exclusivity and not being able to play it. Looks shit.

    • Andy B

      It doesn’t look shit, but at the same time, it’s not taking advantage of the best experiences that VR has to offer.

      After experiencing room scale, 3rd person games in VR are like playing with dolls. So this doesn’t appeal to me either, but I can see why it would appeal to some.

  • RoJoyInc

    People are already playing this on VIVE with revive. I don’t support exclusives either. If you want to sell your product MAKE A BETTER PRODUCT or price It lower than competing superior products. DONT MAKE EXCLUSIVE TITLES as a choke hold to selling a product. I never got into console gaming because of this BS.

  • Chris Esposito

    Exclusivity , might as well get used to it.
    It’s an essential part of business when you are up against steam.
    You’re selling yourself short if you.dont play the exclusives, those are the best VR has to offer right now.
    Then, the Developers actually make money, which in turn motivates them to make more quality titles, the install base is really to small for devs to make what they would off a quality title for flat screen play.
    If you think HTC is different, wait till they get into vive content in house .they won’t be making content for oculus to sell more rift units
    VALVE doesn’t sell hardware, so while it looks like, oh valve is so cool …..they could care less what you use as long as you buy it from them .
    If HTC goes down its no sweat of valves back.
    They Will work with someone else .only reason they were talking to oculus is they thought they could put their name on it too while at the same time single handedly monopolize VR software distribution , it’s all business.
    If you don’t want to play a great game because it’s exclusive, you’re missing out on some of the best vr software available at the moment

  • Badelhas

    This wont be available on the HTC Vive?! Ever?

  • Tim_in_Indiana

    The author talks about the unbelievability of the character talking when he was “literally right behind a monster that uses sound to locate its prey.” What I found unbelievable was the plot device that these plants would have “evolved a mechanism to hunt prey” ( shooting out spikes) in such a hostile, frigid environment where very few animals even exist in the first place. That, to me, didn’t make sense. Overall, though, a good game.