Recent reviews by FictionX

This was great!.

I've never been to an escape room in real life, but I've always wanted to go. Egression gave me the feeling of being in one.

I like how they don't try to sell you the idea of you being in a real submarine/submerged laboratory (for instance), but just the idea of you being in an escape room. It's just the right amount of corny, but entirely believable for what it is.
The fact that everything feels very "solid" and real, and that the environment never gave me any problems when grabbing stuff or moving around added to the immersion, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in there.
The puzzles were varied and well thought out, and plenty challenging for me as a newbie, but I never got definitively stuck. They were "just the right amount" of difficult.

There are only two real rooms now + the trial area from the demo, which is great on it's own (and I understand there's a secret room that I haven't found yet?), but I think I got around 4 hours worth in there in total. Because of the high quality of the experience, I think it's very much worth the money, and I'll definitely buy any DLC that might be released.

It would be nice if it was possible to save ones progress. Even if a puzzle only takes two hours at most, it's a bit unfortunate to have to start over again if you're called away.

Really great game!

So amazingly good.

I played HL2 in VR on the old Oculus Development Kits, and even Today it still feels like one of the best VR experiences I've had. I was looking forward to trying it once again with this mod, but was prepared to be a bit disappointed. It is after all around 8 years since I last tried it in VR, and I've tried so many incredible games since.

.. but it still holds up! The feeling of presence in this game is so strong. The graphics may be a bit dated, but I don't see it. It's how it's always looked. It's how it supposed to look! You can get mods that makes it cartoon-ish and I think there was one (for the normal version) that changes the appearance of Alyx and the others - but that's just doesn't work for me. That would be like going to the Colosseum and complaint that it looks old, and that someone should paint it bright pink! No!!

I liked HL:Alyx. The first view of the city is breathtaking, and the interactions with the surroundings are amazing. However, to me it fairly quickly starts feeling like a very dragged-out tech demo.
As a game, HL2 is just better. It's so much more varied... The crowbar, the buggy, the boats, the story, Ravenholm!!

I loved "meeting" Alyx and the others again. It's great to be back!

Thank you so much devs for giving us the opportunity to play this piece of gaming history (again) in VR!

Very nice!

The experience is very much like Aircar, I spent half an hour in there just flying around and enjoying the view.
Cyber Car in some regards look better than Aircar - but maybe (for now) it lacks that special sauce that made Aircar magical. The city is more vibrant, but smaller - as are the buildings. I'm not sure if that's it.

The "car" looks really good, and helped with the immersion. I used the keyboard to steer, as my xbox controller wasn't configured by default. I'll probably try it with HOTAS later.

So yeah... it is what it says on the box. Beautiful, relaxing and immersive! I look forward to seeing it evolve!

What a fantastic game. I just finished it, and having played VR games since 2013 (Oculus DK1), I can't remember the last time I felt so much presence in a game, or when I last got this absorbed in the story.

Yes - the controls are a bit clunky, but once you get used to them, you forget all about it. It's all about the story, the locations and the puzzles. The puzzles are (almost) all very varied - but they feel so clever and thought through, and you get a real sense of achievement when solving them.

I'm not even sure what to say about it without spoiling anything. It's one of those games that I think works best if you just jump in without knowing too much about what to expect - but I can't recommend it enough.

.. and I can't wait for the sequel!

Technically it's pretty good. The (motion captured) movement is great, the visuals are surprisingly sharp for a 3D movie, and the choreography in the fight scenes are cool.
I didn't like the fact that they change scale/perspective, and that you had to turn to watch some of the action. For each new clip you spend a moment figuring out where you're supposed to look, and adjusting to the scale. It probably worked well in the original 2D version, but not in the VR format.

As for the story itself, it is amateurish at best. It attempts to get us emotionally involved with a robot family (with a robot kid) in about 5 minutes - and as it for some reason is the case with most of these kind of VR short stories, we're supposed to feel sad by the end of it.
We don't, though. There's simply not enough time. It's also obvious that the robots are there in place of "real" (virtual) people because they're easier to render. It doesn't really make sense that they're robots. One of them even cough at one point.

So it's sort of interesting technically - but that's it. It's a few years old now, so it's not as impressive as it probably was when it was first released, but it's still a pretty good showcase for their "PresenZ" tech.

Such a nice, pretty and relaxing little game. Miniatures work so incredibly well in VR.
I'll be sure to buy your next game!

I gotta say that I'm happy that I tried this demo with my Vive and Vive wands before getting the Index+controllers, instead of making it my first Index experience.
(Edit - I've since tried it with the Index controllers as well - but as expected that didn't change my view of the demo, since the controllers aren't what I'm reviewing.. the demo is).

This is kind of supposed to be "first contact" in VR - with actual hands and fingers. It could have been a meaningful interaction.. looking someone in the eye, reaching out and grabbing their hand and shaking it. There have been several games/demos where you get that "connection" to a person (or even a robot) in VR. This could have been profound.

Instead, they chose to use a number of disjointed assets and a robot (robots) without a body. I got absolutely nothing from shaking its hand. What a wasted opportunity.

It's Portal - and the demo works as intended (demonstrating the controllers abilities) - but without any of its charm. This could have been so much better.

The graphics style and music is OK - but it can't hide the fact that this is an incredibly basic game. In fact, it's so basic that I would think than anyone spending a few hours looking through Unity tutorials would be able to replicate the mechanics.
You just press forward toward the building you want to land on, and press A to jump, hoping you've picked the correct route, and that you haven't misjudged the distance.

The style looks a bit like Mirrors Edge, and of course it's about jumping from building to building - but there's no wallrunning in Jump, and there are no bad guys chasing you, or any of the other elements that made ME interesting.

You're urged to try to complete each of the levels as fast as possible and with as few jumps as possible - but it feels a bit like an attempt to add an artificial sense of purpose to the game. You might also try standing on one leg while playing to add to the challenge, but why would you?

In each of the five (at time of writing) levels, the last jumps are made on square platforms hovering in the sky instead of on buildings. I guess there were no way to get to the highest buildings in each city with the chosen physics otherwise - but that also feels like a bit of a letdown. The game is bland, but at least you were supposed to jump from building to building, which should be cool. When you end up jumping on squares, it once again feels like a Unity tutorial level.

It was judder-free for me in extended mode, and the music and artstyle (however simple), is pretty good. If you're into time-trials you may like it - but as mentioned, the game is so basic that there isn't much skill involved, so once you've found the fasted route, it's just about clicking the buttons.

Too pricey for such a simple game.