Simple interactions like applying coolant to the back of an overheated bot entertain thanks to the game’s script (“I think we just accidentally made a memory together.”). Owlchemy hasn’t lost its penchant for charm and humor. But many of the memories I did make will remain just that, memories. I certainly struggle to see how much more ground its experiments can cover with current tech.īy the time I was ready to put the game down (with the story beaten and 63% completion after seven hours), most of the memories I had left to get were these simple scavenger hunts.
One has to ask if Owlchemy, once scratching the surface of current VR, is now at the bottom of the barrel. Many of the game’s most mundane objectives are the ones most often repeated taking pictures of almost every inch of every environment, or revisiting Job Simulator’s cooking experience with little new to say.
It’s fair to say, though, that there’s a somewhat unwelcome amount of repetition too.
VR should be this accessible and Owlchemy’s no-compromise approach is to be championed.
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That’s why, for one of the first times since VR’s launch, I was able to sit back on a couch and laugh away at my partner playing for an hour without needing to explain how to carry out specific actions or convincing her to keep playing. Vacation Simulator is limited to the things that work in VR and it’s not ready to cut corners. Owlchemy isn’t interested in anything too complex or, more damningly, unrealistic. Vacation Simulator’s best bits offer a virtual smorgasbord of everything that’s fun about putting on a headset.Ĭrucially, each of these minigames feels seamless and natural. Bots, meanwhile, are instinctively alerted with a wave of the hand and your favorite moments can be immortalized with a virtual camera. I was a particular fan of a more theatrical task set in a darkened campfire that played on atmosphere. Other objectives play on VR’s creative side, like paintings to dot around the world. You can also scour each area for insects that need slow, precise movement to capture, or targets that demand skill with a slingshot to hit. There’s even a pretty hilarious parody of Beat Saber with an unusual weapon. Meanwhile, sitting out by a lake in the forest I learned to skim virtual rocks and watch them skip off into the distance. On the mountain a conveyor belt climbing wall had me addicted to its combination of fast thinking and frantic exertion. On the beach, you can get in some volleyball practice with finely-tuned physics that do away with VR’s usual awkwardness.
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Vacation Simulator is packed full of activities that consider both you and the world around you to joyus effect. You have to make the most out of your time in the sun and snow by building memories, usually gained from completing minigames and requests from bots.įor the most part, it’s a virtual dream resort. Only, as with Job Simulator before it, this is an approximation of R&R for a generation that struggles to remember. It’s another chapter in the developer’s quest to make VR worlds that don’t compromise on authenticity and immersion. But this feels like another step towards a greater realization. I’m not suggesting Vacation Simulator will go down in history the way Mario 64 did. I suspect, though, it’s more to do with Owlchemy Lab’s unmatched grasp on interaction. Tasks are light and intuitive, understood in moments and mastered with enthusiasm. A colorful cast of bots tends to every corner of its world. Glistening beaches, dense forests and chilly mountaintops are just begging to be combed over. Perhaps that’s down to Vacation Island’s sheer optimism. I get that exact same vibe from Vacation Simulator. Was it possible to make it to the top of Peach’s castle? Did the Mushroom Kingdom crumble if you reached some unseen vantage point? Every visit was part playtime, part R&D experiment. You wanted to see how far the game’s laws stretched, and if they’d bend to your own. Mario 64 was a playground of possibilities, a game you returned to time and again to not only relish but to push the boundaries. Remember all that talk of Lucky’s Tale being the Mario 64 of VR? That was very on the nose, wasn’t it? Sure, it was literally a Nintendo-aping platformer but it didn’t carry the same significance that the Italian plumber’s transition into the third dimension did back in 1996.
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