#super hypercube

Virginia

Virginia sold me by way of name-drop; it’s taken a lot of inspiration from things that I care about, and has no qualms with making that known. There’s a letter from the team to read from the main menu that says that they had aimed to create a strange thing, and I will give them that much. The elephant in the room is that despite its story being a complex one, it is entirely without dialogue, and with only very little written throughout. Now, I will gladly go to bat for the idea that less can do more, but stripping a script out entirely does bring its own share of complications. Despite its relentless pace, I tried in vain to focus full attention on picking up all of the subtext in the way people looked and behaved, at least giving me some way to speculate on the mysteries that were being woven around it. This was quite tough, but became less frantic an effort as I began to realise how liberally it jumped about its timeline, flittering between fact and fiction, and generally offering an unreliable narrative. See, I’m not sure I’ve ever played another game that is quite so cinematic in nature; immediately most obvious in its framing of each scene, but most notably in the way your input is just a diversionary glimpse within each moment rather than a means to fully explore it - sometimes even as part of a montage, and going so far as to skip things along when you’re not progressing at the pace it wants to move at. It’s very hands-off, and closer to a movie in length too, but just like my favourite kind of movie, it’s stayed in my thoughts much longer afterwards. There’s questions about what it says and what it means that I can’t simply answer - that might not even have answers - but to me at least, that’s part of why I was so intrigued in the first place, and one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much.

Nium

15 minutes long at most, Nium is a brief little roam about a simple world, fighting a few different enemy types with a stick. Some you can just bash, others are flying and require you to throw your stick to knock them down, and others need you to bait them into diving at you so that then you can throw your stick and follow up with a pummelling. It’s simple but fun, and despite being pretty lo-fi it’s a really neat proof of concept - it’s got a strong atmosphere about it, and I really like how everything moves as you spin the camera about. I’d certainly like to see a longer title fleshed out from the framework.

Rez ∞

The more I talk with people about it, the more I realise I am in good company when I say that I didn’t get Rez first time around. I played through the first four areas and walked away with a smile, just... not the wide open mouth and stunned expression that followed the discovery of stage 5. Since then, there was Rez HD, which gave me the whole experience over again with a newfound appreciation for it, and now we have this. Had I have played this version first time around, I’m not sure I would’ve needed that extra kick in the right direction to get it. It’s a massive cliché for a creator to say “this is the way I always envisioned it” when releasing an upgrade, but here I can let it slide - it feels honest and very true to what’s always bubbled under the surface. As a shooter alone it’s always been solid but hardly exemplary, but playing on the concept of synesthesia, of visuals and sounds all blurring into one experience, it’s always shone much brighter. Being able fully immerse yourself into it is such an obvious evolution of this; tracking head movements to aim is so intuitive and natural that the game is much easier to play and enjoy, and the wireframe world you traverse is stunningly immersive despite being so purposefully unreal. Area 5 in particular still blows me away each time, and the new Area X takes a lot of the concepts that one step further, allowing you to break free of your rails and move around in a quite overwhelming fashion, also bringing a lot of the life that pseudo-sequel Child of Eden introduced into the picture. At its most basic, It’s the best version of a great game, and on top of that for my money, it’s the VR killer app right now. Really, I can’t think of many things that would have even featured on my hypothetical ‘VR update wishlist’ as highly as this - and it’s going to take something special for people to stop listing it as the prime reason to take this new hardware seriously. 

Thumper

An excellent accompaniment to the above, as despite their similarities, Thumper almost feels like the anti-Rez. They’ve both got a strong rhythmic element to them, yet whereas Rez is welcoming, open, and charmingly psychedelic, Thumper is a surreal and oppressive toboggan ride through a panicked hell-scape. I am sure that someone much cooler than I am has drawn a particularly insightful drug-based parallel for this. Mechanically it’s not too complex, but you will find ways of improving your score to then revisit old stages. Really though, the fun is found in the asks of the player at later stages, which require such dexterous reactions that just making it through is enough of a challenge. I think calling it a rhythm game rather than a music game is an important distinction too: yeah, I enjoyed the music in it, but it is pretty limited in its function to shape the mood and give you something to pulse along to with your clanks and stomps, rather than something you might expect to listen to actively. I found it consistently thrilling, though in the few times I’ve played it without VR, it’s not had quite the same impact, nor have I been able to replicate the same levels of success. Whether this is due to adjustments on the game’s behalf I couldn’t say, but it does seem to suggest that once you are able to comfortably process this type of sensory pummelling, immersion like this really does help games like this push on to a higher level. 

Super Hypercube

It’s pretty universally accepted that the best puzzle games are easy to learn but difficult to master, and this is as simple an idea as is possible; spin a shape to fit into a hole. It’s not an original idea, and naturally it’s more difficult in practice - you need to work at speed, the hole’s often obstructed by the shape itself, and while it might start as a cube, it grows in size quickly and soon becomes massive and unwieldy - and yet interacting with it is so natural in VR that it is incredibly easy for anyone to pick up. Depth is palpable and convincing in a way that traditional 3D graphics would struggle to portray, and leaning around the room to peer above and around the sides of your shape is magnificently intuitive. The neon throbs and ambient hum of effects that theme the game do so excellently, and in all, I do have to tip my hat to Polytron for having such a perfect example of what VR can add to an old idea available at launch like this. Though it is enjoyable, it is quite limited though, depending on your own skills, the luck you have as your shape grows, and your patience to try again when it inevitably comes falling down. I normally don’t like to bring value into the conversation about the quality of games, but I feel it’d be disingenuous to not bring up that I did feel a little disappointed on realising that the basic mode is the entire game, and that the £25 price tag did feel a little steep due to this. I’ve no regrets, but it might stymie others.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse