My top 10 VR experiences of 2018
As 2018 drew to an end I spent a bit of time reflecting on just how much truly amazing VR content there had been to enjoy. From genre-defining games and virtual clubbing, to multi-sensory LBE experiences and immersive art exhibitions — we’ve been spoilt for choice. It was nearly impossible to narrow this list down to just 10 experiences.
There’s no big surprises here. I’ve listed out the titles that came immediately to mind, which served as good reminder of what an amazing medium VR is and how far we’ve come in the last few years. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2019!!
TheWaveVR x Ready Player One — The Distracted Globe
Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ was the defining moment for VR in 2018, and a great opportunity to break it into the mainstream. One of the iconic scenes from the film and book takes place in The Distracted Globe, the zero gravity futuristic night club where Parzival and Art3mis dance together. So it was amazing to see this moment actually play out for real inside TheWaveVR, the best music platform that exists for VR today. I was still working for TheWaveVR as the project came together and the biggest highlight of my year (even outside VR) was finding myself in The Distracted Globe with TheWaveVR team and Steven Spielberg, in order to get his thumbs up on the re-creation of the club. On the night itself, the lead actor of the film DJ’ed at the HTC Vive SXSW party in Austin and I partied along in VR at home, from the other side of the world.
Expect more big things for TheWaveVR this year. Their community has grown steadily with their resident DJs and alongside a new desktop app there are several more surprises to come, including some very big artists!
Download TheWaveVR for free here
Beat Saber
This one won’t come as a surprise to anyone. Beat Saber will have topped many people’s ‘best of’ lists, both for VR and gaming in general. The game takes inspiration from titles like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution, but did so in a way that only the medium of VR can afford. Whilst titles such as Audioshield and BoxVR had already established the ‘rhythm game’ genre in VR, the sound and game design in Beat Saber was next-level, with many of the games initial tracks being produced by one of the game’s creators, Jaroslav Beck. To cap it off, a slew of community-generated reality video streams (helped by tools such as LIV) turned it into one of the first ‘viral’ VR hits, drawing in a mainstream audience on Twitch and YouTube and likely selling many VR headsets in the process.
It’s a beautiful reminder that there is still so much opportunity left to tap into for devs. Unlike other saturated platforms, VR is at a stage where a small, Prague-based indie dev team can come out of the blue, make a killer title that works perfectly for the medium, and go on to enjoy huge success. Beat Saber’s success will likely continue well into 2019 as it ports to new platforms and devices. I hope it will continue to inspire other devs too!
Moss — Polyarc Games
Moss has to go down as one of the most beautiful games of the year. It also opened my eyes to how good the platform genre could be in VR. You control Quill, a cute little mouse, in a gorgeously immersive puzzle adventure. But you guide her through the game as ‘The Reader’, creating an interesting blend of both first-person and third-person perspectives. It’s counter-intuitive to think that third-person play should work well in VR, but the Polyarc devs really pulled it off.
Other things to love about this title are the polished sound design and deep attention to detail with the graphics and surrounding environments. These serve to really draw you into Quill’s world, completely immersing you in the gameplay. One ‘wow’ moment was holding Quill and realising that I could feel her heartbeat. Another was realising how nice it was to play such a great VR game whilst sitting down on the couch (the antithesis of Beat Saber!). As VR marches towards mainstream adoption, we’ll need more titles like this! I can’t wait for Book 2 of the Moss series.
We Live In An Ocean Of Air — Marshmallow Laser Feast
Created by UK-based studio Marshmallow Laser Feast, “We Live In An Ocean Of Air” is a breathtaking multi-sensory VR installation, currently being hosted at the Saatchi Gallery in London. MLF were the studio behind other experiences such as ‘Tree Hugger’ and ‘In The Eyes Of The Animal’ and this builds upon a similar aesthetic and environmental theme.
Making full use of the latest tech available, “We Live In An Ocean Of Air” is the sort of VR that can only really be experienced out-of-home. The setup uses a backpack PC, Vive trackers, Leap Motion, heart rate monitors and breath sensors. It might sound complicated, but once you’re strapped in, all the technology drifts away and you’re placed delicately into a magical world.
Building LBE content around the invisible exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in nature might not be as catchy as The Void building a Star Wars experience, but I would definitely urge you to go and try it out before it leaves the gallery on 20th January ‘19. And I’m looking to checking out the next Marshmallow Laser Feast experience in 2010, which is rumoured to already be cooking in the VR kitchen.
Mario Kart VR — Bandai Namco
With a helping hand from HTC Vive, Bandai Namco brought Mario Kart VR to London in the summer of 2018, humbly tucked away in the corner of a Hollywood Bowl in the O2. If you haven’t tried it already then you simply must book now! It was hands down the most fun I think I’ve had all year.
It’s a 4-player multi-player experience that lasts around 5 minutes. You have a full steering wheel and pedals, with the Vive trackers attached to your wrists. These allow you to reach for bananas or shells and literally hurl them at your mates as you drive past, cackling into your mic as you go. I spent a large part of my teenage years playing Mario Kart and continue to play on the Switch with my kids today. It’s definitely in my top 5 games of all time, so to play it in VR was simply amazing. I was nervous that it would disappoint, but it didn’t!
Claude Monet — The Water Lily Obsession
The arts has been a strong VR content category in 2018. It’s also an important one, taking VR headsets beyond gamers and into a more diverse audience. It’s been to great to see initiatives like Vive Arts continue to grow, as well as more grassroots and community-led initiatives such as The MOR (see below).
Another organization making in-roads in this space is ARTE. A few months ago I got the opportunity to try a number of ARTE-backed re-imaginings of classic paintings including: The Scream, The Isle of The Dead, Die Kinderspiele and Water Lillies. Each experience was slightly different; some more playful and others more contemplative. But what they all had in common was that they extended an already classic piece of art and made me want to engage more with the original work. If this sort of content had been around when I was supposed to be studying art in a school classroom, then I might have paid a bit more attention!
Astro Bot — Rescue Mission
ASTRO BOT— Rescue Mission was undoubtedly one of the games of the year. It’s fun, it’s immersive and as with Moss (see above), the devs really took their time to figure out game mechanics that could only be pulled off in VR. I found myself audibly gasping with delight at several points throughout the game.
Again, you’re playing in a blend of first and third person perspectives, which is handled both effectively and playfully, with each level unveiling new surprises, challenges and bosses. Whilst this is also a seated title, the way the game is designed forces you to get your body engaged in the game, mostly through peering around corners and looking behind you to discover bonus items and hidden areas.
In my opinion this is the closest thing that VR has had to a title like the classic Mario World 64, that went on to redefine an entire genre. In fact, if a future title like this could be combined with a well recognized IP like Mario, then this would undoubtedly sell a lot of headsets.
Isle Of Lost Skulls — Rec Room
Now into its third year, Rec Room is not a shiny new title, but the team at Against Gravity has simply continued to deliver in 2018. I could have picked a number of different highlights from this steadily growing social games platform. During the summer they were one of the first to bring the popularity of the battle royale genre into VR, launching ‘Rec Royale’. And they’ve continually delivered more and more features that allow their community to build UGC content.
I’ve picked the Isle Of Skulls quest as my highlight because it was actually the most fun I had at home in VR, playing with my kid too. It also reinforced to me the power of social VR. I still haven’t finished this quest, but the closest I got was when playing along with 3 other complete strangers, none of whom spoke the same language. However, thanks to plenty of stilted English and attempts at VR body language we managed to collaborate and fend off quite a few zombie pirates!
Given that the Rec Room platform is still completely free, I’m always surprised that it doesn’t appear in more top-lists. I’m looking forward to seeing how Rec Room develops in 2019. They’ve been experimenting with a new desktop mode, that could help to open up their audience in a similar way to VR Chat. And I’d love to see these guys achieve the same sort of success that Roblox did outside of VR and build a truly successful platform.
Download Rec Room for free here
Museum Of Other Realities
One of the most inspiring things for me about VR has been seeing it open up as a totally new medium for both creating and showing art. There is a lot of scope for recreating and exploring existing work (eg. see the Claude Monet example above), but my excitement increases when it’s art being made and exhibited natively in VR.
Perhaps the most shining example of this in 2018, was the Museum of Other Realities. The MOR brings together a new generation of creators and artists into a community that can then share their work and connect with others. Artists like Danny Bittman, Isaac Cohen, Sutu and Anna Zhilyaeva all have work displayed and I got the chance to jump in, with an invitation to one of their monthly exhibitions (I’m in the video above about 25 secs in, hiding behind a bin with Wally in Matt Schaefer’s ‘Alex’s Sci-Fi’, a piece created entirely in Quill).
The museum still seems somewhat below-the-radar, but to me this is the sort of thing that VR was made for and I‘d love to see more from these guys in 2019.
Population One — BigboxVR
2018 was certainly a big year for Fortnite and the whole battle royale genre. VR provided a few offerings that tapped into this craze (eg. the above-mentioned Rec Royale), but Population One could well be the first one to truly ride the wave.
Flying, building and climbing are all mechanics that work well natively in VR and the spectator mode feels fun too. I can see this becoming a firm favourite for many existing VR gamers, as well as pulling a new audience into the medium too (both playing and watching mixed reality video streams of the action).
I’m cheating a little by including it in this list as it won’t actually be out until 2019. But the title has already been teased, play testing has begun, and BigBoxVR raised a strong $5m seed round from investors just a few months ago. Keep your eyes peeled for more.
Watch the trailer and join the private beta list here
Other honourable mentions
As I mentioned at the top of the post, it was extremely difficult to pick just 10 titles from the wealth of amazing VR content that came to us in 2018. Here’s another 5 that didn’t quite make it to the top 10, but couldn’t go without a mention in this blog post.
Catan VR (Asmodee)
Make Noise (BBC)
Grenfell: Our Home (Parable)
TheWaveVR x Imogen Heap
1943 Berlin Blitz (BBC)
If you have any favourite experiences that I’ve left out here then please leave a reply or hit me up on Twitter at haynes_dave.
