TheyCallMeTJ
Distinguished Member
I have just finished this game after playing it for about 5 consecutive days, about 3 hours a day. Its hard to tell how long I played the game tbh as there is no stats to view...anyway...
This is the most beautiful VR game I have ever played so far. And its also one of the most geek filled experience I have had since Rogue One VR mission as I walk amongst long neck dinosaurs in their natural lush landscape environment. There was one moment where I could literally re-enact Sam Neil's "It...its a dinosaur!".
The visuals are often breathtaking and lush comparable in beauty to Horizon Zero Dawn and indeed the panoramic vistas featured in Spielberg's original Jurassic Park. I am not talking resolution or fidelity here, we all know limitations of VR headsets in that area so pointless comparing that but its nevertheless stunning. At times you can also switch to a god like mode where you view the whole land around you and observe lush wild life, peeking around trees and under branches to follow where that Pterodactyl is flying to. That god perspective immersive view is equally stunning. The creatures and dinosaurs are superbly animated adding realism to the experience.
One thing to make clear about this game is that it is not a shoot em up or action game. Its a sci fi mystery puzzle solving journey game of exploration, investigation and species scanning. But there are a few special moments that scared, excited and thrilled me especially towards the final act that elevates this game as a truly memorable experience. Because those moments are very seldom, they have enormous impact. I love that. But mostly, this game goes at quite a leisurely pace. There is only one speed of movement...and it aint a running speed! Its an adequate walking speed. There are times I would like to go faster but that never frustrated me.
In terms of control system, it was initially a huge disappointment to me that the game only uses a Dualshock controller. It seems it was intended for move controllers originally because you see one VR hand holding what looks suspiciously like a Move controller with a scifi skin so I suspect the Vive and Oculus versions get the best out of this great experience with their superior hand controllers. So interacting with objects and my little pet T-rex is of course less immersive having to control the virtual hands with a dualshock controller. There is also a fair bit of climbing involved and while this is actually still quite thrilling using a dualshock, it would have been even more awesome with motion controllers. Btw climbing gets very thrilling later in the journey.
Locomotion-wise is good because using a dualshock controller means I can move around freely and I guess that's the compromise of not having Move controllers. The game defaulted to pie chart turns which I absolutely hate. But that can be changed to smooth turning. I get that the pie chart staggered turn movement is to eliminate motion sickness but I dont get motion sickness...in fact the staggered turn around movement is what would make me sick. The key thing is you can choose because we all have our individual responses and preferences in VR. My personal preference of moving around is to just use my whole body and head like in the real world but then re-adjust orientation (smooth turning mode) with the navigation stick when I feel I have turned around more than 270 degrees or so (by feeling how far the cable has wrapped around me!)
The gameplay is lovely for me. Its leisurely and incredibly atmospheric with the sounds of brontosaurus's calling, flying pterodactyls wailing and flapping pass above me, and general Jurassic jungle ambience. The soundtrack is also beautifully ambient and at times quite haunting as the narrative journey unravels.
The experience is especially made more entertaining by having a floating companion ball droid as my guidance with a charming C3PO-esque personality (excellently voiced) who tries to encourage me NOT to go on any adventures and just stay safe within the barrier compound. Needless to say the advice is ignored! Topping off the companions is an adopted cute pet baby orphan T-rex that accompanies me on the journey and play some basic activities with such as hide and seek, play fetch etc. But the baby T Rex also plays a part in puzzle solving too which there plenty of in the game's main journey and are all nicely balanced in difficulty. Scanning species (which is optional) is actually a fun task, well for me anyway as in scan mode each species have several scan dots but one has to avoid the red dots while scanning, can be a challenge with some species. I ended up scanning all but one very difficult one.
So, I see a lot of negative reviews on this and I guess its because it was selling for £50 quid I think when it first came out a year ago. But given the embryonic age of VR games, niche market and costly production, what can they do? Now the disc version sells for £24 on Amazon and I think its absolutely worth that price, though probably not the current £45 on PS Store.
I also see some reviews say this is too short. Well at the end of the game, I certainly desired more story and adventure but its actually longer than I expected. It ended satisfyingly enough for me with a thrilling climax and resolution to the mystery. It has a good deal of playing content but it would have been nice to see a little more variety in the larger dinosaurs. The jungle is full of small insects and animals but fewer larger animals/dinosaurs but as I say that makes the moments of meeting the big dinos more special. Its lengthy enough and comparable to Farpoint imo but more beautiful than Farpoint!
One huge gripe I have is that there is no way to revisit previous chapters of the game. Its just one autosave overwriting the previous autosave and no chapter points. However, I can travel (walk speed) to any location visited to see my favourite dinos/scenery. But sometimes its a bit of a trek depending on where the last autosave location was.
So if I was to spend the most money on a VR game, it would have been Robinson The Journey in hindsight as it so far feels the most polished and longest VR exclusive production. Its charming, atmospheric, beautiful and has memorable moments of awe and excitement. And I would absolutely keep going back to it and revisit some of those favourite locations, scan that elusive dinosaur, and try get all the trophies of which I only seem to manage 56%.
I give this an 8.5/10 in the context of VR games and not based on pricing.
This is the most beautiful VR game I have ever played so far. And its also one of the most geek filled experience I have had since Rogue One VR mission as I walk amongst long neck dinosaurs in their natural lush landscape environment. There was one moment where I could literally re-enact Sam Neil's "It...its a dinosaur!".
The visuals are often breathtaking and lush comparable in beauty to Horizon Zero Dawn and indeed the panoramic vistas featured in Spielberg's original Jurassic Park. I am not talking resolution or fidelity here, we all know limitations of VR headsets in that area so pointless comparing that but its nevertheless stunning. At times you can also switch to a god like mode where you view the whole land around you and observe lush wild life, peeking around trees and under branches to follow where that Pterodactyl is flying to. That god perspective immersive view is equally stunning. The creatures and dinosaurs are superbly animated adding realism to the experience.
One thing to make clear about this game is that it is not a shoot em up or action game. Its a sci fi mystery puzzle solving journey game of exploration, investigation and species scanning. But there are a few special moments that scared, excited and thrilled me especially towards the final act that elevates this game as a truly memorable experience. Because those moments are very seldom, they have enormous impact. I love that. But mostly, this game goes at quite a leisurely pace. There is only one speed of movement...and it aint a running speed! Its an adequate walking speed. There are times I would like to go faster but that never frustrated me.
In terms of control system, it was initially a huge disappointment to me that the game only uses a Dualshock controller. It seems it was intended for move controllers originally because you see one VR hand holding what looks suspiciously like a Move controller with a scifi skin so I suspect the Vive and Oculus versions get the best out of this great experience with their superior hand controllers. So interacting with objects and my little pet T-rex is of course less immersive having to control the virtual hands with a dualshock controller. There is also a fair bit of climbing involved and while this is actually still quite thrilling using a dualshock, it would have been even more awesome with motion controllers. Btw climbing gets very thrilling later in the journey.
Locomotion-wise is good because using a dualshock controller means I can move around freely and I guess that's the compromise of not having Move controllers. The game defaulted to pie chart turns which I absolutely hate. But that can be changed to smooth turning. I get that the pie chart staggered turn movement is to eliminate motion sickness but I dont get motion sickness...in fact the staggered turn around movement is what would make me sick. The key thing is you can choose because we all have our individual responses and preferences in VR. My personal preference of moving around is to just use my whole body and head like in the real world but then re-adjust orientation (smooth turning mode) with the navigation stick when I feel I have turned around more than 270 degrees or so (by feeling how far the cable has wrapped around me!)
The gameplay is lovely for me. Its leisurely and incredibly atmospheric with the sounds of brontosaurus's calling, flying pterodactyls wailing and flapping pass above me, and general Jurassic jungle ambience. The soundtrack is also beautifully ambient and at times quite haunting as the narrative journey unravels.
The experience is especially made more entertaining by having a floating companion ball droid as my guidance with a charming C3PO-esque personality (excellently voiced) who tries to encourage me NOT to go on any adventures and just stay safe within the barrier compound. Needless to say the advice is ignored! Topping off the companions is an adopted cute pet baby orphan T-rex that accompanies me on the journey and play some basic activities with such as hide and seek, play fetch etc. But the baby T Rex also plays a part in puzzle solving too which there plenty of in the game's main journey and are all nicely balanced in difficulty. Scanning species (which is optional) is actually a fun task, well for me anyway as in scan mode each species have several scan dots but one has to avoid the red dots while scanning, can be a challenge with some species. I ended up scanning all but one very difficult one.
So, I see a lot of negative reviews on this and I guess its because it was selling for £50 quid I think when it first came out a year ago. But given the embryonic age of VR games, niche market and costly production, what can they do? Now the disc version sells for £24 on Amazon and I think its absolutely worth that price, though probably not the current £45 on PS Store.
I also see some reviews say this is too short. Well at the end of the game, I certainly desired more story and adventure but its actually longer than I expected. It ended satisfyingly enough for me with a thrilling climax and resolution to the mystery. It has a good deal of playing content but it would have been nice to see a little more variety in the larger dinosaurs. The jungle is full of small insects and animals but fewer larger animals/dinosaurs but as I say that makes the moments of meeting the big dinos more special. Its lengthy enough and comparable to Farpoint imo but more beautiful than Farpoint!
One huge gripe I have is that there is no way to revisit previous chapters of the game. Its just one autosave overwriting the previous autosave and no chapter points. However, I can travel (walk speed) to any location visited to see my favourite dinos/scenery. But sometimes its a bit of a trek depending on where the last autosave location was.
So if I was to spend the most money on a VR game, it would have been Robinson The Journey in hindsight as it so far feels the most polished and longest VR exclusive production. Its charming, atmospheric, beautiful and has memorable moments of awe and excitement. And I would absolutely keep going back to it and revisit some of those favourite locations, scan that elusive dinosaur, and try get all the trophies of which I only seem to manage 56%.
I give this an 8.5/10 in the context of VR games and not based on pricing.
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