VR Gaming

50 Days Of PS VR #25: 'Job Simulator' Brings Laugh-A-Minute Gameplay To VR

, & Jamie Feltham

18 September 2016

50 Days Of PS VR #25: 'Job Simulator' Brings Laugh-A-Minute Gameplay To VR

Halfway there! We’re counting down to the release of Sony’s VR headset on October 13th by highlighting one game a day for its anticipated release. Today we’re stepping into the future to travel back into the past and take on different jobs in Owlchemy Labs’ Job Simulator.

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Virtual reality is a sheer joy even in the most mundane of worlds. In these early days, walking into something as simple as an office space invites giddy experimentation; grabbing stationary and throwing it across the room, folding paper into airplanes, and spilling coffee without concern. You’ve stepped into a world devoid of any real repercussions, a world that previously only existed in your daydreams. Job Simulator revels in this concept, making for one of VR’s funniest and surprisingly immersive titles.

Owlchemy Labs biggest VR game yet first proved itself when it launched on the HTC Vive earlier this year. We gave it an 8/10, labeling it one of the best games for people to experience VR for the first time with. In fact, HTC itself was so confident in that idea that the company included it as one of the first to be bundled with its device.

So don’t be put off by the title; Job Simulator isn’t not a mundane title that’ll prep you for your first day of work. In fact, it’s actually set in the not too distant (but oh so fictional) future in which robots have taken over many conventional careers. Humanity isn’t left with much to do, so these machines build a VR simulation of the way things used to be. Or at least the way they thought things used to be.

You use two PlayStation Move controllers to step into these roles and cause havoc. The game lets you try your hand at four different jobs: Auto Mechanic, Gourmet Chef, Store Clerk, and Office Worker. Each one boasts its own sandbox playground for you to mess around in but also has its own tasks to complete. The Chef, for example, will be given different orders to fulfill, which will let you add your own touch. You might include some extra (and likely unwelcome) ingredients in a recipe, for example, for make up your own dish complete with planets and mugs. Tasty.

Job Simulator never takes itself too seriously and it’s all the better for it. It’s a great title to show people just how liberating VR can be. All the times you’ve wanted to turn your own office upside down? In VR you can just do that without any of the clearing up.

But wait, isn’t this a full Room Scale experience on HTC Vive? How could that possibility translate to the more limited PS VR? Worry not; Owlchemy already thought of that when it designed the game for players that didn’t have the space for Vive’s full tracking capabilities. Environments are scaled down to do away with locomotion, and essentially compartments can be switched out to fit everything into arm’s reach.

We’re hoping Job Simulator serves as a shining example of what can be done with PS VR’s tracking tech. There are still doubts over just what PlayStation Move can do even this close to launch, so here’s a game that can really show us.

Job Simulator will launch alongside PS VR on October 13th.