It’s been a pretty slow week for HTC Vive releases. We heard some news about HTC making its first Vive title and some really cool uses of the technology, but overall it’s been relatively quiet. No flood of small games and demos this week – it was more a measured crawl.
If you missed last week’s releases, you can check those here. And you can also join the UploadVR Gaming Steam Community and follow the Curator Group so you’ll always be up-to-date on the latest game reviews and recommendations directly through Steam.
Titans of Space 2.0, from DrashVR –
Release Date: 05/23/16 Price: $7.99 (Currently 15% Off)
We previously covered Titans of Space 2.0 with the exclusive reveal on the game: “Titans of Space 2 by Drash is an awe-inspiring VR space education app…represents a proper consumer release of the original guided tour of the largest celestial bodies known to humans, plus initial support for a host of new features that will evolve as Drash receives feedback from people who try it.”
Recommendation: Download this and enjoy. No question.
Surge, from House of Secrets –
Release Date: 05/24/16 Price: Free
While over on the Oculus Store, especially on Gear VR, users seem to be overwhelmed with more cinematic non-gaming experiences, Vive users typically see more gaming-focused releases currently. This time however, we get Surge, a cinematic and immersive first-person music video experience. It’s vivid, beautiful, and extremely unique. And with that price tag of $0.00, you’ve got nothing to lose but temporary hard drive space.
Recommendation: Download and have fun. It’s free, after all.
IrreVRsible, from Raptor-Lab –
Release Date: 05/26/16 Price: $5.99
At first glance, this looks like “just another” zombie wave game, similar to The Brookhaven Experiment and countless others. That isn’t exactly inaccurate to say, but it also doesn’t tell the whole picture. IrreVRsible has a pretty sweet katana going for it and the ragdoll physics are surprisingly satisfying. However, be warned: this is an Early Access game with very little content right now.
Recommendation: There isn’t much to do yet, but it’s cheap and you can get in early to help shape the game’s development. If you’re looking for something more “complete” though, you’d be better off with either HordeZ (which already has multiplayer) or waiting on The Brookhaven Experiment to release in June.
vrAMP, from Oriku –
Release Date: 05/27/16 Price: $12.99 (Currently 15% Off)
vrAMP is a piece of software that’s being billed as the “definitive music visualizer and player for virtual reality,” which is a genre that really lacks competition at the moment. The best part is that it lets you play music from any program or web browser without having to reorganize things, which is nice, but it still doesn’t add features or functionality.
Recommendation: There isn’t a whole lot here and for a few more dollars you could just buy Audioshield, which is more intense, and provides actual gameplay.
Chamber 19, from Deepak M. and Grant B. –
Release Date: 05/27/16, Price: $14.99 (Currently 15% Off)
This is the Xortex game demo/concept from Valve’s The Lab, expanded into a slightly more robust experience. That’s the only way of describing this, but if you’re still not sure what I’m talking about, I’ll go a little further. Remember all those bullet hell games that used to dominate arcades? Take that concept, but put it into a 3D and 360-degree space, allowing you to physically move around and make your ship dodge the bullets. That’s what Chamber 19 is and it’s a lot of fun.
Recommendation: Like so many VR games, this is Early Access. Is it worth the price point right now? That depends on how much you like these sorts of games and if you intend on coming back to check out successive updates. Try out Xortex in The Lab and if you’re hungry for more, I say buy this for sure.
