What’s Future Fruit?

It’s clear. The future of education and entertainment is VR and AR. I believe it and, if you’re here reading this, then it’s likely you believe it too. While the VR industry is now a couple years old, the access to quality VR experiences through the Oculus Quest are what is going to take VR to the next level.

Oculus Quest

In the Future Fruit Blog, I want to cover all things Oculus Quest. This headset was my first introduction to the world of Virtual Reality and will likely be the introduction for many people all around the world. Due to it’s cheap value, its extensive library, and seemingly endless feature set; the Oculus Quest is, by far, the best starter VR headset for anyone looking to try it out. This headset allows you to forego the $1000 computer and the intimidating wired setup and put you straight into another reality with a click of a button.

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The Problem

The Virtual Phenomenon

When thinking about whether or not you should get a game, it may seem obvious to look at the reviews on the Oculus Store. What you may find, however, is that all games seem to be rated no less than 3 stars and somewhat vague descriptors about why they rated it as such.

It’s hard to find honest reviews of the ever-growing library of games and experiences available on the Oculus Quest Store. I believe that there is a phenomenon that influences the way that people rate the games that they play.

The Virtual Phenomenon

Because many players of the Quest games are typically new to the VR experience, they often rate the game they’ve just played as higher – not necessarily because the game was good but because it is exciting and new.

 

To put it another way, a car is not good because you can drive. That’s a given. A car is good for characteristics like how well it drives and how long it lasts. The same standard can be applied to VR games. A VR game is not good because it is in VR but for how fun it is and how long you can play it for.

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The Ever-Growing Library

Because reviews on the Oculus Store are – to put it plainly – not helpful, the next best thing is to look to other means to find in-depth reviews about a game you’re interested in. For this, one might look to popular Oculus Youtubers or other game reviews! What you’ll find, however, is that the almighty algorithm does not favor smaller games. You might readily find honest thoughts and gameplay of games like Beat Saber, Saints and Sinners, and Super Hot, but you wouldn’t be able to say the same about hidden gems like Blaston, Thrill of The Fight, or 2MD Football.

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The Solution

Because of the phenomenon and huge game library, it’s been really hard to tell whether a game is good or not without just buying the game and trying it for yourself. For this reason, I want to provide my take on these games from an objective perspective so that YOU can decide if you should buy it! I’ll do this using a scoring system of 3 different aspects of a VR Game: Immersion, Playability, and Value. Each of these aspects will be given a score out of 10. Finally, I’ll give it an Overall Score that gives my thoughts about whether or not you should get the game. The Overall Score is NOT just an average of the scores of the aspects.

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Immersion

Immersion is how well the game utilizes all aspects of VR. There are two qualities of immersion that are important to me: Atmosphere and Mechanics.

Atmosphere: The visuals and sounds that make up the game
Mechanics: How intuitive the controls are

List of Immersion Scores and their meanings.

1 : Should not be VR
2 – 4: Not immersive
5 – 7: It’s okay
8 – 9:  It works well
10 :  Immersed

Here are a couple games to illustrate this idea.

• Population: One – 10 in immersion because it nails the atmosphere and the all of the mechanics – flight, climbing, shooting – are intuitive.
• Elven Assassin – 6 in immersion because the player models are lack luster and the mechanics, specifically for spell casting, are not very intuitive.

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Playability

Playability is how long you can play a game for. While some games are really fun in the beginning, you may find that it is either a short game or just gets old over time. Some games, on the other hand, are not only really fun and can play for a long time but also gets continuous updates from the developers that keep bringing you back for more.

List of Playability Scores and their meanings.

1 : It’s boring
2 – 4: You can’t play it for long
5 – 7: If you like this sort of thing
8 – 9: You’ll keep coming back
10 :  Classic

Here are a couple games to illustrate this idea.

• Rec Room – 10 in playability because it has a huge community with a bunch of unique, community made, game modes that you can play with your friends for as long as you have it.
• Kingspray Graffiti – 6 in playability because, unless you’re interested in graffiti, you cannot play it for long.

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Value

Value is how the game is compared to the price you pay for it. There are many games that are cheap but is very fun and playable. On the other hand, there are many games that are expensive but it’s not very playable.

List of Value Scores and their meanings.

1 : Waste of money
2 – 4: It’s too expensive
5 – 7: Wait for a Sale
8 – 9:  Worth it
10 :  I would pay more

Here are a couple games to illustrate this idea.

• Blaston – 10 in value because it is very cheap, and very playable.
• Robo Recall – 5 in values because it is quite expensive but is no longer playable after you complete the campaign.

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Overall

The final, overall score is my definitive conclusion of whether or not you should buy the game

List of Overall Scores and their meanings.

1 : Do not get it
2 – 4: You shouldn’t get it
5 – 7: Look into it more
8 – 9: You should get it
10 :  must have

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Biases

There are a couple biases that I want to acknowledge when it comes to my reviews of these games.

1. Oculus Quest – I am only working in the realm of the Oculus Quest, specifically the Quest 2. Some readers of this blog will have had experience in PCVR applications and, as a result, may find that a game like Arizona Sunshine is much better on PC then it is on a Quest. I will only be considering the game as it is presented on the Quest and Quest 2.
2. I like my games cheap and simple. – I seem to be a big fan of arcade like games. Games like Blaston, Superhot, Gorn, 2MD Football are some of my favorites and I think it is because they are simple and can be played and revisited again and again.
3. Multiplayer – While I do enjoy some alone play time, I really think that multiplayer in games add a lot of value. This might be a good bias to keep in mind if you tend to play solo.

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Conclusion

I am very excited to be doing this. I love writing and I love VR even more. I hope that you find the content on this page useful and I thank you all for reading!