Just moments ago, I had the distinct pleasure to complete Alice Mystery Garden (AMG), and with few exceptions, had an exceptional VR experience. While the future may be filled with compliments such as “makes outstanding use of the VR medium” to describe games making the transition from “good VR game” to simply “good game that happens to be VR”, AMG will likely be a game that can proudly wear this badge for quite a long time yet.
Alice Mystery Garden touts itself as a puzzle game, and it is….sort of. I’d be more tempted to label it “games using simple puzzles to explore just how comfortable and fun VR can be.” As might be expected, AMG starts really sweet and cute, then goes progressively darker and darker. From flowers in gardens to skeletons in cemeteries in fewer steps than one might expect. Still, no deaths, and falls are slow and graceful.
What makes AG really special in this reviewer’s opinion is two strong features. One, each individual game field/scenario, be it a garden, castle or candy forest, can be manipulated perhaps more conveniently than I’ve seen previously in VR. Yes, a simple joystick movement will rotate, raise or lower the game. But if a player needs faster or grander movement, simply GRAB the game with both hands and place it exactly where and how you want it to go! And considering how large some of the game fields are, this is a very handy feature.
And best of all isn’t simply that the game is made up of seventeen beautifully crafted and colorful scenes/levels, but that with the touch of a button, the player is no longer observing from any and all top-down directions; the player suddenly IS Alice, within the game and seeing every flower and bone in glorious detail. And while going into “Alice” mode can be fun, having the choice has another vital function. In top-down mode the player is basically in god-mode, with the ability to move blocks crucial to reaching certain levels, or grab handles to allow sections of the game to be raised or lowered. And going “Alice” may be necessary to make that crucial (but risky) step with the necessary precision, it’s is absolutely essential to be able to navigate dungeons, and other areas of the game field that are below ground level.
The objective of each of AMG’s seventeen levels is to obtain all broken mirror pieces to be able to use the repaired mirror to travel to the next level. Who can play it? Anyone, at any age able to operate VR. I found it to be a fine and entertaining way to perform the very game actions that I only dreamed of when I first started playing text games in the mid ‘80s. AMG would have been the absolute answer to my game prayers. And while I may have played AMG more slowly than some, I would still estimate a game time of four to five hours. I I were asked to recommend a very good first VR game, this might just be that special first game.
LIMITATIONS ASPECTS
Any area large enough to sit is all that’s needed to play AMG. There are no sudden or repetitive movements, and neck, back and shoulder are protected from stress during the game. The only complaint I might express is that the developers might have placed more emphasis on the manner of presenting “tiny Alice”, as the movement in miniature mode tended to make me feel nausea, especially in the levels where being launched is a feature. (But to emphasize, this only occurred in my experience while miniaturized. So unless one is on a ladder, miniaturization can be switched off with a single button.)
Thank you to players for reading, and developers for creating such wonder.
