Awake: Episode One

Very well made and intersting from a technical point of view. I was able to play on high performance settings. The volumetric video is impressive. The story told in this experience is sad, most of the time you are watching things happening in the very same room, but that room comes in different states. Your hands are tiny clouds that generate light, quite nice. Use your hands to touch stuff to get the story to go forward. Note: This is episode one, but I don't think there are more episodes. Note: Recommended on sale (or if you are interested in the technologiy behind this) only. It's quite short but impressive.

[i]This gets me excited for the future of VR pron. [/i] [b]Rate 7.5/10 [/b] [h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers [/h1] [spoiler]All joking aside, this is a 23 minute purely 360 cinematic experience experience with some of the best visuals in VR. There are two different settings: Standard and High Quality (1080 + 16 GB recommended). However, it's on the Unreal Engine and on my rig (1060), even on Standard, there was some jitteriness, especially when turning around to view. You can move in your roomscale and there are some very basic interactions consisting of having to move in your roomscale to progress. So you do need a bit more than standing room for this experience. [/spoiler]

The experience is very impressive. Once you're in it, it feels real and intense. The story and dialogs are pretty good too!

Yes, episode 1 is a truly engaging VR experience. With a story that wants to be told. Sadly it is is not. One and a half years after launching this so called Episode 1 we have not heard anything about a followup. Which ultimately puts this in the category of 'VR tech demos'. Very nicely executed, also seems to have picked up some prices. Thumbs down for making this payware when it is only a demo.

OMG! This experience is a MUST SEE! I read about AWAKE: Episode One on Upload VR and thought it looked interesting, but I was totally unprepared for how much of an emotional impact it would have on me! It's short (takes me about 25 minutes cos I want to study every detail), but I've never had a VR experience quite like it - being able to get right up in front of these real characters and just want to go back in there again and again. Still working through the deeper levels of what the bigger story means. What a head trip, brilliant performances and cannot wait for more episodes!!!! Where is it all going??? 5 STARS +

AWAKE: Episode One von Start VR ist ein etwas anderer VR-Film, allein was die Technik betrifft. Awake kombiniert fotorealistische Echtzeit-Sets und -Effekte mit volumetrischer Video-Performance, so dass der Zuschauer siech komplett frei im Raum bewegen kann. Sofern es die ausgewiesene Spielfläche hergibt. Ähnlich wie in dem hervorragendem Horrorspiel „Kobold“, werden hier keine computergerenderten Grafiken benutzt, sondern die Spielstätten sind real mit besonderen Kameras im Mixed Reality Capture Studio von Microsoft abgefilm. Ebenso die Darsteller in diesem Film, es sind keine animierten Computercharaktäre, sondern echte Schauspieler die hier agieren. In dieser ersten Episode von AWAKE erfahren wir, dass der Protagonist Harry besessen davon ist, das Geheimnis hinter einem ihm ständig wiederkehrenden Traum von einem seltsamen Muster zu entdecken, zu lüften. Für mich war die Geschichte etwas schwer zu verfolgen, da sie natürlich komplett auf Englisch präsentiert wird. Glücklicherweise ist die kurze Story in mehrere Kapitel unterteilt, so kann man sich, wenn es Unklarheiten gab, alles nochmal ansehen. Aber allein die Technik hinter diesem Film hat mich interessiert und neugierig gemacht. Ich wurde nicht enttäuscht, die Aufnahmetechnik und die Umsetzung bringen ein genügendes immersives Gefühl rüber, daß man sich wirklich in der Szene befindlich fühlt. Allerdings habe ich mittlerweile ein Spiel erlebt („Kobold“), daß ebenso diese volumetrische Videoaufnahmen benutzt und in dem fühle ich mich aufgrund der besseren Auflösung im Spiel u.a., um einiges präsenter. Das kann aber auch daran liegen, daß es ein Spiel ist und dies hier ein Film. Der Preis ist für die knappe Länge von ca. einer halben Stunde hoch angesiedelt, denn dahinter steckt teure Technik und die Schauspieler wollen wohl auch nicht für umsonst arbeiten, aber der VR-Filmfreund kann hier doch bedenkenlos unterstützend zugreifen. Leute die an der Technik interessiert sind, können auch auf ein Angebot warten. Mehr volumetrische Reviews: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32170554/

This is my fault, becuase I didn't read the support, but it doesn't look like this works with the Oculus Rift yet (as of 12/6/2018). When will support for the Rift come? I get to the welcome screen, but I can't choose anything. I'm still going to recommend it for VIVE users.

Awake makes you feel like your in that in-between state when your neither fully awake or fully asleep. The ability to light the characters faces makes you feel like you can hold their chins in the palm of your hands — that moment when you become Harry or Rose positions the story centrally in your psyche. When the light shone out of me, I am sure I burst. Look you give me an experience where it tells me to dream I will dream but, even the greatest cynic has to appreciate when a story envelopes you whole. I would love to dive into the teacup.

10/10 for the tech demo - the future of storytelling is here 6/10 for the story If you have 10 minutes and 5 dollars to burn, then why not watch this Things to add for the user: Re-center button for seated users Or... the old grip and drag posistioning system would work as well Found myself in an awkward posistion a few times, and didnt feel like getting up and moving around

My first refund. Those 20 minutes of Awake: Episode One present very little of the story and most of the scenes are shown in its Steam Trailer. And this "photo-realistic" visuals are just awful when it comes to human characters: they run right into uncanny valley and stay there. Even in static faces look very weird and in motion things get 10 times worse. Maybe VR should stick to stylized visuals in this generation of technology)