Buzludzha VR

This was a great museum / educational experience and a must buy for anyone interested in that type of thing. It's the first that I have been truly satisfied with. I didn't know anything about Bulgaria before this and now I've learned quite a few things and makes me want to visit. I probably wont end up going in real life, but I would love to pay to experience the other places mentioned in the Buzludzha museum in VR. I wish there was faster smooth locomotion and grab animations for your hand, but there are very small things that don't take away from the experience.

I've recently came from a brief travel to Bulgaria, I've learned a lot about the country there and enjoyed a lot the vibes of it. But since it was a 4 day trip, it certainly felt short and left me with the desire to stay longer and explore more. This VR Tour gave me something more to experience about the country and their history, and worked lovely as a complement. I've spent 105 min in one session exploring every nook, listen to every detail and thinking about its past as I would have made in real life. At moments it felt like I was there, the attention to detail is superb in both atmosphere and mechanics wise. Obviously, there is nothing like being in the actual place, but the unique qualities of VR are perfectly conveyed in Buzludzha VR, squeezing some of the possibilities that the medium has, to help us feeling as closer to the real thing as possible like true sense of scale, distraction deprivation and sensory presence, and even the ones that real life can't give you like being able to visit the place alone at your own pace in no particular order at optimum conditions, changing seamlessly between day and night, being able to change between past and present or even future at will to give you more historic perspective, aside of mentioning outrageous stuff like climbing the damn place with your hands, pilot an helicopter around the area and jump over the roof or become a silly version of Rocketeer with 2 fire extinguishers. VR Tourism apps are getting better and beefier, and imho are the best representation of educational VR yet. This kind of experience is ALL that history museums aspire to be for it's visitors and MORE, and it's only going to get overwhelmingly effective over time. I know the app is probably not being updated anymore but if the developers wanted to further improve the experience I have some notes: -When you are in the dark corridor looking at pictures of the actual condition, move the green icon to a better place that does not interfere with the enjoyment of the whole photograph. -I know it's a lot more work, but would be interesting to have photogrammetry of the whole place as trashed as it is now, and being able to explore it with your flashlight as you do with the communist murals or the roof of buzludzha from above the tower. -Since this project is made to raise awereness about the importance of the place and future possibilities, I'm missing any mention of an initiative to sign a petition to the Bulgarian government or something similar to keep things going, Maybe it's a missed opportunity and it would make VR tourist more involved, maybe even tweeting after the experience is over. -I wish it had even more details about the protagonists of the construction, like a 15 minute documentary about the architect that you could watch in the projection room that you made on the 2nd floor. Or even recreate one of the most important communist party assemblies held there and witness with your own eyes the main figures of the time in action. (a lot of work, I know...) I had an amazing time, and I hope you make something as good in the future. Congrats!

Just great

I ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT THAT!! Thank you! Too bad you can only visit the artist's concept of it instead how it originally was or how it is today (beside the graffiti).

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9686972/]Follow "[b]First Person Exploration and Puzzle Games[/b]" for more games like this![/url][/quote] I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I was expecting a crappy scan-model of some rundown building. What I got was a guided tour through what is essentially a small historical museum. I found it both interesting and educational. It takes about an hour to see and hear everything. There are various VR toys to play with, like a gun that shoots wine bottles, fire extinguishers that propel you, and an exhausting 150 rung ladder you can climb [i](which it turns out has an elevator - do'h!)[/i]. However these are just VR gimmicks that get old fast. It's unfortunate they put such an emphasis on them on the store page. The actual meat-and-potatoes is the guided tour, where a narrator tells you the history of the building and how it became so run-down. It's basically like a museum tour, except that you're free to explore the rooms in any order. I don't think I'd pay $12 for it, but for the sale price of $2 it's worth playing.

Spent 20 minutes fighting with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grip detection on the ladder to climb the tower. Fell down about 10 times, and then I got to the top and fell all the way down. That ♥♥♥♥ is so infuriating that I lost any and all desire to explore the interior. Good job, dude.

Хороший релакс в принципе.Картинка хорошая на первом вайве.Чувствуется атмосфера 80-х. Буфет с ценниками рубь двадцать и т.д. Картинка с возможностью изменения разрешения рендеринга (я играл на 200% и таа сглаживанием,остальное на максимум на gtx 1080 всё отлично. Так же радует возможность выбора свободного передвижения контроллерами,а не только телепорты которые я ненавижу)). Вобщем для разнообразия любителям просто походить,отдохнуть самое то! п.с. Полёт на вертолёте сразу недоступен.Для начало надо найти рацию на втором этаже,там где галерея с картинами.Рация лежит на столе в небольшом кабинете за дверью.

[h1]Well Executed and Entertaining[/h1] While I have enjoyed many free educational/historical VR experiences, the UI and movement options always leave a lot to be desired. I feared Buzludzha VR might be the same way and was reluctant to opt for a paid product of this nature, but I decided to give it a shot on a sale. It far exceeded my expectations. There are several options for smooth locomotion, teleport, and snap-turning and a robust and user-friendly UI. When looking at the store page for Buzludzha VR, I wasn't sure how I felt about some of the quirky elements, such as the wine gun. I thought the developers might be trying to throw in too much extraneous stuff, like a 90's web page, full of animated gifs and midi files. After playing, however, I have to admit that all the strange little interactables were well done, fun, and contributed to the immersion. Unlike most educational VR titles, Buzludzha VR has some features more common to games, such as an inventory system, climbing mechanics, and a helicopter that you can pilot. These things make the experience more dynamic and enjoyable without detracting from the museum feel. It's just the right balance of formal and fun. Speaking of the museum feel, it was very tastefully done. This was a re-imagining of the structure as a modern restored tourist attraction. Players can shine a special flashlight on the walls to reveal the current damaged building, showing things such as mosaics celebrating various Bulgarian communist figures and events. A professional-sounding narrator describes different aspects of the site. Without the flashlight, the modern re-imagining shows murals that celebrate the beauty of Bulgaria itself. Perhaps, a wise choice if such a restoration ever takes place in reality, given the controversial nature of the communist past. The experience was all very interesting and educational. If I had a wish-list for the game, I'd love to be able to travel to the Shipka Monument (assuming I didn't miss some Easter Egg to get there).

I figured this would be fairly interesting but was really not ready for how cool the total package actually is here. On paper it looks like a stroll around an odd looking building but it really ends up being a story about how a source of national pride can be stripped for parts two decades later. The score that plays in the background is really quite beautiful and strolling the halls features an interesting mechanic to see the "current" view of the location. There's a sense of tragedy and loss to this place that I would have known nothing about if not for this title. But as a bonus the actual countryside is one of the prettiest things I've seen in VR yet. Plus you can smash the cafe to hell and blast a functioning grand piano with a wine bottle gun. And there's a helicopter you can pilot too. I'm not sure how a developer successfully pitched that but it controls really well and leads to some nice vertigo inducing views. This isn't a game of which anyone will rack up a 10 hour playtime, but it doesn't need to be.

Wow, the graphics are amazing. I would prefer to have less desaturated colors or less overexposed image. I was surprised that you can actually jump off the tower. The helicopter would need to be more like a real helicopter : there are windows on the floor to see below in front of the pilot. The wine gun is fun. This is a wonderful tech demo for VR. Very emotional when you see the images of now vs the perfect VR version. And don't forget to fly like rocket man with 2 fire extinguisher