DownhillVR

A little over a year ago, I bought a Downhill Mountain Bike game for VR called Down Fast VR. The thought of mountain biking in VR excited me, as someone who used to mountain bike a lot in my younger years. (....A broken neck and a fractured lower back in an unrelated car accident retired me from the craziness of my youth though.) Down Fast was an absolute mess, controlled horribly and the graphics were really weak. (I was willing to forgive the graphics if I could at least feel the sensation of real mountain biking.... which I didn't. It was more like reliving the experience of my car accident tbh lol) Then came along Downhill VR at the end of this summer, and I regret not supporting this game right at launch... because it's a real gem. It's everything I had hoped Down Fast would be. I had only hesitated bc of the severe disappointment of that title. The controls are much tighter and polished. The fatigue system works great, and reminds me of real life mountain biking back in the day when I would pedal, pedal, pedal up a hill with force and just let go in a fast glide to regain my own stamina. This feels perfect! It even has controller support, in case you're not in the mood for VR motion-based driving! For me, this adds a ton of replayability to this game, bc I often want to just kick back in VR games with a controller, without having to get too overly involved in gesture movement gaming. I think the only thing I somewhat don't like is that leaning in your bike is done only with the tilting of your head. This is fine for VR gesture control gaming, but I feel this should be mapped somehow to the controller when playing with a standard game controller. I didn't find myself wanting to lean my head left & right, forward and backwards when in my "chill mode". The graphics look pretty decent. They could of course be a bit better, but they are A LOT better than Down Fast! I never actually felt like they were weak here, just OK at times, and in other places they actually looked quite good. (like stunt tracks inside of the stadium) I'd maybe suggest a bit more shadows/ dynamic shadows. Especially when looking out across mountain valleys, they could heighten immersion, bc right now this is when the game looks the most fake to me. It would also go a long way to have swaying trees in the wind. Don't get me wrong, the graphics never made me feel like I wanted to stop playing, they were fine, I'd just like to see things improved just a bit. There is no music in the game, which is ok with me. I liked just the silence of a real mountain biking experience, the wind blowing in my face and the sound of the bike brakes when taking tight turns. Be sure to bring your own music though if you want a soundtrack to ride to. The content - I only bought this game in December, but I'm already impressed by the support the game is getting post launch. I've read that the game was quite bare at launch, but I do not feel this way as of this writing. Technically, there are only 2 environments - each with a number of track options, a foresty mountain and a snow mountain, but unofficially there also exists a desert environment and a stadium in the Challenge tracks. The Challenge tracks are a TON of fun and will really test your skills! You'll be really high up on wooden tracks with plenty of death defying twists, turns and jumps. If you're VR sensitive, it may be a bit much for you. Luckily, I have complete tolerance of all things VR and LOVE these kind of intense experiences! I would like to see the desert environment further explored, as desert mountain biking is a very popular thing. Maybe a Grand Canyon type world where we're constantly staring down sheer cliffs to our sides? There's also freeride if you look in the settings, which combines the individual tracks together from each of the 2 worlds, with no checkpoints and the freedom to ride as you wish. I enjoyed this freedom a lot, however there are times when you see a nice open field, or high nearby hills that are just begging to be ridden.... but you get knocked back by hidden barriers. I would suggest that the devs extend our freedom on these tracks just a bit more, bc I could foresee myself coming back to this freeride often just to blow some steam, relax freeriding after a long day at work or whatever. Bottom line, if you like Mountain Biking and VR, this is the game to get! We're are so oversaturated with dystopian scifi, horror, dark fantasy etc on the Steam store in VR... which I of course, also enjoy. However, sometimes you just want to play something that makes you feel free, exhilarated in a real world way, without having to worry too much about convoluted controls. This is quickly becoming one of my go-to VR games for relaxation. I can't wait to see what the devs continue to do with it, and they deserve every bit of success that comes their way!

Excellent this is the definitive Mountain Bike game we ve all been waiting for. You can tell thas has been developed by Mountain Bikers. 10/10 so many game options and so many downhill runs to choose from. Love it.

My daughter and I, we both love the game! The tracks and environments look gorgeous, the handling feels intuitive. We like real downhill riding too, so we were a little sceptical before buying - but the game is really lots of fun!

Bought this while it was on sale, not expecting too much but curious about how cycling could be done in VR. What a delightful surprise! This is really fun, really immersive, and even as someone who hasn't sat on a bike for over a decade (and then only as a method of getting places), it really makes you feel like you can race downhill and feel badass. As VR sports sims go, this is up there with the best. I really hope this carries on being developed and the full career mode and online play turn up. Note: at the time of writing, I don't feel there's quite enough content to warrant the current full price, but it's not far off. If you see this in a sale though, don't think twice; grab it. --- Update: I wrote this review when I was about 90 minutes into the game. I'm now around 10 hours in and still loving it. Also, the game is growing, more content has turned up in that time, with more planned. So as of the time of writing *this* update, I'd say at the current full price it is absolutely worth getting. If you like thrilling VR experiences this will not disappoint.

What you do seems simple at first glance: you ride downhill on challenging trails, racing against time or NPCs, taking jumps, sharp turns, and hairpin bends, sometimes during the day, sometimes at night with your headlamp on. The controls work surprisingly well. You use your VR motion controllers to grip the handlebars, and you turn and lean with your body and arms to steer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZNeC1iazQc The headset provides a strong sense of speed: seeing upcoming turns, descents, and obstacles in 360 degrees really makes a difference. Moreover, using both controllers for precise balance gives you much more control than relying on one controller or fiddling with buttons. Graphically, the environments are beautiful, not super high-end everywhere, but good enough to feel immersive in that mountain biking atmosphere. The trails are varied, and the jumps provide moments of tension. Some challenges are tough, which is good; it forces you to improve instead of just cruising along. If you're into mountain biking, or even if you're not but enjoy the outdoors, DownhillVR is definitely worth a try. It's fun, feels very natural, and there's still room for improvement.

Decent steering and good immersion, but still comes with very little content.

I held off on this for ages because I've played truly awful VR biking games. I used to live in Colorado where every summer weekend found me exploring a new trail. Now I'm in New England and I really miss it. The graphics are rough, for sure, but it captures the spirit and feel of the sport nicely. I like that movement off the track is possible, to some extent. I've only played for 30 minutes, that's when a headache set in, but I really enjoyed it before that. I wish not every track was a race and free solo roaming was possible. I also wish there was a setting to use the controllers like pedals to add some physicality. But I got it on sale so I think it's worth the money I paid.

Great potential this game has, definitely worth the price tag, it still needs some work though, the graphics are okay but definitely need polishing up... but that said it is still great fun, you can see that a lot of work has already been put into it and with a few good big updates it could become close to what I was looking for, which was Riders Republic VR 😉👍

Best bike sim

Great mountain biking game which really nails the thrill and speed. Although I was never a serious mountain biker, there wasn't many mountains around my way, as a kid we use to ride down big dips with streams at the bottom and things like that on our Raleigh Grifters and what have you, all those memories came flooding back to me having not rode a Mountain bike for 20 years or so and going back a lot further to those more daring childhood memories. Because you are close to the ground in open air with countryside zooming past you it feels like you are really travelling when you get your speed up which is always a fantastic feeling in VR then add in the big jumps and you can't get much more thrilling than that, the haptics are also done very well on both motion controls and gamepad, another great thing including the option for gamepad although I found the motion controls excellent to use as well. The challenge mode really surprised me with its entertainment value as it is an addictive full on mode rather than a small mode, some of the tracks reminded me of the Trials series. What with racing mode and all the trails available there is good amount of content here in Early Access. I have spent the 3 hours of playing so far on the first environment of three which all contain multiple trails. I have not touched the other two environments which I certainly look forward to trying from looking at the very rocky terrain. There are online leaderboards to compete in and medals to earn to add repeated runs and you will want to do many runs because the trails and tracks are well designed and exciting to ride. Buying VR games, especially in Early Access can be very hit and miss, DownhillVR is definitely big hit, looks nice as well. I would love to see the game come to PSVR2 when the game leaves Early Access and I shall purchase again if it uses adaptive trigger, advanced haptics and headset rumble. I am sure it would go down a treat over there on the PlayStation platform.