I won't lie, the game, in its current state, I wouldn't exactly go around telling people to play it. It's not trash, it is playable with relative ease even, though it has quite a few flaws which makes the game not so fun to play. One thing to note is my Mum's the one who bought the game, thinking it would be a fun game since I only recently got my own Valve Index, but upon seeing the other games by the Devs, I won't lie, I was worried. The game was bought and it was my 10 year old sister who played the game first. Let me start with the negatives before going to what I found fun about the game.
The flaws:
There are quite a few. As I said, my little sister, who's not quite used VR, was the first to play before stopping 30 minutes in from feeling sick, despite playing sitting.
-The game lacks a warp/teleport moving mechanic. You can only slide around, which is less than desired. If it could be added, it would make the game more accessible for those less used to VR.
-For the Toy-making mini-game, my little sister was too short for the table. She constantly had her arm lifted upwards in order to interact with the items.
Starting here on, I was the one playing the game.
-The snowball throwing mechanic was odd, to say the least. I never managed to get the hang of it. It took me a while to figure I had to go next to a snow piles to pick up snowballs, mainly because only one of the piles was highlighted and it was next to an enemy elf. I ended up just walking up to the elves and letting go of the snowball in their face since that was the easiest way to deal with them.
An idea to fix this, the moment you spawn in the fight zone, there could a pile of snow in front of you, it would be easier to understand that's your snowball source. That, or let players pick up from the ground snow directly.
-During the Minecart shooting game, there was that moment before entering the Dragon's room where you enter a water bubble. The effect playing during that time really hurt my eyes for its duration.
The biggest ouch was the camera during that mini-game. It was placed at the level of the seat, not ON the seats, which hid half my screen due to the cart's front.
-Fishing was... odd. It was more a sharp shooting game than a fishing game. Since the fish only bite when they pass on the hook, you just end up aiming at the fish and shooting the hook at them instead of sending the hook in and wait for a bite.
-Happy Town. God, Happy Town. I think 255 gifts should not be have to be picked up manually, my back still hurts from having to bend down to pick up Gingerbread Man. It wouldn't have been as bad if just walking above the gifts would make you pick them up, or use some kind of vacuum would make this much more bearable. An other thing, for some reason, I couldn't speak to Santa at all for the rest of the game after this, even after walking up to him and pressing B, like the game told me to.
-During the Santa rescue in the forest, the Christmas mood was kind of gone. It didn't feel like the North Pole anymore, no decorations or anything.
-I think you should make a ramp for the water, since once you fell in, good luck getting out without abandoning your snowball gun. Speaking of which, you should've told how to drop the Snowball gun. I was dual wielding them and spent at least 10 minutes just trying to figure how to drop the weapons to control the big laser canon to enter the lair.
-I dropped the torch you earn when entering the cave since I wanted to get a better hold of it and it clipped through the ground, never to be seen again. Thankfully there was an other torch at the spider cave section, if not, I'd be soft locked.
-With the dragon eggs, their shell locked me in place for a while, which is quite annoying to say the least.
This game does have some fun parts though!
-The snowball cannon mini-game was quite fun! Always on the lookout for the next bunch of crystals or looking for those flying troll things. It felt like a ride before long, mainly during the pirate sections! One thing I'd love to be added for sure is a highscore mini-game, having to shoot down flying targets of different size, distance and such, earning a higher and higher score.
-Other thing I really enjoyed was the climbing mechanic. When I found out about it, I started to try it everywhere, see how high I could climb, where I could climb. I ended up climbing to the top of the forest section, the top of the big Christmas tree in the North Pole, on top of all the buildings in Happy Town... It was just so much fun! I do wish there was a mini-game entirely focused on climbing upwards, so you can look back and see just how high you could go!
-Being able to fly with Santa was quite fun too, even if it was automatic and short. Even the game completion reward was quite fun! Though I wish it was a tad faster and the fly area was larger.
-The general ambience of the game was a big plus, being in Christmas town itself, seeing the reindeer pen, the elves just chilling, the penguins waddling around, building a snowman and decorating the tree... It's all really charming and fun to be in!
Personal nitpicks, aka just small details that annoyed me personally:
-the text speed is sooo sloooooow, maybe if it was a little faster and the text stayed a second or two longer it would be easier to read
-The music and sounds can be quite loud and sudden sometimes, and nearly silent on others. Mainly the laser canon to break open the portal to the dragon's lair.
-The rotation speed is so slow! I couldn't just spam it, since there seemed to be a cooldown, even when holding down to rotate, it was just a 10° rotation every second.
-I do find the lava cave theme quite odd for a Christmas game, even more the lush green forest which is in the north pole, with a camping in it nonetheless. And a spider cave feels more like Halloween than Christmas, but that might be my arachnophobia.
-Minor bug, nothing game breaking, but for the deer care mini-game, completing two deer at the same time, or soon after clearing one, the 2nd deer won't appear at the sleigh. I had 4 deer at the sleigh at the end, but I still could continue with the story. Also the completion jingle would stack and cause a loud chaotic sound.
In the end, I wouldn't currently recommend the game to anyone. I think it has too many downsides, but they can be corrected. It still is a somewhat decent game, there's no regret in buying it, but it still lacks some finer tuning to be a good game.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!
