Hypatia

As one of the developers of this game (who was laid off and can no longer profit from its success) I can honestly say that this game has great potential, and I really hope that the promised free-to-play launch revives it from the ashes. It should have been free-to-play to begin with, because nothing is worse for a social experience than lack of people playing. I've personally experienced the magic of Hypatia's collaborative play in an environment curated for wonder and joy, and I really hope that many others will get the chance to share this experience first hand. There is a lot of heart and soul embodied in this game, aside from the fact that it's just plain fun to explore. I played again this weekend on the Windows MR Samsung Odyssey and am pleased to say that it works just as well as on Vive or Occulus. Please excuse "reviews" posted by a disgruntled ex-employee meant to take a swipe at leadership that overlooks the love and goodness poured in by the team, and consider enjoying Hypatia as it is: the artistic expression and heart-felt effort of a group of really decent human beings.

[h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers [/h1] So this game will give Rec Room (and VR chat) a run for it's money now that's it's gone free to play. Competition is wonderful. Gone is the cartooney world and the screaming kids, here is the mature virtual fantasy world for grown-ups. As an added bonus, I noticed several females online and there's already a good male to female ratio (for VR - because we all know it's usually a sausage fest). There's a whole lot to do. I didn't touch the limits of all that's there. I did go to the virtual shopping mall. And yes, that's where you can buy (either by earning or with real world money) all kinds of virtual props or cosmetic items. So keep in mind, that's how they will make their money going forward. The good news is that there is no registration to make a character. So you don't have to give your personal information or your credit card or anything if you don't want. After that I went to the theatre. I put on a live performance by accident (I signed up not knowing it was real). I got booed off stage and had lots of fruit thrown at me. It was one of the best moments in my life. Then I went boating down a canal by using oars. I was surprised by how well the rowing the boat mechanic worked. Then i went into a castle with a maze garden and spinning cogs to climb up. I painted my flag and raised all four of them for Xerxes (me). People were friendly. It seemed many people were new and figuring out the game together. Some were painting, others taking photographs, others just conversating. You can customize your avatar. There are some nice default options, but obviously the ones you can buy with real money are better (although you can earn them too). There were three movements options: dash, teleport, and free locomotion. However, free locomotion wasn't all that great because you're basically only using one joystick to both move forward and backward and turn. Instead of using the left to move and the right to smooth turn. So that makes locomotion cumbersome since it's easy to press right or left when you want to go forward and vice-versa. You can walk faster by pressing forward twice but because the controls are not the best due to the control scheme, it's seldom worth it unless you have a long straight path. I enjoyed my almost 2 hour trip down this virtual world. It's free now so I highly recommend this app. It's not as good as Rec Room .... but it can be. And it's the only real competition to Rec Room. It may already be better than VR Chat. Competition is a good thing for us, VR players. May the best app eventually win. Rate 7/10.

DONT BUY! The game doesnt work yet. Theyre trying to sell us early early early access. Its not been out for more than a week and its already had 3 "Hotfixes" that didnt fix the login issues. People cant login or even make characters. Check discussions page. It early releases like this one that give early release a bad name. Im amazed that this company thinks this is worth $30. They should be paying us to debug for them lol

Basically a creative space to hang out. I had alot of fun in paintsville, just spray painting a building into a monster and leaving it for others to find was a blast. Not many players at the moment despite it just being released but when I do bump into people its always a pleasent experience. If you want to chill, create and expore, join us :)

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This is a really cool and well designed virtual world. I started this with no expectations, but I'm impressed. It seems like every area has a ton of secrets to discover. It also has a progression system where you level up and unlock new gear to customize your character. Controls work well for the most part, though there is room for improvement, like not being able to strafe and having to press down the trackpad on the vive. Also the painting function, while nice, is a bit too pixelated right now. There does seem to be a microtransaction element to it, as you can buy a currency, but it looks like most things can also be bought for ingame money, and it seems like it's just cosmetic items. Overall, you should really try this out. It's really fun, and it's free.

To start off i'd like to give the game of rating of 8/10 At the time of playing this game the servers were completely dead and by reading the reviews it seems like it has been like that for some time. However, this game has so many things to do, there is stuff for you to look at or interact with scattered around basically every section of the map has something for you to do. The server being empty limited the game's enjoyment somewhat but bringing along a couple friends will still make for plenty of fun times. My girlfriend, a couple of friends, and I spent almost 4 hours on our first time playing messing around. We had honestly probably one of the better and more entertaining VR experiences I've had yet in this game. The onIy reason I didn't rate the game higher is because I could only imagine if this game was thriving and full of people how amazing it would be. In the end it's a free game currently and would definitely recommend you to try it out, especially if you have friends who play VR have them join you and try it together. There is plenty to do from fishing to painting to boat races and target shooting.

Hypatia was a Free to play VR experience. Current time is 27 June 2020: The launcher runs on my system, looked ok, played No, sounded no. There is no contact with Steam servers. Might be the game has broken down or the devs pulled the plug. You can run this game from your monitor using keyboard and mouse. Where ever i press play from Steam, i get in world view big error messages saying that Steam servers are Offline or missing connection to Steam server. [quote=Tsaukpaetra;2940245647587362350]At the moment, Hypatia is in hibernation; funding to run the servers has run out. All data at the time of shutdown has been preserved and if we can get hosting running again there will be a news item. But for now, yeah, servers are currently shut down. [/quote] Don't bother downloading this game now.

Literally the best VR Experience I have ever experience so far, and this is from owning the Vive for over a year so far. No other game has been so visual appealing than this, even surpassing Skyrim and other games meant to be played in VR. With a warm community, including friendly and caring developers that enjoy engaging with the community, everyone that has a VR setup should attempt to visit the magnificent city of Hypatia and let all your worries desipate as you enjoy spraypainting the entire town red, (or blue, or metlaic gold, whatever you fancy) and meet new friendly friends for an unforgetful experience.

[h1]Overview:[/h1] '[i]Hypatia[/i]', a free first person game solely based on socialization that's primarily meant to be played in VR where you explore a city called "Hypatia" and create art, socialize, and play with others whether it be friends or complete strangers. There is no plot or story in '[i]Hypatia[/i]' as the game revolves around creating art and expressing yourself through different forms of media and maybe even making some friends in the process. Over half the game promotes making art or letting loose your creativity and it's so content on this idea that there's actually an entire map that is completely white meant for players to paint together. The game is very open to creativity and is very customizable, even your character can be customized alongside the entire city. It seems like a pretty neat idea. An open world (kind of) filled with plenty of artistic options and opportunities for people from all around the world to come together and make art together. The idea of being able to express yourself through art on a global scale in [i][b]real time[/b][/i] regardless of your skill is amazing. Being able to share different art styles, different interests and different forms of art is such a great idea and it's sad how it didn't flourish the way it should have because there honestly was so much potential here. My guess was that the developers just weren't able to market the game on a larger scale so evidently, it just got brushed under the carpet along with every other obscure multiplayer game. [b][i]However, despite that, the game still has a lot and could still be fun if you gather a couple of friends and go at it together.[/i][/b] [h1]Gameplay:[/h1] Now that we got the gist of the game out of the way, now we come to the depressing part. '[i]Hypatia[/i]' isn't a bad game by any means, but it requires and I mean [b][i]requires[/i][/b] other people to play it. Without the presence of a community, '[i]Hypatia[/i]' feels like a desolate ghost town void of human interaction. There [i]are[/i] NPCs scattered around the city that will casually converse or give tips when you talk to them but their dialogue is extremely limited and it just boils down to the fact that they just aren't real people. They don't help make the city any less empty and it honestly was depressing and a bit sad exploring Hypatia with its hollow streets, blank canvases and abandoned buildings. Personally I played in standard mode as I don't own a VR headset. That being said, the game is not optimized well for non-VR play and if you do plan to check '[i]Hypatia[/i]' out I highly recommend grabbing a VR headset if possible. It is impossible to do some tasks as you don't have free access to your left hand and are only limited to your right (as far as I know). I was however able to explore majority of the city and whatever it had left to offer. I must say, the game really [i]does[/i] have a lot of stuff to do in it. As mentioned, you can create art whether it's painting, drawing or even vandalising. Even selling pieces of art to other players is possible (if only they existed). You can also rent properties where you can decorate and create your own place with items you can buy in the world of Hypatia in which anyone can then come and explore even if you're not online. Not only that but there are also a number of games you can play with others as well. There's an interactive museum with little puzzles, a hedge maze, a boat race, chess, and even a store where you can purchase toys and play around with them. The currency needed to enjoy the most of '[i]Hypatia[/i]' comes in the form of either "Hypatia coins" (their premium currency) or "bits" (in-game currency). As far as my knowledge goes, you can only obtain bits from exploring all listed locations in the city's maps or doing one or two unique quests. I'm not sure if they reset but if they don't I honestly don't know how you would be able to obtain more. Premium currency is not obtainable anywhere as far as I know besides paying real world money but most items in the game can be bought with either currency which is good. But I digress as everything that I've mentioned that sounds even remotely fun requires again, [b]people[/b]. The game just isn't fun when you're the only one running around playing. It's saddening seeing a game focused on social interaction look like a typical COVID-19 lockdown, except forever. There was even a board that listed active areas in the game and I was the [i]only[/i] one playing while every other map was lined with "0/32". The only traces of human presence I found were some properties that were actually bought by past players that were still up. However since these properties run on a rent system, who knows how much longer they'll be up for. The entire situation is just sad and depressing. '[i]Hypatia[/i]' brings a lot to the table, but without people to share it with, the game just isn't fun. [h1]Controls:[/h1] As mentioned I played '[i]Hypatia[/i]' in non-VR mode which meant my ability to do things were crippled. Some things are harder to do without free motion of the hands and some tasks are outright impossible to do. There's actually an area I wasn't able to get to because it requires the use of a rowboat, something that can't be operated with a keyboard and mouse. The overall UI is a bit clunky for standard play and I highly recommend a VR headset if you decide to explore the remnants of '[i]Hypatia[/i]'. [h1]Graphics:[/h1] Pretty nice for a VR game even in non-VR mode. I can imagine how much better it probably looks with an actual headset. Very colorful in general despite how much the city leaves empty for players to "art" up. But I can't even fathom how amazing the game could've looked had the city been bustling with artists and players alike. [h1]Audio:[/h1] There honestly isn't much because there's not much happening. There's background ambience with your typical street noises mixed in with the indistinct chattering of people but that's the most you're going to get. The game [i]does[/i] have adequate and unique sound effects as well as music that sound all fine but none of them distract from the fact that Hypatia is just an empty, barren city. [h1]Multiplayer:[/h1] Completely absent and missing. I honestly don't want to give this game a negative review as it isn't even bad, but as it's missing the main pitch being social interactivity, it just isn't possible to warrant a positive one. However that doesn't mean you can't create your own social circle. If you can somehow manage to corral a group of friends to play with, this game might actually be a good amount of fun. However, that's also something the game should technically already have right from the get-go so unfortunately it doesn't help its case. [h1]Conclusion/TL;DR:[/h1] '[i]Hypatia[/i]' is a free first person VR recommended socialization game that can also be played in non-VR mode where you explore, create art and socialize with others. Although the game has great ideas and potential, '[i]Hypatia[/i]' has been abandoned by its developers and hasn't gained traction for a good while, carrying an empty playerbase for quite the same amount of time if not greater. The game could still be fun as it has a lot to offer but I recommend only playing it if you have a group of friends to play with (along with VR headsets). A truly unique and wonderful idea that had sadly met an unfortunate end, losing all of its artistic and creative players that had played during its peak (whoever they could have been).