Kingdom City Drowning Episode 1 - The Champion

First off, I want to support and like VR movies. I see it as a new, growing platform that needs an enthusiastic audience so it can develop as a medium for entertainment. The few good ones I have experienced have been amazing, immersive experiences. For example, Miyubi, Allumette, Old Friend reminded me of the first time watching Avatar in 3D at the movie theatre (experiencing something new and magical). However, this VR episode is a muddled mess. As much as I want to support it, I cannot recommend it. There's just too many things that make it difficult to enjoy. First of all, the story is not well written or structured. There's actually very few spoken lines in the entire 24 minute runtime. Most of the time the camera is too busy moving around at very weird angles and also scales to even notice what's supposed to be happening. There's just very poor direction in this episode. There's a few "violent" scenes, but I have no idea why they happened. The dialogue did not help at all in deciphering what's going on. The scenes are too dependent on the visual surroundings that are supposed to carry the story forward (I suppose is what the director was going for). Secondly, the game world visuals are not pretty to look at. The world look very grimy, with an almost 70s style grainy movie filter. There's very few colors in the world, mostly green and browns. It's a very poor game engine to use, ps3 era type of game engine and the textures are very low. There's nothing visually appealing to look at and enjoy. And the camera just keeps moving around, high, low, around, now everything is big, now everything is small. Lastly, the voice acting is okay. There's just very few lines. I'm sure the actors did their best job, but how can you convey anything with such short dialogue? There's really not much there for the actors to have worked with. The music is also fine. In fact, it's probably the best thing about the episode, but still nothing too memorable either. Overall, I was bored watching this and was waiting for the 24 minutes to be over. And at the end you're just riding on the longest elevator ride with a view of what might as well be a parking lot. And the animations of the guy there (behind you) are just being repeated of him smoking. I won't ask for a refund, but I don't think this episode is worth anything. Rate 3/10 only buy if you want to support VR movies so hopefully we get better content, i.e. you have money to burn

I thoroughly enjoyed this!! A new kind of movie experience. I loved the dark theme and visuals which featured ground breaking camera work, angles and interesting persepectives. A different way of telling a story, a very immersive experience I found myself riveted to my spinning seat!! It really felt like I was there!! It's genuinely terryfing in parts with a couple of jump scares thrown in for good measure. Definitely not something for your kids. It's very dark and quite violent! The scope and vastness off the environments I have never experienced before. Some highlights (without giving anything away) were leaning over the edge of the elevator into the vast chasm of the mine and I had to catch myself from fear of falling or when the camera settles right in front of the terryfing main character as he looks up and for a second I totally forgot that I wasn't actually there and that he wasn't actually looking into my eyes!! Very creepy stuff. It sent chills down my spine! The sound is equally as good. Great voice acting and the soundtrack is flawless from Protector 101. Really adds to the tension and atmosphere of the immersive VR experience. I highly recommend this especially if you're into sci-fi or horror. This is the kind of stuff that's going to change the move industry and video games alike. Very revolutionary stuff! My only complaint is it's leaving me hanging for more and to find out what happens next. Please bring on part 2!!

Love the idea - that's using VR for what it is, a completely new medium. Plus I'm a sucker for anything cyberpunk, so I was sold immediately. The execution was very good, with super voice acting. I didn't understand much of the story unfortunately, I think this episode is to be considered a prologue, to set the mood more than the full story. I'm looking forward to the following episodes, and hopefully, to a great story.

An outstanding and innovative experience that is possibly the worlds first example of a new genre of Virtual Reality cinematography, A narrative experience- no interaction- that is throughly gripping and a preview of what to expect in the next 4-5 years. What is not real-time now- will soon be full realtime interactive. This will set a few imaginations alight as to the possibilities and sheer scope of what future VR worlds can and will be. A must purchase. Look foward to episode Two. And props must be given for cross-platform support for both VIVE and OCULUS

I'm a huge fan of storytelling in VR and this is an incredible piece of art. Highly recommended. The creators take chances and those chances pay off with exceptional visuals and camera work. Yes, camera work, in VR! And it works really really well while allowing you the freedom to look around and take in the ambiance. And the ambiance, wow! The sheer scale is amazing. It's just beautiful stuff! Highly highly recommended!!

Very cool, gives you a taste of what VR movies could be. Please, if you are complaining of poor quality, pause the game, go to the quality options on the far left of the little menu, hit the trigger till it is at the quality desired, and there you have it. Honestly, looking forward to the next episode.

Man kann die Grafik hochschrauben, hab ich gerade gelesen. Das werde ich ausprobieren. Aber da der Film bisher immer abgestürtzt ist, noch keinen Daumen nach oben. Aber auch noch keine Rückgabe. Tja, schade. Man kann die Grafik etwas optimieren. Dadurch konnte ich endlich etwas erkennen, aber der Film stürzt wieder an der gleichen Stelle ab! Der Wärter geht zu einem qualmenden Gerät und sobald er in den Qualm tritt - zack abgekaggt. Ich betreibe meine Vive mit einer GTX1070. Ich werde den Film wieder zurückgeben müssen, leider kann ich ihn ja nicht zuende sehen. (Kingdom City Drowning könnte evtl. ein guter Film sein, wenn da nicht die miese Auflösung wäre und ich meine damit nicht das Ende der Episode. Das habe ich nie gesehen, denn der Film stürtzt nach ca. 10min ab. Ich kann leider nicht mehr dazu sagen, aber die Story müsste schon herausragend sein, um die extrem grobkörnige Grafik zu kompensieren. Leider konnte ich in den ersten Minuten nicht viel erfahren, außer das alles sehr brutal und kriminell ist da draußen ... so kriminel wie die Grafik.) Schade. Ich mag VR-Filme, eigentlich. http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32170554/

Kingdom City Drowning is a "passive" VR experience, like watching an episode of a television show. There are no puzzles to solve, no monsters to shoot, etc. You just watch. Despite that, it's far more involved than any movie. You are expected to look around, and are often rewarded with breathtaking visuals that are straight-up impossible outside of virtual reality. I was afraid of missing the action by looking around too much, but the creators used a number of subtle tricks to draw your attention. The oddest part was the use of scale - you shrink to slip through bars, staring up at characters who tower over you. Moments later, it smoothly transtions back to a more normal size. It's a very interesting effect and has a lot more impact than a traditional close-up shot. Story-wise, the setting is grim and oppressive. Despite the title, it reminded me less of drowning and more of being buried alive. Our protagonists is by no means a hero, and you'll be hard-pressed to find anything positive in this dark world. Episode 1 functions as a prologue, introducing us to our main character and the world he inhabits. The overall experience was very good, and I'm eagerly looking forwards to the next installment. However, I do have a few complaints. The pacing was a bit odd - some parts are slow and don't really contribute to the plot, and there are a few scenes that jump you from one location to another without any idea why you are there or what is happening. The scenes themselves run smoothly, but loading screens between scenes hurt the immersion a bit. I think a seamless, continuous shot would dramatically improve the experience. All in all, it's a fantastic look at the potential VR has for film. It allows for powerful storytelling in ways that have no 2D equivalent. Kingdom CIty Drowning makes excellent use of that to introduce you to a grim, dying world.

Even if this were free, I would not recommend it. The story is not clear at all and half of it is a camera just very, very slowly creeping down hallways with no action or narrative in sight. It has some interesting camera mechanics, but they bring nothing useful to the experience. The entire thing felt painfully empty. The goal of a VR narrative expierence that this seemed to be trying to create was much better achieved by Quanero, which is a vastly more interestig and engaging experience.

Everybody that likes movies should try this experience. It gives you a taste of what will be possilble in VR movies in the future. For example, it never felt so real to sneak around a corner together with somebody else and almost look over his shoulder...