Konrad the Kitten is basically a Tamagotchi for VR, but just in case you never had one of those, it's a pet-raising game that lets you care for a pet. The downside of this pet-raising game is the lack of progression. The kitten stays a kitten and doesn't get stronger or better in any way. If this game offered more of an outcome to raising the kitten, it'd be more interesting which path you took, from starving the cat to being mean to it to being the best parent ever. As is, Konrad is just a virtual kitten model named after its creator, nothing more. The kitten looks cute, but the game is lacking enough depth to keep me entertained.
Please note: I did not manage to figure out how to access minigames before this review. I got as far as trying both control modes, though. I also tried everything I initially had access to. I started getting a non-responsive cat that wouldn't play with anything, and I couldn't just wait it out because nothing was given to me to do in the meantime (and this being VR, I didn't feel like going afk at all), so I had to quit out of boredom. I believe this may be an issue the game will address for a later release.
You do not need a plushy to make this game work, but I've tied the controller to a cheap plushy I had nearby and can confirm it makes the experience slightly more immersive in some ways and slightly less immersive in other ways. I also considered tying the controller to my actual cat, but I chickened out of doing that, because Vive wands are expensive and very fragile. Still, it would have been funny as hell.
The cat falls through the game's floor and has other visual anomalies I would like the 1.0 release to solve for the sake of immersion. Syncing the actual room's floor with the in-game floor is very difficult if not impossible. Perhaps this mechanic should be redesigned to use the actual roomscale floor instead of an in-game calibration? I also found it weird how the controller stayed on the cat's back when I chose plushy mode. We should either not see the controller or have the option to customize where the controller goes, for example, inside the plushy.
I guess it's an interesting VR experiment, but it's overpriced at $9.99 and may be a game you should wait to buy during a sale. It needs more refinement and more entertaining elements to be considered replayable enough or immersive enough to be worth the asking price. I'll give it another go once it gets to its 1.0 release.
