Lost On The Island

[h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers [/h1] I do think this is a really good VR relaxation app, but I also think it could have been so much better with just some tweaks. There are really no mini-games or activities, just some basic and limited interactions you can do within the environment. Most of what you are doing is exploration. This is a decent sized island environment with several places to explore and discover interesting sights. The island is absolutely beautiful, especially the land formation, rocks, and vegetation. Most of the creatures also look great, although they are uneven in quality modeling and animations. Locomotion is primarily through teleportation with no turning (you have to turn IRL). However, when you're underwater you do have to do a swimming motion to navigate. In the starting area, you can select what time of day you want. I found the sunset time to be breath-taking. You can also choose which area to explore via nodal teleportataion. However, you can just teleport around the island as well. The sounds were mixed in quality, the seagull area had seagull sounds and the waterfall had sounds, but the dolphins didn't make a single sound, except for the splashing of the water. The animations were pretty good overall, however in some areas the dolphins seemed stuck or in a loop. Contrary to what the store description says, there is really no climbing. I found that mention to be misleading. You basically can teleport up cliffs. You don't actually grab ledges and climb your way up. As far as I can tell, you can't grab anything in the environment, even though you have a grabbing motion animation. You can sort of jump off / dive from a cliff, but the store video is also misleading. Doing that diving motion won't get you to dive. You can press jump near a cliff and you'll likely fall down the cliff. So the diving isn't all that great to be honest. However, you can swim underwater. It works, except once you are in the water it is very difficult to get out. I did the nodal teleporation to the underwater fish at night and couldn't find my way out no matter where I swam. I had to manuallly quit the game. I did enjoy my experience, however, I think the game would be so much better with full locomotion and smooth turning. It would also be wonderful if you could actually climb stuff and interact with items in the environment. The only real interacting is that you can spawn the beach ball in the starting area and the dolphins there will play with it. Unfortunately, I found the dolphins in other areas didn't play with it. You can also swim with the dolphins, but you can't grab them or anything. And if you swim far, good luck getting back. [b]Rate 6/10. I would rate higher, but the price point is pretty high for these clunky controls and limited activities. If it had real climbing / diving / better swimming and more objects you could interact with and better ambient sounds, then it would be totally worth it. [/b]

I REALLY wanted to thumbs up this title. :( While there are a lot of walking simulators out there, only a hand full of titles are directly aimed at relaxation. I would love to explore a new space, discover new areas, but find my personal hauntings as well. Find that perfect meditation spot and bookmark it for ready use. A place to be present and centered, wherever I may be. I can only hope! Sadly, I cannot recommend this title at this time by my mentioned criteria (below) and on principle. I even made sure to take the time to try it on all of my systems to see what was design and what might have been system specific issues or simply defects: ** Tested on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift w/motion, WMR (Samsung Odyssey) | 1060 through 1080 GPUs Pros: * Wonderful concept even if not fully realized, and I feel like this HAS been implemented with some caring rather than a quick wrap cash grab. * The environments are well crafted, and definitely have that "iconic spot" feel to them; That image in your head that embodies a special place, realized, on demand. * Ran smoothly on all of my devices, feels moderately optimized. Cons: * Price - this is NOT marketed as an Early Access game, therefore I must judge it by what is promised in the description vs what is actually delivered. It is almost STRESSFULLY full of "almost-there", as if the road was paved until the concrete ran out, stamped "DONE" and then left those final few yards to our imaginations. I could forgive quite a bit of my experience if I had some inkling of intent for fixing things up, or if this is in fact the GA release and relegated to bug fixes. * Locomotion - Hello Teleport! When first using teleport as guided I was expecting a nice soft pulsating ball, or ethereal projection, gently gliding me to my destination on the breath of angels. What I got was, a very much no-transparency thick white (what I can only describe as) crosshair on the ground that joltingly appeared before me. It feels out of place. * Locomotion Part Deaux - One above them all. Swimming... I love underwater adventures, but What it turned out to be, for me at least, was less a swimming experience and more of a "Drowning Simulator"! It starts fine, . Then... things turned dark. I was having to paddle uncomfortably fast to try and even stay afloat. I was a rock, destined for the bottom of the ocean and there I landed. After spastic attempts to "cruise" along blipping and bobbing through the water it REALLY ended up feeling disturbingly like what drowning might feel like.. No matter how hard I paddled I couldn't keep the surface of the water, and if I took a break for even a second the physics would drop me like a cement-shoe-laden gangster seeing his last few moments on this earth. Sadly it is not in me to withdraw... so I put on my brave face, and paddled my little heart out until back to shore. * Tutorial - I am glad there is one! But unforutnately as quickly as it appeared, it is gone and you are left wanting. (same experience all 3 HMUs) Summary: Would be a promising EA title, if it were EA. Marketed and priced as a GM product, however, all I can say is Caveat Emptor "let the buyer beware". Note: I really do love their concept, and despite the sound of it, a lot of the implementation. So, I am going to eat the cost, and hope that this is a labor of love that will get the care and feeding needed to realize its potential. I see it... Only so frustratingly... out... of... grasp.

It's like the tv show Lost but with a better script, a better idea on where it's heading and with a better looking island. Only problem is there is ♥♥♥♥ all to do there except relax. Oh you can dive, swim with fishes, pat and throw balls for the dolphins but unless you want to sit down with your HMD on looking at a fake sunset with sweat dripping down your nose under the cover. Then it's a little boring, any way see video for full review. https://youtu.be/9oOlmVR5vKw

What an awful VR experience this is. The ocean tide is way too fast and unrealistic. The fish in the ocean look cartoony. The frame rate fluctuates wildly down into the 40s and above. Teleportation is wonky with it working sometimes and sometimes not. Not an impressive or relaxing experience at all in my opinion.