I thought I already reviewed this! Ah, but I did. Nanoscape VR is a copy + paste of Nanoscape, which is not a game. This is a VR exclusive version of the non-game, because in line with the Ig Noble hopefuls at UNSW not understanding the difference between things which are games and things which aren't, they didn't have the technical capacity to just add a VR option to the existing Nanoscape non-game, so decided to pollute the Steam games section with yet another non-game to cover up their inadequacy. Since the developers of this non-game seem happy to copy + paste their non-games onto Steam, I'm sure they won't mind me copying and pasting my review for Nanoscape.
Why is this not a game? Because it's an academically inclined 3D landscape intended to demonstrate cellular anatomy of a cancer cell. I can't really vouch for the authenticity or usefulness of this demonstration in terms of cellular biology, as my major was computer science. One thing a computer science degree does impart on me is a reasonable degree of competency in determining the difference between things which are video games and things that are not, although this skill is not a particularly difficult accomplishment for the layman.
One of the defining features of video games is that they are games, contain gameplay loops, objectives, progression, or at the very least an ability to perform some influence on the environment presented. Let's put that aside, because they implied this should be an "exploration" based on "scientific research".
As an educational aide this fails, I don't know what the hacks over at UNSW were up to but it seems like they were balling around on some grant and felt compelled to come up with it and blow $100 on grant money to publish this on Steam as a game (it's not, I know, see above). Here's a link for the [url=https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPublishing?issueid=925]process to publish Software which isn't a game[/url] on Steam. It's unfortunate the developers chose not to read and follow this process.
There's no accompanying descriptors, documentation or narrative to provide educational backing to this mess that's been dumped on Steam. There's no corresponding educational value. No game value, no educational value. Whew.
My best guess is that this was a hardcore attempt to waste a lot of time on pointless non-productive "science" and a serious attempt to win an Ig Noble Award in 2021, and they failed. They were up against some pretty serious competition last year, including a comprehensive analysis of purring between four cats, a study of the bacteria in discarded chewing gum, in-depth research on how fat economists are, and a remarkably comprehensive thesis on how sex affects the nose.
So understandably these guys failed to win their Ig Noble with "See if we can pay $100 to dump some 3D VR crap pretending to be educational about cancer as if it was a game on Steam".
But to the fine failures over at UNSW, your garbage would have had my vote.
I will once more point out that publishing non-game software on Steam as if it was a game is harmful to the industry. This pollutes the Steam store and takes market space and audience visibility away from actual games produced by real game developers who did the right thing and made complete games for gamers. It's unacceptable and inexcusable for non-game developers to pollute the games store in the way that Nanoscape does.
