Toon Ocean VR is a VR exclusive fishbowl, all you do is look at some cartoony fish. So this isn't a game, it's a barely interactive VR "experience" being sold as if it really was a game.
For those unfamiliar with what actually makes something a game, a "game loop" describes the interaction and feedback a gamer has when playing a game. Tetris, for example, has a game loop where a random block appears, the gamer interacts with the block to position it, and then the game decides if that finishes a row or not, increases the players score if any rows were completed, then gives the gamer another block to position. Counter-Strike has a game loop where a player seeks another player, tests their skill against that player by shooting them or being shot, the computer rewards the player if they win, and then if the player survives, they repeat that loop.
There's no loop here, no true interactive feedback. It simply is not a game, it cannot be "played", unless you consider an activity you can do where you throw a pearl into a shell to be a "game", I guess if unsure, go outside and throw a rock at something (safely) and then think about how much fun that "game" was. Yeah, not a game.
The software features low-polygon assets with cartoony, mobile app style appearance, making this look like a barely functional mobile app from 15 years ago. This visual style is a method that lazy devs often use when they have a lack of interest/capabilty to create highly detailed, high poly models and instead use shader effects to disguise that shortcoming under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the software. It's far below the state of the art visuals gamers expect as a result of their decisions.
This seems to have been made a VR exclusive to prevent any comparison with non-VR 3D games (actual games), a comparison that this game would fail very badly at. Developers must learn that while VR is great, if the only thing that makes the game great is the VR, then the game isn't great at all.
The poor quality of this software is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 4 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality software is to be expected.
So, should you buy this software?
Toon Ocean VR has the farcical price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality (actual) games on Steam. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid non-game product.
