Where Thoughts Go

"Can you imagine venting in VR?" "No but I can imagine crying in VR" ten out of ten, would do again

To put it simply, this game asks the player a question, and presents them with the answers of those who have played the game before them. You will hear stories of heartbreak, happiness, love, loss, desire, and everything in between. This experience presents you with incredibly deep and personal thoughts of people you've never met, and will more than likely never meet, but in a blip (similar to the award winning game Journey) you've shared this piece of each other with a stranger. And through listening to these stories you gain this better understanding of the question presented to you. This experience is going to ask you to leave a piece of yourself, like all the pieces you just heard, behind for the next person to hear. And in doing so, you can influence and enlighten people from all different backgrounds and places. In it's essence it's not really much of a game, it's this experience you share with hundreds of strangers, and learn what it means and what it takes to truly be human. -------------------- (I oringially played this on the Oculus Store, multiple times, so my time played is not indicitive of my actual time played) But, explanaition aside, what you'll find in this game is a relaxing, beautiful setting with a fantastic musical score to accompany it. It's clearly a passion product, with a small team of developers who even in the few months this game has existed, has inquired, talked to, and learned from their supporters. It's as long as you want it to be, depending on how many stories you want to listen to, but in terms of questions, there are currently very few (about 5) with promises for more to come. -------------------- I highly recommend this game to those who are looking for an emotional, interesting, and beautiful VR experience, worth 100% of the price. 10/10.

This is a great example of a very interesting, creative concept that is poorly executed. And, unfortunately, an app which really doesn't properly exploit VR. The graphics are about as low-resolution as possible. The system is very user un-friendly. The software is buggy (I completed all the chapters and then was stuck on some final screen with my pre-recorded messages playing back to me, with no indication on how to continue, get to a menu or quit). If this was a free program, I'd be more accepting of these faux pas, but not in a pay app. This game poses a question and then lets you listen to (presumably highly-curated) responses from other people on the question. You have to record your own answer to the question to continue to the next "chapter" (question). Unfortunately the questions are very cliched, almost like something you'd hear at a beauty contest, "What was your childhood dream?" "What would you tell your younger self?" And elicit predictable cliched answers ("I wanted to be a super hero." "Do what you love" *yawn*) The idea of hearing other people talk about random subjects is very cool, but I fail to see how this being in VR enhances the experience? You just click on a very low res smiley face and hear a message? It's almost a travesty in how this app's use of VR is an afterthought. It lends virtually nothing to the experience.. You get to hear disembodied voices in an abstract, pixelated wasteland? C'mon. This concept has a lot of potential. I don't think the developers of this game have executed it well, unfortunately. However, I do think this app will serve to inspire others who have more skills to take it to the next level, so that's a good thing.

This is a truly unique and breathtaking experience. People - users - are asked all kinds of questions, and they can record their answers and thoughts - which get into an anonymous storage that others can listen to. Some poeple will make you laugh... some will make you think... and some will make you cry. You yearn to get to know the person with such deep and interesting thoughts - or to simply hug them. But you can't - you can only listen to the words they've left behind, and, finally, record your own thoughts before moving on to the next, even more serious topic. Where Thoughts Go is a masterfully crafted experience with an incredible attention to detail and polish. But more importantly, it has this amazing ability to force you to feel compassion, empathy, be honest and dig deep into your own life.

I'm not crying, you're crying. I went back to the game after a year or so and re-did all the questions and answer. I know it's coming, but I still can't stop the waterfalls. Cheapest therapy of 2020. What is the game about? Basically a set of personal questions. You should aim for a vulnerable and honest answer. That is the point. To have a safe space to be you, free of judgement. You have a set of orbs floating around that contain the recorded replies of previous players. They vary from login to login.

Where Thoughts Go is a community-generated but curated experience that uses the magic of VR to intimately acquaint you with the memories, hopes, and fears of your fellow human beings. While the stories themselves are of course intended as the focal point (and some of them are breathtaking), my favorite element of this is actually the pitch-perfect art and sound design. Even without the stories, these are spaces I would be happy to just exist (maybe even mediatate) in for vast stretches of time. There's so many lovely details-- how you record a thought, how it flies away when you're done, the way thoughts look from chapter to chapter, how a thought rolls away after you've listened to it. Subtle, nuanced, beautiful. My only real critiques: 1) I wish I could pause or restart playback of thoughts-- sometimes I misunderstand someone or someone says something so profound I would just like a moment to take it in. 2) The privacy policy seen at the beginning (yes I read it) seems to put no limit on the ways the community recordings can be used beyond this experience (maybe even sold to third-parties). Just be aware of this, and hopefully it doesn't scare you off from participating. In a VR world full of first person shooters, ultra competitive leaderboards, and experiences that seem like no more than a VR port of a 2D game, it's wonderful and refreshing to see something like this that's tailor-made for the medium and seems to have a primary goal of reminding us of our humanity and bringing us together. More of this, please.

Really disappointed with this. So much, if not all of the audio seemed so forced and did not seem genuine. It all came across as such scripted answers, and because of that I in no way felt like I was part of something special, personal, or meaningful. It felt like listening to an array of voice actors reading from a script. For £7 I really can not recommend anyone get this. Very disappointing.

I don't write much reviews, but this is one that I feel I have to for a most underrated and beautiful game. It was a very therapeutic experience to be able to listen to others about their passions, struggles, and their ability to adapt and overcome. It was a definite reminder, at least for me, for being grateful for what you have in life, even in times of bad. Its a short game, its pretty much the only con I can give. For those that left their thoughts, thank you so much for sharing, and I really hope you find what you are all looking for. I think developers such as Lucas Rizzotto are onto something in the therapeutic gaming world and I truly hope to see more games like this. Games like Kind Words is all I could think of being remotely close to this. For those that have a lot on their mind, I feel this game would benefit you. Be prepared to cry, I know I did, but I ended up feeling better.

This is a really cool thing and I highly recommend it. I wouldn't call it a game so much as an experience, which would normally make me stop reading a review right away, but this one is worth it. You're seated in an absolutely beautiful area (different every level) while very peaceful music plays around you. Then a question is asked. Very simple, but important life questions. Then you'll see hundreds of small spirits around you. Tap a spirit and hear a real persons answer to it. Then add your voice to the collection. This is like getting to hear a page from someones diary and it became oddly personal. I didn't think I'd want to leave a message, but I found myself wanting to be a part of this collection somehow. I really really recommend it. I can see myself returning to this often to hear new stories.

This is the emotionally heaviest thing that's ever happened to me in three decades of playing video games. It's such a weird experiment but it's wild to think that so many of these recorded answers are statements that people would never make to their own family and/or friends. It's also interesting that in about an hour of listening to the recorded answers, there was never a "bad" one. Simply absolute strangers peeling back their psyche and explaining deep failures and thoughts to someone they'll never hear from themselves. This isn't a fun experience but it's an intensely insightful one.