Yore VR

https://youtu.be/-GTMDvihOwo This is going to be a long one... Rereviewing the game as of version 3.9.2. Lets tackle the elephant in the room first off. Save games were reset again. This game requires a considerable amount of effort to achieve even small things. There's a trade off on work vs sense of accomplishment. Not complaining about that. I like that sense of accomplishment. What I'm upset about is the loss of save data. It's an EA title. Wipes will happen. They suck but are sometimes necessary. I will say that it does impact the review of the current state of the game. It's hard to recommend a game like this when their gameplay will be reset every month or so. Ok, on to locomotion. There are a lot of options here but it ends up being somewhat complicated to get things set up the way you want. Eventually I can get Onward style locomotion on the left controller but it takes a minute or two of finagling it. A simpler interface would be appreciated. Something to select left or right hand for locomotion as well as a brief explanation of what the locomotion labels mean. D-Pad vs Joystick vs etc... The FOV reduction settings seem to have been fixed and I no longer have half my vision removed when walking. Thank you! The basket seemed a bit quirky. My guess is that it was getting stuck on my hand and that was causing me to think that I didn't have to keep the trigger held down and was doping it as I walked. Grabing it from the bottom was a bit difficult and I ended up just flipping it upside down by it's handle. With the physics in the game, that makes for a very awkward real world motion where you have to twist your wrist awkwardly while squatting down a bit. Even then, there's a good chance you're going to spill resources outside of the box. It would be nice if the box lids were open some more and angled backwards instead of forwards. I do like the change to the basket so that it can carry 7 of each type of resource as opposed to just 7 items as I think it was originally. (may be wrong on that one, memory is a bit fuzzy.) The winter update has brought new textures to the resources. They're now snow covered. While this is pretty cool it does mean that it's very hard to tell stone from ore now. The tutorial is well done for the most part. There were two issues. One where Mr. Bones expected me to push Build without actually telling me to do so. He just said to come over here and then stopped talking. Another time he seemed to trigger voice lines before the previous one was finished. Not the end of the world but could use some attention. Smelting the ore into an ingot. This was the worst experience yet. Specifically the tongs. The tongs are pretty ridiculous at the moment. For some reason they seriously trigger the existing hand tracking issues: https://youtu.be/-GTMDvihOwo?t=1478 From start to finish it's going to take about 20 - 30 minutes to craft one ingot. That seems on the high side to me. Speaking of the hand tracking. I have more problems with the hands desyncing from the controller in this game, especially when lower to the ground. I have to think it's something about the games code for the hands themselves as there are times that the locomotion icon is still correctly tracking the position of the controller while the hands are going crazy. Again it's something unique to Yore VR that I don't experience with the same frequency in other games. The update to the Pub is a welcome change where we gradually upgrade the building rather than having an up front cost of 300 wood/stone and 50 ingots or whatever the original cost was. It was a pretty hefty price tag. Breaking it up to see your progress works much better. The wolves are pretty easy to take down solo but when they group up, all standing on the same spot, they get pretty deadly. I did get the chance to confirm that you can die in the current version of Yore VR. You simply teleport back to your shack and start over. The cave system was actually pretty large. I wasn't expecting it to be that big. It looks like there are several key rooms where important encounters might take place. I'm interested in seeing what they have planned for filling it up with stuff to slaughter. TL;DR: The game shows promise and the devs are actively fixing and releasing updates but in its current state there are a number of issues that prevent me from recommending the game. If you are ok with or enjoy being a part of the dev process and working around bugs then you may want to support the devs and pick up a copy. If you want a fully fleshed out experience. Keep this one on your radar and wait for now. EDIT: Follow up after crafting an ingot: https://youtu.be/JrMqNFtRGy8 EDIT 2: Updated gameplay video to patch 0.3.3.3. The originals are recorded below for reference. https://youtu.be/5NeJtvkOj-M https://youtu.be/fcyl0mlMCfU EDIT 3: Rereviewed the game based on the 3.9.2 update. Previous review video here: https://youtu.be/l4w7S6BaP0Y

Unfortunately I was a little too excited at the thought of an "Open World" VR game. This game could have some potential if they added that actual feel too it. At best it traps you in a fairly large invisible box. This is early access, but this game feels like pre pre early access. $14.99(discounted) is still a steap price for the lack of content, detail, poor sounds, and scale (or lack there of). Maybe with quite a few updates I will re-purchase but at this stage, it's not worth.

I have always been a fan of the sandbox games that come out on steam but not that there is one in VR its lke a whole new level of immersion. Being able to roam around and explore the beautiful scenery, hunt some deer and harvest materials to craft with is just exreamly fun. Its still in early access but I can already tell great things are going ot come out of this game.

I'll temporarily suspend any gripes about the bugs given the next update will release an entirely re-coded new version. I will say however that I tried the highly unstable but more updated version of this alpha you can switch to via steams game properties and while entirely unplayable I did see that many of the core mechanics I found unwieldy had at least some attempt (even if early and still not functional) to take them in exactly the direction it seemed like they should be taken. After completing what there is to complete I think this has a massive amount of potential. Even though it is little more than a tech demo right now that only just barely showcases some of what the developer plans to add I did find I enjoyed myself. If the developer sticks to it and manages to execute things correctly I think this could become a really solid addition to the genre.

YoreVR shows enormous potential to realize a meticulously detailed and well-researched Medieval village sim / RPG, as a highly immersive VR experience. I've been following development for a while now, and full disclosure the devs were kind enough to give me an early access key, as I have a QA background and offered to help out with some testing. This review is my own honest opinion of the game as it stands at the time of this writing. This is definitely an early access game in the literal sense: access to the early development builds of the game, with dramatic updates happening fast; access to the developers on many channels, to help shape ideas and direction for the final game; and access to the community, already very active, passionate, and bringing many great ideas to the tavern table. The game is not without its rough edges: systems in need of tuning and feedback, and ideas that may or may not pan out in the long run. All of these things are, at heart, crafting the experience we all want this game to provide, on the anvil of solid game development. As such, if you want to be very involved in helping shape a Medieval sandbox experience, this is a great opportunity, and I highly recommend the game even at this early stage. In my 2 hours or so of play thus far, what I've really enjoyed: + Large, free-to-roam world. Not infinite of course, but cleverly defined, it feels very natural. Very pretty open world. + Excellently realized medieval crossbows, of varying sizes and forms. + Archery, one of the staples of VR, but with an interesting aspect of being able to move BOTH hands as you aim. + Mr. Skeleton. Won't ruin the fun, but one of the better tutorial NPCs I've encountered in a while :) + Crafting, Resource Gathering, Bellows, Blacksmithing. Still rough around the edges, but a good foundation for a robust crafting and building game. Very excited to see how these develop. Other thoughts: + The movement system can take some getting used to. It's best to try all three movement modes and find one that suits you best. It took me a good while to get used to the Dpad movement, though now I find it the best way to get around. + READ THE INSTRUCTION SIGNS. They contain very crucial information for playing the game. Remember, the tutorial is still being developed, so if you skip the intro signs, you may find yourself a bit lost. + Juggling. I've tried it, it's very difficult, neigh impossible at this stage. I've already gone over it with the devs and they are working on it, but save yourself some time and don't try it until it's fully supported. Yes, the apples are right there, tempting, but trust me. IN SUMMARY: Great potential, certainly early access but a rich and varied sandbox even at this early stage, with active and interactive development happening quickly. Recommended.

*Edit 8/15/2017* For an early access title this game seems to be falling into the shovelware category due to lack of updates. Not a good sign for a game that is in early access to be updated so rarely. Beta builds are fine but for the majority of players who don't participate they are stuck with a product sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Avoid this one until something changes in the future. *Original Review* Yore has an appealing idea behind it but the bugs, lack of information, and a lack of some desperately needed features hurt the experience. The game feels at this moment like it is trying to do too many things, but none of the individual features work as well as they should. The game desperately needs some useful information (preferably in the game) for how to work and operate the smelter. Trying to make iron out of ore I was able to figure out, but when I went to add it to the building I was attempting to construct it would not accept it, it just fell to the ground. This created a lot of confusion and made me wonder if I had actually created a bar of iron, or something else. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong, that is where the frustration kicks in. I'm not sure I'm doing anything wrong, or if it's just bugged, this is where some in-game tutorials would be of great assistance. Another game breaking bug I have encountered is when placing a building for construction, I got launched up into the air and flew out of the world. When this happens, you cannot recover your game, because the fall does not kill you, and restarting just spawns you back wherever you were when you disconnected. The game desperately needs a way to respawn the player at a specific location, and/or a way to from within the game, delete the current save (you have to browse to your saved game file and manually deleted it from explorer). I'd like to see the developers focus on the basics of the game and get those working well, and fix some bugs before adding a bunch of new features. As the game currently stands (in my case) I am unable to make any progress, and the game is essentialy a walking simulator. I'd love to come back to it but right now I would not recommend it until they work some kinks out and address some of the issues I mentioned. I'll check the game out when it is updated as I always do and update my review accordingly.

DO NOT BUY. ABANDONED BY THE DEVELOPERS.

Please send $15 back to me...