I managed to pick up my rift plus touch review locally for what I thought was a really good deal. And it was, 450$ USD. Two weeks later, Oculus lowered the price on its rift plus touch bundle effectively effing me over of the chance to make a quick buck on ebay-ing my Rift after I was done playing it.
I imagine a lot of readers on this site or people interested in video games and tech finally bought the Rift at the reduced price of 400 USD. You might be on the fence about the whole VR scene. My hopes is that this review will bring clarity to people on the fence, and maybe those who already own an oculus can resonate with my opinion
UNOBOXING
When I unpackaged my used rift, I was still pretty blown away by the presentation of the device itself, and the box that it was contained inside. It reminded me a lot of when I bought the iPhone 5 the day it was made available in my area. With any of my high tech purchases, I expect steely matte black, sleek industrial design choices, and sturdy build quality. The Oculus manages to check all those boxes, and if it had to recommend it based on sex appeal it would garner a definite 9/10.
COMFORT
Putting on the headset for the first time feels intuitive. The system never felt too tight on my head, but yet it never felt like it was jiggling around during tense gameplay. I did have a few issues with getting the image to appear clear/not blurry, as the headset must be positioned in such a way that your eyes look into the glass straight on. The headset is lightweight but it did feel heavy on my head after around an hour of play.
What really gets the high marks here are the included touch controllers. My oh my, not since the OG Xbox 360 controller have I ever felt like a controller has been as user friendly and natural as the Rift’s. When I say the touch controllers fit like a glove, I’m being quite literal. I tell all my friends this when they first slide their hands into the wands and it instantly clicks with them. Rift +1
COMFORT NO NO’s
The location of the pause/menu buttons are disorientating though, I would have liked if they were easier to reach or more clearly marked. On the subject of disorientation, multiple times I had to peek through the bottom of my headset to adjust something on my computer, such as launching a game, adjusting the sensors, making sure the audio was coming through to my rift earphones, or other really annoying first world problem issues.
There’s often no clear way to do this from within the oculus app or steam VR’s home page. BAD BAD BAD. Don’t make me constantly take my headset off, and then put it back on only to find I forgot to adjust something on the computer. Also, the design decision to not include a general search function for games or apps inside the headset’s interface is another annoyance. Do you really expect me to sift through 10+ pages of poorly categorized apps to find what I really wanted to buy or look at? It’s 2017, time to put on the big boy pants and software engineer in a search box.
GAMES
Out of all the VR headsets out on the market, Oculus now positions itself as being the most affordable, (or at least tied with PS VR), and the most diverse in terms of game library. Of my favorites, I can easily recommend Raw Data, Tilt Brush, and The Lab. The Lab (a free title by the way) won over most of my friends because of Longbow, a mini game where you shoot stick-people and defend a castle. It’s funny how the simplest game in the world is widely regarded one of the best games for VR.
I remember the first time I tried Tilt-brush at a friend’s house. It’s one of those games that make you say holy balls out loud because of how cool it is. Drawing and painting in 3D is a truly unique and mind blowing experience, and I encourage everyone who owns a VR system to try Tilt-brush.
I had a few similar moments with Batman Arkham VR. In the final moments of the game, things get really psychedelic and warps reality in a way I’ve never seen before. Batman was probably one of the most novel experiences I’ve ever had, shotgunning you with a handful of creative ideas, then abruptly ending at a total playtime of about 1 and half hours.
In fact, almost every VR game I played on Oculus contains kernels of greatness, but fall short due to a lack of truly engaging deep content. Another such game is The Brookhaven Experiment. What starts out as one of the funnest wave shooter’s I’ve ever played ends once again, abruptly and left me wanting more. This is an on rails stationary zombie shooter, and boy is it a blast.
The gunplay is tight in Brookhaven, and I truly felt fully immersed in the world. My best friend Alex played the game and screamed at the top of his lungs when a raging zombie burst through a window close to his face. That level of realism is definitely a fun adrenaline rush, but again, the fundamental problem with Brookhaven is the problem with every other game on the market right now, they’re basically mini-games marketed and priced as full AAA titles. Even the Oculus “Summer Sale” was downright disappointing, you won’t find any deals hear. Expect to pay 10+ dollars (most games are around 29.99) for 3ish hour experiences.
Oh, and don’t forget to build a PC powerful enough to run the machine. Expect to shell out over $1000 to meet Rift’s recommended specs.
https://support.oculus.com/help/oculus/170128916778795/
Which leads me to finally wrapping up my thoughts on Oculus as a whole. You can basely summarize my thoughts as this. “An intriguing piece of tech that needs more time to mature.” At this stage, it’s downright hard to recommend a product that lacks a killer app. It’s not that I didn’t wholeheartedly enjoy any time spent in Oculus, but it did lack that certain “hook” aspect that I find in my favorite traditional titles.
Don’t get me wrong, VR is the real deal. This is NOT Kinect 2.0, and it’s not some pie in the sky concept. Motion tracking in general has come a long way, and it indeed does feel spot on now. My main concern with VR is that I can’t play over an hour without needing to take an hour break, or risk feeling like complete crap. I don’t suffer from any kind of motion sickness, but VR simply wears your mind and body out, and it is sometimes vary jarring if a frame does drop or the game crashes.
If you have $400 dollars sitting around, there are plenty of other things I would recommend you spend your hard earned cash on. If you really are curious and strongly desire to see what VR is all about, the Rift will wow your family and friends, if only as a strictly novel entertainment device.
I hope you enjoyed this review, if you would like to, please leave a comment below and I promise to answer :)! I don't get paid for any of the blogs I write and it does take me an hour or two to write them, so sometimes it feels nice to get feedback from the amazing community members here.
~Boo