One of the first games I had a chance to play on Oculus Quest was Home After War.
When I first started playing it, I knew virtually nothing about virtual reality and everything that entails. The first time I played it, my friend strapped me into the headset and gave me no instructions at all as far as how to move or anything like that…
I died within ten seconds.
However, I knew intuitively that I needed to “look” around with my head to get an idea of the layout of the town that I was in, where it was safe and where things were happening outside of my field of view, because otherwise how would I be able to walk around and interact with what I saw.
It was only after getting some more experience in VR that I realized that my friend had not told me about the Touch controller and how it worked and that even if he did tell me it’s likely I would not have fully understood until getting a chance to play on my own.
I would have probably just seen some glowing controllers near my head and not known what to do with them.
That seems like the case for many people who are just now experiencing virtual reality for the first time, especially those who are used to playing video games that are only on a screen.
Each game has its own quirks that may take some getting used to if you are new to virtual reality, but once you get the hang of it, they can be very fun.
However, each game still requires some amount of instruction before playing for the first time.
This means that it might be worth putting in some instructions at the beginning of a game, just so that you can start playing as soon as possible.
Some people might not have a friend within arm’s reach to teach them, and some might already know how everything works before they even put on the headset.
Another way that virtual reality games could improve is to allow players to respawn if they die. The current system requires the player to quit out and then load back in, which can be potentially frustrating since that means that you have to go through those first ten seconds all over again.
If it were possible for the game to save your location so you could respawn without having to restart from the beginning, that would make the game much easier to play.
This could be useful for when you are playing by yourself without a friend to help teach you how to play or tell you what’s going on in the game.
Overall, I think that Home After War was pretty good for an early virtual reality game because I enjoyed the weapons, the gameplay and the storyline.
I think that a few changes can be made to make it even better for future players, but those changes may not necessarily improve the game itself.
It is entirely possible that people who come across this game, later on, mightn’t like it as much as I because they already know how to use the Touch controller and didn’t die within ten seconds of playing.
As of now, I give this game a 4 out of 5 stars because it is not quite perfect, but still enjoyable if you’re willing to give it a chance.