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The destructive force of GREAT PCVR games getting mediocre or no reviews

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

When telling my friends and colleagues that VR is mankind's most impressive invention since the wheel, I keep hearing that many will consider buying a VR headset when great games arrive. I can then tell them about the many awesome VR games, but the problem arises when I have to show some reviews of such great VR games. Often there're no reviews or the authors of VR game reviews seem keen to do their very best bashing most VR games for not being good enough - quite contrary to my experiences.

I know Oculus took great pride getting a top-ranked VR game on Metacritic, and they succeeded with Lone Echo last year. But where do we stand this summer? - Here's today's list of the best PC games, including VR games, from Metacritic (and my friends read such lists):

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According to that list there are no games you can't play without a VR headset. The only game on the list you can play in VR is The Forest, but it works in 2D too. If the list is expanded to show all current games, Gunheart also receives 83 points like The Forest, and again you don't need a VR headset to play Gunheart. My friends easily conclude that since there're no VR-only high-ranking games on the Metacritic list, it's because current VR games are of poor quality and VR is something no one truly needs. 

I can't blame them for drawing such conclusions, and even showing 2D trailers don't help much, because you can't communicate the greatness of VR games using a 2D video.

I think it's a great problem that new and awesome VR games don't get good reviews or do not get reviewed at all. Let's take Moss - it's a VR-only game arriving a few months ago:

Moss Metacritic Score for PC: No score due to insufficient number of reviews.
Moss User Score in the Oculus Store: About 96% average. 

There're just 3 Moss reviews for PC VR on Metacritic, scoring the game at 79, 80 or 90 % - which in no way reflects user experiences. And often I see a similar trend. 

The reason behind the few Moss PC reviews are probably that many reviewers reviewed the PS4 version and then didn't want to do another review for PC VR. Thus compared to the 3 reviews for the Rift/Vive version, there're 62 reviews of the PS4 version! Interestingly many reviewers have no problem reviewing different game versions for PS4, XBox One and PC - like Battlefield 1, Fifa 18 and Rise of the Tomb Rader just to name a few titles. Why didn't Moss PC VR get a similar treatment?

This is a great problem - Moss for the Rift and Vive is not the same as the PS4 version; PS4 has no controllers matching the Rift or Vive, and the PS4 has much lower resolution (also when using high levels of super-sampling on the Rift and Vive). But the greatness of Moss PC VR was never communicated to the masses, because there're almost no published reviews of one of the greatest VR games so far - and certainly the best one thus far in 2018!

Another problem of mixing VR and 2D games on Metacritic is to compare apples and oranges, or probably more to compare grapes and watermelons 😉

To illustrate: Is Subnautica 2D the same as Subnautica VR? Is Elite Dangerous 2D the same as Elite Dangerous VR? I'd personally consider Subnautica VR about 10 times better than Subnautica 2D, even if the VR version does have some problems. So should we rate Subnautica 2D at 10 % and the VR version at 100 % ? Of course this would not be fair, but I'd have no problem rating Subnautica 2D at 65 % and the VR version at 95 %, if we really want to compare apples and oranges - and want to rate both on the same scale. 
I believe that many reviewers rate VR games just as if the games were in 2D. Comparing 2D and VR games, I'd have a hard time rating a 2D game more than 70 % - and that would be for the very best AAA 2D games, while I'd have a hard time rating any high-quality VR game below 90 %. This is due to the fact that VR games are so incredibly more visually impressive and immersive than any 2D game can be - and Touch controllers add a lot to provide a truly unique VR experience. For example I'd have no problem rating a 2D version of Marvel Powers United at maybe 60 %, and to rate the VR version at 90 %, because the immersion - the feeling of being present in the game world - is so much better in VR. 

If reviewers fail to clearly communicate how much better VR games are compared to 2D games, how are persons - who know very little about VR - going to know how much better VR games are compared to 2D games? The current bashing of Marvel Powers United is a great example of this - and it's a great destructive force limiting VR adoption when VR game reviewers constantly criticize gameplay as if a VR game wasn't different from a 2D game. A new VR game which is the best within it's genre - compared to other VR games in the same genre - is per definition the new reference and should carry a rating reflecting that position. - And such a VR game should not carry a rating that reflects a reviewers preference for 2D games in the genre. 

I think it would be great if Oculus representatives could ask Metacritic not to mix 2D and VR games; there are plenty of VR games to support having their own category.
We need to stop comparing apples and oranges. 

Finally we could take a look on the current top three PC games on Metacritic, namely these:

Into the Breach - rated 89 %



Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - rated 88 %


Final Fantasy XV - Windows - rated at 85 %


I do think that some of these games look impressive, but are these games way better than the latest and greatest Rift games? Personally I'd consider the following games so much better; compared to 2D games I'd happily rate Moss at 97 %, Seeking Dawn at 93 % and Marvel Powers United VR at 90 %



Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

131 REPLIES 131

As I said, I too appreciate his posts regarding the games he’s enthusiastic about. (He can be a little exhaustive about some details for my tastes, but more power to him.)

 

I would also appreciate if certain members of the forum could try to refrain from the negativity in areas where they don’t have personal experience or interest. I get it, the very existence of Quest is abhorrent to the PC elitist mindset, along with any VR game that doesn’t push the graphical cutting edge. Guess what, this forum is not just dedicated to PCVR. Quest is the current flagship of Oculus hardware, and Quest users increasingly make up the majority of Oculus users (and perhaps VR users in general). The constant derision towards “garbage, very weak, bottom-end, low-poly, non-HD textured, cartoonish, Questified” content leads to an unnecessarily toxic atmosphere. Let’s try to be a little more inclusive. Just as Rune wants PCVR to get more respect among the PC gaming community, I’d like to see similar consideration for all types of VR among this community.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Seems things haven't changed much for awesome PCVR games getting no reviews, lately - this year we can observe:

 

Myst PCVR (even includes the 2D version): 1 review

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/myst

 

Blair Witch PCVR: 0 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/blair-witch-vr

 

Furious Seas: 0 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/furious-seas

 

A Wake Inn: 2 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/a-wake-inn

 

Sam'n Max VR did get some though, but mostly bad ones (Metascore 65): 5 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sam-max-this-time-its-virtual!

 

Surv1v3: 0 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/surv1v3

 

All of the above are games no longer in early access (left early access in 2021). Usually getting out of early access means reviews start to arrive, but unfortunately not for PCVR games - seems PCVR games often get most exposure at launch even if early access (but early access means no reviews), and these game don'r get much more attention. 

 

In fact, of the recent great PCVR titles released this year, Maskmaker and I Expect You to Die 2 may be close to the only games getting some attention:

 

Maskmaker: 10 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/maskmaker

 

I Expect You to Die 2: 9 reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/i-expect-you-to-die-2-the-spy-and-the-liar

 

That's is why I do my best trying to give the devs more attention, making VR games these days isn't easy, and even if there're more hmds sold than ever, many PCVR games don't get noticed and end up not selling well. 

 

Got a nice response from the devs behind A Wake Inn after posting some screenshots from their amazing game on Reddit:

 

"Hey Runesr2!
Maciek from VRBros here, the studio behind the "A Wake Inn".
I just want to say we are EXTREMLY happy and grateful for your kind words about our game! You actually might not have an idea how reviews like yours are motivating us, indie developers, for even harder work! 🙂 So THANK YOU for that. We were so pleased reading that you are enjoying many aspects of the game!
Maciek VRBros"

 

Nice to get such feedback also illustrating the need for more attention toward many PCVR games. Thus even if I don't think this game looks great, I'll probably buy it just to support the devs:

 

https://forums.oculusvr.com/t5/Games-and-Apps/Legendary-Tales-launching-September-9/td-p/883444

 

Btw, strangely enough, Myst hasn't even sold 20k copies yet - and that includes the 2D version, does not look good to me, but many have complained about high hardware requirements and maybe to many it's old wine in a new bottle - but to me Myst PCVR is one of the best PCVR games ever made, especially within its genre.

 

https://steamspy.com/app/1255560

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"