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Wanderer looks amazing - reviews and impressions

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

6077a20ba9e93d9e78c76649_Character-test-5-min.JPG

  

The trailer just arrived:

 

 

According to the devs:

“While Wanderer is an ambitious effort in delivering a feature-length game for VR, our team is confident the graphics, gameplay and story will offer an exciting prospect for VR gamers,” notes M Theory and Oddboy in a statement.

Wanderer is going to be a three-part series, with M Theory and Oddboy partnering with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) on the first instalment. But it’s not a PlayStation VR exclusive, the studios have already confirmed that SteamVR and Oculus platforms will be supported."

https://www.vrfocus.com/2021/04/epic-time-travelling-adventure-wanderer-arrives-in-q3-2021/

 

The game is inspired by one of my favorite TV shows, namely Dark:

 

 

The action adventure game is out for Rift and SteamVR in the summer 2021 - some screenshots:

 

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  6076495b4acef404d987fcd2_Gameplay 04.JPG

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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"

26 REPLIES 26

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Just a nice shot from Wanderer, which shows one problem to solve - but not really a hard one: when passing through the waterfall, the torch won't be lit anymore - and you need the torch to be lit:

 

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I guess 50% of my enjoyment of Wanderer is simply to be present in these magical worlds. And that goes for many other VR games too - and amazing graphics matter a lot for immersion.

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"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

A new 90% rating by Gaming Nexus - the reviewer used a Quest 2:

 

"Any fan of puzzle or adventure games is going to have a blast pondering Wanderer’s mysteries. Wanderer requires some insane leaps of logic and intuition, which makes it incredibly satisfying when everything clicks and the pieces slide into place. It doesn’t hurt that the game is one of the best-looking VR games I’ve seen, either. The fantastic worlds, the amazing puzzle design, the spectacular characters; all combine to create a VR experience that frankly restores some of my faith in the medium. Wanderer is not to be missed."

 

Read the full review here:

 

https://www.gamingnexus.com/Article/7518/Wanderer/

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"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Wanderer just got two patches, and the game is close to perfect now, I had some problems losing sound when starting the game, but all works perfectly now. Changes include:

 

- Fixes softlock in watch tutorial.
- Fixes not being able to drop specific objects in some areas.

- Achievements added.
- Seated mode and player height adjustment.
- Fix controller stick input not registering.
- Added bindings for Vive Cosmos.
- Ensure Vive Wands don't appear prior to controller detection.
- Improvements to snap turn and rotation issues on Oculus and Index controllers.
- Controller based locomotion steering
- Fix grab crash when entering and leaving certain levels.
- Improvements to some watch interactions (more to come).
- Ensure the tutorial can't be overridden whilst in progress.
- General fixes to VHS tapes.
- Fixed fatal crash with Spanish Shield.
- Fix ability to locomote off boat and trigger exit.
- Improve hint dialogue.
- Improve visuals on Mayan spin puzzle.
- Fixes to inconsistencies with scoring on dart game.
- Fix the frog key disappearing.
- Ensure giant frogs don't appear in Woodrock without tripping.
- Fix to locomoting whilst holding fixed grabbables.
- Narrative variables being reset when the game is completed and a new game is selected in the same session.

 

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1599560?updates=true&emclan=103582791469876306&emgid=3127189...

 

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Just another image to show the ultramersion texture quality in Wanderer - often even better than Alyx or similar. Click on the image to enlarge 

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"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

The game is now 15% off:

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599560/Wanderer/

 

- and a new patch 1.07 arrived a few days ago:

 

  • Added English subtitles.
  • Changed locomotion to no longer bounce players back.
  • Updated 20 Jump St achievement to be obtainable.
  • Added new watch skin.
  • Adjusted placement for 5 Temporal Shards to make them obtainable.
  • Probable fix for Buckler (shield) so it no longer disappears when re-entering level.
  • Fixed recovery issues on some items.
  • Fixed issues with main narrative stopping.
  • Fixed issue with some players getting stuck or falling from raft.
  • Increased dead zone on thumbstick slightly to alleviate some players' control drift issues.
  • Removed subtle white outline for some headsets after time travelling.
  • Changed UX around items returning with you to the apartment if introduced to a new scene.
  • Fixed ability to achieve Deja Vu achievement.
  • Added more respawn areas so objects don’t get stuck in certain places.
  • Fixed bug where if player inserted item into inventory while half pressing trigger it could cause a crash when getting the item out.
  • Amended some minor spelling mistakes.
  • Fixed some locomotion issues in certain places.
  • Fixes some recovery issues on certain scenes.
  • Fixes a particular antiquity fragment becoming available before it should be.
  • Fixes issue where players would lose hands if holding certain objects and time travelling.
  • Fixes issue with watch being un-grabbable for some players at certain points.
  • Fixes issue with certain objects being thrown in levels that would prevent players from continuing.
  • Fixes softlock with specific item being used on another puzzle and becoming unavailable.
  • Fixed some duplication issues with certain places and objects.
  • Potential fix for Temporal Shards going missing.
  • Fixes issue with some collectible items going missing.
  • Fixed issue where Steam users would start on the floor.
  • Fixed issue that could cause a crash when starting a game on Steam.
  • Added experimental support for Vive Cosmos controllers

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"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Note that the devs have pulled the native Oculus driver support from the Steam version:

 

According to the devs: "We decided to remove the Oculus SDK from the SteamVR version, as it was causing problems for some people. I haven't actually checked if there is any performance difference through the SteamVR version. We might check this at a later point. If there is a difference we can start uploading a second version on a beta branch so people can use the Oculus SDK if they want to."

Some are now experiencing a massive performance drop - and it may be about 30%:

 

"Ever since the devs changes things and removed Oculus support from the Steam version of the game, the performance sucks now on Quest 2. Why did you folks do that? The problems people were experiencing was there own fault with the way they launched it through Virtual desktop. This was established and i was totally ignored. My review will go negative because of this move."

 

More info here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1599560/discussions/0/3186864020206564440/

 

If you buy the game in the Oculus Rift Store, native Oculus drivers are included - but for now beware of buying the Steam version if you plan to use an Oculus hmd. 

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"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

The biggest patch yet has just launched - full finger tracking with the Index and much more 😍

 

 

More info here:

 

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1599560?updates=true&emclan=103582791469876306&emgid=3218396...

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"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

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I'm back to Wanderer - it's really a hard game even when coming from Red Matter 2. When I solve some puzzles in Wanderer I mostly feel like:

 

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Unfortunately I don't spend most of my time solving puzzles, because mostly I am stuck - and then the game easily makes me feel like this (IQ 20?) dude:

 

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Fortunately, I did crack a few nuts last night - and got this puzzle solved:

 

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This figure is nicely animated, but can't be shown in stills:

 

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Compared to Red Matter 2, Wanderer has more mature content. Like capturing this frog on a hook, and it's still alive and moving on the hook, might not be easy for some to watch:

 

download (8).jpg

 

- and this young person had his heart cut out - and you use his heart to solve a puzzle:

 

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Also one dude could not handle touching the cockroaches in the game and had to refund:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1599560/discussions/0/3428948910194590450/

 

I had no problems using a heart or some cockroach, lol - had the light the green flame:

 

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Compared to Red Matter 2, you have many real npcs in Wanderer. Red Matter 2 does have the better textures - but Wanderer has higher poly count in most locations. This did look like a real kitchen:

 

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- and just to show the ultramersion textures on the bottle - like in Red Matter 2:

 

download (15).jpg

 

I'll be back in Wanderer tomorrow 🙂

 

Btw, Wanderer is not very demanding (originally made for PSVR) - using Ultra settings, I can run the game using Index res 300% - while I could do res 400% in Red Matter 2. The difference between res 300% and res 400% is not that big - maybe like 25% or so... Wanderer now also supports AMD FidelityFX™ - and using res 300% Wanderer looks razor-sharp. 

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"