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Tethered: the answer to my "stay in VR forever" needs

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I know this is Day 2 of Robo Recall madness. And I'm about to jump back in to Robo Recall shortly after posting this. However, I did buy Tethered today, and spent a solid hour playing it:
https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1263430353678786/

Games like Dead & Buried and Robo Recall have a huge action-packed addiction factor. However, I have really been longing for a game where I can just sit in my comfy chair, plug in to VR, and stay there fully immersed, losing all sense of time, while being fully stimulated by more than just a repetitive style experience. As much as I'm loving Robo Recall, and despite my huge addiction to Dead & Buried and Eve Valkyrie... at the end of the day the experience eventually starts to repeat. That's not a bad thing or a complaint, it's simply the nature of the beast. And the development studios of these games are doing an amazing job of keeping new content updates coming to break the monotony.

Few genres are able to provide a more non-repetitive experience natively (i.e. not relying on constant updates). The RTS genre when done right is one of them (WarCraft, StarCraft, etc). You can play the same maps over and over and get entirely different experiences by simply changing core strategies.

About a month ago I bought AirMech Command hoping to achieve my VR goal, but as fun as it is... I found the constant twitch-based approach to multi-map management a bit too overwhelming to remain relaxed. I considered maybe the Tower Defense VR game, but I still can't get myself to pay for these since I've been playing them for free since the early WarCraft 3 days.

Prior to Tethered I was close to my "stay in VR forever" desire with Darknet, but at the end of the day it is just a single approach to a single puzzle.

Tethered has quickly taken center stage. In fact, I now feel rushed to finish Robo Recall so that I can get that out of my system, and just enjoy countless hours of Tethered as I patiently await the next round of crazy good VR releases.

This game has all the elements of a quality RTS title: environment control and impact; unit upgrades; structure upgrades;  combat; and an overarching story. Granted, it lands more on the adorable side with the little Peeps. However, if anyone has ever played that old school PC title, Black & Whitehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_%26_White_(video_game) ), then you may find a special nostalgic experience with the godlike elements of Tethered.

Since I'm only 1 hour in I clearly can't recommend it. However, I am very excited after beating the first map to finally experience a sit-down Touch game that has stimulating longevity.

ps,
If you're afraid of heights then this game aint your cup o' tea, as you are a god floating above the clouds the entire time.
21 REPLIES 21

MowTin
Expert Trustee
Another stay in VR forever game is Elite Dangerous. It's an entire galaxy. It really is endless. 

I may try tethered but the thing I hate about RTS games is they are time consuming and in multiplayer you can't really pause because your wife is calling you. 

How long is the campaign?
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I do own Elite but dammit I can't seem to get my lazy ass to finish the plethora of HOTAS mappings. Eve Valkyrie takes all of 5 minutes, but I feel like ED needs study time and practice quizzes before attempting a mapping. I need to stop being a beesh about it and do it already.

Not sure how long Tethered's campaign lasts, but just the tutorial map was near an hour.

Zoomie
Expert Trustee
Agree with MowTin about Elite.  Years ago I was able to lose myself in RPG's like FFII (IV) on the SNES, or turn based games like Civ.  Even then, the real world would encroach on the experience - usually in the form of "holy shit the sun it's 5am I have to work in 2 hours and I haven't slept!".  

Elite has consumed many hours of my life and I never felt like I wasted them.  I walked around the cockpit of my first Cobra, just staring at the panels and lights and thinking "The left chair is where my real chair is - the right one is empty space".  You know VR is taking hold when your brain doesn't want to walk through the co-pilot seat even though you know it's empty space in real life.

Elite was the first game where I felt I could spend extended periods of time in VR.  Games like "The Climb" are fantastic, but I feel worn out after an hour of play and usually have to take a break.  I could play Elite for 4 hours straight and I'd be disappointed when it was time to quit.

I've been away from VR for the past three months on a work trip - so it'll be interesting to see if my opinions have changed.  I have a pretty massive backlog of titles to play when I get back.  My Touch has been sitting, untouched, on my desk, since release.  
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C Clarke

MowTin
Expert Trustee

Zenbane said:

I do own Elite but dammit I can't seem to get my lazy ass to finish the plethora of HOTAS mappings. Eve Valkyrie takes all of 5 minutes, but I feel like ED needs study time and practice quizzes before attempting a mapping. I need to stop being a beesh about it and do it already.

Not sure how long Tethered's campaign lasts, but just the tutorial map was near an hour.


Yeah, Elite is pretty hardcore. YouTube is your friend. There is a YouTube video that shows you how to map easily. 

Then you'll have to get used to some of the weird mission quirks. The galaxy is so huge  you feel overwhelmed. But it's definitely a place where you can lose all sense of time. 
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

kojack
MVP
MVP
Elite 2.3 update will add even more buttons to map. 🙂
The number of fire buttons is going from 2 to 4. Hell yeah!
Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
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elboffor
Consultant

am I the only one who just plugged in the x52 pro and played the game?

This is my forum signature.
There are many others like it, but this is mine.

Choronzon
Adventurer
Remember Body Of The Night? The loop at the end, some mongrel running down the road - that's me, looking at the spooky trees and listening to deep techno.

That, my friends, is forever.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Tethered is a great game. Just spent about an hour in it as well. It would be nice though to be able to just grab those little guys and help them out, rather than command them where to walk - but I understand that is part of the strategy in the game. 

nrosko
Superstar
I really like tethered, its well thought out VR game, movement is good. Just feel the maps are a bit small so far & doesn't look like they get much bigger.