Ok, so Morpheus…
I tried out the Castle demo.
Of all the VR stuff I tried out, this was by far the best. Although that’s really due to the nature of the demo, it wasn’t necessarily better than anything else on a technical level, but
it gave me by far the most immersive experience.
Just a quick note, you have a move controller in each hand, and the triggers make your hands in the demo clench up and make a fist.
Initially, when the put the headset on, you notice there’s some tunnel vision going on, but after about 20 seconds, your eyes kinda just lock in, and it just CLICKS so hard. Suddenly, it feels natural. Factor in some quality headphones, and there really is a strong sense of… How do I put this… I guess presence. You really do feel as if you’re inhabiting this courtyard environment you’re in, even if the graphics are pretty meh.
Honestly,
the moment it all clicks, it really feels whimsical and incredible. It’s just quite a memorable first time experience to say the least. I say this as a 30 year old.
Ok, so, I start looking around, and low and behold, this shit totally checks out. I look to my right, I look above me, I look in front of me again, and kinda just take it all in. It’s so nuts. Then I very quickly do a 180 to see if there’s anything behind me, and boom, there is. Mind blown. The level of immersion if just bonkers.
I then turn back around, and look to my left, and there’s a sword rack just chilling there. I reach over, and just to see if it works, I slowly twist my wrist so that my thumb is essentially pointing down, and I grab the sword, and slowly twist my wrist back to point the sword right side up.
At this point I’m thinking this is pretty insane. I’m slowly moving the sword around, not really swinging it, but kinda just swinging it around elegantly like a wand, or a maestro.
I then decide to see if it’s possible to hand the sword over to my left hand. I try it, and it works. Suddenly, I feel something that I genuinely haven’t felt since I was 12 and played Mario 64 for the first time. Everything about this moment felt absolutely revolutionary.
I then start to beat on this dummy in front of me, and all the motions I’m trying for the most part are working pretty well. Jabbing motions, hooks, you name it, it works. Within a few seconds, I lost interest in beating on this thing, and wanna just get back to the experience of controlling myself within this environment.
So I take a step forward, and viola, I’m taking a step forward. Side step, step back, walk in tiny circles while moving my head around, it all works, and feels pretty damn natural. At this point I could care less about fighting, and am too entranced but the ability to just exist in this virtual environment. I look around, I duck, I turn around and just start walking away, at which point I crashed into a real life wall, but it didn’t matter, all of it was just so damn immersive.
I crashed into the wall a couple more times just because the sensation of walking felt SO INCREDIBLE. I can’t imagine how insane it’s gonna feel to actually run. Holy shit. Such an exciting thought.
Any ways, suddenly, I’m holding a mace, and I’m just swinging it around, everything again, just feeling pretty natural when all is said and done. Then I’m magically holding a crossbow and just shooting around without any trouble. Having perfect aim like in RE4 Wii.
Then the massive dragon drops, which would’ve been awesome if it looked cool and the graphics didn’t suck, but the scale was still great, and just gave a good idea of what it would feel like to stand next to some giant creature.
Demo then ends. A really special experience to say the least.