Eye of the Temple, The Break-In & Hubris (VR Demo)

During the Steam VR Fest towards the end of July I tried out a few VR demos that I thought were worth talking about. First up was Eye of the Temple which released nearly a year ago and was a game I was considering picking up in the sale. But I didn’t, not because I didn’t like what I played, but because this is one of the few VR games I’ve tried that I just don’t have the necessary play space for.

The game does warn you that you need a minimum play area of 2m x 2m and mine is only 2m x 1.6m but I figured I’d give the demo a spin and see if I could make it work . . . and within about 5 minutes of playing I’d already walked into a wall.

The game uses a pretty novel method of traversing the environment whereby you actually take steps in reality to move from one block to the next. It’s very clever the way the game always turns you back towards the centre of your play space, but they’re really not kidding with those space requirements – and to be frank, I’d say they really are the minimum – ideally you’d want 2.5m x 2.5m just to be safe.

It’s a real shame because I really like what I saw of it in the demo. The visuals were bright and crisp and it’s just a really neat concept for a VR game but, unfortunately, I just don’t have enough space for it. But maybe that will change in the future, so it’s one I’ll always keep in mind.

Next up was Hubris a science-fiction action / adventure game in which you play as some kind of special operative investigating a mystery on an alien world. Visually, Hubris is pretty impressive. The alien world looks great and there’s a good sense of scale. The game utilises a pretty decent climbing system that can feel a little awkward at first, but you soon get the hang of it.

There’s also a swimming system that I’m not as comfortable with because rather than make ‘swimming’ motions to move in a particular direction, you move underwater by pushing away from the direction you want to move with your hands. So if you want to swim down, for example, you have to make this rapid ‘lifting’ kind of motion. It’s . . . a little odd and it doesn’t quite work and it’s a little too physical considering how much swimming you have to do in this demo.

I spent half my time in this demo just flapping my arms around like an idiot trying to traverse the underwater areas. I just don’t understand why they didn’t make it so you can make a forward swimming motion and move in the direction you’re facing. I did like shooting evil squids with a laser harpoon though. That was fun.

I think my main concern with Hubris is that it feels like a game aiming for a high level of production quality, with an extensive and substantial campaign, exploration, crafting, combat and fully voiced characters . . . but I’m not sure it’s a game with the budget to match that ambition. It feels a little too rough around the edges. It’s a game I’ll keep an eye on, but the demo didn’t quite win me over.

And finally we have The Break-In. After sinking over 100 hours into Phasmophobia in co-op with a friend, we decided to try something similar, but different. The Break-In is a game that, like Phasmophobia, you can play in or out of VR and you can co-op with up to 3 friends to enter a location and complete various objectives. You have a home ‘base’ where you select your mission, your target location and you purchase various pieces of equipment to take with you. You then load into the location and get to work. But rather than hunting ghosts and trying not to die, you’re stealing everything you can and trying not to get busted by the cops.

It’s fun, but rough. We experienced a number of bugs and control issues but despite that, we wanted to keep playing. It’s a game with a great concept and a lot of potential but it’s a game that still clearly needs a lot of work. The AI is kind of . . . bad which is a pretty big problem. There’s also a really bad balance between certain maps. There’s one where there’s practically nothing good to steal and another where there’s almost too much . . . and it’s far too easy to do so.

And the game just needs more . . . more challenge than ‘don’t get seen’. More tools like lock picks or drills for opening safes. In the demo, all the doors / windows are already unlocked and there’s no alarms to worry about. And more locations / mission types – like a bank job to break into a vault, or a mansion with patrolling guards.

It’s a game I’ll be rooting for because I can see how good it could potentially be, but it’s not there yet and it’s still got a long way to go.