Recent reviews by Bassem

One of the earliest well made PVP VR shooters, with a sweet territory control mechanic and many gamemodes. I wish I played more of it when it was popular and there was more of a playerbase.

My first time playing a "visual novel", so I'm not sure how it compares to others. It was nice enough I guess. Pretty lighthearted. I feel like I only experienced one path in a branching storyline, but I'm not too tempted to replay anytime soon.

I was looking forward to the exams since those offer a chance to practice inventive problem solving with magic spells, but there was only a handful and the final one was basically a cutscene.

I recommend if at 5$ or less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjaOr9k248


Jokes aside, regardless of the juvenile phallic theme, the gameplay is pretty fun, if overly simple. I would say it doesn't really warrant the asking price, but I got it on sale and I've been enjoying it. Check out the video, what's shown is pretty much the extent of what the game offers.

I was part of the beta testing for Homebound and received a free Steam key to playtest; the dev often sent us forms to fill out while he worked on improving it, and I played and sent feedback a couple of times.

As it is now, it's definitely better than it first was - but sadly that's still not nearly good enough to recommend.

Homebound is a short VR experience (wouldn't call it a game, more like an interactive film). You begin as an astronaut on board a space station. The next scenes lead you to Earth.

I'll say this, it's beautiful to look at, and the production level is high. Great voice acting from the HAL-like station AI. The station itself looks realistic in that lived-in way, with clutter and personal notes.

The scene where you are approaching landing looks especially impressive.

But...

Do you remember ADR1FT? It was in development around the time that the Oculus DK1 was coming out, and the devs soon said it would be compatible with VR, and people were hyped. Of course, then roomscale and motion controls became a thing, and by the time ADR1FT released, it was woefully obsolete in terms of VR implementation and it was nauseating to play.

This game is the exact same. ADR1FT at least can be played without VR, where it's not so bad. But Homebound is VR only, and the controls and locomotion are utterly horrible, whether you're using a gamepad or motion controllers. It's guilty of all the bad practices when it comes to VR. Screen shake, moving the camera around without player input, artificial view rotation (triggered by you turning your head!!), blurry UE rendering (getting in the way of appreciating the beautiful environments), bad interaction, oh and bugs that impede progressing through the sequence of events. Everything.

It makes me wonder if the dev(s?) had the chance to play other VR games and see how it's done. Maybe it was too late to make changes; maybe it would have been too much work to fix everything.

No, I can't recommend it, not one bit. It's sad because I see the work that went into it and the potential it has.

You're plonked down in the middle of a snowstorm and tasked with finding shelter and warmth. Your time is running out and your temperature is dropping (the UI is on your wristwatch, which is good). You can barely see ahead of you. Each teleport jump eats away at your time depending on how far you jump - a clever game mechanic that I appreciate.

Find your way through the blizzard, make sure you find everything you need, and perform tasks in the right order and within the time limit in order to make it to safety and survive.

The voice acting and the UI are great.

When you finish it, you get a peek at the larger game that's being planned, and a video trailer that's pretty cool actually.

Cons:
I don't like the constant heartbeat sound - I can't stand games that do that.
Also the teleport beam shoots straight out rather than in an arc like it should, which makes the bumpy hilly terrain difficult to navigate.
Your virtual hands are weirdly positioned. Not a big deal but it's a bit jarring.

Not sure how I feel about it having a price. It's basically a demo and very short. But I enjoyed playing it, so I don't mind so much.

Thumbs up for effort, that's about it.

It's free, so you won't lose money if you try it, just time.

Ripple Effect is a collection of mini-games gathered around a few in-game hubs, of which one is multiplayer-oriented.

It has surprisingly good voiceover, and it's visually great (using assets maybe? if so, well used). Otherwise, my reaction would be summed up with a shrug.

I wouldn't say any of the mini-games are fun to play nor particularly well made. They are basically proofs of concept.

I don't regret taking the 40 minutes to check it out, if only to walk around the beautiful locations.

Looks beautiful, sounds great, excellently voice acted.

Just a little more than a walking simulator; the added interactivity is appreciated.

Story pulls you in fast and gets you hooked, then fizzles out at the end.

Still, very much worth playing. Get on sale.

Cute, funny, short, well made, the voice acting is on point. No wonder this is by one of the guys behind Stanley Parable and Accounting VR. Give it a go, it will make you grin.

Put together an environment, props and characters, then jump into the characters and act out a scene by moving naturally in VR and changing facial expressions.

The dev team who keep putting out new resources to work with, as well as uploading the best Mindshow content out there on their youTube channel.

It's a breeze to use and has great UI. I love playing with Mindshow, it gives me all the tools I need, I just gotta come up with good ideas, that's the hard part!

If you have a VR headset and motion controllers, this is a given, and it's free!

Finished in two hours, at least a quarter of which was spent sitting through unskippable, pretentious, ridiculous "plot" cutscenes. Is text counted as cutscenes now? The end credits four people with the "writing and story". Four people. Jesus.

This game didn't need any story at all. Better to leave it as a gameplay only thing than have such a weak and annoying offering.

Why am I going on and on about the story and the intertitles? Because they're IN YOUR FACE ALL THE TIME. Oooh, aren't we clever and mysterious! And look, everything is made out of ASCII oh ♥♥♥♥ off.

When it finally does allow me to play, it's not bad. It's Slow-mo: The Game. Time only moves when you move. It's slick and snappy and satisfying. And short as hell. You unlock Endless Mode - after minutes of sitting through more unskippable GOBBLEDYGOOK text - but Endless is unbalanced, unlike the carefully crafted scenarios and sequences in the painfully short campaign. I wish there was more of those.

Wait for a steep, steep discount. This isn't even close to being worth 25$.