Escape into VR
Leave the chill of spring behind with these experiences
1 £11.99 EVEREST VR
For every person willing to risk their lives to reach the apex of Everest there are at least a hundred wanting to do the same but without any possibility of dying. This VR experience allows you to fulfil that very fantasy, featuring a selection of immersive experiences that’ll take you from base camp to the summit, all from the comfort of your own living room – in theory.
In practice, these are a number of simple scenes requiring you to do as instructed, such as attaching your carabiner to the safety rope and ascending ladders. The interactive dioramameets-documentary is informative and does not shy away from the more morbid side of climbing Everest, even touching on the Dead Zone. An ascent takes just under half an hour and, if you’ll excuse the pun, the price tag in light of that is just a little steep.
2 £7.99 CHERNOBYL VR PROJECT
Speaking of risky endeavours, few places seem to be as alluring for urban explorers as Chernobyl and Pripyat. This VR experience takes you into previously closed-off areas presented as an interactive documentary. As you explore 3D models of locations, narration and 360 video interviews with exclusion zone guides provide insight into life before the disaster.
While the work The Farm 51 has put into recreating locations is admirable, it’s an inconsistent experience. The video interviews are of a noticeably lower fidelity than the 3D model areas, and the sound design is similarly uneven, featuring monotonous narration and a looping wail of strings for its soundtrack. In addition to this, the choice to market this as a horror game (which it is not, it bears closer similarities to a walking simulator) is questionable.
3 £5.35 DAVID ATTENBOROUGH’S FIRST LIFE VR
In the wake of all of this throwback media celebrating life 30 or so years ago, why not try a nostalgia trip to 540 million years in the past? You can explore the trilobite-packed Cambrian oceans during the dawn of life in this VR diorama.
Over the course of a little more than ten minutes you’ll be introduced to long extinct underwater fauna, brought to life through the power of VR and David Attenborough’s trademark narration. While the production value of this deep sea adventure is high, each bizarre prehistoric creature lovingly rendered in 3D, and it shows the potential of the documentary within a virtual space, it’s difficult to fully justify the price of entry or to recommend it to anyone who is not either an Attenborough devotee or really interested in fossils before the dinosaurs.