HOW WE SOAR
A flight for soar eyes
Flying around on the back of a giant piñata eagle is something you’ve always wanted to do? Your oddly specific (and specifically odd) dreams have finally come true with this VR offering from British trio Penny Black Studios.
Riding atop your fabric-feathered friend, your goal is to fly through a series of coloured rings and collect the materialising power orbs. Do this enough times and it’s onto the next stage, where you repeat the process with more rings and more orbs. If that sounds a little simplistic and repetitive, that’s because it is. Thankfully your attention is held via an interesting narrative about an author who’s juggling his struggles with both writer’s block and a troubled relationship.
This story goes on in the background as you play, with the world (made of paper) folding up origami-style and forming new scenes each time you collect an orb. It ultimately makes for a beautiful game, 1 one where controlling your eagle is a joy2 with responsive controls… as long as you’ve got the stomach for it.
As virtual reality develops we’ve been learning the things that trigger motion sickness in gaming, and two of these are moving quickly downwards and looking to the side while moving forward. Given that this game has you swooping all over the place on an eagle searching for the next orb, it’s no surprise that my stomach is doing its own aerobatics on numerous occasions.
Assuming you aren’t the queasy type, How We Soar is a relaxing VR title, one where the experience is more important than the (non-existent) challenge. It’s not on a par with Flower or the like, but its similar vibe impresses.