I'm three columns into this series of Oculus Rift round-ups, and it's telling that so far I haven't covered anything that would fit the formalist description of a game. No, I'm not getting involved in anyone's tiresome war about Proteus or Gone Home, but sticking to a more universal whipping boy - the first-gen Oculus' issues with readable text, usable HUDs and motion sickness. Clearly VR still being the wild west plays a major role in keeping devs from making large-scale games for it, as does there being a limited install base for now, but the real problem is getting any of this stuff past experiment status. Let's look at some of the games which try to regardless.
]]>Journal is the latest game from Richard Perrin, creator of brilliant abstract puzzle/madness-fest Kairo. It's also absolutely nothing like Kairo - at least, on a surface level. Journal is the story of a young girl lost in a temple of trials that's perhaps even more desolately lonely than Kairo's cavernous halls: growing up. It's an adventure about human relationships, but even with that in mind, Perrin's main inspiration for it is anything but expected. Last year, he lost his father. The week Kairo launched, his world fell apart.
]]>Richard Perrin's atmospheric puzzle explorer Kairo reaches Steam tomorrow, so now seemed a good moment to give it a proper Wot I Think. So, er, here's wot I think:
]]>Journal screams intrigue. Not physically, of course. That wouldn't make for a particularly fun game and would also be existentially horrifying. It does, however, have quite a few tantalizing highlights nestled within its crisp, comfortingly musty pages. For one, Kairo creator Richard Perrin's on dev duty, but this time around, he's eschewing gloriously abstract puzzles in favor of the most stultifying brain-bender of them all: human relationships. The adventure, whose story is being penned by Melissa Royall, is about "the difficulties and responsibilities of childhood." A game starring children who aren't on a quest to save the world from whomever burned down their village and might be an allegory for the Christian incarnation of god? Will wonders never cease?
]]>Kairo's alpha impressed John last year and Nathan enjoyed his wander around the recently released demo, but I can't tell you whether the full game lives up to the promise of those early portions because I haven't played it yet. I shall remedy that soon as the first-person adventure is out now and I have a definite hankering to explore its strange spaces, and the skeletons of machinery and mystery within. It's $8 and is available for Windows and OSX, with a Linux release due later this year. We've shared the most recent trailer before but here it is again, because moving images are fine entertainment for the eyes.
]]>When last we checked in on abstract, kind-of-Mysty walk 'n' gawk Kairo, it was supposed to be out before the end of the year. That year was 2011. It is now - according to my well-placed sources (I just moved my calendar; it looks incredible now) - no longer 2011. Fortunately, based on the demo I just played, it's turning out to be quite an impressive piece of work, and the full game's right around the corner. Specifically, it's launching in October, but you can watch a new-ish trailer and try the demo right now. Heck, you could even do both at the same time if you really wanted. I'm not exactly sure why you would, but the option is available.
]]>If you were to ask me what two of my favourite things were, and I'm going to assume you just did, I'd have to say exploration and atmosphere, because I like discovering things and I like those things to be redolent of ancient myths, or failing that just to hum ominously. Kairo, which John covered in some detail back in the summer months. News now reaches us that Richard Perrin has entered the game into the IGF 2012 and to herald the occasion, here's a new trailer.
]]>Sometimes it's just good to wander around, slightly confused. I should declare my interests here: I wander around confused most of the time. I'm in fact President of the Wandering Around Confused Organisation (WACO), a body of people who spend most of their days wondering how they got wherever they are, and how on Earth they're going to get home. The only problem with my daily version of this endeavour is the lack of puzzles. Indie adventure Kairo puts this right. It's worth a look.
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