Posted June 09, 2016
First : this isn't an extensive review of the game, it is mostly of the VR side of it. (short version of the game review : so far, it's great but I love exploration, YMMV).
I bought Solus because it is the kind of experience that is really missing from the Vive library. There aren't (m?)any exploration/walk-simulator games for VR, and the reason is quite obvious : walking means moving your virtual body without moving your physical one, and thus heavy nausea.
Solus comes with a toggeable comfort turning, a blink mechanism (You click and you are automatically teleported a meter or so in the direction you are looking at) and a much reduced movement speed.
In my one and a half hour the nearest I got near nausea was while fiddling with the grafic options and inadvertedly killing my framerate.
Default linear movement is initiated by touching the right trackpad in the direction you want to go, up being always the direction you are looking at. It is quite intuitive and works well (Although it took me a moment to understand how it worked. I should really have checked the "controller" panel in the main menu first).
As for specific Vive (or, more accurately, roomscale+tracked controllers) support, it is a mixed bag. Roomscale is well supported, the controllers are tracked and the buttons and trackpads are also supported, but sadly interaction with the environment is done using those buttons. If you want to cut vines with a rock, for example, you point at the vines while holding the rock and press the trigger. Whilst technically this works well, it is also disappointing and frustrating that you can not use the controllers "naturally" and just slash the vines yourself. In respect to tracked controllers, this is a missed opportunity, but the developers are (justly) aiming for the controller or Kb/mouse crowd as it makes much more sense financially. Still ... slightly disappointing.
Oh yeah .. performance : I run the game on a relatively low-end PC (i5 3470, GTX970, 16GB Ram). at 1.2x oversampling, no vsync, no AA, shadows on low (sad, but they are complete ressource hogs), and everything else on high or medium it was mostly lag-free. Could be better, but even then it is a stunning very atmospheric world and well worth the VR trip (unless you are prone to VR-sickness. Then you should try it out before buying)
I bought Solus because it is the kind of experience that is really missing from the Vive library. There aren't (m?)any exploration/walk-simulator games for VR, and the reason is quite obvious : walking means moving your virtual body without moving your physical one, and thus heavy nausea.
Solus comes with a toggeable comfort turning, a blink mechanism (You click and you are automatically teleported a meter or so in the direction you are looking at) and a much reduced movement speed.
In my one and a half hour the nearest I got near nausea was while fiddling with the grafic options and inadvertedly killing my framerate.
Default linear movement is initiated by touching the right trackpad in the direction you want to go, up being always the direction you are looking at. It is quite intuitive and works well (Although it took me a moment to understand how it worked. I should really have checked the "controller" panel in the main menu first).
As for specific Vive (or, more accurately, roomscale+tracked controllers) support, it is a mixed bag. Roomscale is well supported, the controllers are tracked and the buttons and trackpads are also supported, but sadly interaction with the environment is done using those buttons. If you want to cut vines with a rock, for example, you point at the vines while holding the rock and press the trigger. Whilst technically this works well, it is also disappointing and frustrating that you can not use the controllers "naturally" and just slash the vines yourself. In respect to tracked controllers, this is a missed opportunity, but the developers are (justly) aiming for the controller or Kb/mouse crowd as it makes much more sense financially. Still ... slightly disappointing.
Oh yeah .. performance : I run the game on a relatively low-end PC (i5 3470, GTX970, 16GB Ram). at 1.2x oversampling, no vsync, no AA, shadows on low (sad, but they are complete ressource hogs), and everything else on high or medium it was mostly lag-free. Could be better, but even then it is a stunning very atmospheric world and well worth the VR trip (unless you are prone to VR-sickness. Then you should try it out before buying)