Green Hell VR Quest 2 Review
Summary: If Minecraft was made for a more mature audience... and set in a dangerous jungle... in VR.
4.6
Immersive Crafting
I was hesitant to try Green Hell VR as I was concerned it was going to be a frequent death simulator… but I was pleasantly surprised to find the menu provides an set of options to tailor your experience to your desired level.
After setting the game to my preferred level of challenge, I went through the story set up. You are Jake Higgins, a famous anthropologist and you start with some direct contact with your partner who helps to provide some context for what you are doing here in the Amazonian rainforest. But before long you are alone, your partner having gone off on her own to pursue her own research, so it’s up to you to survive this potentially deadly landscape. To get you through this experience you have your smartwatch, backpack and survival guide. With communication from your loved one you will slowly uncover how you got here in the first place but sometimes uncovering the truth can be a scary thing.
Visually the game is quite impressive… the areas are some what clearly “set pieces” a bit like when you can tell a film scene was filmed on a studio lot rather than on location… some scenes are better disguised than others… but it doesn’t really detract from the impressive visuals too much. What makes this quite a bit of fun though is the interactions when crafting and such. Actually having to perform the actions rather than just tapping a key on a keyboard adds that extra level of immersion that I love about VR.
From what I’ve read the Quest version of the game is somewhat stripped down from the original (which I have not played). The consensus is more or less that this due to the storage/computing power of the Quest… the PC VR that is coming up may or may not be closer to the original but it sounds like it’s a case of take the negative of reduced complexity with the positive of being far more immersive and involving and decide if it’s worth experiencing the game in VR.
As mentioned, there are difficulty settings that allow you to play in more of a story mode or a more hardcore challenge mode. I love that games are doing this more and more commonly as I often find I just don’t have an interest in replaying sections over and over due to simple mistiming of keystrokes (or controller jabs) so being able to play on an easier setting allows me to enjoy these games a lot more whilst still having a setting for those who get a thrill out of the more challenging experience.
Final Thoughts?
Ultimately Green Hell VR is a bit like a mature Minecraft that is set in a more realistic and dangerous jungle setting. It somehow feels a lot more important to make sure you are getting your food and rest in Green Hell VR though and the consequences of not building shelter and some survival tools certainly seems more dire when you are experiencing it in VR.
Certainly worth grabbing a copy if you would like to get into some survival action in VR!
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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