Real VR Fishing - Quest

bilbosmeggins

Picked this up yesterday. Not sure why as I’m not even remotely interested in fishing. However, I must say that it was quite the revelation. The graphics are incredible. You feel like you are genuinely there. They have utilised 360 degrees camera footage somehow, with properly animated water. And brought  the scenes to life with flocks of birds etc. The fish themselves are very well drawn. Nothing appears cartoony at all.

The gameplay is strangely compelling. At first I was a bit, “meh”. Caught a few fish and it seemed routine. However, once a big fish is hooked, it really becomes a tense battle. To play a fish for 5 minutes, only to lose it right at the bank is heartbreaking. The casting is spot on, and all of the mechanics feel right. There is even a huge aquarium in your home “lodge”, which you can populate with various fish you’ve caught, which is a lot more exciting than it sounds.

I suffer from claustrophobic panic attacks from time to time. To the point where I’ve had to get up in the middle of the night and wander around Tesco’s at 3am! Fairly recently, I experimented with vr during a panic attack, and used some 360 outdoors footage, and was surprised to discover that it helped enormously. And that footage was nowhere near as convincing as this game. So, next panic attack I shall just go fishing

The only real niggle with the game is that I was able to catch various fish, including carp, on the lure, which I happen to know does not occur in real life. There are only certain fish that are hunters, and will chase a lure. But I guess it’s more of a game than a simulation, so I can forgive it.

All in all a real nice change of pace, and a very enjoyable game.

bilbosmeggins

Got quite a few hours in this game now.  Started to get a bit pointless, until I put it on the toughest difficulty, so no magic sunglasses that enable you to see the fish, and no fish radar, pointing out where the fish are.  Just you, a rod, and a huge expanse of water.  No pointers about how to orientate the rod whilst playing a fish either.  Everything now is skill and intuition.   Lots of nice touches like midges dancing about, near to your face.  I've actually gone to swat them away a few times, forgetting that I'm sat in the living room.  Absolutely loving it.

LeeDicko

I got this the other day for my Quest. Like you, I absolutely love it. The dev is really active on Reddit and from what he says there is going to be a lot added over the next few months (some for free, some paid DLC). He also said that multiplayer is going to be added soon which I am really looking forward too. Without doubt the best looking game on the Quest imho.

bilbosmeggins

I agree. It is an incredible looking game. What they have achieved is little short of amazing. Looked at the reviews on the Oculus store yesterday, and it is one of the very few 5* games on there.  I’m more than happy with the 15 locations for the time being, but will certainly be interested to see what they offer, dlc wise.  Multiplayer is intriguing too.

bilbosmeggins

Need to hook my Quest up to the computer and take advantage of the mp3 playing abilities of this game. Should make a wonderful experience truly sublime

hakr

It's quite fun.

It should be noted though that the graphics everyone is raving about.... they're basically just vr videos mixed with some graphic elements. I mean, it's no wonder they look realistic when they're videos of real locations?

You can see for example, some of the rocks on the shores are just photo textures crudely layered onto 3d shapes.

There's some nice added touches, like fireworks, birds flying around, various weather conditions etc.

Reality don't understand the hype about the graphics though.

That said, it's a fun game. I can't stand fishing in real life..... but found myself trying to catch the more difficult fish, trying to earn all the upgrades and start filling my aquarium.

The gameplay is quite arcadey, which I like.

One thing to try, if you haven't already, is to put some fish in your aquarium, teleport right up to the glass while physically standing at the edge of your place space, then walk into the tank. You can walk around in there and have all the fish swimming around you. Reality cool.

I'd still recommend the game.... but 5* and "best graphics" are kind of a stretch in my opinion.

bilbosmeggins

The water isn’t a video, it’s modelled. And brings the whole thing to life, as it is superbly done.  The backdrops are photos, I’ll grant you that. I can’t think of a title that is more life-like though. Certainly not on the Quest.