Review of Red Matter VR Game
Rating ****
After finishing the VR game Half Life Alyx, I went on the Steam forum and asked for suggestions on what to play next. For the record, if you are looking for an immersive experience that will blow you away, I highly recommend Half Life Alyx. That game is phenomenal. Some of the requirements I had were that the game be more puzzle-focused and less shooter-focused. Among the suggested titles was the game Red Matter.
The game takes place on an abandoned Russian space station on one of Saturn’s moons. My very first impression was that it wasn’t to the same level of quality as Half Life Alyx. However, had this been my first foray into VR gaming, I would have thought it was fantastic. My overall opinion is that this is a very good VR experience.
When I made the decision to try this game, it was on sale for $12. It was $12 well spent. In reading the description of the game and some of the reviews, I was expecting a quick and easy game. One reviewer complained about how short the game was and how easy it was to solve the puzzles. Maybe I’m not as good as some other players. It took me thirteen hours to finish what was supposed to take four hours to finish.
I ran into a number of technical glitches that interrupted my enjoyment of the game. On more than one occasion I dropped a device that I needed only to have the device disappear and never reappear, forcing me to have to start from scratch or restart from a previous save. Since this problem has been reported by other players and the game has been out for a while, I would have thought that the developers would have addressed it by now. I also had several occasions where there was no sound, forcing me to shut down and restart. Another issue I had was that I could not find a button on my controller that activated a menu where I could save and exit the game.
Moving around the game is okay, but not nearly as smooth as it is in Half Life Alyx. The same can be said about the use of claws instead of hands. I didn’t think the puzzles were too easy. I spent a lot of time on most of them before figuring them out. I did, however, figure them all out. The puzzles should not be so difficult that you can’t go any further or you have to Google to find out how to solve a particular puzzle.
As for not having to worry about shooting myself out of trouble, I have mixed feelings. Now that I played a game with no shooting, I kind of missed the threats I faced in Half Life Alyx. The problem I had with the shooting aspect of Half Life Alyx was that there were so many times when I felt it was impossible to get through to whatever goal I was trying to reach (I did, however, manage to shoot my way out every time). So, I’m thinking that having some threats that you have to contend with is a good compromise.
The graphics in this game were very good. The soundscape was also very good. Now that the developers have or are about to release Red Matter II, I would certainly entertain the idea of buying the next version and can recommend this first version.