Rating ****
If you like puzzle games, you’ll enjoy The House of Da Vinci VR. You’ll have to solve a series of puzzles to advance through each of the seven levels. My first thought when purchasing this title was that it would contain a lot of Da Vinci-specific content. I had read the book on Leonardo Da Vinci and watched the four-episode documentary series. Sure enough, one of Leonardo’s famous paintings hung from a wall in the very first level. Unfortunately, there were no more Da Vinci paintings in the game. There also wasn’t much Da Vinci-specific content. There were a few exceptions. Leonardo did a lot with pulleys, gears, levers, and military machines, and many drawings were on many of the walls. One level had a clever cannonball machine that may have come from one of Leonardo’s contraptions. Like many of the puzzles, the cannonball machine did not become operable until you solved several unrelated puzzles. Once I could fire off cannonballs, I wasted a lot of time figuring out what I was supposed to target. Fortunately, there is a hint system that shows the way.
I found the hint system to be invaluable. I could not have finished the game without it. Like the VR game The Room, the hints didn’t help you solve the puzzle; they only guided you. There were three or four puzzles that required a diagram. However, even with the diagram in front of me, I still spent an hour or so trying to manipulate slides and controls to match the diagram.
I have played several puzzle-only VR games, some with free motion like The Atlas Mystery and Myst, and others like The Room VR and I Expect You to Die, which limit your range of motion. This game uses jump motion. The advantage of this type of navigation is that you don’t waste time exploring areas that have nothing to do with the puzzle you’re trying to solve. The disadvantage is that you miss the exploration aspect that free-roam puzzle games offer.
Solving some puzzles requires activating a replay feature on your wrist. This feature plays a short animation of Da Vinci’s ghost completing a task. The game provides instructions on how to access this feature.
It took me 18 hours to complete all seven levels, but I’m sure some players finished the game in half that time. I used the hint system sparingly. I used an HP G2 Reverb headset. I didn’t have to make any changes to play the game.
The graphics in the game are exceptionally well done. The music in the background adds ambiance, and there is a satisfying sound when you solve a puzzle.
Despite lacking Da Vinci-specific content, I recommend this game to any VR enthusiast.