The spanish studio Glitchr Studio, based in Bordeaux, recently offered a new virtual reality experience for the HTC Vive headset on Steam: Sky Sanctuary. Looking a little desperate now for a real good VR game lately, I gave it a go!
I appear in the middle of a very pretty sanctuary, with large pink trees, lush vegetation and paper lanterns. The music is in keeping with the oriental atmosphere and immerses me perfectly in the world. In front of me, Delios-sensei appears suspended, a little robot who, after introducing himself very politely, explains to me how to move. Even if I can of course walk around me (within the limit of the size of my room), movement over long distances is managed thanks to teleportation, to be activated using a pointer thanks to the pad of one of the controllers. When it's blue, it's good. When it is red, it is not possible. This very easy-to-learn method avoids all the inconveniences of virtual reality linked to motion sickness. As it is immediate, there is no discomfort. Not to mention that it goes really fast!
I move from platform to platform until arriving in the second phase of the tutorial where the sensei teaches me how to take objects and use them. By getting close enough, I grab hold of interactive objects which, once in my hand, do not need to keep the button pressed, I carry them until eventually I let go.
He then shows me how to use the bow and the katana.
The arc is really smart created, perfectly mimicking real-world use. It is held with the right hand, or the left hand. Then the arrow is taken using the trigger on his back. Then just nick the arrow, aim, and let go of the trigger. Only problem: the lever is found in the axis of the arrow (since it is held with) which hinders the precision. A little further in the game, I was able to access a shooting range and test my Japanese archery (Kyudo) ability on two modes, Precision and Dynamic. The first requires shooting at increasingly distant static targets while the second offers moving targets. I unfortunately did not test the third mode, Ball Trap, not succeeding in obtaining the necessary score in Dynamics to unlock it.
The katana can also be held in the left and right hands and will above all require precise positioning of the trajectories to cut pieces of wood following the dotted lines indicated on the reed targets. There is a mini-game asking to knock down as many targets as possible in a given time to achieve the highest possible score, in easy, medium and hard mode. Once again, I was only able to test the easy mode, not being a priori a very accomplished samurai.
I also tested two other weapons: smoke bombs and ninja stars. Both are in bags that can be attached to the belt and so have at any time. There isn't much use in games related to these guns, but it's fun to throw them all over the place!
Other small objects can be collected from tables, such as a candle handkerchief to extinguish them or a long lighter to relight them. Sticks are available to hit a gong or big drums. Fireworks are planted everywhere and appear active, ready to be lit with the lighter to explode in the sky.
For the moment, the experience is short. Allow between 30 minutes and an hour to explore the islands, test out most of the objects, and play katana and archery mini-games. After that, it all depends on whether you want to improve your score to become a Grandmaster or if you are not particularly looking for competition. Easy to access, these games are nevertheless not easy to master and you will undoubtedly need hours of training to unlock the Kyudo Ball Trap. Knowing that the developers announce that they have created their game with islands so that they can easily add content later with more weapons, other mini-games and even more fun in this Zen garden.
The copy presented today is very clean and the VR technology is perfectly mastered. I did not encounter any bugs, the objects do not overlap, the interactions are well done, the camera does not fit into the background and the precision is perfect, making the interaction with the virtual objects natural. If the developers continue in this direction and add more content, we will have a little gem! Despite its lifespan, I can only recommend it to you if you are looking for a nice VR game to make your HTC Vive headset profitable. Good news, the developers also announced yesterday that they would soon be able to work on an Oculus version.
