Twenty years after 90s kids everywhere were teased with and ultimately disappointed by the promise of strapping on bulky headsets and escaping into digital fantasies (remember the Nintendo Virtual Boy?), it looks like the world is finally ready to give virtual reality another shot.

Oculus struck first with their headset, the Oculus Rift, but other companies quickly followed with virtual reality headsets of their own like the HTC Vive, Google Cardboard, and Samsung Gear VR. The virtual reality hype is back, but is it just another passing fad or is it here to stay this time?

To attempt to answer that question, my colleague, Ginnard Archibald, and I got our hands on the HTC Vive, HTC's entry into the virtual reality arena, powered by Valve's Steam VR platform. The specs certainly sound promising, provided you have a computer capable of processing the load.

The HTC Vive.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the HTC Vive is the Room-Scale technology, which uses light boxes to track your physical movements throughout a small space, something that the current main competitor, the Oculus Rift, doesn't presently do (but is capable of). I'm pleased to report that it works quite well and adds to the sense of immersion in the virtual world.

Speaking of immersion, the HTC Vive is surprisingly immersive, considering you're wearing a giant thing over your face with a set of cables tethered to a computer. The visuals encompass your field of view nicely, though Ginnard's peripheral vision is apparently better than mine, because he could see the edges of the screen, but that didn't seem to detract from his experience. The screen-door effect (seeing the pixels in the displays) is minimal and wasn't distracting in my experience. The sound design is essential in directing where you look, so I definitely recommend wearing closed-ear headphones, rather than the provided earbuds. The motion tracking is also some of the best I've experienced.

We tried out several HTC Vive games including Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives, a game where you take on jobs like short-order cook and grocery store clerk for a bunch of robot TVs. It sounds boring, but it's actually quite charming and fun, mainly due to the level of interactivity with the surroundings. You can pick anything up and move it around. If you drop something, the room-scale makes you actually have to bend down to pick it up, which is a neat experience. The in-game tasks were simple: make a pizza by combining these ingredients, but I had more fun just interacting with the environment than fulfilling my objectives.

Throwing milk is more fun in VR.

Ginnard played the demo of The Brookhaven Experiment, a game that puts you in the middle of an advancing zombie horde with nothing but a flashlight and a pistol to defend yourself. The difference between using a controller to look around versus actually having to turn your body became quite evident here and the sound design was instrumental in both increasing the tension and giving you clues as to where the next zombie was coming from. One instance where Ginnard wasted a zombie from a distance only to turn and find another one right in his face was an enjoyable thing to observe.

Gleefully shooting the zombies.

I also tried out The Visitor, which was more of an experience than an interactive game. You wake up in a haunted bedroom and creepy things start to happen around you like flickering lights, strange visions, etc. To the casual observer, it looks like nothing, but being in the headset with the headphones on provided a truly chilling experience - one that you can't escape from unless you close your eyes. Again, the "surround" sound was integral to the experience.

All in all, our experience with the HTC Vive was a positive one. It's true that many of the current game offerings are relatively shallow experiences compared to what you find on more traditional platforms and feel more like tech demos than anything else, but that's OK. At this stage in the game, that's to be expected. We're still in the "spectacle over substance" phase of this burgeoning virtual reality tech, much the same way that when motion pictures were first invented, people were amazed just to see a man sneezing or a train arriving at a station.

It's amazing!

What excites me are the possibilities that virtual reality technology allows. Once we get over the spectacle and start craving deeper, more immersive and engaging experiences, I have no doubt that this technology can provide those. Virtual reality also has the potential to take 360-degree videos to the next level. Currently, filmmakers direct the audience and force them to look at whatever they intend through shot choice and editing. But in virtual reality, the audience has control over where they want to look and when. In the right hands, this could lead to some fascinating video experiences. And gameplay can be much more engaging and immersive as ever while potentially giving you a workout.

My only gripes with the HTC Vive are that as of now, it's a relatively solitary experience unless you've got the setup to allow people to see what you're looking at. But even then, they only get the partial experience. To fully understand you have to be in the headset with the headphones on. Also, the biggest barrier to entry is the price point. The price of the HTC Vive is $799, but you also need to ensure that your computer is up to snuff as well. While VR-ready machines are starting to roll out, you can also build your own, either option potentially costing as much as the HTC Vive itself or more. It's also worth noting that to get the full room-scale experience, you're going to need a good amount of space to move around in.

Virtual Reality is expected to be a big component of this year's E3 conference, with AAA titles like Fallout 4 announced for the HTC Vive in 2017, so there's no doubt about it: VR is back and it looks like it's here to stay. It will be exciting to see where this technology develops.

Check out the video above for highlights of our experience. Special thanks to Kevin Gardner for letting us try out his HTC Vive.