The first reviews of the Oculus Rift hit yesterday after years of hype, anticipation, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent across multiple companies to develop the underlying technologies. Normally, it’s fairly easy to predict what various people will say about a piece of technology. If Respected Websites A, B, and C all like a given piece of technology, it’s unlikely that Respected Websites D, E, and F will turn in dramatically different results. The Rift, however, seems to be different in that regard, and people are split in their opinions of it.

First, the broad consensus: Everyone agrees Eve: Valkyrie is the closest thing Oculus Rift has to a killer application. After spending time with the Rift at trade shows for the last few years, I’d personally call Valkyrie the best title I’ve seen, as well. None of the reviews from Ars, CNET, Engadget, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or The Verge call out any single game for being a poor VR conversion or causing major issues — the launch lineup seems to be pretty solid in that regard, even if there’s no absolute must-have title.

Setup and the Store

Right now, the Oculus Store is in bare-bones shape. Ars notes that the current store doesn’t allow you to change installation directories, can’t initiate a chat with friends, and has no ability to capture screenshots, share video, or integrate with any kind of streaming service. There’s no way to use the store in a virtual desktop mode to look at the rest of your Windows system, and you can’t download one game while playing another. All of these issues are likely things that Oculus can fix in the near-term future.

Here’s where the disconnect between mainstream reviews and the technical press start to kick in. Sites like The Verge and Ars, with authors who have used VR headsets before, including previous iterations of the Oculus Rift, report that setup is fairly straightforward and simple. They complement the way the hardware has evolved over time and emphasize that the equipment shipping out today, while it still has rough spots, is far better than what we had 2-3 years ago. The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, notes that the 13-foot cable is awkward, having to set up multiple components and power cables is somewhat confusing, and notes:

But since you can’t just look down and see the controller’s 16 buttons, you need a gamer’s muscle memory. The Rift comes with a second, smaller remote for basic tasks, but like much of the Rift experience, it isn’t nearly as simple as it could be. And let’s not forget, there’s still a Windows PC in the middle of this, which comes with its own challenges. I had to manually update graphics drivers. Even on my powerful, optimized-for-Oculus test model, the visuals on some games would stutter occasionally.

It might be tempting to dismiss this as the usual gap between hardcore gamers and everybody else, but I think that would be a mistake. The reviews from more technically oriented press don’t ignore that setting up the Rift is more complicated than other peripherals — the Verge notes that “Since most PCs have only one HDMI port, you’ll need to use a different connection for your monitor, an extra and not totally intuitive step for many people.”

There’s going to be a learning curve with any piece of technology as new as the Oculus Rift, and there were going to be rough spots at launch, too. If I were Oculus, I’d take the concerns of the less-technical press just as seriously as the issues high-knowledge gamers might run into. The only way the Rift and other VR headsets will go mainstream is if they can make their own setup and configuration processes as easy as possible.

The virtual revolution is still a first-gen product

Some reviewers are more excited about VR — The Wall Street Journal rather pointedly isn’t, and The New York Times recommends waiting to see what other headsets offer before pulling the trigger. Everyone agrees that this could be the beginning of a gaming revolution, but that revolution (if it happens), is still in its earliest stages.

The good news, if you already ordered an Oculus Rift, is that the launch lineup and overall setup are pretty good and reasonably easy. There may not be a true killer app for VR yet, but Valkyrie reportedly comes close, and precious few launch-day titles on conventional consoles go on to become enduring must-have hits. As Day 1 products go, the Rift appears to be in pretty good shape, with new features and capabilities to flesh out the Oculus Store set to arrive in the near future.

As for whether or not it’s something you should buy into today, right now, opinions there mostly trend towards no. CNET writes “You simply must try the Oculus Rift. It’s breathtaking. I just wouldn’t buy one right now — and there’s no reason you should feel the need to, either (especially with its arch-rival, the HTC Vive, also just days away).”

Ars Technica notes that while die-hard fans will love the Rift, everyone else is “better off waiting for time and competition to drive the performance up and the price down.” The Verge doesn’t take a specific stance on the issue but notes that with touch controls still on the way, it feels like the Rift’s best days are ahead of it (and will cost still more money). The WSJ dismisses the Rift outright; the NYT recommends waiting for Sony and HTC. Engadget is one of the most positive review outlets overall, but notes that the Rift’s high price makes it very difficult to unilaterally recommend, even if the costs are understandable.

VR could remake the gaming industry, but that kind of huge sea change is still a few years and hardware iterations away.