SHORT REVIEW: PS4 VR

Wait? I get to play God for £2.49? Seriously? Count me in. Hang on one second, what am I purchasing here? Why is it so incredibly cheap?

O! My Genesis consists of a tutorial and one level. O! That price makes sense. If the concept of a paid demo bothers you, this isn’t the purchase for you. Not even at the price of a luxury sandwich.

God games are tailor-made for Virtual Reality, but is a single level of O! My Genesis enough?

O! My Genesis looks lovely. You open up to a terrible tutorial with a squeaky-voiced blue sod telling you how to play the game. This is admirable but misguided as no-one wants to wait to spin that tiny planet in front of your face. Still, don’t knock it, the tutorial is half the game. Soon you’re fully unleashed on the tiny planet and get to admire your fantastically gigantic hands. Oh what power. Oh what giant hands. Spinning the planet around is a joy and shuffling forward to survey the planets goings-ons brings out the playful glee of VR.

VR Note – As you’ve two gigantic hands you’ll need 2 Move controllers.

Strange VR fact, the first time I played the game I had a very smooth experience. The second time I booted it up, not so much. It was a glitchy mess and I had no idea why. I restarted the Playstation and the game returned to a state of calm, for a spell, before becoming glitchy again. So I quickly tested out Batman, was trapped playing that for half an hour and that worked perfectly fine.

This is one of the biggest problems with Playstation VR is that it turns you into a lovestruck teenager, as you ask yourself, “is it me” when it inevitably throws a wobbly. You shrug, restart, pout and clean the camera again. Most of the time, that’s enough. Rarely will you need to go near any guides or tracking settings. Sporadically temperamental.

The diddy creatures you’re charged with protecting are inoffensive sweet lil’ things, that you’ve seen a thousand time before. That’s fine. They’re full of few nice touches like swimming, or engaging in sexual relations in their sordid smut-huts. Great little moments. You are limited to minor interactions, such as picking them up and messing with spells. I’m unhappy to report you can’t leave them in orbit, pluck trees from the ground or point at them whilst screaming “doom” in your overlord voice.

Bloody hell these aliens are noisy perverts, forever squeaking with the same sound effects over and over again. Let’s hope I don’t do anything I’ll regret.

The tiny planet becomes surprisingly busy, as you would have assumed a more serene experience. Your pornographic aliens learn through your actions… well… once. I can’t stress enough how much of a starter plate Oi! Genesis is. You’ll quickly exhaust the fun things to do in this world. Oh, how I desire Black and White VR.

Note – “VR experience” is shorthand for “Dat it!?”.

Hope appears in the form of plentiful save slots and the bold claim that “2 additional levels will follow”. I sincerely hope they do.

Replayability is brought forth by a score attack mode after mining the game for the entirety of it’s content. You might attempt it twice. You’re more likely to put it on to impress your Aunt.

Hey, I wonder if you can lose the game, if you try hard enough? Pass me the fire torch! Shame you can’t throw anything into the sun, or mess with the surrounding planets, or do more…. but ya know, whatdoyouwantfor£2.50.

I don’t know if the developers are selling this snippet to fund an incoming full game? It certainty sells itself that way, but I wouldn’t risk investment over a menu proclamation. In fact, I wouldn’t mind funding a PSN early access game, provided that’s what this is. Full descriptions on the storefront would be nice.

Playstation VR is crying out for a decent god game and O! My Genesis proves it.

It pains me to give a 5, as I really enjoyed the half an hour spent with the game. I’ve no doubt I would easily recommend a full version of O! My Genesis.

It’s not a toybox, nor a game. It’s a proof concept and I wish that wasn’t so.