From time to time I hear debate rage in traditional media on how games can’t be considered art.

I think Eden River on the Oculus Rift might sway some none believer’s as all great art is supposed to affect you emotionally and Eden River certainly achieves this even if it’s a very brief experience.

Eden River is a virtual reality relaxation experience that gently guides you along a calm river while all the time playing relaxing music that soothe ’s the soul. You interact with the experience by simply tilting your head left or right to go in that direction. As you glide down the river you will see water lilies that you can glide over and once you have done this they will release a pretty particle effect and you are then joined on your journey by an animal or insect.

The animals which join you are all types of birds, butterflies, and fish and they all glide along at your pace through this tranquil river environment which is flanked by large trees with sunlight breaking through. Eden River is indeed a lovely place to be but it does have some small issues which break’s the immersive experience.

One of which is the animation of the fish as you move your position and look down at the fish they move unnaturally sideward’s and are locked to your view point. It’s a strange sight given that the other animals seem to stay in their own position as you move about but it’s easy to forget as you look further down the river. Another issue is with one of the purple plant textures looking very flat. It only stands out because the rest of the experience looks so polished but as you pass them you can see it’s a flat 2D object but again it doesn’t spoil the overall experience just put’s a small tarnish on what is otherwise a beautifully rendered world.

I did mention earlier that this experience is brief it’s actually 9 minutes long in total. Once you’ve completed it once you have pretty much seen all the content on offer. There are some options on the menu screen for endless mode and also a scaled down version which was the first demo of Eden River released some time back but I’m not sure why you would want to experience the early demo when this new experience is so much better. There are some other options on the menu screen for future updates but for the moment you will likely see everything that Eden River has to offer in one play through.

I have really enjoyed my time floating down Eden River and I actually see this as a starting point for how we will consume music in the future as virtual reality experiences rather than music videos on MTV. Eden River is a beautiful experience and a work of art but it’s all over way too quickly.

Comments

comments