The Lab ★★★★☆

This is just a collection of minigames designed to be a nice introduction to VR, but it does its job well and gives a good tour of different aspects of the technology. “Postcards” and the solar system and human body scan models show how it can be used to experience the world in new ways, “Robot Repair” and “Secret Shop” are little narrative pieces that show it as portals into new worlds, and the slingshot and longbow minigames show off some physics-based gameplay.

“Xortex 26XX” is what really stands out to me in this collection, though. A little 3D shmup that both convinced me the real difference between a VR and traditional, flat game and also broadened my idea of what a VR game meant. It’s, interestingly, not first person as one might assume would be the default for VR games. The headset is simply the viewpoint into the world but does not act as a head for any character. Instead a small spaceship is tied to the position of the controller and the player must manœuvre through a three-dimensional bullet hell. This is both hectic and natural. Within the VR perspective I found that I had an in­tuitive under­stand­ing of where everything lay in space beyond what I would in any other kind of computer game. I could look around without paying close attention to the position of the ship (I know where my hand is, after all) and cleanly judge how to move around bullet patterns that I could map out the trajectories of by instinct in a way that I have never been able to with other shoot ’em ups. I very much want to play a more fully-featured version of this game.