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0 Ever had dreams about your front room being a starship and journeying around space? Well, developer and publisher Creature have aimed to achieve just that. In Starship Home you set out on an expedition to discover new plants and maybe just maybe, restore balance to the universe. Sounds good right?
InterPLANTary Journey
Released on Quest 3, this mixed-reality game really sets the bar for what is possible. Now read on to find out just what happened when a little box got delivered to the middle of my front room.
Gameplay
Starting up the game you are launched straight into mixed reality and heading through the setup process. If you haven’t set up your room space yet, now is the opportunity. I urge you to take your time and create the space as accurately as possible. Take extra care to add your sofas, tables, chairs, TV, and literally everything you can as this will give you the best experience when actually playing the game. Once you have all that setup, it’s time to venture into the game itself.
When you start the game you get a radio call telling you to place a little device where your box can be delivered. Pop it on the floor and stand back, within moments you have a nice box with a whole host of goodies to rummage through. Inside the box are all the necessary elements for you to set up the layout of your starship. Unfortunately, this box wasn’t meant to be for you and you get a call from the person who it was meant to be delivered. And so begins your first mission: journey to their planet and give them their ship back. Simple.
Well, not quite that simple. First you have to set up “your” starship. And let me tell you, this is a massively important part of the gameplay. Sticking windows to your room space and even finding somewhere for the airlock was great fun. Don’t worry however, they aren’t stuck there forever. You can move them if you discover a better place for something. Once you’ve emptied the box the journey begins. The tutorial walks you through the basic controls of the starship. Including how to open your map, travel between worlds, and even how to look after the plants. All neatly bundled up into the opening gameplay stint of Starship Home.
Peril In Every Corner
You find out quickly that something called The Blight is taking over the universe, and it’s your job to travel to new planets and explore. Specifically looking for plants. That’s right, you must find plants throughout the universe and help them to grow by going into their dreams. Yes, dreams! Only then can you see through the eyes of the plants for what they may need. Why do we care about these plants? Well it turns out some of these plants will help rid the universe of The Blight and restore balance.
Now I know you are probably thinking that this all sounds pretty out there as far as storylines go. And I would probably agree, however, the gameplay is incredible. Starship Home uses mixed reality like I’ve never seen before. During the setup I placed three windows in total, one on the seat of my sofa, one on the wall behind me and on a wall next to the in game terrarium. All of these windows were interlinked, so looking out the bottom window (aka my sofa window) as the starship took off meant I could see the planet moving away from me. Honestly, it is incredible the way that Creature has got this game working. Add to that the ability to use hand tracking instead of a controller means that you have even more immersion. Using hand tracking to open the airlock in particular was incredible.
Graphics & Audio
The graphics section is a bit mixed, mixed reality that is! Honestly, this is the single best use of mixed reality that I have experienced since owning the Quest 3. Having a spaceship in my front room was awesome. Definitely a childhood dream. My favourite part of the whole experience was the way that the room changed hue when you were going through hyperspace, giving it a lovely pinkish colour.
Starship Home is generally very cutesy looking, with oversized elements and large buttons and handles to make use of. This leads to giving you the impression that this is going to be an easy game. Don’t let that fool you, some of the puzzles are anything but!
On the audio side, the game makes use of mixed reality and position really well. Different sounds will come from different areas. This use of the 3D audio directs you to which side of the room you need to be. Again this aided the game immersion perfectly.
Longevity
As with the majority of VR games, they are designed for shorter gameplay sessions than you would expect with a non-VR game. So don’t expect a long drawn-out story mode. However, do expect the time you spend inside the headset to be incredibly immersive!
Final Thoughts
Creature has created a monster with Starship Home, but a great big friendly cuddly monster. One that you are going to want to hug and hold for a long time! Its unique use of mixed reality gives it a charm that is often missed when VR games are being designed. Taking you on an interstellar journey of discovery has never been so much fun.
Starship Home receives the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
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