The Spawn Room is a gaming, eSports, and virtual reality blog by Sam Shadow.
The Spawn Room is a gaming, eSports, and virtual reality blog by Sam Shadow.
Today I’m reviewing Climbey, an obstacle climbing, semi-puzzle game for VR owners on Steam. I played on the HTC Vive. This is a fun, challenging, and rewarding game. It has some really interesting levels, massive levels, polished movement and controls, an excellent little community, and an active developer.
It’s also one of the few VR games that legitimately gives me sweaty palms, vertigo, and balance issues. This doesn’t really bother me and even makes the game unique among my collection, but, if you’re susceptible to motion sickness, you might want to steer away. It also poses a danger risk to smashing things in your play space or possible injury from falling over. I also routinely get tangled in my VR cable despite it being above me on my VR rig. This setup works really well for almost all games, but Climbey still manages to defy it.
Controls are simple and intuitive, but jumping is hard and inconsistent. It can be really frustrating trying to get around the map because a slight error can throw you backwards for what seems like no reason. I’ve also witnessed many other players trying to learn the game because even jumping a little bit is challenging. Definitely go into the game with some patience and the willingness to experiment with how it works.
The game has free locomotion movement, but be aware that it might fuck you over. It’s one of the rare games where you might actually want to turn free locomotion off because accidentally swiping the trackpad could launch you off an edge and lose a bunch of progress.
Multiplayer is fun and easy to get into. You can play with your friends either cooperatively or competitively. It gives you the freedom to decide. It has a small online community, but people are routinely online, they contribute interesting and fun levels, and my experiences have been really positive. Players actually help each other in multiplayer (reaching down to help pull you passed a challenging climb) which is refreshing to see. The community content also keeps the game fresh and replayable.
Overall, there is an average amount of settings and options (performance, controls, comfort, server options, aesthetics) but it’s not comprehensive. I’m hoping the developer adds more and more options as the game grows. One thing I don’t like is that some menus have no explanations for buttons and acronyms. Other VR games like Beat Saber have tooltips on hover and this game definitely needs that, descriptive text, or a giant poster with explanations in the starting area.
You can check out their SteamDB stats page here. The main items to point out are:
Yes, it’s an excellent VR game and I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s simple, mostly polished, fun, replayable, challenging, and rewarding. There are some negatives like occasional bugs and frustrating learning curve, but overall it’s the sort of VR game and developer we need to see more of.
One of the unexpected benefits of VR is that it’s actually a good workout. You’re standing, moving, bending, and kneeling on a regular basis. Depending on the game, you might be doing these things rapidly which can really get the heart pumping. Now, you might think that there is an upper limit and you’ll never get a gym-worthy workout. That’s where you’re wrong. It took me almost 6 months of owning the Vive to realize there was untapped athletic potential.
It happened after I bought Space Pirate Trainer. I loaded it up, played one round of standard and then immediately switched to hardcore mode (slow motion is for pussies). I started diving, dodging, jumping into furniture, slamming my body against my desk, scraping my knees on the carpet, but overall getting a surprisingly intense workout. Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly dangerous, but damn is it fun! The next day it got me thinking, if I was that sore from playing a VR game, could I get a truly kick ass workout FROM PLAYING VIDEO GAMES?!
A few minutes later I was on Amazon and ordering a pair a wrist weights. The lower body workout was pretty solid, but I wasn’t getting anything for my upper body. A few days later I strapped them on, loaded up Space Pirate Trainer, and got my ass handed to me. First off, the Vive controllers are INCREDIBLY light. I never realized it until I had the wrist weights on to compare them to. Second, while it’s only 5 lbs on each wrist, moving with those weights for 30 minutes left me sore for days! Disclaimer: I’m also a total weakling so that might also factor in… Regardless, I found that hardcore mode was more of a full body workout because of the intense dodging while normal slow motion mode required longer holding of the weights in front of you. So despite my pussy jab above, mix in both game modes for a slightly different workout.
Then came Beat Saber. If I thought Space Pirate Trainer was hard, it was nothing compared to playing songs on expert. I found myself audibly grunting and yelling trying to keep up with the blocks that were whizzing by. I could feel my muscles screaming as I danced around the room like some sort of bad ass digital warrior. I literally had to buy new face masks because I was sweating so much (gross, I know). I also cancelled my gym membership shortly after because I finally found a way to workout that wasn’t boring as fuck. I’ve also toyed around with some other games like Gorn. You don’t get nearly as intense of a workout, but fighting with just your fists feels really rewarding. There’s also some free games like Hot Squat that might give you a decent workout with the weights on. Hell, any game with the weights on will slowly build muscle over time, so take your pick.
Note: I have no affiliation with these games or the Amazon product. I’m just sharing my personal experiences because I love VR and want it to flourish.
The Steam Spring VR Sale is going on and I thought it might be useful to provide a quick guide on safely buying VR games on Steam. For normal games, I don’t think a guide like this is necessary, but for VR games we’re still in the wild west and there are some “traps” to look out for.
First off, if you’re not familiar, there is an awesome site called Steam Database that logs information about the games on Steam. This is one of the best places to start because you can quickly and efficiently browse Steam’s massive library. You can also optionally connect your Steam account which removes owned items from the list and highlights wishlist items. Here is a quick filter to get you started.
Next up, I check ratings and, if you’re using the Steam DB Chrome extension, you can see the percentage calculations in the Steam store. (No, I am not affiliated with Steam DB, I just personally use it on every Steam sale when I’m hunting for new games) As a general rule, I try to stay at 80% and above for game ratings, but that’s not always a good idea. Some games below 80% are really good and just received bad ratings for a poor launch, DRM complaints, or whatever else. But as a general rule, it’s a good place to start.
Now that we have a well rated game, check if your headset (aka HMD) is supported. Most VR games on Steam support both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, BUT every once in awhile there is one that only officially supports one. For example, I had DiRT Rally in my cart and was about to purchase it until I realized at the last minute it only officially supports the Oculus Rift. Yes, you can probably use Revive or something to make it work, but there are enough good games out there not to bother.
Good, we now have a well rated game that supports your headset. Next up is critical: read the reviews. Search for keywords like “locomotion” to ensure your favorite option is supported. Check to see what sort of content the game has. I almost bought Rise of the Tomb Raider because the YouTube videos online looked interesting, but what I didn’t know was that there is only one level of VR! That would have been a huge disappointment had I not been alerted (thanks Aaron!). I also glance over the reviews to get a base estimate for how much content you can expect. There will always be some crazy people that log 100 hours on a game most people log 2-3 hours on, but you can safely assume there is probably 2-3 hours of content on average. Then compare it against the cost to determine if it’s worth it. This is also a good time to check the negative reviews to see what people are complaining about. People love to complain, so just because there are negative reviews doesn’t mean the game is bad. Look for actual red flags like: “lots of bugs” “abandoned by the developer” and “multiplayer doesn’t even work!”
Related to above, check the latest news and dev updates. The more recent the updates the better and the more frequent the updates the better. If it’s been ages and people are still complaining about persistent bugs in the reviews, it might be worth skipping that title. Other games like Pavlov VR have very regular updates and you get a sense from reading them that the developer is engaged and cares about the community. That’s a good sign.
If you have the Steam DB extension (sorry to plug it yet again) you can also see current, peak, and all-time users. This is another great metric to determine if the game is popular and is especially important if you’re about to purchase a multiplayer title. There’s a few high rated multiplayer shooters on Steam that look great and pass all the marks except for this one. It would be a huge bummer to launch the game all excited only to realize there are literally NO matches or servers being hosted.
Lastly, before hitting the checkout button, I would watch your game on YouTube or Twitch to get a feel for the actual gameplay. There’s been a number of times where I was about to buy a game and realized after watching it that it really didn’t look that fun or wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Remember that those fancy trailers and perfectly selected screenshots on Steam are carefully curated by someone who wants to sell you a copy of their game. Gameplay footage on the other hand doesn’t lie!
That’s it! If everything on this list checks out, you can greatly increase the odds of purchasing well made VR games with active communities from reputable developers. Congratulations!
Note: this is an updated version of the original post I created for vanilla Skyrim.
Skyrim is an amazing game, but if you’re like me and have spent hundreds of hours playing the original version (or special edition), then Skyrim VR will be repetitive despite the added immersion of virtual reality. The mods I share below (and in the original post) serve to create a new experience with as minimal effort as possible. The goal being to create disposable and lethal narratives.
Here is the best Reddit article I found covering Skyrim VR mods. If you’re like me, I wasn’t able to get the Nexus Mod Manager to automatically download and install my mods (check the “Manually installing” section). There has also been an update to the article about Vortex, but I haven’t tried that method personally.
Here are a few additional tips to know before installing mods for Skyrim VR:
All the mods recommended below have been personally tested by me and stable on my computer after about 20 hours of play. The only two issues I’ve experienced are noted below on the particular mods (No Essential NPCs and Random Alternate Start). Here are my recommendations to create a new lethal and fresh experience for Skyrim VR:
For those inclined to do the research, you can add some additional immersion by researching “Skyrim VR INI settings” on Google. There are some great tweaks that can’t be made via the in-game settings like removing enemy health bars.
Another problem I had (and saw elsewhere on the net) was reversed audio. For example, NPCs speaking on my left were coming out the right speaker which severely broke immersion. Some people were claiming that our headphones were backwards! This of course is ridiculous because other games work perfectly fine. Instead, completely unplug the VR base station (not just the HMD side), plug everything back in, and restart Steam VR and Skyrim. This should permanently fix the issue.
That’s it, thanks for reading! If you want, check out my YouTube channel where I’m uploading some of my Skyrim VR gameplay.
Last updated: 2018-11-17
This list contains all the VR experiences I’ve played that almost made by best of 2018 list, but had some glaring issue I couldn’t overlook. It contains a mix of free and paid VR experiences, order is not important, and it’s a work-in-progress.
If you’re looking for the best FREE and PAID VR experiences click those links.
Last updated: 2018-06-23
I’m planning on updating this article periodically throughout 2018 with the best paid HTC Vive VR experiences on Steam. I’m sure many of these games work for Oculus Rift and on other platforms, but I only have a HTC Vive and play pretty much exclusively through Steam.
Note: order is not important, I’m just adding them sequentially based on when I played or when I remembered to add them. This also includes games from all time, not just 2018. And lastly, this is a work-in-progress.
If you’re looking for the best FREE HTC Vice VR experiences head over here.
Last updated: 2018-04-24
I’m planning on updating this article periodically throughout 2018 with the best free HTC Vive VR experiences on Steam. I’m sure many of these games work for Oculus Rift and on other platforms, but I only have a HTC Vive and play pretty much exclusively through Steam.
Note: order is not important, I’m just adding them sequentially based on when I played or when I remembered to add them. This also includes games from all time, not just 2018. And lastly, this is a work-in-progress.
If you’re looking for the best PAID HTC Vice VR experiences head over here.
Here are 10 things to help casual and amateur players become immediately better at Counter-Strike.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched teammates die to exposed AWPers or run through doorways which were clearly covered. Each hoping they’ll get the glory of the kill. These are stupid risks. Always assume your enemy is accurate and ready. Instead, you should reassess and realize that running in blind is a last resort. I would rather a team run out the clock attempting strategies than lose to stupid risks. At least that way you’re experimenting with what works as opposed to reinforcing the idea that running in is a valid option. Over time this will reduce your deaths, reduce mistakes and stupid risks, increase your odds of winning, and expand your understanding of what’s possible.
Getting a kill is rewarding, but injuring the enemy can be even more effective. By obeying our impulses it’s easy to chase enemies through doorways or around corners in an attempt to secure a kill, but often this can lead to an unnecessary death. It is important to catch ourselves in those moments and be patient instead. Let a supporting teammate throw a grenade or simply hold the position so they have to walk back into your advantage. Let them rotate into your other allies or slowly flank them together. There are many options which don’t sacrifice your advantage, but can still result in you getting a kill. Wait for opportunities when possible, don’t become someone else’s opportunity.
When things don’t happen immediately I will often seem teammates rotating or revealing their position. Often times it seems like the moment they do, the enemy shows themselves a couple seconds later. Had they been more patient they wouldn’t have exposed themselves to an increased likelihood of death and could have maintained an advantage over the enemy. Sometimes just staying quietly hidden in an area forces the enemy to move slower, allows you to hear their presence, and then gives your team more time to rotate in, as opposed to impatience leading to an immediate firefight, your death, a quick bomb plant, and less time for your allies to rotate in. Be patient and move when you have more information.
It can be intimidating when the enemy floods into your bombsite or you find yourself clutching a round. I’ve seen players get nervous when the weight of a round rests on their shoulders, understandably so. However, I take solace in these moment when I think about statistics. My teammates may want or expect me to win, but the numbers suggest otherwise. In those moments the likelihood of success drops considerably and so it’s less about winning and more about smart decisions. Are you carrying an expensive weapon? Then maybe focusing on survival is the best option. Do you need to clutch because your eco is low and the enemy is gaining momentum? Then don’t engage, but don’t expect to win, instead attempt to injure. Use hit and run techniques to extend the number of opportunities you have to engage and possibly get a kill. Let the other side get greedy and chase into your positional advantage or keep them busy and let the bomb finish off a player.
Spread out, don’t move into firing lines, don’t bunch up, and don’t get greedy. Let your team support you as you support them. Share kills. Make sure someone is watching the rear. It can be comical at times how much like a herd we act, all looking in the direction of a recent kill or rotating to support an ally and leaving a position wide open. I’ve seen allies block doorways and one-by-one step through to their deaths instead of all rushing as was planned. A good player needs to recognize what role they should fill from moment to moment.
This one is simple, but fails all the time. When your plan is to rush a bombsite, don’t stop because someone shot at you. It sucks to be the first two guys into a bombsite, but it has to happen. Do your job, take the fire, call out the positions, do damage if possible, but don’t stop running. The moment you stop you bunch up which increases the likelihood of enemy fire hitting someone, it increases their effectiveness of grenades, and often blocks teammates from shooting enemies. Give yourself every advantage in those strategies because you’re already operating at a massive disadvantage.
Don’t think of grenades as weapons, think of them as tools. If you want to kill your enemy a grenade is not an effective option. A bullet to the head is infinitely better. Instead use grenades to delay, distract, and injure. There is just too much time between switching weapons to make it a good tactic. In fact, I’d suggest early on to avoid purchasing grenades at all so you don’t get into the bad habit of pulling them out at bad moments. It is better to stay alive, keep your weapon out, and learn other parts of the game. Master grenades later on or rely on team communication to instruct you when to use them.
This sounds obvious, but it happens constantly. Allies will get overzealous and injure their teammates or, even more likely, blind them. As I mentioned above, use grenades as tools and call out what you’re about to do with them. More importantly, don’t get greedy and throw HE grenades to try and secure kills when your teammates are chasing the enemy.
Early on in my gaming career I had the bad habit of constantly reloading. Game after game I let this bad habit get me killed until I finally addressed it. I know there is an impulse to be prepared and not get caught with your pants down, but reloading is another strategic element of the game. Don’t reload when engaged with the enemy, it makes you too vulnerable. Instead, conserve your shots, back up, and try to find safety if possible. If there’s no way you’re going to make it and the count is low, switch to your pistol, that’s what it’s there for.
Always know who the bomb carrier is and be sure to never miss an opportunity to plant. This doesn’t mean choose bad times to plant the bomb and get yourself killed, it just means don’t forget to plant the bomb after securing the site. It also means, plant the bomb when the odds are against you to secure money for your team instead of trying to survive 1-vs-whatever.
This is something I rarely see players do, but suppression fire is real. Don’t worry about wasting ammo, usually you’ll never run out, and delaying a push can give real advantages. Especially if you’re focused on injuring enemies, like mentioned above, suppression fire can be an even stronger barrier to an injured player.
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