When I did make it, it seemed more by luck than judgement. I found this the most challenging and frustrating part of the demo – simply because the timing required to hit the grip button and hang on to the target ledge requires a level of precision which is tough to achieve when you’re combining inexact motion controls with a joypad input. Some holds are just too far away to just reach for, so you need to hit a button and launch yourself across.
#THE CLIMB VR OCULUS WON'T WORK FREE#
Basically, if you have to look away during all of Tom Cruise’s free climbing sequences in the Mission Impossible films, this is going to be an interesting challenge. The action is so measured and precise it’s unlikely anyone is going to suffer motion sickness, but vertigo is quite another thing. There are sections where you’re required to climb downwards, edging over the lip of a rocky outcrop so that all you can see below you is that beckoning expanse of water. Photograph: CrytekĪnd the game does likes to mess with your natural fear of heights. It’s a small addition, but it just keeps that sense of physicality – that sense that you’re actually out there dangling from a 200ft cliff.įancy the sensation of dangling from a 200ft cliff? Then The Climb is for you. Adding an extra layer of authenticity, you also have to watch a grip meter in the corner of the screen: if it gets too low, you need to chalk up your hands, or your fingers will start slipping from the ledges. Eventually you build up a rhythm where you start to scamper up the cliff like Spider-Man on his summer hols.Īlthough there are arrows on each climbing surface to point out a general direction, Freeman says there will be multiple routes available on tougher climbs, allowing players to learn and finesse their favourites – an asynchronous multiplayer mode lets you compare route times with friends. You learn to scan the rockface for available holds, you learn to plan ahead, using the correct arm to lurch up with, based on its position to your body and the location of the next hold. If you look away during Tom Cruise’s free climbing sequences in Mission Impossible, this is going to be interestingīut as I found during my demo session, based on Vietnam’s Halong Bay, the interface gradually becomes intuitive. At first your arms flail uselessly short of the required hold, and when you do get the direction right, you may mistime the gripping mechanism, sending your climber into the abyss. While the shoulder buttons can be used to grip with either your left or right hand, you need to use the motion sensors in the headset to physically look at the next finger hold that you want to grab for – this then forces the onscreen limbs to move in that direction. “When we were prototyping, climbing just stood out for us – it was almost instantaneously fun.”Įxclusive to the forthcoming Oculus Rift headset, The Climb uses the technology’s motion controllers – or an Xbox One pad – to give the player control over their hands, which are the only body part displayed on screen. “We started out by working on the mechanics of virtual reality,” says executive producer Elijah Freeman, who started as an artist at Crytek 15 years ago.
#THE CLIMB VR OCULUS WON'T WORK SERIES#
The Climb is a virtual reality climbing simulator, which gives the player the chance to attempt a series of tricky ascents on rock faces based around the world. With its steamy tropical rain forests, Far Cry presented a lush counterpoint to the genre’s obsession with steel grey interiors.īut the company’s latest project is perhaps its most ambitious attempt to bring immersive naturalism to game worlds. In the mid-2000s, the Frankfurt-based developer and publisher achieved wide acclaim for its visually spectacular first-person shooters Far Cry and Crysis although several years old, both are still widely used as a benchmark for near photo-realism in games, especially in terms of environmental detail. Your only option is to keep climbing.Ĭrytek has always been interested in pushing graphics technology. Nothing but a long deadly drop into the crashing sea far below. In the far distance there’s a small village by a beach, bathed in orange sunshine – an exotic idyll. A bove you, the craggy face of the cliff seems to stretch up endlessly toward the sky, offering perilously few footholds.