Honest VR Review
Ever feel like shooting a gun but not really or beating people to death in a gladiator-style game? VR is the way to do that. If you couldn't tell by the title or the introduction, this is about Virtual Reality.
First off, is this worth the $500 price tag? I personally think that yes it is worth it… IF you are willing to give up for some headaches occasionally. I'll go into the health risks later on though. But I think gameplay wise depends on the games you decide to play and buy. I'll be honest most of the VR games out at the moment are either adaptations of PC games that are really good or bad like Skyrim and Fallout 4, or hot garbage worth like 20 minutes of gameplay. Others depend wholly on the community, like VRChat and Pavlov VR. However, those games are entirely on personal experience too because you can either have the best time while shooting people in VR or taking it out for 3 hours with complete strangers. So overall, the Vr headset is just a piece of hardware; it is what you make it to be.
Next is if it is fun. As I said before, it is just a piece of hardware, so it is as fun as you make it to be. There are plenty of games, I recommend for hardcore artists Tilt Brush by Google, which is a VR drawing game. It is honestly great for exerting one's creative muscles. I also recommend VRChat if you're up to talking and meeting new people. There is Pavlov VR, which is a fun sim which is quite realistic; however, there are games like Onward, which is a bit more realistic. I would, at the moment, avoid driving sims or plane simulators as the motion sickness is uncontrollable and sometimes can give you nasty headaches. Also feeling the pedal on the car or the plane's weight will be a problem, so developers have a lot to think about before releasing one.
Health is a big one. From personal experience, when I got my HTC Vive, I played for about 3 hours straight messing around in a few games. The next day I got to play a bit longer than after a few days of this it slowly went from 3 hours to a mere 30 minutes before my head hurt so bad I couldn't hold my head up. It could've been me playing so much, but it has been like this since. Now I can barely play for 20 minutes before having to sit down and take off the headset. Though I thought it was headaches, it was just the weight of the thing. My head was hurting from the pressure the thing puts on your head, so I'd first tell you to be cautionary of putting these on someone who can't hold up their head as is or gets major headaches on the smallest things. As for my eyes, they haven't been too bad, though I can say that on a computer screen you can look away.
In a VR headset, you can't. Therefore, your eyes will be in perpetual light until you take it off. Sweating isn't much of a problem as long as you got a towel nearby if you should. I would also recommend keeping snacks and drinks around because for some odd reason I get famished and so do my friends which I'm not too sure about, but it's good to stay hydrated and fed. Mitigate your use of the thing. Don't be like me and play for 3 hours. Take breaks; it improves the experience as playing on an empty stomach or sweating uncontrollably is not a good thing to be experiencing.
Is it for everyone? My paralyzed grandpa? My little brother? My dog? To put it simply, no. I'd say VR right now a relatively new thing and shouldn't be an alternative to real experiences. If you want to show your dying grandpa a sunset don't turn to a VR headset. There are age limits to this, so stay aware of them, so you don't permanently damage someone's eyes or head.
Lastly, I want to say that I do recommend a VR headset to most everyone. It is an experience on its own and holds up to its price tag. Just keep aware of your surroundings and health, and you should be fine.