Mirage Soča Valley DLC (PlayStation VR2/PC VR)

A novel digital actuality expertise on each PlayStation VR2 and PC VR, Kayak VR: Mirage will get its first DLC, Soča Valley.

I really like digital actuality. However spending hours taking part in a triple-A VR sport solely to emerge boss-eyed and with a headache just isn’t my favorite use of the expertise. Quite than re-jigged common video games, I want devoted VR experiences that immerse me in methods a flat sport simply can’t.

Kayak VR: Mirage suits the invoice. 

Not solely is it one of many extra nice VR titles out there, Kayak VR: Mirage can be one of many prettiest and most reasonable. It’s simply you in a kayak paddling round meticulously detailed environments from Australia to the Antarctic. It’s an immersive photoreal VR expertise out there for each PlayStation VR2 and PCVR by way of Steam.

The thought is easy, which makes it an important showcase in your VR package. You’re sitting in a kayak on the water. Utilizing your controls, every one a hand holding your oar you paddle as you’ll in actual life, to maneuver your little boat. The water and setting are bodily modelled. This implies you could dunk your paddle for sharp turns in addition to push off utilizing rocks.

The sport begins with a tutorial in a pool earlier than permitting gamers to pick out a vacation spot from Australia, Costa Rico, Norway and Antarctica. It’s also possible to choose day or evening, and within the case of Norway, stormy climate as properly.  Gamers can discover the environments in free roam, enter races or simply take an automatic tour across the scenic landscapes (excellent for displaying off VR to relations who might have issue with the controllers).

As wonderful as the sport is, followers have been clamouring for DLC. While, yearly, the developer paradoxically clothes up the Australian setting like a winter wonderland, full with Santa flying throughout the sky and Christmas bushes, many people have felt that they’ve missed a trick.

Kayak VR often is the sport that you need to use to point out off digital actuality to your grandma as she takes a leisurely guided cruise of the Costa Rican waterways in tour mode, however what about one thing a bit extra dynamic? Certain, the stormy Norwegian fiord provides a little bit of hazard and proves that the water simulation is first-class, however what a couple of little bit of white water? 

With the Soča Valley DLC, in addition to a fantastic new Slovakian setting to discover, VR kayakers can now strive their palms at negotiating a little bit of fast-moving white water. Devilish currents and protruding rocks can simply wrestle management of your tiny vessel. Add in a number of waterfalls and even a cave, and you’re in for fairly the journey. The river splits up, permitting you to take totally different routes with totally different hazards.

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than I discovered myself being carried away backward in the direction of sudden drops earlier than ending up beached on a rock in the midst of the fast-moving river. It isn’t a log flume, so don’t count on a theme park experience. It’s a sensible white-water expertise reasonably than a lethal stretch of water that nobody of their proper thoughts would paddle in. This may occasionally disappoint thrill-seekers however is in line with the grounded expertise of the principle sport.

In addition to the joy of paddling in fast-moving water, you’ll be able to decide to start out on the city, close to the spectacular arched bridge with cheering onlookers that signifies the top of the rapids upstream. This can be a extra leisurely expertise that additionally serves to focus on simply how giant this new space is. Simply as I believed I used to be reaching the top, a tiny crevice opened into one other canyon. Finally, the river widened to showcase a panoramic mountainous vista. An in depth encounter with the native wildlife had me paddling away into one other enclosed gorge earlier than lastly reaching a tunnel that lead right into a darkish cavern and the top of my journey. 

As with the opposite areas, it’s also possible to expertise Soča Valley in the dead of night. I discovered this a bit too darkish, to be trustworthy. On the PSVR 2, it additionally highlights the gadget show’s terrible blotchy Mura impact, which I didn’t get taking part in on the Meta Quest 3 by way of Steam Hyperlink (this sport just isn’t out there natively for Meta Quest). 

If you’re after a little bit of problem, the race mode is made a little bit bit extra thrilling with the addition of a raging present. The Slalom course via the extra vicious sections of white water can have you paddling in a frenzy attempting to get via the gates and forward of the competitors.    

This new Soča Valley DLC is a notable addition to the principle Kayak VR: Mirage sport and completes it, to be trustworthy. The meat of the sport remains to be within the number of environments that the entire package deal provides gamers, reasonably than on this further space, alone.

When you’ve got a suitable VR set-up and haven’t picked up Kayak VR: Mirage, now’s the time to take action with the Soča Valley DLC and revel in one of the immersive VR experiences out there right this moment.

Verdict: 9.5/10