06/03/2016
Review: Samsung Gear VR
Ever since I was little I was excited about the prospect of Virtual Reality in gaming. The first time I rented a Nintendo Virtual Boy from Blockbuster and lugged home the huge plastic flight case is placed firmly in my head. Setup was a pain in the butt and the game selection was very lackluster, but the despite the eye strain, neck strain, and slight nausea, I loved every minute I got to play. VR gameplay held a special place in my gamer heart, and it remained dormant for the past 20 or so year until the rumors of VR making a comeback started popping up on social media.
I purchased a knock off Google Cardboard VR and was pretty unimpressed. The idea was great, but the function was not what I was expecting.
So, when I received the opportunity to upgrade my phone and pre-order a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge I jumped at the chance, not because of the phone, but because of the Gear VR pre-order bonus I would receive. I loved the phone, but the headset was something I would never be able to justify otherwise. It took a few months, mainly due to the huge amount of pre-orders Samsung received, but the headset finally arrived a few days ago. After about 10 hours of setup and gameplay time, I have to say that I am mostly impressed.
Setup was pretty easy, but learning the controls took some getting used to. The head straps were easily installed and adjusted. After I installed the Oculus software and plugged/unplugged my phone a few times I was ready to play. I was pretty disappointed when I figured out that you can only interact with the Oculus store and its apps. I thought for sure it would have some kind of integrated interface with my phone itself, but after a few hours in the store, I overlooked this fact and had some fun.
Also included as a pre-order bonus was a 6 game pack from the Oculus store. So far I have only played Gun Jack and Dead Secret, but both games were enjoyable. The controls were precise, if not basic, and the atmosphere was quite immersive. The resolution was lower than I expected, but this was not a 4k phone so I guess that aspect will need to be addressed with future hardware upgrades. The sound coming out of my phone was a major setback to the immersion, but as soon as I plugged in some headphones I was golden, and really felt like I was in the game. I am looking forward to getting a good gamepad so I won’t have to keep my hand attached to the side of my head. Eventually, my arm tired and I had to take a break from the action. Another problem I had was a personal one, but being hot-natured, I found the lenses fogged up constantly. I kept having to take the headset off and let it air out every 10 minutes or so. Some sort of ventilation would be nice, but I expected that would be a problem that might let in excess light bleed.
After I tried out several other apps, including Netflix, the Samsung Internet, and a few of the media apps, I was very impressed by the utility of the headset. The lower resolution brought me down a few times, but overall I had fun with it, and I can’t wait to see what happens next with VR.
