Song in the Smoke PSVR Review

Song in the Smoke PSVR Review

Survive or die. It is, in short, what Song in the Smoke (SITS or abbreviated). What makes it so good is the amount of 17-bit crammed inside this shell. You wake up in a world of primitive and deadly jungle. You start without clothing, food, weapons, water or shelter. To survive, you need to find the raw materials to make the necessities of life. If death awaits. But your tribulations do not stop there. There are many dangers in this virtual world, whether predators, poisons or the cold of the night.

Song in the Smoke is the last game of the developer 17-bit and it s a winner. Everything in this game VR is first rate. The controls are tight and the interface is simple and intuitive. The crafting system is deep and immersive. You have to take the raw materials and combine them in a way that only the virtual reality allows. For example, to shape a knife, you must find a stick in one hand and VR a sharp stone in the other and rub together to cut the branch in a handle. Then you have to take the stick and whip a piece of flint to complete your knife. Another excellent example of immersion VR is the creation of antidotes or health potions. For this, you take the plant, drop in your mortar and crush you with your pestle. Once done, you wear the mortar to your mouth to drink.

Management of VR stocks touch

17-Bit integrates the management of stocks transparently leveraging the benefits of virtual reality. You store objects in skins that take place and contain pockets. Many pouches can contain multiple quantities to reduce screen clutter. Everything is stored requires that you ramassiez, providing a true tactile feel. You can also combine elements of different ways to get different results. The game also excels in creating a living world that travels not only through the day / night cycles, but also the weather. The lighting of the game is superb. The light of day grows and wanes, and objects projecting realistic shadows. The stylized visuals of the game are not photorealistic textures are so detailed as they should be. The net effect is a stylish and coherent world that feels immersive.

You should also keep track of your health and your energy. A quick glance at your wrist gives you the equivalent of PDA stone age. All your vital statistics are represented on stone bracelets that use drawings of cavemen as pictograms. You can quickly check your health, hunger, time of day, etc. from them. For more information, open the skin of inventory. Here you can get the exact percentages of your health and your energy and your body temperature. Do not worry, if you are so engrossed in the game that escapes you periodically check your stats, the game sends you the appropriate visual cues.

I want to go a little here how SITS creates an immersive world. Take for example the day / night cycle. Never have I felt the impact of the sun across the sky and fearing the dark so deep into a game. The night is dangerous. The darkness hides scary things and all you have is your flashlight or your lights camping to keep him away. As daylight falls, it is imperative to find a safe place to camp for the night. If you ve ever been camping, you know those feelings. Now imagine that they are held in an unknown and hostile place. It is these small moments emotionally effective SITS creates wonderfully.

There are a variety of flora, some of which serve food, like berries or mushrooms to eat or herbs you use to cure or provide energy. The flora is also used to make the living world. The fern leaves and tree limbs move with the wind and dive or part when you are browsing. The dense foliage can also be used as camouflage for hunting or as a shelter to hide from larger predators. It really adds a lot to the game when the environment is interactive rather than just set dressing.

SITS does not stop at the flora, however. There is also a lot of wildlife, that is, great and small creatures. Some hunt you and others hunt. There is a real brow of Noah in the game that goes small creatures like fish or mutterings with wild boars and jaguars. Each of them moves with the appropriate weight and mass. There are also predatory birds. They all behave as we expect and are animated in ways compatible with the type of animal. The different species offer you different ways to hunt or protect yourself. You can launch them stones, or even sticks, or use an arc and arrows or a lance. If all this is not enough, there are also creatures that are not of this world. Some of them can even be supernatural.

You move through the eight worlds with a variety of VR options. Those who have VR legs opt for the absence of thumbnails associated with smooth turning. The PSVR version of the game requires PlayStation Move controllers and they work very well. The only concession comes for climbing - which uses a form of teleportation. The worlds vary from the desert jungle to the ice mountains and everyone brings its own set of challenges. In addition to the graphics, 3D audio is also an excellent job by presenting an external 360 degree soundscape.

The SITS survival aspects include a global mystery. This mystery gives meaning to your struggles and prevents the game from permitting. At the beginning of the game, a crowed cropped and surrealist guide you. Three heads are quite strange, but the strangeness extends further. There is a human face behind the three heads. What do you want? Where does this lead you? And why? You will need to play the game to find out.

It is always difficult to describe with words, or even show in videos, how much a virtual reality experience is immersive and enveloping when it is well done. You will see you and bring your man from the inner cave. 17-bit succeeded with this game. It s really an excellent VR experience.