Starship Home Page isn't just a clever and infectiously cute sci-fi gardening game with some run-of-the-mill ship management elements. It's probably one of the best examples right now of how mixed reality developers can ditch the usual tricks of the trade in Quest 3 and create something worth playing in your own living room. Read on to see why you'll fall in love with this great little MR game.
Starship Home Page Detail:
Available in: Task 3
Publication date: September 26, 2024
Price: 20 dollars
Ddeveloper: Creature
Gameplay
Many mixed reality games struggle to find their raison d'etre, with many early adopters relying heavily on the coolness of doing 'X' in your own room. This has led to something that's been pretty easy to do that gives MR games less prestige than it probably should have, especially considering titles like the Quest 3 and the recently announced Quest 3S are hoping to be more than just an obvious upgrade path for Quest 2 owners. For the meta to bring MR to the masses, it needs to be more than an optional mode for new VR games or a more convenient way to grab a drink from your desk, despite all its perks.
Part of that is due to Meta’s historical stance (now changing) on not allowing developers access to the Quest’s cameras, limiting their ability to create games that can better digest your room and deliver the kind of detail that MR games need to transform your home into a backdrop for a truly engaging experience.
Working with the same limitations, independent studio Creature seems to have really hit the sweet spot Starship Home PageIt gives you the components to transform your living room, office, or bedroom (even the bathroom would work) into your own spaceship, and it does it in a way that finally makes you feel like you're on a level playing field with VR games. In short, I love it, and I think you will too.
Inside Starship Home Pageyou'll need to collect plants infected with an evil Blight and bring the universe back into harmony. That's the basics of the gameplay loop, but there are a few surprises along the way that I won't reveal.
Jumping onto the deck of your very own starship-turned-home office, your mission is to travel to alien worlds and find plants scattered across the galaxy.
Attention free-moving space explorers:ship flying is essentially an on-rails experience that requires you to map out planetary coordinates on a 3D map and push a large 'START' lever on your rudder controls. This No Man's SkyAll in all. It's a relaxed and fairly easy game that's more about exploration and fun room-scale interactions.
Despite being on rails, there's still quite an interactive way to launch your spaceship to the next location. You'll need to charge your ship with energy droplets found in a storage tank buried in the ground—Before you set off on your journey. You'll also need to scan the planet from orbit and then use a drone to land on the surface below to reveal its unique biome. Throw your ever-present robot companion out of the airlock so it can travel to the planet and automatically collect them.
You must get your plants back to your ship and save them from the evil Blight that has now taken over the galaxy. entering your dreamsYep, these plants dream about weird things and they even have personalities.
Each dream is actually its own unique mini-game, which creates fun one-shot puzzles like bouncing raindrops off the ceiling using small stepping stones or squashing diseased slugs with large tentacled hands—all in different technicolor hues.
Now it's time to plant your newly healed plant friend and tune him to the right frequency. Because baby, These plants can sing.
Then it’s your job to feed them and keep them singing happily, you can do this by taking one of your soft little buds from the terrarium and dropping it onto your plant. You will also need to repot the plants from time to time to allow them to grow and eventually develop into their final form.
And it's important to keep your plants happy. I killed too much There are orchids I should blacklist in real life—even a cactus or two—but remembering what fertilizer they need and when to water them is less of a hassle than I thought. It's more of a fun minigame in its own right, with the plants rewarding you with a catchy tune that syncs up in chorus when everyone gets the right ingredients. I wish real plants would always express their expectations of me so clearly..
After that, all you have to do is continue exploring the galaxy to find the source of the Blight.
It took me about three hours in total, but you can play for longer depending on your personal pace as none of the action feels frenetic, allowing you to sit back and tend to your plants at your own pace and arrange them according to what kind of care they need.
And yes, I am in love with this game, even though it is a very casual and sometimes a bit repetitive experience. It is sweet and strange and full of surprises. I admit, there is a helpful alien who talks a bit too much for my taste, but I can understand why they are with me. There is a lot to do Starship Home, and you'll definitely need some help, not only to learn the ropes but also to keep track of the many tasks you'll need to complete along the way.
My only wish Starship Home Page a bigger universe, and something a little more off-track. I want more (virtual) plants, more control over my ship, and maybe a little more organic exploration in general. Still, I couldn't help but nod to the game's catchy plant-based rhythms and gaze at my new intergalactic garden in a way I never would have with a gang of rotting houseplants that had survived for some unknown reason.
The botanical side is terrible, Starship Home Page It's the first mixed reality game that has captured my brain so far, and it's put it at the top of my library for future gaming sessions.
Dip
All the weird gadgets Starship Home Page can be easily placed in a virtual ship, even one adapted to your own room space, while still maintaining the MR transition necessary Dive into the experience thanks to the game's clever modularity.
At the start, the game lets you pop open various control panels, hatches, locked storage areas, and airlocks wherever you want. The room orients itself based on where your helm control and main window are, but you can easily remove panels from the wall and rearrange your setup mid-game.
These barn windows scattered throughout my home office (which also doubles as a full-time shoe storage space) create the illusion that you've stepped into a mini escape pod from reality, while also serving as a 'new' environment to house my growing collection of plant friends and tools.
Colourful overlays also set the mood for each encounter, with the constant shifting of blue, red and purplish tones giving it a cool sci-fi vibe. In plant dreams, you’re always rewarded with a new, strangely coloured overlay that mentally takes you off the ship, but is still a distinctly home-shaped place, as the dream mini-games use the real-world layout of your rooms as a backdrop.
Diegetic interfaces are also everywhere, meaning the only screens you read are informational screens about these unique plants, which ultimately have their own personalities. Pound a plant and it might stare at you with a distrustful eyeball, or curl up into a ball and writhe in pain when you forget what fertilizer it needs. So be gentle.
And by the way Starship Home Page all of which can be fitted into a VR game, its clever modularity allowing almost any sized room to be transformed into a suitable play area, which I think is an addition and certainly not a gimmick.
Comfort
As a room-scale game, you won't have to worry about artificial movement beyond the rail exploration your ship can do, but it's always a comfortable experience because your room is a solid ground for all movement.
The Quest 3's mixed reality transition is pretty good, but it's still in its infancy. Better, clearer, and faster transitions would improve things from a long-term user's perspective. Starship Home Page included, but the game can be criticized for this. This actually comes from the desire to bring all the tools and immersion that the game brings closer to my eyeballs and therefore closer to reality.
While you can play seated by placing all controls at chair level, some interactions in minigames and accessing the ship's storage locker require a good amount of time, making the game primarily a standing, room-scale game.
'Starship Home' Comfort Settings – September 26, 2024 |
|
Rotation |
|
| Artificial turning | ✖ |
Movement |
|
| Artificial movement | ✖ |
Stance |
|
| Standing mode | ✔ |
| Sitting mode | ✖ |
| Artificial squatting | ✖ |
| Real squat | ✔ |
Accessibility |
|
| Subtitles | ✔ |
| Languages | English |
| Dialogue sound | ✔ |
| Languages | English |
| Adjustable difficulty | ✖ |
| Two hands required | ✔ |
| Real squatting required | ✔ |
| Hearing required | ✖ |
| Adjustable player height | ✖ |