Arca's Path

Ever since VR has been around people have tried and tested a lot of ways to solve a key conundrum - how do you control and move a player who is not actually moving in real life? As a result, we've had a ton of different control methods for VR games, from teleportation with controllers in each to using a DualShock as you would in a normal first-person game, but Rebellion and Dream Reality Interactive's new VR title Arca's Path does away with all of this. Quite literally.

Arca's Path sees you control a ball (well, it's a geometric shape made up of triangles, but humour us) and you roll it through several levels to get from checkpoint to checkpoint and eventually to the end. All you need to do to make this happen is point your headset where you want to go from your third-person perspective overlooking the level, and a cursor on the floor indicates the direction you'll then go in, with further distances meaning faster speeds. You don't even need a lot of room for this game to work, as we sat down in a chair and barely moved at all apart from our neck.

In essence, this means that you don't need any controller at all, but you'll still technically need a DualShock on hand, and not only to activate the game via the menus. You can also hold down the touchpad for free view, meaning you can look around the level without your ball rolling around like a hamster as you turn your head, but other than that you don't need a controller at all. Even the menus are all activated by simply looking at each option.

The premise of the game is rather vague since we're told the story through various comic-bookesque panels that appear in a 3D space. It's visually rather lovely, and from what we could gather the story follows a young child thrown into the virtual world of Arca, and it's your job to free them by completing each of the 25 levels on offer.

Speaking of visuals, there's an electronic vibe to the whole thing, which feels like a simulation as the world and its smaller features like leaves and rocks appear in front of you as you get closer to them. As you can tell from the screens there's a lot of different styles at play here too, with a lot of greens and purples that spring to mind particularly. It's all pretty angular too, and so the sense of being in this virtual world is strong, especially since - from a story perspective - you are the protagonist with the headset that you see in all the cutscenes.

Make no mistake though - aside from a handful of cutscenes and some story notes in-game, this is really a mechanics-driven experience. Think of Super Monkey Ball, but instead of cute apes, you get a dystopian simulation. Basically, it's not got a whole load of personality besides its puzzles, so don't come in expecting Monkey Ball in VR - this is slower, more deliberate, and certainly has its fair share of challenges.

The start of the game is all about getting through as quickly as possible (time trials are unlocked later on for that very reason), but soon other difficulties emerge. For example, some paths don't have barriers on the sides, and like when you go bowling for the first time without the bumpers up, it creates tension as you try to keep your ball in line. Then there are elevators, ramps, moving platforms, and much more to contend with, without even mentioning the optional crystals you can collect if you really want a challenge.

While most of this works well with the control scheme, providing a nice and smooth ride as you weave your way through the various pathways, some elements do clash. Certain puzzles require you to move blocks into place, for instance, and while this would be simple and satisfactory in any other game, with this control scheme it's just unnecessarily fiddly. Then come the jumps which require a lot of speed, which is also frustrating due to the slow movement and the difficulty of lining up and getting the jumps right. It's best when it's working like a marble maze, but the bells and whistles start denting things.

About an hour in we also realised that something else was grating on our nerves (more specifically our ears), and we realised that it was the audio. There's not a whole lot of music to speak of, but to go along with the virtual/simulation feel there are all sorts of distorted noises, hums, and beeps, which don't add much immersion but do increase annoyance dramatically.

While it definitely had its issues, Arca's Path should get credit for its very simple control scheme which does away with all controllers and quite literally just requires you to use your head. Its innovative and gets the ball rolling in a new way, but not everything in this game benefits from having you control it with your face. It's definitely one to check out for puzzle fans looking for something fresh, but don't go throwing your controllers away just yet.