Rooms of Realities Review

July 15, 2023

Rooms of Realities was always going to be an Escape Room game for me, as it’s made with co-op in mind. This really resonates with me, as where I like Escape Rooms in VR, my brain power alone is not always enough.

GAMEPLAY

With Rooms of Realities you are getting exactly what the game description says, and brings escape rooms to Virtual Reality, that can be played in either solo or co-op. With the game allowing for up to four-players to work together to solve what In the Shadow of The Pyramids and The Forsaken Asylum hold in store.

For the purpose of this review, I took on the Escape Rooms in two-player, with The VRverse co-host Dr Oculus VR. As aforementioned I much prefer Escape Rooms when playing with others, as I can use their brains and it’s good to have company while you try and figure puzzles out.

At the moment the game is in Early Access, and you will get two Escape Rooms to get out off, these are split into three chapters each. In The Forsaken Asylum, you will start in separate rooms and your first task will be getting to each other, then you will work together to escape from there. Where In the Shadow of The Pyramids you will start together from the beginning.

As I do not want to ruin any of the puzzles, all I can say is each puzzle is different and every element of each puzzle is well designed – and some will leave you scratching you head a bit. All the puzzles feel even better because the interaction in the game when it comes to the objects is perfect and feels very natural.

I could tell the puzzles were well designed because even when getting stumped on puzzles I was still enjoying trying to figure them out – rather than finding myself getting annoyed.

With a road-map that includes another content update called Nemo’s Mysterious Formula, I am looking forward to heading back in, as well as wanting to check it out with two more, to see how the four-player puzzles work.

PRESENTATION

Visually I was very impressed with how it all looked inside of the DPVR E4, with it all looking nice and sharp and clear. The thing that impressed me the most, was each chapter of both the settings available, all took a different approach to design and feeling – but, stayed within the settings location. This made every room not only look great but feel fresh, without deviating from the reference material.

When it comes to the audio, they team have taken the correct approach and only used the environmental sounds and not added music. This works perfectly for Escape Room games, as it makes you feel trapped inside of the rooms and makes the sounds associated with the room stand out. The game also comes with in-game VOIP for communicating with others in co-op – although at present this can not be turned off, if you want to use other means like Discord.

COMFORT/COMTROLS

The game can be played seated or standing, with the option of smooth locomotion and teleport for movement. With the team only opting for snap turning when it comes to rotating – so, some players will be forced into turning naturally in their play-space if snap turning is not something you like.

TRACKED CONTROLLERS

GAMEPAD

LONGEVITY

As previously mention currently the game has two Escape Rooms to complete, and each one took me and Dr Oculus VR an hour each to complete. I would like to go back into them with more than two-players and try it with the full four, to see what changes in the puzzles (if anything does).

REVIEWED USING DPVR E4

For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgement of the product.

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Rooms of Realities for me has set the new bar for Escape Rooms in Virtual Reality, even in this early access state. With puzzles that that keep you entertained, but also offering some head scratching moments. With the game offering both single-player and co-op it leaves it open for people to play it how they prefer – but for me co-op seems to be where it will excel. At the moment it does have some quality of life issues, however, it is currently in early access. With my main issues coming in the form of it only having snap-turning, being unable to mute in-game VOIP and the PCVR avatars being basic in choices. But, looking at the road-map, all these issues are to be addressed – which for me is great to see.