58 / wfmag.ccReviewRated
GENRE
Virtual reality
FORMAT
PSVR (tested)
/ Other VR
platforms
DEVELOPER
Owlchemy
Labs
PUBLISHER
Owlchemy
Labs
PRICE
£26.99
RELEASE
Out nowInfo
ReviewSteam up your goggles with Owlchemy’s sizzling summer sim
iven the effort it takes to pull
on a plastic headset and wire
yourself in to enjoy virtual reality,
it’s appreciated that Owlchemy
Labs opted to simulate a vacation
for... well, Vacation Simulator. A follow-up to the
runaway success story of Job Simulator, a slice of
absurd mundanity centred on office-based tasks,
the studio’s last game was polished YouTube
bait – but after completing the limited set of
objectives, it did start to feel quite hollow.
This time around, Owlchemy offers a more
versatile virtual destination. You can recline in
three charming low-poly holiday biomes – a
forest, a snowy mountain, and a grill-tastic
beach resort – each populated by floating CRT
monitors with both sharp corners and tongues.
The freedom to teleport around locations has
been grafted in, which is liberating compared to
its static predecessor.
Of course, Owlchemy couldn’t settle for
recreating the modern vacation experience
without the addition of selfies, which use the
in-game camera. These arrive in tandem with a
character customiser; a fine addition, given one
of the zones is a hotel room where you can brush
your virtual fangs and gear up for another day
of paradise. The dev team also proves itself adept
in the comedy department too, with the game
providing some big belly laughs. One poster
I caught while riding the elevator down from my
suite read ‘Vacation Island – It sure is a place’,
which earned a good chuckle.
There are some surprisingly brilliant adventure
game mechanics in Vacation Simulator. Items fromone location are often best used in others, and
you can collect them in your backpack for ease of
access. Even outside of puzzles, I loved packing
my bag with snacks for a day out in the forest.
Owlchemy truly understands the strange joy of
boring tasks – Vacation Simulator is a tour de
force of endearing banality.
So many headset-bound titles feel like theme
park rides that want to drag you from location to
location doling out short, often violent vignettes
that have been done to death. You can take your
time to chill in Vacation Simulator, and the game
won’t put the pressure on – a wholly underrated
feature in VR. From volleyball to rock climbing
and plenty of grillside maintenance, the activities
are varied, interesting, and consistently toy with
your expectations.
Unfortunately, the bane of PlayStation VR
rears its head as soon as you strap on your
Move controllers: the hardware’s practically
neolithic compared to its competition. Tracking
problems soon mount up, and drag you kicking
and screaming from the chilled ambience, while
a painting minigame with Bob Ross vibes is
derailed by ruinous glitches. It’s definitely worth it
if you don’t have any other headset, but Vacation
Simulator using PSVR is the least intuitive version
of a fantastic sandbox.Vacation Simulator
G
VERDICT
Vacation Simulator is a
delightfully silly summer
fling hampered by some
ancient peripherals.77 %
ReviewRated
HIGHLIGHT
Vacation Simulator introduces
‘Memories’ – short tasks you
must complete for the bots
who inhabit the island to unlock
more areas and activities to
enjoy during your stay. It’s a
clever, relaxed progression
system with tons of varied
objectives, like snapping
pictures or delivering food.
REVIEWED BY
Jordan Oloman
Bullying your fellow island inhabitants is half
the fun, enabled by the sheer volume of items
you can chuck in Vacation Simulator.