Time Machine VR

It's fun if you've murdered a few tall boyz. You need a cuntroller, but after a few cold ones they start to feel like your hands. Big fish mess with my mind, mang. I like digging deep and looking up at giant effers. There are a few moments that make my uterus vibrate, and for that I am thankful to have purchased this gem.

An excellent work from the early days of VR.

The downside is, it requires a Gamepad controller, and the price is high for today's expectations.

prompts to create a firewall rule every time it starts, which forces me to take of my VR headset to DECLINE because no thanks. Extremely bad controls partially worked with normal VR controllers enough to get started until realizing the game doesnt fully support them. Either make the controls work or dont... And when I finally hooked up an xbox controller, the controls stop working half the time for no reason.
Still feels like early access to me, definitely not worth the $29.99 I spent on it.

I read a lot of whines about this game and so didn't buy it until there was a fairly low sale price. The Quest 2 support is non-existent; you have to use Emulate Gamepad to play at all. So that's a strike against it. OTOH, I found I liked it much better than the reviews led me to expect.

I'm a sucker for underwater exploration, and the water model is not bad (the surface high above is quite realistic, "blue gloom" lighting is nice, etc). The world could be a little more richly dressed (more marine plants for example) but rock formations are quite nice and the playing areas, if a little small, are pleasingly complex. It's an environment that's fun to visit and just loaf around in.

The minisub "pod" handles OK, with semi-realistic inertia, and the controls become familiar pretty quickly. OTOH the cutscenes between playing areas are needlessly long and repetitive. They become tedious quickly, as does the avuncular voiceover of AI "Rob". However the screen/voice acting by "the Doctor" at home base is a treat, I like the actress and she's refreshingly realistic, not a fashion model.

The game seems kid-oriented; gameplay is somewhat repetitive and edutainment flavoured. I like dinosaurs, so I'm enjoying this tour of some of the more unusual Jurassic sea creatures; but if you aren't into paleology than it might not hold your interest for long. Basically, you execute research missions, rather like real-world natural science fieldwork, except that your missions take you back in time to the Jurassic, and you're tagging, identifying, and scanning monsters of the deep.

The pod is equipped with various sensors and tools that get unlocked one by one. The UI is hopelessly clunky (these folks have never heard of the "wristwatch menu" convention), and your hands never move from the pod controls. So it feels kind of arcadey and oldskool. The missions are somewhat amusing, requiring a little skill here and there but never really difficult. Sometimes it's hard to tell for a few moments what the devs want you to do, but generally they provide enough clues.

So you visit different areas and time periods, you sidle up to big scary monsters and xray their stomachs or scan bits of their body structure, while the rather smarmy robot voice helpfully prompts you and reassures you of what a great job you're doing. There's no irony or dark humour here whatsoever, though there is a little unintentional black humour in the central theme, which is... a pandemic! Yup, an ancient Jurassic virus has got loose (due to ice cap melt) and infected the world, and the infection rate and death rate are ticking up on a dashboard display that (in 2021) looks weirdly familiar.

Eventually, your research missions will uncover enough information about the virus to support rollout of an effective vaccine and you will Save The World. At first, you "win" by getting to a 63% effective vaccine, but by returning to fly more missions and collect more data, you can boost its efficacy towards perfection.

As usual, it's not really the gameplay that draws me to this title -- frankly the gameplay is a bit repetitive and not all that interesting. It's the fun of exploring a Jurassic undersea realm in my own personal submarine. I hope, after playing the whole game through to completion, I'll be able to roam the world freely and just hang out and sight-see. The underwater environment is aesthetically quite nice, the giant creatures are pretty cool (though they could be rendered in more detail), and just zooming around in the minisub is great fun.

If you have an imaginative kid who loves dinosaurs, say age 10 or so, I think this game would be ideal and possibly thrilling for them. If you're a bit older and more jaded, but still like dinos and/or scuba diving, or Jacques Cousteau specials on TV, then you still may find it fun despite the tedious bits. If you like game design and are curious about modelling underwater environments, it's also worth a visit to see what can be done with a certain set of assets and design specs.

This is mostly a pacifist playthrough: the worst thing you ever do is attach a bait marker to a hapless herbivore to lure a large predator into eating it. The overall ambience is peaceful and meditative, though there are a few scary moments involving critters with big teeth. You don't have to shoot anything (except with a data-gathering probe), and if a sea monster eats you, you just get reset to your last saved play position and try again. There's a little inter-species violence here and there, but nothing you might not see in an Attenborough documentary. I personally enjoy the remix here of wildlife documentary, time travel, dinos, and submarines. If it's a mix that speaks to you, get the game and have some Jurassic fun!

Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Xbox One Controller

Dissapointing.
I watched a video about the dev team and thought .. ok these guys are going in the right direction so I spent money on Time Machine VR..... ERROR ...

I had hoped for much more than I got.
Its slow, boring, and actually nothing more than a £22 demo.

The emphasis appears to be on the time machine itself, and the control of that, which I have to say is rather funky, the navigation tool is something Ive never seen before, its very good, but overshadows everything else.

Let me choose what want to do, its too restricted

Glad I picked this up in the sale as it's turned out to be a deeply dissapointing expereince. Whilst the games concept is a good one its implemented in a way that takes all of the fun out of it as it basically hand holds you all the way through the adventure giving no feeling of freedom and self discovery.

Whilst some of the graphics are impressive the actual creatures appear in an otherwise lifeless environment which appears clearly incapable of sustaining creatures of this size and quantity which appears one of the many flaws when the game is trying to be 'scientifically accurate'.

Whilst learning about the life styles of these creatures is not without interest the tedious nature of the data extraction and repetative tool use killed the enjoyment for me. I would have far more preferred to just observe these creatures in their environment and simply tag them to learn more about them from a resulting narrative or info screen rather than having to jump through all the hoops in order to make it game like!

So, let me start by saying that this game is not Call of Duty. If you are expecting something like that then this is not the game for you. This game is more of I guess you could call it an educational game but it really isn't. If you are like me and like to watch documantaries and you like archeology and anything science then I would highly recommend checking out this game. It is a lot of fun to play and it is absolutely mind blowing to be able to see these prehistoric creatures up close and personal. Yes some of the other reviews are correct when they say that it is basically just follow directions and go forward but that isn't always a bad thing. I guess the best analogy I could use would be to say that this game plays almost like an interactive documentary on prehistoric animals but in first person perspective with a VR headset. I am someone who loved shows like Planet Earth and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. So something like this is VR gold to me. This game really is a lot of fun to play. You would be doing a disservice to yourself and to VR if you skipped this game.

Absolutely stunning in immersion and graphics. Most underrated title on the store. I'm ten minutes in and utterly captivated. Its going at a signficant discount and totally worth your money. Have fun!

This game is a colossal cheek. 30€ for about 3 hours of gameplay - 2 if you rush through and don't let your wife try the first level :D ... I know demos that have more content. 2 hours is like... well it is like a game-selling platform would choose this amount of time to allow you to refund, right?

Obviously, some game developers have gotten into sort of a gold rush when they can label "vr" on their early design studies. In the long term, this will ruin the VR experience for many gamers and put studios which behave like this on the gamers' personal blacklists. By that it will harm those studios more than they can profit in the long run.

Now to the game: It is "ooohkaay", and I was totally fine if it was priced like 10€. Basically, you float around in a spherical whatever and tag ancient fish. It is one of those "go there, do that" games, where a voice tells you exactly which button to push and you are not allowed to go any other way. It is so flat, that it even continues the game if you fail to do a job without any penalty. (e.g. it does simply continue if you do not scan the mark on the stone circle or if you do not distract the "shark"-o-saurus (forgot the name) while your pod is recharging in those between-the-levels sequences).

When it comes to education, this game is awesomely shallow as well. The voice gives you some basic information about the faunae that you are scanning. Neither do you actually explore any interesting behavior (except tasks like "scan while eating") nor do you have enough species and interactions to call it anything else than shallow. Even "farland" (free title on the Oculus Rift) is more interesting, although completely based in fiction.

The immersion is ok, but not grand. The gfx and model details do not look very up-to-date to me. I felt much more awe in titles like Subnautica (and even on my flat screen), although Subnautica is pretty much at the beginning of its vr implementation and sometimes feels a bit shaky.

Although I do not suffer from gaming sickness and tho' cannot fully judge this, I think this game does this one job pretty well here. You move slow paced, stay aligned to the horizon, and there is always some "grid" of your pod visible in your peripheral view.

Stability: The game forced me to take off the Oculus Rift at every single launch to push an OK button when windows requests permission to run a network shell script, for whatever reason. It crashed two times during gameplay. Virtually I spent more time restarting than playing. And by now I spent nearly as much time in this review as it took me to complete the game.

Not worth 30$.....this is a demo....wrapped up in a shiny box. That aside, it is a ncie demo, works well and runs fairly well too.

Time Machine VR was one of the best experiences with the HTC VIVE that I had.
If you are interested in prehistoric underwater creatures and always wanted to see a dinosaur for yourself, this game takes you right there.

You can swim with some of the most famous prehistoric predators and learn about them in the course of it. You should not expect a hardcore action game here, the focus is on observing the target and learning about its behaviour. And this is where the game does a great job, it gives you as much time as you like just trying to wrap your head around how huge these animals were. I can imagine programs like this in future schools. This game might just be a pioneer educational VR applications.

I have to say I dont really understand some of the other reviews complaining about the controls. The controls are explained at the start and I didnt have any problems with them. Quite the contrary, I've become very fond of them. This game has the courage to let you move around other than the teleport mechanic so many other vr games use. It offers its own solution to moving in a wide vr surrounding with the limited space you have at home.

If you ever wanted to swim with a dinosaur, this is the experience for you. It is true that the graphics are not as polished as theBlu, but after all you move around in a larger surrounding. But nevertheless this game made some childhood dreams of mine come true.

The controls were poorly designed and obnoxious to use, and this game made me ridiculously motion sick. If you're even a little prone to motion sickness, do not buy this game! I've been fine with every other game, but this game made me feel like I was going to throw up within 15 minutes. I'm a paleontology freak, so I thought I'd love it, but the dinos were kind of dumb and cartoony - not realistic at all like The Blu, which was more what I was expecting.

I rate this game a solid 1/10

So far the only game that made me motion sick with the vive. It's really fun for an hour but then it's just repetitive and naseau. I'm not sure what causes it because I can play windlands all day with no trouble. I hope the devs can make a better experience next time because there is a lot of potential here.

It's a really great concept, educational and fun, however if you suffer from motion sickness this may be one to avoid.
I've played most of the top titles available on the Vive and haven't suffered motion sickness on any until now. After 20 mins of playing and thoroughly enjoying the game the motion sickness started. I believe it's due to the game being seated and the gliding motion of the pod.
I'm still very keen to play the game and will probably stick to one mission at a time.

Its a good game, not great due to a few factors (Vive related). I would recommend it though.

Pro: Pretty good looking game, although no AA. I understand they are worried about frame level droppage.
Re-allignment is easy since its not a room scale game

Cons:
I don't like that when you load it drops back to the HTC Vive main room. You should keep the user in the game
at all times even when loading. Just show a picture of one of the creatures or something.

The controls for the HTC (touchpad right side mainly) are not accurate enough. You should give the user an option to calibrate. Driving the pod takes some getting use to. I want to move my hands to far in each direction

You don't let the user explore, or if I'm lost trying to find the pad you say "Out of area" and throw us back at the start. We are capable of going out far and we are sure capable of back tracking :) don't take the freedom away from the user.

Its still fun to explore and I'm sure any dino loving kid will just have a blast!

Would you like to marvel at the massive marine beasts of the past? I know I would. I jumped at the chance at trying this interactive learning experience. Instead After a few hours exploring Im dissapointed at how badly the scanning system, which is the core "game play" mechanic in "Time Machine VR" has been implimented.

After the 10th time trying to scan and capture the feeding behaviour of a massive sea beast that I was clearly scanning, but for some (unexplained) reason Time Machine VR was telling me I wasnt, had me exiting in frustration. Couple this with every gamer's nightmare, the unskippable exposition scene! and I was wondering A: had these guys played a game before never mind developing one and B: why these eye rollingly rudimentary problems are following us into the brave new world of VR and stinking it up like 200 tons for rotting dino-fish.

Not polished enough to recommend but nice models and animations are worth seeing, just not at this price, so just try the demo instead.

*Update* Now tested on Vive and has horrible graphical latency, conclusion: AVOID

This game has been a fantastic introction for me to VR and i am becoming quite a proficiant mini sub pilot. The VR graphics are amazing, a real sense of actually being there with all the vulnerability that would accompany that.
It can also be a great tool for people who suffer from a fear of heights and want a program that de sensitises them.I have discovered that the Time Machine VR game is great for getting the old acrophobia going. When you are at the base station which is sometime in the future there is a building made from steel girders etc with towers supporting satelite dishes. Land the pod at the front or back of the building then get out of the pod by simply standing up ( for this game you are seated) then take a step forward. From then on it feels like you are standing outside. Then using the controls on the X Box controller move straight up slowly to the roof of the building, it feels like you are on an elevator platform and totally exposed. If you have a fear of heights i guarantee this will get your palms sweating. When you are on the roof do a simulated walk around the perimeter of the building and if you dare have a look down. I could hardly do it to start with and the feeling i get is exactly the same as if i was really on top of a building. Iv just tried it today and i am just starting to get used to the feeling. I am going to do this for around one hour per day then when i can eventually do it without fear i will put the de sensitisation theory to the test by walking around somewher high in the real world.
I would imagine that this part of the game was not intended for what i am using it for but it certainly generates the same fear as i get in the real world. Imagine what the develoers could could put together if they intended it to be a therapeutic tool, maybe a one for the futer eh?

This is one of those games / demos that you'll use to showcase your Oculus Rift. It's extremely pollished which great visuals and audio. I did a quick gameplay video (linked below), but to summarise that :

PROS
Extremely immersive - a showcase Oculus demo for 2015
Attention to detail
Graphics are atmospheric and claustrophobic
Audio production - great narration

CONS
Requires a game controller
The scanning menus are ugly
Not too much to do yet - more a demo than a game
Too short - will get longer (early access)
Felt a little nauseous with the DK2


Oculus gameplay footage :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sPDh1pHh1U

Having spent the past 15 years of my life sculpting life-size dinosaurs for theme parks it's fair to say I'm quite the fan of prehistoric monsters so buying this game was a no brainer. Time Machine VR is pretty much everything I want from a VR experience being both educational and thrilling (seriously the Pilosaurus scares the crap outta me). The headtracking is very smooth and I haven't experienced any nausea. As it's early access there are a few bugs here and there but doesn't detract from the experience, also runs great on my modest GTX680. Overall it's been one of my favourite experiences so far on the DK2 and well worth the asking price. Eagerly looking forward to what future updates bring.

Wow this little game was simply STUNNING !!! I felt so immersed when playing this with Oculus Rift Dk 2
headtracking was buttery smooth, the graphics looks very nice, sunrays shining true the ocean. A very very
plesant experience.

http://youtu.be/Jr9eo0gFBoM