A Large Quantity of Mushrooms

[Pablito]

The first duty of a successful VR app. is to transport the user from
one place to another.  "A Large Quantity of Mushrooms" is an
"indi" project that lacks certain polishing.  Default control schemes
complicate interaction with the world around you.  Movement however
is smoothe- no teleport.  Walking speed is slightly slower with a run
button available. Turning is "blink" turning, not "click" turning and is done
with shoulder buttons on an Xbox controller, not a thumbstick.  I noticed
no studdering at any time. 

The textures: mostly 8-bit, mixed with some 32-bit for certain
evironemental effect. 

The shaders: basic for the most part but are
absolutely effective.

There is NO audible narration to help piece
together a storyline.  Some text appears here and there, but
answeres nothing. At every turn, A.L.Q.O.M. lets you know just how alone
you are and self reliant you must be.  You have to really want this. 
If you can get past the initial swipes, you will discover just how vast
this world is- how deep and immersive and errie and mysterious everything
around you is. Take a chance with this game.  The price is right and it will
pay HUGE DIVIDENDS in satisfaction on a handful of levels!! A.L.Q.O.M. is on
par. with "Nevermind" and even surpasses it in subtle ways.  If a thread already
exists covering this game, then trust this as a faithful second opinion.

[CrashFu]

I tried to play this last night but was having some technical difficulty;  Object interaction involves a mouse cursor (which can also be moved with the right thumbstick on the gamepad)   but for me it was stuck in the top left corner of the screen, and any attempts to move said cursor via any input just resulted in it snapping right back instantly, which made it impossible to actually interact WITH anything.   No interaction = Not getting far into the game. :disappointed:

Hopefully I don't have that issue the next time I try playing; the game world is so dark and moody, and I'm looking forward to exploring it.

[Pablito]

Sorry to hear that

CrashFu said:

I tried to play this last night but was having some technical difficulty;  Object interaction involves a mouse cursor (which can also be moved with the right thumbstick on the gamepad)   but for me it was stuck in the top left corner of the screen, and any attempts to move said cursor via any input just resulted in it snapping right back instantly, which made it impossible to actually interact WITH anything.   No interaction = Not getting far into the game. :disappointed:

Hopefully I don't have that issue the next time I try playing; the game world is so dark and moody, and I'm looking forward to exploring it.

Sorry to hear that.  Hope there's a easy fix.

[CrashFu]

Update:  I figured out the UI issue I was having before;  apparently I had joy2key or something similar installed on my PC, for reasons I don't even remember, and it was causing the input interference..  first an uncooperative cursor and later on helplessly spinning in place, lol.

But with that out of the way I was finally able to give ALQOM a go.  I don't know if I would even define this as a "game",  as there's not much to it beyond exploration, apart from a singular puzzle at the beginning that requires you to explore around to find what symbols correspond to colored tabs on a locked box..  (and I accidentally solved half the components of it by accident, before even discovering the areas I was supposed to explore for them)

But that isn't to say it wasn't interesting.  The experience had a certain dream-like quality.. or maybe more like a "nightmare", or something on the border of the two.  Nothing trying to actively give me a scare, but a lot to make me feel unsettled, nervous, and uncomfortable.. all in the very best way.  Art seems to be a recurring theme in the game as well, sometimes in the static level design, sometimes in map transitions or other animate sequences, other times more directly in the form of paintings on the walls.

And just when I thought I was really getting TO someplace, I reached the end of the (current) Early Access content;  I've gotta say, I'm eager to see what the developer has planned for the rest of this world they've created.