Max Mustard for PCVR is out:
Find the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/922490/Max_Mustard/
The game has an average 98% (=4.9/5) rating for PSVR2 - and you get an even better version for PCVR:
Source: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10009845
I took some in-game shots and added comments below.
One of the best 3rd person perspective platformers so far in VR, and reminds me more of Lucky's Tale than AstroBot. (For those wanting more story elements and puzzles, Moss 1 and 2 are still my reference by far.)
In the start, some evil dude steals many cuties - you have to get them back 🙂
Max Mustard uses OpenXR drivers, so Meta hmd users will get optimal performance - and the view distance can be great as shown here
You do not need a fast rig to get great performance in Max Mustard. I get 80 fps in 80 Hz using an extreme res of 500% with the Index - that's an insane 45 million pixels per frame combining both eyes. The game has some jaggies and lack antialiasing, but using extreme res jaggies can be greatly reduced.
You should be able to play the game just fine using for example a GTX 1060 6GB. The game plays and looks great with my old Rift CV1 too.
This is an enhanced Quest port explaining the great performance. The Quest version is just 4GB, while this version is a whopping 32GB installed (31.8GB). You get the premium version here with dynamic shadows, advanced water shaders, much better lighting and more high-res textures.
Advanced water shaders - only available for PS5/PSVR2 and PCVR
Note the ground textures, which are much higher res than the Quest version
Within the genre, I'd probably rate the game 7.5/10 (best levels are 9/10, but some levels more like 5/10). The game has no difficulty setting, and may be too hard for kids. Some levels have too much distance between save points. While the first 5-6 levels are easy, the difficulty level quickly increases. For casual players not particularly fond of platformers, this game is not easy to recommend - because many levels will require high precision jumping and timing - and can be very frustrating.
Some levels have much going on - you need some skills to complete one of these levels. Can be frustrating if you're new to the genre
The geometry is simple due to the Quest 2 origin, but mostly the game still looks great/fine. Just do not expect to find high-res textures and high-poly surfaces like in the best PCVR games (=games made ground-up for PCVR).
Note the low-poly palm to the left - you get many low-poly assets in the game revealing its low-end origin - but mostly I don't notice it much - also thanks to high-levels of super-sampling letting you see distant objects very clearly
The floating cushions in this shot will quickly deflate when you touch them
So far no crashes. A few issues with the game I'd like to get improved:
There is snap turning, and I would love some smooth turning.
Being able to select weapon hand independently of locomotion hand would be great - for left-handed persons like me 🙂
For going backward in a level, it would be great being able to push a button to recenter behind Max. Right now the game is only designed to move forward.
I'd love some smooth turning instead of only snap turning
The game only has one graphics option: Post-processing On or Off. Would be great with options for antialiasing.
Some scenes with great view distance can be more prone to jaggies, like here
Astrobot has tons of 3D grass, flowers, vegetation, etc. - Mustard not so much:
Some (animated) 3D grass would work wonders 🙂 Of course AstroBot is AAA and designed for the PS5 which is 10 times more powerful than the Quest 2. That's why Max Mustard graphically is way inferior to AstroBot, and much closer to Lucky's Tale.
It would be great with difficulty settings so the game gets less frustrating for kids or rusty old-timers. One quick way would be to adjust prices in the shop, so playing on Easy would give access to much cheaper items - and maybe increase deflation time for some floating platforms (seen in the below screenshot) etc.
Reducing deflation time for the floating cushions could be a great help to make the game easier for young kids
If you enjoy platformers like Lucky's Tale and AstroBot, Max Mustard is a solid title and easy to recommend.
PS. You'll visit space too 🙂
I did enjoy some levels more than usually last evening, I'm now 60% through the game - and upped my Steam rating from 7.5 to 8.0. Or maybe I'm getting better at jumping? 🤔 😁
A few more images:
Another close-up of Max
Some busy indoor level
Max Barbecue - this boss was fun-ish 😉
This was a nice level - note the dynamic shadows and nice water - still the devs did very little to exploit the great performance of current PC video cards, but that's good news for owners of slow/old PC hardware
Same level as before, to show the fish 🙂
A better close-up of the enhanced PC ground textures
Also a great level
I left the game here last night, going back later today 🙂
Unfortunately, the game is totally tanking for PCVR, I guess adult PCVR gamers don't care for games which look like designed for kids? - But I played many platform games as a kid using the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500, and games are much better in VR.
These are the sad charts - no one plays Max Mustard on PC - no one bought the game at launch (ok, Tom and I did):
No one plays Max Mustard, sadly
The situation was similar for the Quests: after a few months, only 50 ratings in the Meta Quest Store, so devs took drastic measures and lowered the price 90% - now you could get Max Mustard for $3. Then sales exploded, but devs did not earn much.
This is a bit of a mystery to me - why don't Quest and PCVR users support VR platform games like Max Mustard by paying the full price ($30)? PSVR2 owners are buying at full price and the game has sold far more for PSVR2 than for Quest.
Is the price too high on Steam? Is the game too childish? Does no-one care for platformers which do not look like AstroBot? Do PCVR owners refuse to support low-end Quest games even when enhanced? Are PCVR owners mad because we got the game last?
I don't have the answers...
PS. Maybe some think that no-one plays Max Mustard, because no-one uses PCVR - but these are results from Arizona Sunshine Remake 2 minutes ago:
- and this is Alyx 2 minutes ago:
There are tons of PCVR users, just not for Max Mustard. Max Mustard did get delayed and launched a few hours before Arizona Sunshine Remake - and that might have been a very poor timing for the Mustard devs 🤔
Like Tom posted on Steam, it does seem the devs omitted any antialiasing for the PCVR version. Those fortunate to have extremely fast video cards can significantly reduce jaggies by using extreme res - but since many do not have high end gpus, jaggies may be a great problem.
This is Rift CV1 with ss 2.5 - that's 27 million pixels per frame combining both eyes. While that sounds like a lot, I'm forcing 45 million pixels per frame with the Index. And the difference for the jaggies reduction is big. Since I've had to reduce the images here to 999 pixel width, it may be hard to see that the CV1 has more jaggies than when using Index (see screenshots in my previous posts in this thread). Fortunately you cannot see the jaggies much with CV1 due to its SDE, but I bet you can clearly see jaggies using LCD hmds and low to normal res:
I guess jaggies are hard to see here - let's zoom in:
Still not bad thanks to the 27 mill pixel res, but when moving in-game you can see some shimmering
Another CV1 shot:
The game does look great with the CV1 - but let's zoom in again:
I'm not sure the game really uses active antialiasing - this looks more like the impact of gigantic res resulting in small pixels, but still some jaggies and pixel crawling - and mostly hidden in-game by the CV1 SDE.
Some cliffs also look kinda strange - I did not notice this with Index res 500%;
Some cliffs/rocks looks more like glued-in
One last shot with the CV1 🙂
Super-sampling is an extremely expensive way to reduce jaggies, and while devs can push high-res using eye-tracked foveated rendering with the PS5 and PSVR2, users of older gpus like GTX 1060 - 2060 may benefit much if devs provide better antialiasing for the PCVR version. 2c.
