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Pirates VR: Jolly Roger - reviews and impressions

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

The game launched yesterday:

 

Find the game here for 20 bucks:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1443620/Pirates_VR_Jolly_Roger/

System Requirements

Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: windows 10, 11
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 / AMD Ryzen 5 2500X
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    • Graphics: GTX 3070
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • VR Support: SteamVR, Meta Rift S, Valve Index, HTC Vive, Meta Link PC
    • Additional Notes: only for VR headsets
 
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There's an easy way to see that the image was taken using the Rift CV1 😉 I'm sure @kojack spotted it before reading this line 🙂

 

I'm really only recommending the game using my old Rift CV1. The game shines with the Rift CV1. But I'll get back to that later.

The game feels like an adventure game, but I happen to like these. Coming from Behemoth and Alien Rogue Incursion, Pirates VR is a somewhat relaxing game. You do have to think a bit in Pirates VR to solve the puzzles.


Graphics aren't as great as Bootstrap Island, but it's close enough, if you use the right hmd 🙂 The island and especially the beach are impressive. There are great real-time lighting, dynamic shadows, some high-res textures and many nice effects. Here are some examples of dynamic shadows:

 

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Note the detailed shadows cast by the plant leaves
 
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The lit lamp casts shadows - and so does the skeleton 

  

The game is made ground-up for PCVR and the quality easily shows. The game has been in development for about 6 years by indie devs.

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You start here - just walking around the beach is close to worth $20 - at least to me 🙂

 

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Note the long view distance

The demo had some very blurry temporal antialiasing (TAA), so I started the game using the Rift CV1 instead of my Valve Index hmd, because TAA is not blurry with the CV1 due to the SDE. Rift CV1 uses oled panels. The game is dark in the caves, so oled is not a bad thing - and the game looks very sharp with the Rift CV1. I used Ultra settings (only antialiasing reduced to High) and ss 2.5 with the RTX 3090. Ss 2.5 is super-sampling of 27 million pixels per frame combining both eyes. I do get a few reprojections, but ASW 2.0 is my great friend, and mostly I get solid 90 fps. Thus the recommended RTX 3070 is no joke, and an RTX 4090 is by far not wasted on this game - if you want high res and Ultra settings in 120 Hz.

 

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For years I thought The Pirate Bay was something else - but here it is 🤗
 
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Another nice view - note the fine leaves on plants - many polygons are used here


It's one of the most beautiful games with the CV1. The game really feels made for the old oled kings like Vive, Vive Pro and Rift CV1. Touch controllers are perfectly supported and aligned, and the game supports the old native Oculus drivers - so I get optimal performance with Rift CV1, SteamVR does not even start. This also means that users of any Meta hmd will get optimal performance.

 

You'll be visiting some caves - and you'll love oled when doing that:

 

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The game is very dark in the caves, unless you use oled panels. With lcd panels you need a lit lamp, but you don't need that with oled.  


I did test the game using lcd panels too, namely the Valve Index. The game is very blurry with the Index, even when using res 300% - there's no way to get the same sharpness as the Rift CV1, or maybe with the RTX 5090 if you can use Index res 500% then, lol. Also the game simply looks wrong with lcd - like everything is made of plastic, it all looks fake. With the Rift CV1, everything simply looks real - it's a night and day difference. Chosing the right hmd or not can make or break this game.
In comparison, Behemoth was made for lcd hmds and totally shines with the Index, I'd never use CV1 for Behemoth - but sadly Pirates VR does seem to have begun its development in a time before lcd hmds ruled the VR world.

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 This image is taken while using the Index res 300%, maybe hard to see here, but the game is a lot more blurry using lcd hmds than the Rift CV1

 

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If you got kids, at least the first level may be a fun intro to VR. Just do not go too close to the big cats 😉

My rating for now 7.5/10 with the Rift CV1. With the Index 5/10 especially due to blurry TAA . So far I've experienced no crashes, the game has been perfectly stable using both CV1 and Index.

 

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Bootstrap Island is more impressive, also in scale, but Pirates VR is more a simple adventure game. Btw, note the big stone skull in the distance

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

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