The trailer shows the game quite well, it is indeed very beautiful:
The game is here and supports native Oculus driver - SteamVR does not even start with a Meta hmd:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2550040/Subside/
Recommended system requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Geforce RTX 2070 / Radeon RX 6800
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 10 GB available space
- VR Support: SteamVR. Oculus Touch/Valve Index
I found performance to be similar to Kayak VR: Mirage. I tested the game using both Valve Index and Oculus Rift CV1 - and the game looks stunningly using both. If fact I do not notice much difference, the CV1 has much SDE with red colors, but not the blue and green, and Subside is mostly blue and green. I'd say this game is truly awesome with the Rift CV1, you're getting the full experience with CV1 and are not being left behind.
I took a few screenshots - using about 27 million pixels per frame (Rift CV1 ss 2.5 or Index res 300%):
Here I'm standing on the seafloor looking up - you need to come up and breathe now and then - you can hear it on your heatbeat
Some nice textures - not truly 4K all of them, but they look great enough
Just to show some wood - which really looks like wood - poly levels are high
I'm actually not comfy floating here like live shark bait - and there are sharks in the water, pretty big ones too
Here's one, as I'm diving towards the bottom
Some interesting wrecks to explore
Note the great dynamic shadows here - of course, this is real PCVR
I guess this image kinda shows the great atmosphere - there's much life in the sea, and focus on exploring. To unlock new levels, you need to find certain items scattered all over the seafloor - or hidden in wrecks.
Here I'm finding a drive which suddenly lets me choose between day or night time - but not all levels have night mode
Is SubSide a game or a sim? A bit of both actually, the swimming and sea-life are very realistic, and you need to explore and find item to advance in the levels. You can find keys to sunken treasures too.
SubSide nails what VR is about - creating a virtual reality, when the experience is so detailed that it may fool you brain into thinking everything is - kinda - real. I guess even SubSide will look dated in 2030, but for now it's one of the finest VR experiences you can get. And a perfect way to work with your thalassophobia, galeophobia, and other aquaphobias/hydrophobias 🤗
Btw, right now SubSide has 98% postive ratings based on 109 ratings - so similar to Underdogs, and easily among the highest-rated VR experiences this year. SubSide is 10% off until September 24.
Beardo Benjo shows off the game using his Quest 3:
I was going to tone down the presence of great whites a bit, as this may easily scare off many users. There are no great whites in the first 2 levels, but yes, you will be able to say hello to great whites and whales too.
SubSide probably will be beyond your wildest VR dreams, if you're into diving. And to me, having been traumatized by Jaws as a kid, SubSide really gets to me emotionally, lol.
Found the canyon - this also shows how close SubSide is to Kayak VR: Mirage, which both have graphics on par with Alyx if not even better:
I've got swim feet now and can move fast - as you find coins on the riverbed, these can be used to buy equipment
The canyon waters are great - and there's a big fish too 🙂
As said, you can buy equipment for the coins you find, and I finally got the torch:
Remember not too look directly at the flame to not hurt your eyes 😎 😉
New levels open up as you find new drives with new locations in the water. Even if you have not fully completed and found everything in a level, a voice will tell you when new locations are available - you can just exit your current level (your progress will then be saved) and go to the new location. Right now I have like 4 locations about 50% completed, and I can just go from one to the other with no issues. In the first level there are boxes I could not open without a torch - but having gotten the torch in level 4, I can now go back to let's say level 2 and open the boxes I could not open before, you constantly have all your equipment available. So new levels and new gear make it possible to go back and complete older levels - this way the game really opens up as you progress.
The experience works on several levels, for me especially psychological ones - like the fear of running out of air when taking a long dive in the deep caves:
See the yellow rope at the bottom? You can follow that in the caves, but some tunnels are completely filled with water with no option to breathe, and here you many have to swim fast or wisely to survive. If you drown, you can just start from the beginning again - you don't lose any equipment or coins
The fear of drowning is a powerful motivator in this game/sim. Then I have my fear of sharks and of the the very deep waters to work with, lol - but I got better - now I can even swim with sharks at night 😇
Swimming with sharks at night - at the surface there are thunder and lighting, it's somehow more cosy at the bottom of the sea
That said, I did get access to the great white shark cage diving location last night, but I was not really in the mood for that. Might grab a glass or two of red wine later this evening, before I go in the cage 🤔 😁
Btw, you really cannot leave the water, so not easy to get a good shot of the water surface, but I did manage to take this screenshot to show the great quality of the water surface and waves:
An image just to show the quality of the waves
I've spent like 4 hours in the waters, and I'm still far from completing the game. I have access to 5 out of 8 locations now, but one is the shark cage I have not yet visited. I would not be surprised if it takes me about 15 hours to complete the game - but then you can always go back for a swim 🙂
There are always great experiences to have, and last night I finally found out where this dude lives:
The sea floor is big, and last night I finally located the moray eel - after having heard about it, but could not find it - sure it's not real, but that has some advantages too if you wanna get really close 🙂
I guess we all remember the cage diving scene in Jaws? 🤔
Yup, looks like soooo much fun, really hard to resist a jolly good great white sharky cage dive! 😰
That said, I'm so proud of my progress in the galeophobia course 🤗 (galeophobia = fear of sharks). Today I - after having considered it for about a day - went into the cage 🤗
So far it has not spotted me
Uh-on, but all my fault, I should not have overdosed my tuna-perfume 😬
Kinda beautiful, note the scars on its skin
It's really big - especially when you're there - in the cage - here I'm trying to scratch the goood Mr. Sharky behind the ear - or gills 🤔
I guess beautiful friendships easily end when hunger strikes...
I could swim out of the cage pretending that the shark isn't real and that it's all in my head 😁
The Tooth-fairy might need some big coins if some of these teeth get lost 😎
As stated, you can swim out of the cage, but as a clever dude once said:
Btw, I did try to face my demons in South Africa, where I went cage diving with great whites several years ago - but VR kinda felt worse than the real thing, lol - also normal great whites usually are quite relaxed, not as aggressive as the big fellow in SubSide. That said, I did have a larger real great white bite the cage, but it only happened a few times during many hours.
In short, I'd say the experience in SubSide is very close to being there in real life, even if the shark is more aggressive in VR. Water clarity and view distance is also better than I had in the real-world, where often you only can see like 10 feet away in the murky water.
You certainly get a great experience with the great white in SubSide. Cage diving with the great white was one of the most memorable experiences I've had in VR, and that says quite a lot. Surely, SubSide is not a 9/10, but a 10/10 - maybe even 11/10, but I need to get access to the whales first 🙂
I have now, after 10 hours, more or less completed SubSide - but it's like a giant aquarium, and you can always go back for a swim.
I got access to the nice koi pool:
Got new gloves and a watch showing how many seconds of air I've got left:
I also got the jet pack, it's awesome - but was very expensive (50 gold coins, and you need to find them all, one at a time)
Finally I got to swim with whales - this was a big moment for me, and if you have not tried SudSide it can be hard to imagine the fear of just being in the deep blue sea - one dude wrote this:
swim with whales
This game is top level VR game ! But for me who fear deep water, i cant stay in the whales environment because of the deep abyss below ! I really feel thrills looking down... My brain tell me to escape this situation quickly ! it's amazing to feel this in a VR game ! Even knowing its a simulation, i cant stay here ! All other maps are ok for me, i love to see all this fish, sharks and animals, but this abyssal blue below fear me a lot !
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2550040/discussions/0/4846526093721157172/
- I know exactly how that dude feels - so I'm very proud of myself taking these shots, lol:
Few VR experiences fool my brain like SubSide, but that's the greatest testament to the immersive power of VR when it's best.
