PSVR gets it’s first Space Opera…
Loading Human – Chapter 1 is the first in a trilogy in this episodic series on PSVR. You play as Prometheus, a man who is brought to help his dying father at a futuristic base at the South Pole. You’ll engage in a relationship, seal your first VR kiss and if you play your cards right…maybe a bit more.
The game itself is fairly short, but the fiddly controls extend it’s life by making simple tasks a real pain. You can use either the Move or DualShock controllers, but I actually found the Move to be a detriment when it came to moving and crouching. The DualShock makes it easier to do these, but changing your point of view for you to move forward is a pain as you have to move the right analog stick to where you want to look, then release to switch the camera angle. Why it doesn’t just let you move with both analog sticks like other games is beyond me.
Control issues aside, Loading Human has some great potential. There are some clever puzzles to be solved and the story is actually pretty good, even if the romance felt a bit forced. It was also incredibly bizarre to kiss someone in VR, let alone staring at them naked in the bath with only bubble bath covering their dignity. Loading Human isn’t the most realistic looking game though with an almost mixture of real and cel-shaded visuals. The game isn’t without it’s bugs though, it crashed on me a number of times and I had to reload some areas as I wasn’t able to pick up some objects.
The one thing that may be detrimental to the overall success is the price of the game. It’s £34.99 on the PlayStation Store, which is a lot for a game that is only a few hours long. It’s definitely memorable with what it offers and I hope the wait isn’t too long for Episode 2 and 3, but I hope they are either more reasonably priced or longer and better in quality to justify the price.
The Verdict
Loading Human – Chapter 1 is a decent but short, story-driven VR experience that is held back by it’s awkward controls. Hopefully they can improve things with a patch or two, but my hope is mainly for the next 2 episodes. Chapter 1 shows promise and I just hope it builds up to a satisfying conclusion.