PlayStation VR - Review Impressions

And now it's Sony's turn to enter the ring, following in the footsteps of notable headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, bringing with them 40 million VR-ready consoles and the backing of a range of first- and third-party developers. PlayStation VR is here, it's competitively priced, and it comes with a solid launch lineup. But, the question on everybody's lips: is it here to stay?

We'd be lying if we said we knew for sure. The PSVR headset launches with a decent selection of titles, offering a range of virtual reality experiences no doubt to suit a multitude of tastes. It's also got the distinct advantage of being the cheapest of the big three, and by quite a way (although the price point gets a bit more complicated if you're not equipped with all the relevant gear beforehand, but more on that later). There's also the small matter of Sony's impressive track record of building and manufacturing hardware, which certainly has a bearing on this generation of the technology and will again for possible future iterations. In short, PSVR has a lot of positives going for it.

Is that enough, though? Just like when we reviewed the HTC Vive earlier this year, we have to be upfront with the caveat that virtual reality isn't for everyone, and as we did back then we're going to recommend that you try a headset for yourself before you stump up the money needed to get your hands on this tech, because some people simply don't gel with VR and find being shut off from the real world to be quite affecting, and on top of that there are some games that'll have you reaching for the sick bucket unless your stomach is made of steel.

But before we start talking about software and the overall experience, let's first delve into the headset, how it performs, and what you get out the box. First up, for your £350 you get a headset, a receiver box, a bunch of cables, in-ear buds, a demo disk with eight demos on it (in the UK at least), and access to Playroom VR (although we've not been able to download this at the time of writing). There's a couple of other bits and pieces in there, but that's the main bulk of it. However, and this is important, buying that headset alone doesn't mean that you're VR ready, and at the very least you need a PlayStation 4 Camera (around £40) and you may also want a pair of Move controllers (around £70). If you don't have this kit and you want the full experience, it drives up the cost of PSVR considerably, making it much closer in price to its nearest competitor, the Oculus Rift (which is around £550).

You have to consider the true cost of PSVR, then, because it's not as simple as splashing out £350 and getting stuck in (and you only get Playroom VR and a demo disc, which is worth bearing in mind as you'll also want to grab some games too). The counter argument is the relatively low cost of the hardware as opposed to the sizeable investment required if you want a VR ready PC. The PlayStation 4 Slim will set you back around £260 (and there's the PS4 Pro on the horizon too, don't forget), which means the overall cost of getting into VR is much, much lower on console than it is on PC. However, there are certain drawbacks to that tempting truth.

For a start, PSVR feels a little less luxurious than its PC counterparts. Fair play to Sony, they've still done a good job, and the headset is smartly designed and looks futuristic. It's lightweight, robust, and it feels like it's more suited to the living room than Oculus Rift or the Vive. It's also quite comfortable, with two soft rubber-covered plates - one on the forehead, the other around the back - that make for a snug fit. There's a dial at the rear that can be used to tighten the headset, and you can angle it for comfort, pulling the back strap lower if you prefer. A button that sits underneath the visor also allows you to make adjustments and draw the screen closer to your face. Simply put, it's a smartly designed, well made piece of kit, and its curved form and striking finish ensures that it's the most eye-catching top tier headset currently on the market, even if it doesn't feel as high end as its competitors.

For those among you with glasses, the PSVR headset is reasonably comfortable, but after an extended session it can get a bit uncomfortable (we'd offer the same advice to everyone, though: take frequent breaks). The headset presses on the glasses, pushes down on top of them, or just moves when playing, so you may need to regularly adjust to maintain optimum comfort. It's not ideal, but the headset definitely works with glasses and wearing specs shouldn't put players off. In terms of fitting the headset around your face, glasses or no, there's rubber casing around the OLED screen that for the most part keeps the player in the dark, and even if there's a little light creeping out at the start of session it soon settles into position and cloaks you in immersive darkness. We were, at first, worried that the rubber might get sweaty after extended play, but this wasn't a major issue when the room temperature was steady, although the screen can steam up a little if your skin is warmer than normal.

Given the price disparity it'll come as no surprise to hear that the overall quality of the VR is less than what you'll get on PC. The 1920 x RGB x 1080 OLED screen makes for less pixels per eye than the competition (amendment: this isn't strictly true if you take into account subpixels, of which PSVR boasts more than Vive and Oculus Rift), but it's actually the lack of heft behind the PS4's CPU that's the main drawback. Anything visually complicated looks decidedly old-gen, and as such we're really interested in seeing what kind of bump we're going to get from the PS4 Pro. On the bright side, the 120Hz (or sometimes 90Hz) refresh rate makes for a smooth experience, and while we didn't test the individual frame-rates on all the software we've played so far, we didn't notice any massive drops and the we'd say that almost everything was silky smooth. The field of view is a relatively narrow 100 degrees, but we didn't find that to be an issue either. The 3D audio works nicely, and adds to the sense of immersion that we encountered in several of the games we tried (and the in-ear buds that came with the headset were perfectly fine).

Perhaps the thing that most impressed us was the head-tracking, which did a great job of following the movements of our head and translating that into the game space. Indeed, there's certain titles, such as the PlayStation VR Worlds games VR Luge and Danger Ball, and Headmaster, which rely solely on head-tracking for control. These worked really well, and the only problems we did have involved tracking the controller during certain games where we had to move around the extremity of the playing space, and then the DualShock sometimes drifted out of the view of the Camera. It certainly wasn't game breaking, but it's worth saying that the play space afforded by the Camera can at times feel little bit restricting.

Using the Move controllers is an option on some software, but the jury's still out on that, and we'll have to comment on their effectiveness on a case by case basis, but the majority of software is DualShock compatible and as such we'd recommend sticking with the controller at first, unless there's a game that you really, really want that demands that you use the Move controllers. Even something like Until Dawn: Rush of Blood worked great when played with a DualShock 4, and we even preferred using it to the Move controllers in that instance.

We are not allowed to comment on all the software that we're playing, and as such there's a range of experiences that we can't tell you about, so let's focus on the first wave of reviews that you can already read on Gamereactor. Tumble VR is a game that takes a simple puzzle and moves it into the VR realm, and this kind of static VR works fine, with zero nausea (that review is still in the works). Scavengers Odyssey (part of PlayStation VR Worlds) on the other hand, had you hopping between asteroids, and we didn't like that one little bit. In-between that you've got games like Battlezone and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood that include movement, but that are not quite as stomach churning as certain other games. Our advice in most cases is to try any VR game before you buy it, not to see if you like it (well, that too), but to make sure it's not going to be unplayable for you. Informed buying is more important than ever before, and that's from the hardware down to the software.

One key way you can try some of these games is via the demo disk we mentioned earlier. The eight demos included (in the UK) are by no means extensive, with most of them containing less than five minutes of content, but they provide tiny tasters of how each one works, and this will be very useful for those new to VR. You might find a space shooter like Eve: Valkyrie is more your thing over a calmer, more sedate adventure game like Wayward Sky. Try each of them out and see which ones work for you, and find out whether RIGS Mechanised Combat League will make you sick to your stomach, or if you're more of a Battlezone tank driver type who's happy move at speed in the virtual realm.

It's not, however, just VR games that you can play via the headset; you can watch movies via a screen seen inside the headset. You can even play your non-VR games the same way. Watching a film via the headset is fine, but you are more aware of the pixels given your proximity to the image. Playing games on the other hand, well, we were convinced after just five minutes spent storming the Death Star in Star Wars Battlefront, and while it might not be comfortable playing for extended periods of time with the headset on, it's immersive and intense and it makes the experience feel immediate. We might not play standard games with the headset on all the time, but it is a feature that we'll continue to use.

Returning to the device itself, it's fair to say that while it doesn't offer the same level of quality VR as its premium PC counterparts, PSVR is still a well put together piece of kit. Sturdy build quality and elegant design makes for a durable and contemporary piece of hardware. Still, we can't help but think that one day in the not too far distant future we're going to reflect back on this tech and it's going to look like we've had a VHS player strapped to our faces; it still feels very cumbersome (although that's an issue that all three leading headsets suffer from, the Vive being by far the worst) and we can't wait for Geordi La Forge-style visors that are light on the face as well as boasting ultra-realistic visual fidelity.

But that's the future, and we're going to wrap things up by focusing on the here and now. PlayStation VR has landed, and it comes with a solid launch lineup and the promise of more than fifty games before the end of the year. It offers smooth VR, and although looks a bit dated from a visual perspective, our overall experience was quite positive, especially when we played software that didn't involve too much movement (though it's each to their own on that front, don't be swayed by us, try it for yourselves). The question then becomes: do you buy one? Well, we can't answer that for you, because VR is so subjective and the investment is considerable. All we can do is highlight a few points and suggest that you head down to your nearest specialist retailer and try one out for yourself. Perhaps you might prefer to play it safe and wait and see what the future holds, and that'd certainly be a sensible tactic given that it's early days, and considering that the first wave of headsets has already sold out there's going to be some time to take stock and try it out before taking the plunge if you're not among the earliest adopters.

Like the Vive and Oculus before it, there's no denying that this is the first generation of mainstream consumer hardware. The headsets are chunky, the resolutions aren't sky high, and the price is steep (to varying degrees). But, and it's a big "but", VR is exciting and this still feels like a genuine frontier for interactive entertainment. It's rough around the edges and it's far from perfect, but as more and more developers start to experiment with virtual reality we're going to see increasingly exciting experiences emerge, and maybe even the "killer app" that we're not sure has even been made yet and that will sell VR to the masses once it arrives. The only thing we're left wondering is whether enough people will get on board and adopt this fledgling tech, enough to sustain it into future generations and allow developers to continue to experiment and innovate. And that, dear readers, is entirely up to you. We await your next move with interest.