I was much more excited about Water Planet prior to playing it than I was after finishing it, but nearly all of my disappointing was rooted in unfounded expectations of the game. I went into the game expecting a fantastical Myst-like adventure game full of puzzles and narrative, and when all I got was this monochromatic walking/swimming simulator I was understandably upset. Sure, there were moments of visual creative genius, and yes, the music is exceptionally epic, but there was nothing here that remotely resembled traditional gameplay.
Despite what is arguably one of the dullest color pallets ever used for an adventure game outside of a charcoal drawing, Water Planet has you exploring a surprisingly compelling world created almost entirely from water, either in pure liquid form or in geographical landscapes created from solid (yet somehow still liquid) water. You’ll travel to various waypoints under the guidance of Gemini, your A.I. companion who will take you on a fantastic journey to collect various energy crystals needed to fuel your ship. Along the way you’ll learn about this strange planet, its inhabitants, and possibly a few things about ocean conservation.
While the original score by VIRGO is the highlight of the experience the narration and conversation with Gemini and later, Aqua, is borderline game-breaking in its annoyance factor. While it might have seemed like a good idea to use a somewhat garbled synthesized voice filter, trying to understand a female version of Stephen Hawking while trying to appreciate my surroundings proved almost unbearable to the point where I started tuning out the voices entirely.
The game is fairly linear provided you follow the course set out for you, but you are free to explore off the desired path, but doing so will often lead to lengthy periods of silence as the score seems to be directly synced to the programmers intended game path. If you don’t stray Water Planet will take around two hours to finish and oddly enough, without a save feature, you will need to reach the end in a single sitting or start over from the beginning.
While intended for VR audiences, Water Planet can be experienced on a standard monitor much like a conventional game, and you can enjoy a higher level of quality to the overall visual presentation doing so. The score is truly epic when experienced on a home theater or quality PC speaker setup; especially if you were using headphones for VR. Captions also help you understand the scratchy digitized voices in the game. And regardless of VR or non-VR, a gamepad seems much more suited for control versus any of the motion controls for Rift or Vive.
The Steam version supports both Rift and Vive and I played on both with no real differences between the two. The lighter Touch controls proved more comfortable for extended play times but as previously mentioned, the gamepad offered the best experience given the limited nature of actual gameplay content and lack of interaction. Room-scale is supported but never fully utilized.
Water Planet is a trippy interactive musical experience that blends a fantastic score with some unique visuals to create something entirely unique. As long as you go into this game with realistic expectation you are sure to be entertained from start to finish, with or without the added immersion of VR.
