How can you go wrong when you combine sci-fi, time travel, and horror, then put in in VR and have it all take place on the Titanic? For the past week I have been completely immersed (and sometimes submersed) in a stunning virtual recreation of that infamous cruise ship while reviewing Titanic: A Space Between on my Quest 3.
You start the game in 2145 as some sort of temporal specialist sent back to the Titanic on April 14, 1912, to find a previous traveler who has gone missing. There is a convincing intro sequence with plenty of exposition, as you find yourself inside a time travel tube one minute and in the coal room of the Titanic the next. You’ll even get to shovel some virtual coal and vent some virtual steam, and it all feels convincing enough until the guy in your earpiece mentions you’ve arrived 24 hours later than expected just as the ship strikes the iceberg and water starts pouring into the furnace room.
Prepare for an exciting thrill ride of an adventure mixed with some dark sci-fi horror and thoughtful puzzle designs. If you have ever played a 3D adventure then you’ll feel right at home with all the concepts here, only everything is so much more immersive thanks to the wonderful attention to detail in every aspect of recreating this ship in VR. There are times where you will simply forget the task at hand and wander off exploring as much as you can before you find yourself gated by a puzzle.
You’ll get to explore various areas of the ship from the deck (sorry, no “King of the World” moment here) to the engines in the belly of the boat and everything in between. Claustrophobic corridors only get tighter when they are rapidly filling with rushing water. For added realism play this game in a bathtub full of ice water. And while the whole “avoid the dark…stay in the light” trope seems played out; it actually works well in this game generating several audible outbursts while playing.
Environments are created with complex geometry and high-res textures that accurately reflect light and color creating a very unique look of quasi-realism. It’s safe to say this game on Quest 3 looks just as good as a PCVR game. Adding to the immersion are plenty of interactive items you can grab, examine, break, and with some key items actually use to solve puzzles of mostly average difficulty. Controls are excellent with plenty of comfort settings for movement and interacting with the world feels natural. The game has an option for “seated” play, but it really feels like they want you standing for this one, especially for some of the climbing parts.
Titanic: A Space Between has been out now for a few weeks, and during that time I’ve been desperately trying to complete it on the Meta Quest 3. The game is part of the App Lab section of the Meta store, which I equate to Early Access on Steam, and sadly it shows. There were numerous game-breaking moments where items would vanish from the game; a key in one level, a wrench in another, and in one section there was a hand-crank lift I fell off of in mid-crank and couldn’t jump back on it. In another area I had to smash a barrel to get a piece of ladder, but my wrench flew out of my hand and vanished from the world. When I reloaded the checkpoint, the wrench was still gone and there were no items in the area capable of breaking the barrel forcing a complete restart.
When the game isn’t glitching out I found Titanic: A Space Between to be interesting and fun…until it wasn’t. It’s a fantastic concept on paper and brilliantly realized in VR. It just needs more time in the oven, because I really want to see how this all plays out. If you’re willing to tolerate a few bugs (nothing that can’t be fixed in updates) then all aboard this immersive and sometimes intense recreation of those fateful final moments on the Titanic and maybe a few morality lessons on the evils of time travel.
