Green Hell embraces virtual reality with a slightly different version of the original game, adapted to take advantage of the potential of VR.
Green Hell’s jungle awakening is pretty abrupt and a virtual reality is all deeply sharpened. I wake up with one arm bruised, another attacked by a couple of bloody leeches, stomach rumbling and a terrifying thirst. The water of the river can lead to temptation, but you have to be careful not to give in, because there is the risk of contracting some worms. Instead I notice a green coconut falling from a palm tree onto the shore, and I quickly pick it up. Without delay I grab it with both hands and slam it violently against a rock, to drink the milk greedily.
After having dried it up to the last drop, I split the fruit in two and greedily eat the white pulp inside, partially satisfying my hunger. I remove those disgusting animals from my arm and pick up two stones from the ground. After beating them against each other to sharpen them, I use them to cut some plants and retrieve the leaves as bandages for my other arm, the bleeding one. Advancing through the dense vegetation I find a branch e I decide to use another stone nearby to make a rudimentary ax. In the meantime, I hear a scuffling and turning around I notice a scorpion that was approaching hungry, and with a leap I crush it with the newly created tool.
I am tired and the sun is setting: I need shelter. I use my crude weapon to cut down a sapling, with far more hits than would probably have been done with a real hatchet. At that point I retrieve two long sticks and drive them into the ground with stone blows, causing them to cross to form a triangle. I need a vine, and luckily from the tree I knocked down I manage to retrieve one: I use it as a rope to fasten the two sticks and a third one together, to form a sort of oblique pyramid. With a few leaves from a nearby palm tree, I cover the structure and create a shelter for the night. Finally, with the twigs left from the tree a little while ago I sketch a lopsided bonfire, which I light using a dry palm leaf and generating sparks with a stone and my rudimentary ax. Here, all these actions that in a classic survival game would be the norm, in virtual reality they acquire a new dimension: they become more vivid, more plausible, more concrete.
Simplified survival
Green Hell is a survival set in the jungle, which after a lucky debut on Steam in 2018 (at this link you can read our test of Green Hell in the console edition), has reinvented itself in a VR version for Meta Quest made by the Incuvo team.
In this context, the Creepy Jar game is undoubtedly one of the most interesting titles of its genre, despite the compromises to which it has had to go down. In fact, to be able to run on Meta’s stand alone viewer, the glance has been conspicuously resized. In this version, the polygons that make up various bodies and objects have been simplified and the resolution of the textures has been reduced, as has the depth of field. Despite the precautions, it is not uncommon to come across some stuttering, distant pop-in phenomena or other similar defects. However, Green Hell hasn’t just been simplified from a graphic point of view. The very deep survival game that has conquered many players on PC has also been revised in other fundamental aspects, which had decreed its success, above all the crafting and multiplayer.
As for the constructable objects, in addition to having lightened the procedure for making some tools, a substantial part related to the construction of habitable structures has been reduced to the bone, as well as the number of materials obtainable and usable. Also, the whole character development system has been cut off completely. The multiplayer component is also completely absent for now.
It seems evident that what was an experience very linked to online gaming and the construction of complex buildings, taking advantage of the wide spaces of the map, has shifted its focus a bit in this VR version.
In fact, it seems that the title in this case is much more devoted to exploration than construction. To meet the limits of the platform, the map has been shrunk, and does not feature the vast areas of the original game, since it is divided into zones (separated by short loads) and made up of natural corridors and small clearings.
The magic of the viewer
As very often happens, however, virtual reality works its magic, and Green Hell once worn, the Quest becomes an engaging and enthralling experience, from which, after some initial motion sickness, it is difficult to break away. The impact is impressive: the possibility of exploring a virtual jungle with discrete freedom, with all its dangers and beauties, obstacles and resources, therefore translates into an adventure worth the price of the ticket.
The whole interface, which was already centered on the protagonist’s smartwatch, in VR pushes the player to physically look at the watch on his virtual wrist, and to interact with it using the index finger of his right hand. Object that in this version more than ever becomes essential to keep the protagonist’s state of health under control. The inventory instead consists of a backpack that is actually on the player’s shoulders, in which to manually store our items and quickly extract the weapon from over the right shoulder. All the construction dynamics, associated with the protagonist’s notebook, require the completion of various types of physical actions which, however simplified, manage to simulate the idea of ​​manual construction of tools and structures.
Green Hell offers a story mode that is in fact a prelude to what will be the main experience, survival mode. Yet, although the beating heart of the title is actually its free experience, the plot offers several hours of adventure and introduces all the game mechanics quite well, as well as touching topics that are anything but light, such as the impact of man. on the environment or the preservation of indigenous peoples.
It is a pity that the map offered is identical in the two modes: in fact, we soon end up recognizing the same places and predicting the appearance of specific ferocious animals in certain areas.
An introduction to survival
In general, this VR version of Green Hell is configured as a perfect access point for those who are not particularly accustomed to survival titles, since, as already mentioned, compared to the original counterpart it focuses more on the exploratory aspects than on the constructive ones. If for veterans of this type of experience it can be rather simplified and less stimulating compared to the basic edition, for newbies it is an excellent choice with which to experience the potential of your Quest 2.
Beyond the technical and playful compromises with which the game has had to deal, Green Hell represents one of the greatest exponents of survival on Meta’s stand alone viewer. The hope is that the title will receive some updates introducing multiplayer mode, which could dramatically lengthen the playability, and maybe some of the crafting dynamics eliminated in the conversion process can be gradually introduced. An aspect on which it would be necessary to refine the experience is the tutorial phase, which is too little detailed.
If on the one hand the title clearly seems to appeal to inexperienced players, on the other hand the lack of a sufficiently comprehensive initial guide could lead more than one user to feel almost abandoned to himself. In the first few bars, in fact, the game does not properly explain how to build specific fundamental objects, or even how to carry out some basic actions, making the incipit quite tiring to digest.
Green Hell VR PC Analyzed Version Overall, the Quest version of Green Hell is successful, albeit limited, and capable of dragging players into the wild jungle for many hours, teasing them thanks to the peculiarities of virtual reality. In short, it is a very stimulating experience that deserves to be included in your VR games library.
