Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Version is the newest installment of the gaming franchise that is now obtainable on Quest and Steam.
The VR version options the identical core options most horse recreation followers search for: elevating horses, bonding with them by means of grooming and feeding them treats, and collaborating in races for cash. I grew up with these sorts of video games as a child, so I am thrilled to lastly see a VR model obtainable for folks to get pleasure from.
What’s it?: A basic horse breeding-and-racing recreation, the place you earn cash whereas elevating horses to turn into the most effective jockey round.
Platforms: Quest and Steam (reviewed on PC through Quest 3)
Launch Date: Out now
Developer: PikPok
Value: $19.99
Rival Stars opens with succinct exposition to get the ball rolling. A fade-in reveals your new nation residence stretched out earlier than you in heat reddish hues. In a visible novel-style textual content area, a shadowy silhouette named ‘Imply Boss’ bids you farewell out of your earlier job. You’ve got stop your common 9 to five to pursue horse racing completely.
The sport then supplies a brief tutorial on easy methods to get round and work together with issues. Lengthy-pressing the Y button on my Quest controller introduced up the sport’s primary menu. In any other case, urgent that very same button whereas close to a horse will deliver up its particular person menu and listing the animal’s stats.
Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Version would not have a lot by way of consolation changes for movement illness. Within the settings menu, choices embody teleportation or synthetic stick-based locomotion to get round.
Solely snap digicam turning is supported with choose increments to select from. There isn’t a vignette or tunnel imaginative and prescient choice. Like different racing video games, we do not suggest enjoying this in case you don’t love intense motion experiences.
Trenton is the hilarious assistant who guides you thru Rival Stars. He is written as a sweetly inoffensive character that is each a useful information and somebody who snarks at you in a clueless manner once you lose. Each time I misplaced a race, Trenton was proper there to remind me of an accounting job I may go apply for as a substitute. What cruelty!
Your first horse, Clumsy Attraction, waits within the secure with a couple of interactive brushes and decisions for meals. On one facet are three brush sorts you possibly can decide up and use to groom the horse. There’s additionally a trowel on the entrance of the pen that accommodates 4 sorts of meals: an apple, a carrot, and two sorts of horse treats.
The purpose of horse rearing is to bond with each for higher racing stats. To realize that, you additionally need to study what their preferences are. Clumsy Attraction ended up loving sugar cubes and having a physique brush run over her again. The mare stomped her toes, made glad horse faces, and joyfully whinnied at any time when I pet or feed her accurately.
Visually, Rival Stars may be very pared-down for a PC title. Whereas the sport is probably going optimized to work on each platform it is meant for, the Steam model of this might profit from a little bit extra ornament. Horse hair seems to be over-sharpened and pixelated and the farm garden is completely a flat airplane. The environment I learn from the sport’s design would not persuade me its sparse grass is meant as a cartoonish selection.
PC Specs And Headset Used
My desktop pc makes use of an Intel Core i7 processor, an RTX 4060 graphics card, and 32GB RAM. I evaluated this recreation utilizing a Quest 3 headset linked to my PC through Digital Desktop. You could find Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Version’s advisable settings for PC on Steam.
I am additionally encountering issues with collision in petting the horse and getting too near timber or partitions. When petting the horse, my palms do not fairly land the place I believe they’ll and appear to drift over the horse as a substitute. Often, once I strategy a tree or wall, my palms will out of the blue fly up and flail round within the recreation on their very own.
Racing can also be irritating. Steering is dealt with by gripping the reins of the horse after which lifting your left or proper arm. You progress your palms up and all the way down to cost up a dash, after which movement in the direction of your self rapidly to enact that dash. Generally the dash and cost will not kick in regardless of doing the motions, which causes points as a result of your race technique requires timing when to dash and when to cost.
That is all occurring whereas defending your place on the observe from different jockeys who’re desperate to jostle by you. This leads to an arm exercise that is most likely previous what the builders meant for this racing recreation. When you’re a mum or dad, and you purchase this to your baby, at the very least your child will desire a nap by the point they’re achieved enjoying this. I simply wasn’t anticipating an additional arm exercise day for myself.
Publish-launch options are deliberate for Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Version, so this journey is not fairly completed but regardless of coming into full launch. Rival Stars supplies a public roadmap that reveals an upcoming horse market and trophy room, whereas PikPok has famous some recognized points which might be at present being investigated.
Regardless of enjoying this furiously since getting entry, I could not make as a lot progress as I anticipated in racing due to the sport’s steering points. I nonetheless like Rival Stars and I hope to see some enhancements occur. I am having fun with the strategic components of racing and would undoubtedly play this once more ought to this get fastened.
Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Version Evaluation – Last Verdict
Rival Stars Horse Racing: VR Version is a flawed recreation that you may nonetheless have some enjoyable with. Petting and feeding the horses proves pleasurable and there is good technique right here, however the racing itself is let down by irritating steering points. It is a troublesome suggestion in its present state, so here is hoping a couple of good updates can nonetheless make this title a winner.
UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our recreation evaluations – you possibly can learn a breakdown of every star score in our assessment tips.
