Red Matter

Finally! I had spoiled myself right off the bat when I got my first VR system, the Valve Index, and started playing Half Life Alyx right away. That set the bar pretty high for subsequent games that I tried out, and after going through a handful of them and being mostly disappointed with the overall experience, Red Matter finally got me back to that happy gaming place where I could look forward to the next time I slap my VR helmet on. The controls are fantastic as far as taking advantage of what the Valve Index offers, and so far I haven't experienced any bugs with them--not to mention, it didn't take long to get comfortable with the entire interaction scheme. I wasn't able to say that about a lot of the other VR games I played beforehand. Aside from the control/interaction aspects, the story and setting in Red Matter are very engrossing, and the graphics and use of light are top quality for current standards. I really hope to see more games like this sooner than later!

The biggest selling point here is that the game looks absolutely spectacular at points. This almost can't be over-emphasized. The Soviet-era architecture is a wonderful setting (and even turning over tiny wooden astronauts in your future claws is all good too). There were times when I was gawping around, as I adjusted some laser puzzle, genuinely feeling like I was in some Bond villain's lair :D
Every other gravity-defying hop it takes falls short though unfortunately...
The setting is undercut by the woeful pastiche of oppressive Soviet culture throughout, which was never witty or insightful, just fired out of a blunderbuss at you. (In pellet form, via the tortuously-slow text of your translation device)
The locomotion system fitted well enough with the lugubrious tone, with its 'low gravity leap' version of teleportation. And when deployed for minor puzzles it was effective. The walking scheme felt like a late addition though, and although preferable for getting about, was remarkably slowwwwww.
This may be a personal thing, but I also find walking sims with simmering danger in the background kind of annoying. If there's a hanging menace, give me occasional action sequences to actually tackle or dodge the danger. Without that catharsis all those ominous musical scores and sudden sound effects, no matter how effective, just get a bit wearing. I did find tracing the stories of some of the protagonists, to explain parts of the environmental ire, effective on that score, and the game did build towards some slightly active sequences. But earlier sections were a trial on that front.
The biggest negative of this game though is that the majority of the puzzles just... weren't... great. There were a few highlights towards the end, with some grand sets and a few neat wrinkles. But the vast majority were of a 'find tab A for slot B' tier. With one notable wild leap in difficulty (some form of number substitution puzzle that I had to cheat on).
The 'horrer-esque' twist in the storyline, and the powerful aesthetic, mean it's worth pushing on through. But really at points, it was more a case of 'let's get this done and see the next bit', rather than a challenging search for a eureka moment, which is what you really want from puzzle scenarios.
Worth the ride ultimately at 3hrs. But if you visit this planet, go mainly for the views...
3.5---/5

***** PLAYED ENTIRELY ON LINUX VIA PROTON. NO WINDOWS HERE. *****
Summary
Good short walking simulator puzzle/exploration game, a few shortcomings but on the whole it is fun and elegant.
Longer evaluation
The bad
- This is a good but short game - I took about 5h including the time to solve the puzzles. If you read or watch the solutions online it will take even less time, say 2 to 3h. Also, since it is a fixed story with no branches and there is no action involved, replayability is zero. So you might prefer to buy it on sale.
- Its locomotion system is awkward. Right thumbstick up to teleport, down to walk (very slowly), left to turn left, right to turn right, and you can't walk and turn at the same time, and most of the time I wanted to turn and it would walk instead. Also there are no controls for sliding left and right and backtrack, although you can do that by pointing the joystick in the direction you want (which is uncomfortable).
- I stumbled upon only one bug in my playthrough: in the final section, I fell through the floor to one of the previous sections. Fortunately I was able to exit the game and get back in the last checkpoint.
- Not many moving parts, the game at times seems just too dead.
The neutral
- This is not a horror game. There are no moments where you feel in danger, it is purely an exploration / puzzle game. Even at the only time where you could die in the game by running from something (no spoilers), you have time to act and don't actually feel threatened. I reckon some people might prefer this type of game.
The good
- The puzzles are very good, not too easy, not too difficult, and sometimes require out of the box thinking to solve.
- The graphics are amazing and immersive. The animations are few and far inbetween, but are also top quality when they happen.
- The performance of the game is much better than similar games that I played. Almost no reprojections, smooth playing almost all the time - the only hiccups were when loading a level, but then again, I played it on my HDD, not the SSD. For the record, I have a NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER and a Valve Index.
- The voice acting is superb and the suspense music is very fitting.
- Story is OK. Pace is perfect. Also, there's a sense of the whole being better than the parts here: despite some shortcomings, the game is elegantly put together, feels finished.
■■■■■■■□□□ 7 / 10
---{Graphics}---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Paint.exe
---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Starring at walls is better
☐ Just don‘t
---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape
---{Voice Acting}---
☑ Masterful acting for all characters and scenes
☐ Good/average acting for all characters and scenes
☐ Good acting but not all characters and scenes have it
☐ Just a few parts of the game have voice acting
☐ No voice acting at all
---{Audience}---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Human
---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boiiiiii
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press ‚A‘
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{Grind}---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding
---{Story}---
☐ Story?
☐ Text or Audio floating around
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life
---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ Buy it on sale
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---Linux Support via Proton---
☐ Borked! Does not run, or crashes at the start.
☐ Janky! Works more or less, might fail in some configs.
☐ Moderate. Performance and/or Linux specific bugs.
☐ Good. Not perfect, might need tweaks to run perfectly.
☑ Platinum. Works as good than in Windows, or even better.
☐ PROTON OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED.
---VR Support---
☐ Does not support VR
☐ Has a precarious Side-by-Side implementation, no VR controls.
☐ Has a poor VR implementation.
☑ Average. Not amazing, but could be better. (due to awkward locomotion controls)
☐ Very good VR, both controls, visuals and the game feels very tactile.
☐ This was made for VR in the first place - perfect!
---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

A short (under 3 hours) walking simulator with some light puzzles and a loose enough story to lead you along. There is some horror element to it, but nothing scary enough beyond a mildly unsettling feeling every now and again.
There's a slightly annoying mechanic wherein you have to scan everything (unless you can read Russian; but even then you have to scan the notes) and wait for artificial loading times to tell you what every sign says. And I think there was one puzzle involving a paperweight that I understood what i was supposed to do, but had to look up the suggestion anyways.
Other than that, a passably enjoyable VR experience.

Short but very nice puzzle game, atmosphere and story is pretty creepy and well made. 8/10

Very interesting game with great puzzles and a great story. Extremely short, though. Playing through on a Valve Index introduced some minor FOV issues.

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☐ Must Play
☐ Fun
☑ Fine
☐ Meh
☐ Boring
------
☐ Fantastic
☐ Good
☑ Meh
☐ Bad
☐ None
------
☐ Hard to Learn & Hard to Master
☐ Easy to Learn & Hard to Master
☐ Hard overall
☑ Normal overall
☐ Easy overall
------
☐ Endless
☐ Very Long ( 50+ Hours)
☐ Long ( 20 - 50 Hours)
☐ Average (10 - 20 Hours )
☑ Short ( -10 Hours )
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☐ Masterpiece
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Will do
☐ Bad
------
☐ Fantastic
☑ Good
☐ Meh
☐ Bad
☐ Rhythm Game
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☐ Full price
☑ Wait for Sale
☐ Don't buy
☐ Free.