With all of the wondrous VR demos and experiences that have been released over the past couple of years, it’s easy to forget that we still haven’t had a commercial release of any of the hardware yet. As exciting as what’s been released so far is, what has just been teased and shown off in short clips is often even more so — like Crytek’s Back to Dinosaur Island, which anyone with a DK2 can now experience.
Originally used as a testing ground for the developer’s potential to craft a VR experience, Dinosaur Island is a short experience that finds the player occupying the nest of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Throughout the couple of minutes of play, willing viewers can look around and soak up the jungle atmosphere, dodge a rather aggressive dragonfly and control the directon of a Rex’s head with the motion of their own.
Short and quite clearly more of a tech-demo than anything else, Back to Dinosaur Island was actually the starting point for a much greater development that Crytek has teased over the past year: Robinson: The Journey, which is said to be a PlayStation VR (hopefully timed) exclusive.
It will feature something more akin to gameplay, though it’s not clear if it will be more like Dear Esther than a more traditional action adventure game.
For now though, anyone with an Oculus Rift DK2 headset can get a taste of what Crytek’s earliest efforts in virtual reality look like by downloading the gigabyte or so of demo from Steam. Considering how pretty this is now, imagine what the final experience is going to be like.
While this isn’t necessarily our favorite VR demo ever, it beats out many of the ones we’ve encountered in the past. If you’re a DK2 owner, what are some of your favorite virtual reality experiences that we could try?
