Virtual Rides 3 (PC) Review

The thrill of the theme park comes in those sights, smells and sounds that seem to make those summer Friday evenings a magical time. The adrenaline-fuelled fear on the way down from the biggest coaster.

Virtual Rides 3 is less Disney World and more comparable to, say, a local town carnival. That is to say that it still provides enjoyment and thrills, but that the Ferris wheel is rusted and the candy floss machine is broken. In other words, lacking a little polish.

This is probably most apparent in the performance. There are a lot of settings to be adjusted in order to get the best experience, and the optimisation leaves much to be desired. It is unfortunate because it is not the most extraordinary looking spectacle, with quite basic textures and rudimentary animation.

It's one thing to suffer from bad performance in normal gameplay, but with the potential of such a title being realised through VR, this becomes critical. Anything less than 60fps using the headsets is usually unbearable. To get a playable experience with Oculus required a fairly large sacrifice on the graphics front.

Where the experience shines is in the colourful and detailed rides, naturally, of course, being the selling point. Everything one would expect of any establishment claiming to be a fairground is here, with an assortment of carousels and spin rides.

It has to be said it is a little disappointing that there are no coasters, and it seems like a glaring omission considering the potential of combining them with the VR experience. Although it is fair to note that the developers seem keen on adding content, so maybe this is a consideration for future expansions.

Hopefully along those lines, there may be some expansion to the content on offer. One of the biggest mistakes any buyers of the title will make is in thinking that there is some sort of park development gameplay along the lines of one of the Tycoon games. The "simulator" part of the name is key here. The park is littered with many of the stalls and food vendors seen up and down the land at many a fairground, but the shame is they are purely for decorative purposes.

The main menu features the ability to jump into the park and explore freely or to experience it through VR. The satisfaction comes from the simulation of running the rides, of controlling the swings of the crane or the speed of the rotations, and then sitting back with the many camera angles as the lights flash and the crowds cheer.

The cheering from the crowd is in German, by the way. Of course, that is natural considering the origin of the developer; however, it does detract a little when English audiences miss out on some of the atmosphere building by the lack of understanding of the crowd comments and some of the other cultural nods.

They may cheer, but they do not judge, and it would have added more to have some incentive beyond personal critique. It actually seems like the kind of experience that is for enthusiasts to showcase their talents on YouTube, as there are some real amazing examples of users manipulating the lights, sounds and music to create some incredible spectacles.

As mentioned a few times, one of the selling points and highlights was the inclusion of a real focus on VR, as this seems like an untapped market. The pleasing thing is that beyond the aforementioned graphical sacrifice, the mode works well and provides a level of immersion that is not as far from the real life version as could have been envisaged ten years ago. Stepping around the park in that first-person view, with hundreds of people wandering around the stalls and the stars in the sky, evokes a feeling of magic.