Viveport Review: Storm VR 

This outstanding experience is dulled by its short length and limited gameplay.

By Joshua Hawkins, Greenlit Content

The premise for Storm VR had me hooked from the start. Players drop into the middle of a snow storm, where they’ll need to hurry to find shelter, food, and survive the harsh weather. It’s a game that focuses heavily on time management and puzzle solving. While the puzzles aren’t overly hard to complete, doing this while trying to fight back the cold can feel overwhelming at first. My biggest disappointment with Storm VR, though, is the fact that the game doesn’t have much to offer, and the experience comes across as more of a demo than the episodic series it is aiming to be.

One of the greatest things about Storm VR is the overall look. Despite the fact that you’re surrounded by sheer white most of the time, the visuals are definitely something worth praising. Interacting with things can be a bit wonky at times, but that’s something most virtual reality games have issues with. On that note, players move around using a teleport function, and you can lean in and out as you need to using the room-scale features available on the HTC Vive.

When it comes to overall gameplay, though, Storm VR leaves a bit to be desired. As I stated above, the game is mostly about solving puzzles, which when completed give you access to safe places you need in order to survive. The puzzles aren’t tough, but dealing with the time management may be tricky for some players who aren’t used to battling the clock.

As you explore and get colder—you can see the current temperature on your watch—your character begins to mumble, and their hands start to freeze and grow less responsive. It’s a frightening thing that feels authentic as you try to solve the puzzles and explore the small area. Length is a big issue, however, and while the game is pretty and offers an interesting look at survival, it’ll take most players three to five minutes to complete, which is short for a virtual reality experience. It’s may be easy to overlook this, though, as the game acts as the first episode of a series that the developers have planned.

There’s also no reason to replay the game after you beat it, since you can only progress one specific way. If you can get past the length, though, and can enjoy the work that the developers have put into the game, then Storm VR promises much more in its future installments, which are set to come sometime in the future. It will be interesting to see where the developers go from here, and I’ll be intrigued to see how the Storm VR evolves over time.

Storm VR is available on Viveport or as part of Viveport Subscription.