P3

Game - 'Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality' - VR

Game reviews are extremely important to a game and to users too. They are important for the game as it lets them know what the users like and don't like about their game, letting them know what they need to improve and what is working well. However, reviews are very useful for gamers too, as a review can persuade a user whether they think the game is going to be worth the money and whther they will enjoy playing a game or not. When deciding whether or not the user will buy the game, the user will look at the games review and specifically at things like the rating, what other users have said about the game, and what the game is similar too, because if the game is similar to a game they have played before they are more likely to play and enjoy the game. Therefore, reviews are very important in the gaming industry, especially for smaller games, as a good review can really improve the amount of sales the game makes.

Website 1 - http://www.roadtovr.com/

A) Genre

Rick and Morty is a stimulation game, however it does not say or mention this on this review of the game until it begins to talk about what sort of game it is when it says; 'a true glimpse into the Rick and Morty universe, one that’s masterfully stitched into Job Simulator’s object interaction.'

B) Target Audience

The game is targeted towards people of all ages, from 6 year olds to grown men. As the game is necessarily difficult, it is easy for people to understand and play, it allows people of all intelligence to be able to play the game and have fun.

C) Narrative/Storyline

The brilliance of the Rick and Morty TV show is how it reaches through your television and grabs you by the ears, sometimes directly by breaking the 4th wall, but often times by disarming you with absurdity while delivering powerful messages on mortality, loss—you know, the human condition. The VR game is all of this and more. You only need a few minutes in Purgatory after your first death, listening to the devil’s secretary tell you about why you shouldn’t reanimate back into the game to see what I mean. The game follows missions and objectives similar to those in the actual TV show, this gives similarity and a sense of wellbeing to the viewers as they will know what to do and what happens if they have watched the show, apart from this time they are doing the actions, making it even more enjoyable than the show.

D) Characters

The game has the same characters as the show, apart from you take the role of 'Morty', 'The show’s characters get in your head in VR in a way the TV show just can’t. Because you’re physically in front of the almighty Rick (voiced by show creator Justin Roiland) you can’t help but seek his approval, if only so he doesn’t dismiss you as just another stupid Morty-clone.'

E) Gameplay

In Owlchemy Lab’s new Rick and Morty VR game, you’re lower than the low. Not only are you a Morty, but you’re a Morty-clone who has less purpose (and respect) in life than a butter-fetching robot. The only thing that might be construed as a lower being on the totem pole of galactic intelligence in the game is a Mr. Meeseeks, cleverly renamed Mr. You-seeks for the purpose of the game, of which you have in infinite supply. But all he does is mirror your movements, letting you pick up objects that go out of your teleportation range, making you basically the lowest life form in the entire multiverse.

F) Platforms

'Available On: Steam (HTC Vive, Oculus Touch), Home (Oculus Touch)'

G) Personal recommendation of reviewer

In my opinion, I think the reviewer could have gave broader detail on the game. Instead of focusing on the quality of the game in comparison to the TV show, the reviewer should have a gave a wider review of the game so that people who may not have watched the TV show before would understand the review and the game better. So, the reviewer could have went into more detail on what sort of game this is, genre, and what the overall objective of the game is and how good the game is in comparison to other similar games, and not just the TV show.

Website 2 - https://uploadvr.com/category/reviews/

A) Genre

This review does instantly suggest what genre the game fits into. The article begins by saying that "Rick and Morty, for those unfamiliar, is a hysterical cartoon on Adult Swim that sees its two lead characters go on increasingly ridiculous adventures with each new episode." It then goes onto mention that it is a simulation game based on the completion of missions similar to those in the TV show.

B) Target Audience

In this review it does not specifically identify the games target audience. Instead, it mentions how the games likely players are going to be those who enjoyed watching the TV programme and that these people are going to be the most likely people to buy and play the vr game.

C) Narrative/Storyline

The review does not speak about the narrative of the game, but instead it goes into detail about the gameplay. Moreover, it does not speak in much detail about the games storyline either, although it does specify that the game is very similar to the TV show, and the missions in the game are based around missions which the characters go through in the TV show. This means that those who have watched the TV show will be familiar with the missions, hence why these people are there main target audience.

D) Characters

The characters in the game are the same of those in the TV show; 'Rick and Morty, for those unfamiliar, is a hysterical cartoon on Adult Swim that sees its two lead characters go on increasingly ridiculous adventures with each new episode.' You play the role of 'Morty' and work alongside Rick, seeking his approval throughout the missions.

E) Gameplay

When it comes to gameplay, the garage has three areas you can teleport to and manoeuvre around in room-scale. The game’s structure gives you a sandbox area to run wild in while also introducing you to typical VR mini-games like a timed puzzle to charge batteries or a wave shooter with twin blasters. It is with those additional games that Virtual Rick-Ality hits its only true speed bump: a lack of depth. The sandbox segment has plenty of content but the mini-games are shallow. For example, the battery charging task only has two variations to it and, when you’re given the twin blasters for your last stand on an alien planet, all of the enemies are the exact same models.

F) Platforms

'Available On: Steam (HTC Vive, Oculus Touch), Home (Oculus Touch)'

G) Personal recommendation of reviewer

Personally, I think that this review is much better than the one above and I think this for many reasons. First of all, this review gives broader detail about the game, the first review tends to focus more on the TV show the game is based on instead of the actual game. The first review seems more like a TV programme review instead of a VR game review. The second review has content which the first review does not, first of all it mentions flaws within the game, the first review does not do this at all. Also, the second review gives the game a rating out of 10 and explains the rating, I like this because it gives you a sense of how good other people think the game is in comparison to other games and it gives you a better sense of if you think the game will be worth the money that it costs.

Website 3 - http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/21/15369632/rick-and-morty-vr-review-virtual-rick-ality-interview

A) Genre

This review begins with an introduction on VR, then going into to talk about the game itself, saying: 'It was the rarest type of video game: a comedy that actually made you laugh.' This lets people know the genre of the game, a comedy, and also that the game is actually rather good and funny, compared to many other comedy games out there.

B) Target Audience

The main target audience for this game is people who watched the TV show previous to the game, as it states here: 'For fans of the show, Rick and Morty is chock full of in-jokes and props from the show that don’t feel out of place in the pseudo-sandbox environment of a crowded garage, and the leap from 2D to 3D is impressively natural.'

C) Narrative/Storyline

The story is divided into nine or so chapters that you can swap between at anytime, though finishing one seamlessly transitions you to the next. Each chapter builds off itself, teaching you a new trick that’ll come in handy later. In that sense, it’s ideal to play through the full game in one session if possible, lest you forget about the Meeseeks box from chapter two that’ll totally help you in a later puzzle.

D) Characters

The only two characters in the game are Rick and Morty, this is not made explicit in the article but is made obvious as the only people mentioned in the article are these two. As their names are constantly repeated throughout the article, this is as the game is based around these two and no other characters.

E) Gameplay

The majority of Rick and Morty takes place in Rick’s garage-turned-laboratory. The space is divided up into four quadrants, three of which you can “teleport” to — similar to other VR games, it’s a trick used to minimize the real-life space needed to walk around — and one featuring a large whiteboard that reminds you of the current task at hand. Pretty much everything not bolted to the ground can be picked up, thrown, or interacted with in some way, and if you accidentally break or lose a key puzzle element, you can always re-order it from Rick’s computer (after you fix it, at least).

F) Platforms

'which is now available for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch,'

G) Personal recommendation of reviewer

I think this review has both strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the other reviews. What's good with this review is that it gives great detail on what the game involves and what sort of tasks you will be doing in the game. Also, it gives a good overview on the game and the background behind the game. The only issue I found with this review was that it focused too much on the gameplay, and did not give enough detail on the overall game, in terms of its target audience and the narrative of the game.

Critical comparison of 3 websites:

A) Genre

The third review was the best and most clear at letting the audience know what genre the game is how the game fits under this category, the other websites where rather obscure on this information and you had to look in detail to find out the answer.

B) Target Audience

The first and third review where both very good at suggesting what the target audience for this game is, however the second review barely touched on the subject at all and left the audience having to guess the answer.

C) Narrative/Storyline

The third review was the best review at letting the audience know what the narrative of the game is, as this review goes into much further detail than the other two does on this topic. Although the first review still offers enough information on this topic to have a good enough sense of the games narrative, whereas the second review does not.

D) Characters

All reviews where as good as each other and describing and informing the audience of the characters, as there are not many characters in the show at all so is very easy to cover all the characters.

E) Gameplay

The first and second reviews where the best at letting the audience know what the games gameplay is like and what is involved, as these reviews tended to focus more on this subject than others, hence why the third review lacks a bit on this subject compared to the others.

Overall, all three reviews give a great insight into what the game features, the story of the game and the games overall objective. However, some reviews are much more detailed and less obscure than others. For example, with the first and second review  I think the reviewers could have gave broader detail on the game. Instead of focusing on the quality of the game in comparison to the TV show, the reviewers should have a gave a wider review of the game so that people who may not have watched the TV show before would understand the review and the game better. This is why the third review really excelled for me over the others, as it gave information purely about the game and not on other subjects of which most people playing the game would not be interested in and would not need to know. Moreover, an issue which the third review has which the other game reviews do not have is that the third review is too focused on the gameplay, although the first and second reviews did ponder over unimportant subjects but at least these reviews did cover all areas about the game, unfortunately because the third review has went into much further detail on the gameplay they have missed out over areas of the game and it does not give a broad enough review of the game and leaves you having to look elsewhere if you wish to find out more information on the overall game. This is an issue as you should only really need to read one game review to have a good enough grasp and sense of the whole game to understand what it is about and whether the game would be suitable for you.