The VR Critic is Dr Luke Buckmaster, a professional critic of VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality) experiences. Read more about this site and its author.
LATEST REVIEWS
A common desire among VR artists is to use the technology to extend and broaden out space, embracing the illusion of a virtual world extending beyond the boundaries of the physical one.…
The creation of genres is a significant part of the development of emerging artforms – establishing audience expectations, shared vocabulary, and critical context. The free-roam VR production Amsterdam 1652: The Hands of…
The protagonist of this exquisitely made, narrative-driven experience, based almost entirely in the living room of a decrepit, now-uninhabited family home, is an old man obsessed with pigeons. He’s spent much of…
One of the most exciting aspects of virtual and mixed reality is the tantalising sense of imperfection they evoke: the feeling that we’re engaging with something truly special, peering through a window…
When I encounter the term “bird’s-eye view”, I often think of a Gary Larson cartoon depicting how our feathered friends see the world – with bullseye targets stamped on the tops of…
There was a point, during this immensely powerful 360 documentary, when I wondered whether I might cry – and whether my tears might mist up the headset. What a moment of immersion-breaking…
There are three layers of reality in this elegantly crafted climate-change-themed documentary, which is narrated by actor Mark Ruffalo and unpacks the stories of Solomon Islands citizens adversely affected by rising sea…
This zany half-hour mixed-reality experience, co-directed by Andy Serkis and Josh Nelson Youssef, imagines a computer folder as a fantastical otherworldly landscape, phosphorescently coloured but junkyard-like, filled with discarded characters created by…
When the Apple Vision Pro arrived, commentators such as myself noted a conspicuous lack of original experiences—yet another example of the tech industry’s frustrating tendency to invest big in new headsets, and…
Anyone who’s taken a walking tour at an international landmark will know roughly what to expect from Smithsonian Starstruck: lots of strolling around looking at things, and lots of talking and facts-sharing,…
Games don’t have to be about scoring, succeeding, exploring, advancing, conquering, winning. They don’t have to tell stories. They don’t need characters or enemies to overcome. Sometimes acts of playing don’t even…
In Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes, narrative is never as important as tone. And that tone is very evocatively wrapped up in worldbuilding and environmental design. You can’t help but feel this…
Perhaps it sounds a little hyperbolic to describe ArtsQuest VR as an experience that reminded me of the simple pleasures of standing before a painting. And maybe that’s weird, given the galleries…
It didn’t take long for immersive video creators to cotton on to the following equation: high-altitude shots + picturesque environments = irresistible spectacle. Before VR and MR headsets, audiences were familiar with…
