Robinson: The Journey (VR) (PlayStation 4)

Robinson: The Journey is a futuristic VR exploration game set on a distant planet. The space station Esmeralda that was sent out to colonize the planet Tyson III crashes in orbit and a young boy called Robin is a survivor who reaches the surface. The game picks up the events more than a year later when Robin has already settled in his new home. He has built a basic encampment around his drop pod and has the companions HIGS, a floating orb that was one of the ship’s AI units, and a pet dinosaur Laika. The planet is inhabited with dinosaurs as the apex predators. Robin has access to food and energy, and a barrier needs tot keep out the dinosaurs, but he wants to explore, discover the planet’s fauna and flora and find out if other people have survived.

Navigation is done using the gamepad to move around, climb (using mechanics as in Crytek’s The Climb), sneak to avoid dinosaurs and solve environment based puzzles. It is possible to look in any direction using VR and two hands are used to interact with the environment. Robin has access to a gravity device he uses to scan the environment (similar to No Man’s Sky) and lift heavy objects. Objects can also be thrown. Scanning consists of a short mini-game where green dots need to be gathered while red ones need to be avoided. All scanned elements (creatures, HIGS units and communicators) are stored in the Infotarium. The Move peripheral is not supported, so everything except for looking around is done using the gamepad.

The pet T. rex Laika follows Robin and can be given commands. She is used in certain situations to solve puzzles as she can reach areas Robin cannot access. Laika can also be fed. There is a large amount of freedom to explore in any direction. Next to climbing it is possible to glide or slide down. Certain parts of the world and mini-games can only be accessed by restoring and routing power. The player can re-arrange the grid to route the power through a sequence where the lines are selected, combined with simple mathematics based around numbers.