Argos

Argos is a game that combines the concept of escape rooms with immersive VR technologies. Your protagonist is a young archaeology student that needs to get to a secret lab, but some ancient power gets in her way. Room by room you need to find the way out, and then again, solving more and more complicated puzzles. Argos review cannot show you the whole impression of this game (unless you’re somehow reading it in VR). But you can download Argos for Windows and see it with your own eyes if you have a VR headset for PC.

Graphics — 5/5

If you ever wondered about why the price of Steam VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive, on the one hand, and mobile VR headsets, on the other, differs so drastically, just see what Argos looks like. Full immersion is reached by highly detailed graphics, ambient music, and a large world to discover (though a little claustrophobic due to the story). So its 8 GB seems quite a moderate size for this quality.

Needless to say, it’s a FPV quest, with easy navigating and zooming. Some elements may seem strange (say, your character’s hands seem to be totally separated from her arms, hanging in the air, as if you were The Invisible Man wearing gloves). But this VR convention is easy to get with. Anyway, the quality of Argos is something very special and thus worth your closest attention.

The visual style is quite dark, so turn off the lights before playing it. And close the doors to prevent external sound intervention. As you’re in, nothing should distract you from this mystery.

Gameplay — 5/5

So, you’re Irene, a 22-year old archeologic student. Once her father asks her to meet his colleague, Professor Jindaal, in the secret lab. It turns out that they pursue a dangerous criminal mind Sholme. And he’s strong enough to confront even government organizations. So will a student girl make it through the mess that followed?

If you played at least one virtual escape room, you know what it’s like. It’s a special kind of good old quests, and the principles remain intact. Search for any information that can help you out (though there are some red herrings, and that’s no spoiler). Pick items you find useful, and maybe, you’ll really need them once.

The story the game is based on is not really that important, it just connects all the rooms you need to go through into something formally logical. You’ll need to do some thinking outside the box to get through. And as well it requires some physical motion, as you’ll need to control what your character does, in three dimensions. So playing Argos is anything but sitting relaxed in your chair.

Controls — 4/5

Virtual reality is a reality, so most actions your character takes should be initiated with your material body. Though the headset captures your actions quite precisely, sometimes you need to bend down to pick something from the floor or to jump high to reach the virtual ceiling. So, before playing, make sure there’s nothing in your way, side to side, up and down. The rest is quite typical for VR games, with their laconic control means, and easy to pick up.

Replay Value — 4/5

It’s the place where two prejudices collide: the one about escape rooms, that are “once played, never fun”, and another about VR, that “there’s nothing to play with it”. Yes, once you have found the solution, there’ll be no more mystery. But sometimes you rewatch your favorite horror movies, and that’s the case with Argos.

Even if the developer rolls out no updates, Argos will be fun to experience again, simply because there are not so many quality VR games today. So after spending quite a sum for your Oculus Rift, you’ll want to experience this immersion again, and probably share it with somebody else.

Conclusion

So, Argos is somewhat remarkable in VR games industry, something that makes sense. No wonder that escape room games were among the first to provide real immersion VR entertainment implies, and Argos is a good example. But you should care about your security and safety before playing, so prepare some physical space.

• Graphics 5
• Gameplay 5
• Controls 4
• Replay Value 4

Pros

Well-drawn environment and sounds;
Movements integrated into the controls system;
A good story.

Cons

Makes no sense without VR equipment;
Requires preparing your room for playing.