So I'll be honest, I jumped in without ever having tried VR in the past, even as a test. I had no idea if I would like it, or if it would make me sick (I do get motion sickness in cars and on boats, so it was definitely a possibility). But it has been in the back of my mind for a year or two, since I began watching Linus Tech Tips and listening to Luke give his praises to the technology. I'd looked into it a little bit in the past, but was put off by all the extra you need in order to use a VR headset.
#1 is (obviously) a powerful enough computer in order to run the headset. I haven't had a decently specced system able to run something like that since all this new Ryzen stuff came out and I was able to afford a pretty decent upgrade just recently. #2 are satellites. Generally, VR headsets require A. space and B. physical sensors that you place around the room you intend to play VR in, so that the headset knows where you are in relation to everything around you. The satellites don't come with the headset and cost extra - as if the price of a VR headset wasn't enough. For reference:
HTC Vive w/ satellites: $899
Valve Index: $999
I also live in a small apartment so everything was working against me. I don't have a lot of room to play virtual reality and I definitely didn't want a bunch of black boxes all over my ceiling with black wires they I couldn't hide and would be hard to find plug ins for. I was waiting for the day when VR headsets would become self-sufficient. Being tethered to your PC is not immersive-feeling, and I just can't be bothered with placing satellites in my living room. I needed something that would check all the boxes.
Oculus Quest 2 enters the ring.
[I want to point out, this is not going to be a review]
Not cost prohibitive ($299 and up): CHECK
Inside-out tracking (is what it's called when there are cameras on the headset instead of needing satellites around your room): CHECK
Guardian System (with 3 options: a circle around your seat, a circle around you standing, and allowing you to draw out your space so that you can walk around in your environment with however much room you happen to have): CHECK
90hz refresh rate (the faster the better, to avoid becoming sick): CHECK
Stand-alone (no PC needed): CHECK
but also
A (sold separately) USB-C cable that allows you to plug your headset into a powerful PC to allow you to play games that would require more graphical power than what the headset itself can provide: CHECK?!
It not only checked the boxes, but even checked an extra box that I didn't know I needed.
Now, I don't have anything to compare this system to. I never tried the original Quest or it's PCVR sister, the Oculus Rift. And it's most definitely not the best thing on the market; not by a long shot. They certainly had to cut corners in order to allow the price to fall into almost impulse-buy territory. But, as a lot of reviewers of the Quest 2 already stated, if you've been hesitant to jump into VR in the past due to any of the reasons I stated above, now is a good time to do it.
[Side note and caveat: you do have to have a Facebook account in order to use your Oculus Quest 2. If you have issue with that, then this headset may not be for you. But that is one way they were able to keep the price so low: by data mining your personal information. It's what Facebook does. I've gotten over it.]
But is VR worth it yet? My thing is, is that I am not super into the games that are most popular with VR headsets these days, like Star Wars, Superhot, or The Climb. But what I do like to use it for is exploring space or using Google Earth to visit places I could never afford to see IRL. I've used it as a meditation tool by enjoying beautiful vistas and listening to calming music. I've used it to watch 3D movies like Jurassic World and Spiderman: Homecoming. And I do really enjoy playing Beatsaber and trying to use it for exercise.
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| The Climb |
This game is not indicative of what VR looks like these days. This is a stylized game to look like that on purpose.
But I also don't see that VR has "arrived" yet, meaning that it's all it can be. What I see is a TON of potential. You can use it as a virtual meeting space, which during a Pandemic, has become pretty useful if not critical. You can use it as a monitor if you like, which is an interesting concept but a bit cumbersome (after all, you have a 1.10lb hunk of plastic strapped to your face). I've used it as a big TV, which is a really cool idea. You can watch youtube videos, or hook it up to your Plex server to watch whatever files you have. But the fidelity isn't all there, yet. If you like a crisp, clean picture with accurate colors, a VR headset is not the way to go. However, it would work well if your family only has one TV and they fight over what to watch all the time. This way two people can watch two different things at the same time - in the same space!
I can definitely see what VR can become, and that's really exciting. Do I regret my purchase? Not at all. I don't use it as much as I thought I would, but virtual reality is still young, and the best thing about the Quest 2 is that it brings VR into the realm of possibility for a lot of people on the fence about it, which means that developers of VR games are going to want to get in on all that potential revenue. Within the next year I bet there will be an explosion of new content to explore, and I'm ready to jump in on that!
