First time VR studio MikeTeevee is soon to release Shores of Loci, a 3D puzzle game backed by gorgeous and fantastical visuals. The game is set for an Early Access release on Quest 2 via App Lab and SteamVR on May 24th.
Though production company MikeTeevee has been around since 2011, the studio has never released a VR game before Shoes of Loci. Along with the game’s initial release on App Lab (also coming to SteamVR), you might expect the studio’s debut project to be rough around the edges. On the contrary, after previewing the game myself I found a polished experience that offers up enjoyable 3D puzzles with a backdrop of sharp and fantastical visuals that are a cut above many games you’d find on Quest 2.
At its most basic, Shores of Loci is like a fictional version of Puzzling Places. While the latter has you snapping together scans of real buildings, Shores of Loci instead slices up totally imagined (and quite beautiful) little dioramas.
Shores of Loci is enhanced by a surrounding environment that’s beautifully rendered and art directed—from the last glimpse of sunlight reflecting at the very edge of the horizon to the towering structures that surround you like silent giants—even on Quest 2 it all looks great.
The game effectively uses VR as a canvas for the imagination and serves up some very striking and creative visuals, like a scene transition that sees the entire world before you enveloped as if being consumed and then regurgitated by a black hole (it’s more peaceful than it sounds, I promise).
Shores of Loci’s puzzling offers a slightly more organic feeling than Puzzling Places, perhaps because of the way that the 3D models you fit together have volume inside of them instead of being hollow textures. In any case, the fundamental gameplay is quite similar in that you’ll need to use a combination of traditional puzzling skills (edge shapes, color matching, etc) with some spatial reasoning to reach the point that you get to snap that final, satisfying piece into place.
Alongside its lovely visual backdrop, Shores of Loci also has some great audio design, with peaceful music and satisfying sonic feedback as you progress through each puzzle.
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For anyone that loves puzzles, Shores of Loci is an easy recommendation. You’re getting some fun 3D puzzles and a fantastical visual feast to go along with them. And you won’t need to wait long to try it yourself; Shores of Loci launches on App Lab and SteamVR on May 24th, priced at $15.
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