Bethesda Softworks is known as the creators of popular first-person video games. Recently, they ported some of their most well-loved games into a virtual reality (VR) platform. However, rather than showcase the world of "Skyrim" and "Fallout 4," it seems that the ports were demonstrations of how these games are really not designed with VR in mind.
"Skyrim," being the fifth game in the Elder Scrolls main series, is an action role-playing game (RPG) that features a massive fantasy world. As such, its landscapes may be a perfect fit for testing out VR simulations. However, this world still seems best experienced on PC or consoles.
On VR, traversing the plains and dungeons of "Skyrim" too fast may make the player feel sick or nauseous. Slow movement may alleviate this problem, but it is not an ideal solution for an already slow-paced game.
However, its visuals are still reported to be stunning despite its age. Combat is also more engaging because the closeness of the enemies makes for a more intense experience.
"Fallout 4" is another of Bethesda's most famous games. The game is all about exploring the wasteland— an aftermath of a nuclear war at an international scale.
The VR experience of "Fallout 4" suffers from the same problems that "Skyrim" has. Exploring the vast wastes can be an unpleasant experience. This problem may be fixed because of an added teleportation feature, but this defeats one of the stronger points of the game, which is exploration. Some interesting story fragments can be missed when a player "jumps" too much from place to place.
Both of these games are also text-and-dialog heavy RPGs. Floating text as dialogue options in "Fallout 4" is much tolerable. However, in a menu-heavy game like "Skyrim," the projected 2D interface and the imposed pause mechanic break the immersion.
Granted, "Skyrim" and "Fallout 4" are not natively made for VR. However, developers can still learn a lot from these Bethesda Games. The flaws found in the VR ports can be lessons on what to avoid when creating VR-oriented games in the future.
