Green Hell VR released earlier this month on Oculus Quest 2 and is coming to PC VR on Steam next month. In it, players find themselves lost in the Amazon rainforest and must find ways to survive. It’s an interesting concept, as seen in Creepy Jar’s original game, and it’s perhaps interesting in a different way as a VR game. Incuvo developed Green Hell VR, adapting the work of Creepy Jar to bring this world to the VR medium, and Game ZXC recently spoke with Incuvo CEO Andrzej Wychowaniec about this and more.
Incuvo pushed the boundaries of Meta Quest 2 with Green Hell VR yet kept it simple enough for VR newcomers. Green Hell VR was developed with newcomers in mind, seen in its Tourist Mode that allows players to enjoy the entire experience in a simple, immersive way. Indeed, this may be the most attractive opinion for many, as Incuvo worked hard to make this as immersive as possible.
Jokingly, Wychowaniec described the value of the game as a cheap trip to the Amazon Rainforest, but that’s not so far off-base. Green Hell has beautiful graphics and plenty of elements that help bring this jungle to life, such as animals and plants unique to this area. It also features dynamic weather and a day-night cycle, all incredibly immersive features in VR. To top it all off, new sound effects were added to the game for more immersion, which is something Wychowaniec described as “underappreciated” in the VR market. These noises help bring the rainforest to life, while the game features 20 hours of core gameplay and an engaging story to make sure Green Hell VR hits all its high points.
To make sure that this journey is as engaging as possible, Green Hell VR features more than 60 gameplay mechanics. This ambitious effort goes a long way in adding another layer of immersion, coming from the company’s experience in VR. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t challenging, but that Incuvo’s past work on Blair Witch, Layers of Fear, and so on gave it the tools it needed to make a VR game at such a level. Wychowaniec said,
“Yeah, implementing that many mechanics was extremely challenging, especially in a game with an open world. These mechanics must both work together very well, as well as be intuitive and immersive in VR and beyond. In such a situation, our experience is what comes to help us. We have learned much while designing our former productions. We've spent an enormous amount of time on VR game design. And we also always invest in adapting the games that will provide us with a new know-how and new solutions to use further down the line. Thanks to this approach, we were prepared. We also played the original game excessively to understand its gameplay feeling, and it was very, very, very important. Of course, the process involved many iterations especially since we have different mechanics in the Quest and PC versions. All this gave us a big advantage in tweaking and polishing everything.”
There’s an old adage that hard work pays off, and that shows in Green Hell VR’s reception. It’s been praised for its immersion, for its graphics, and for its approach to the genre. The fact that it’s so easily approachable by newcomers, yet exactly what many veterans want out of the medium speaks for itself. On its reception, Wychowaniec said,
“…if you take a look at player and media opinion, Green Hell VR already gets lot of praise as one of the best-looking Meta Quest games so far. We are proud of its quality, and in my opinion, I would even say that Green Hell VR is indeed the best-looking game on Oculus Quest, and probably the PC version of Green Hell VR will be one of the best looking on the PC. It's incredible to see this work on PC.”
Green Hell VR is available now on Meta Quest 2 and will release on Steam in May.