The Mage's Tale

It is awesome to play a VR dungeon-crawler with a big budget. The dungeons are visually amazing, filled with puzzles and secrets and they are a joy to play, combined with the exciting combat and bosses. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

Traveling through the dungeons gives that rare feeling of a pen and paper RPG coming to life. The puzzles and traps are smartly done. Overall, this is a highly enjoyable VR RPG experience. Unfortunately, the weak link comes in the controls.

The Mage’s Tale may very well be the most ambitious Oculus Rift title to date. Despite its handful of quirks, it’s a legitimate dungeon crawler embracing a VR body…versus the other way around. The game is fun, clever, and surprisingly quite polished. Moreover, it’s one of the few Rift Experiences with legitimate game length, also a wonderful example on how to use the Touch controllers to near-perfection. What minor quirks are there (in puzzle difficulty, environmental interaction, potion making system) do not seriously hamper overall experience.

This is not only one of the longer VR gaming experiences out there. Visually it is a blast and highly immersive. Unfortunately there are little shortcomings in terms of movement and spell control. But nonetheless this is a prime example how old concepts can benefit from virtual reality.

The Mage’s Tale is one of the best examples of how to take a tried-and-true existing gaming genre and adapt it for the new VR medium. While it retains plenty of design decisions that make it clear where its roots lie, The Mage’s Tale iterates on principles that truly move the first-person dungeon crawler RPG subgenre forward in big ways. This is easily one of the longest and most involved adventures to grace the VR market thus far and is a must-play for RPG fans.

With high production values, solid voicework, and impressive scale, The Mage’s Tale was every bit worth the wait. While the controls are certainly obtuse for the platform, the fun storyline, puzzles, and spellcrafting makes it a fun addition to the Vive library.

Creating and casting magical spells in VR is an awesome experience that I didn't ever get tired of, but if a sequel is in the works, finer character animation and more locomotion options should be on the docket to turn up the immersion factor.

Still, in a world full of VR demos and proof-of-concept games that are barely that, The Mage's Tale feels and plays like a real, fully-realized product that is actually worth the $40 price tag. It has a genuine story arc, excellent combat, and visuals and game play that would be far less effective in another medium. The game makes excellent -- if perhaps over-zealous -- use of the Touch controllers and although The Mage's Tale reminds us that the VR genre is still learning to find its way, this game is certainly a milestone product for the Rift.

Story-driven VR titles are uncommon in the current realm of VR, and that needs to change sooner rather than later. The Mage's Tale has stepped in to offer a taste of what's to come with reasonable success.

The Mage's Tale represents an early experiment for VR RPGs -- a minor milestone. There's still a long way to go until people are "jacked-in" for hours at a time a la Sword Art Online, but with projects like this leading the way we'll get there sooner than later.