Hands-on: Sony’s Morpheus Headset Is a Virtual Delight

image

Virtual reality is coming to the PlayStation 4, and it’s surprisingly comfortable.

The newest version of Sony’s Project Morpheus headset made quite a splash at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco Tuesday night, boasting impressive tech specs and a definite launch window. It’s shaping up to be enticing piece of gear for PS4 owners.

It’s also the coziest VR headset I’ve ever strapped to my face. While the Morpheus can’t yet quite match the jaw-dropping fidelity of the latest Oculus Rift kit, it’s a fair share easier to take on and off. You can smoothly slide the monitor back and forth to accommodate, say, a chunky pair of glasses, and the weight has been distributed to the top of your head, a small tweak that that pays off big time by keeping the visor from pulling down on your poor nose.

It’s hard to overstate how important comfort is when dealing with a VR headset. Ultimately you want to forget about the hardware entirely and get whisked away into a crazy VR experience, but most headsets currently sport heavy, clunky frames and thick cables. The Morpheus is as close to “consumer-friendly” as you’ll find in a VR set right now.

Of course, without awesome software to back it up, it’s just a flashy set of goggles. Sony showed off a handful of new demos during their GDC presentation, and while they all offered a glimpse into the platform’s potential, two in particular stood out.

image

The London Heist

Wondering how a shooter might fare in VR? The London Heist offers some answers.

Equipped with the Morpheus and two Move controllers (remember those?), I’m tossed into what seems like a deleted scene from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. A muscular bald guy is sitting across from me, and he’s not happy. He’s smoking a cigarette, and so am I, because he’s blowing smoke directly into my face. I eye the exit. He notices this, pulls out a gun, and shoots the sign. He’s about to beat me senseless.

Except he doesn’t, because he’s interrupted by a phone call asking me to explain the earlier events of the day. This cues a flashback sequence — and that’s where the fun begins.

image

I’m standing behind a desk and am instructed to find a firearm. I do this by reaching out my hands, which appear in the VR space as, well, two little hands, and pressing the Move controller triggers to grip objects. It’s a terrifically convincing effect; I can even crouch down to search the lower drawers. Eventually I find the gun, a few clips, and a very large diamond, which of course I grab, and which of course triggers an alarm that sends a half-dozen bad guys into the room.

A shootout ensues, but forget whatever version of Call of Duty just popped up in your head. I am ducking behind the desk — literally, my real-world body is crouched — to avoid gunfire. I peek out and take a few shots by extending my arm and pulling the trigger. I didn’t have to think about this, or consult a manual, or fumble with controls. I did this because of course this is what you would do when gripping a gun and hiding behind a desk getting shot at by thugs.

I’m also weirdly holding the gun in my left hand — I picked it up that way — so I instinctively try to pass it to my right hand. It works. But I am not left-handed! I boast. They never stood a chance.

More so than just about any VR demo, The London Heist gets to the meat of the matter by showing that, yes, a “conventional” video game experience can be a magical thing when converted to VR. It was just a demo, though, and it’s a little hard to see how a game like this would work when stretched out over several hours. But I’m absolutely dying to find out.

image

The Deep

There are no controls in The Deep. You don’t hold a gamepad, or wield a wand, or do much of anything, really, other than sit back and watch yourself get lowered into the murky depths of the ocean inside what appears to be a shark cage.

You can see where this is going.

What The Deep really does best is demonstrate the immersive, 360-degree nature of VR. A school of giant mantas float by; I naturally turn around in place watching them glide past the bars of the cage. I look down and see a manta skim the cage’s floor. It disappears, and I’m left watching the hazy blue depths slowly inch closer.

By the time the shark shows up — it’s a great white, and it’s got to be a good 18 feet long — all sense of serenity has shot out of my body like ink from a squid. The shark circles the cage. I stare at it, following it with my head as its massive tail propels it forward. This is what will kill me, I think, and when it finally notices the cage and takes a bite, my heart does a paradiddle. This is Jaws, and I am Richard Dreyfuss.

image

Eventually it bites through the door, leaving me alone and unarmed in an open shark cage at the bottom of the sea. Involuntarily, the fight-or-flight instinct kicks in, and I edge to the back of the cage. The shark draws closer and abruptly pokes his head in the cage, and I shout out a word I cannot print because it’s a mashup of like nine bad words.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I am telling myself this is a game. I am standing in a hotel. My friend Chris is 10 feet away, probably taking pictures of me acting like an idiot. It doesn’t matter. A good VR experience imparts a sense of scale that non-VR simply cannot. This shark is 18 feet long because it really, seriously looks that big when I move my head and study it. It’s tremendously convincing and, in the case of The Deep, incredibly unsettling. And undoubtedly awesome.

image

The Magic Controller and the Toybox

Morpheus can do cute, too, though these last two demos lacked the wow factor of The London Heist and The Deep.

The Magic Controller lets you use a PS4 gamepad to interact with about a dozen robots. You can toggle music to make them dance and shine a flashlight into their sensitive eyes. It’s intended to demonstrate the interplay between the controller and the VR space, and while it works just fine, it’s a little underwhelming.

So is The Toybox, which tosses those robots into a diorama. Like The Deep, it’s a passive experience — no controls here — though simply staring at one of the many robots prompts it to perform some sort of adorable action. It’s clever and pretty, but again, a bit empty. Plus, I’m not sure if I’m ready to strap a VR headset on my kid’s face just yet.

But taken together, the four demos served as a tremendous showcase for the new Morpheus. It’s not quite ready for prime time, but with a good year or so left for fine tuning, Sony’s take on virtual reality is shaping up to be the real deal.

Follow Ben on Twitter