My new Quest 2 arrived via Amazon delivery van yesterday. I was too excited to browse the store properly, so I downloaded a bunch of free "experiences" to check out on my shiny new headset. I watched a trailer for the docu-series filmed on the International Space Station, followed Blue from Jurassic World through the jungle on a brief adventure, and spent about 30 seconds in VR Chat before deciding that I needed something with a bit more structure.
Dipping back to the store, I flipped past a lot of stuff that I had already played on PSVR. But then I saw that Baba Yaga, the new animated VR film from Baobab Studios, was on sale for six bucks. With the prices of Quest games being what they are, six bucks sounded about right, so I clicked the "Buy" button and settled in.
Baba Yaga, released on January 14, is the latest from Baobab Studios, the animation geniuses behind VR films like Invasion! and Asteroids! (I guess the studio enjoys exclamation points). Those films offer very brief, but very immersive Looney Tunes-style experiences in 3D VR. The characters swirl around you, and the sense of scale that you get in some of the scenes is amazing. I can't imagine the work that goes into creating these things, but it must be monumental.
Baba Yaga is a somewhat longer experience, clocking in at around 20 minutes. You might be wondering about the value prop of buying a 20 minute film for six bucks, but you have to remember that these are extremely immersive experiences, and Baba Yaga actually offers a small amount of interactivity.
Baobab normally land some pretty stellar talent to participate in their projects; Invasion! is narrated by Ethan Hawke, and Elizabeth Banks is in Asteroids!. But this time the studio has outdone itself. Baba Yaga features voice work from Kate Winslet, Daisy Ridley, Jennifer Hudson, and Glenn Close. Each of these performances is fleeting, but the star power is real for the few moments you have with each performance.
The story of Baba Yaga involves a pair of young sisters (one of them is Daisy Ridley, and the other is...um...you) who decide to make their way into the forest, seeking a special medicinal flower that will aid their ailing mother. They know full well that the witch Baba Yaga resides in the woods, but resolve that the need for the medicine outweighs the risk. Along the way, they encounter a few brief (and kinda cute) perils, before coming face to face with the titular witch. And yes, the famous house on chicken legs does make an appearance.
The player is given a little bit of agency to make some choices that impact the story's ending. Indeed, when things wrap up, the game offers the opportunity to warp right back to a crucial moment to see what would happen if they changed their decision - a nice and welcome touch for those that want to see all the endings but don't want to sit through the whole thing again.
I enjoyed the experience of Baba Yaga quite a bit. As an animation fan, I loved the way the animators gave the visuals an old-school frame-skipping look, instead of sticking with the super smooth animation I've come to expect from them. Working within the sometimes papercraft visual style they chose, the effect works nicely.
Baba Yaga doesn't take long to get through, but it is entertaining while it lasts. I can't wait to sit my daughter down and send her into it's dark storybook world for a few safe thrills and chills.
I'm going to invest in some longer, deeper experiences for Quest 2, now that I have the feel for the platform a little bit. But Baba Yaga was a great introduction to the system, and I have a feeling that I'm going to be leaving it on my little 64GB hard drive for a little while as a demo for others. VR is a grand escape from the real world, and there's nothing better than crawling into a storybook for few minutes to take the edge off.
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