PAX EAST 2015 | "Pollen" Gives Us Virtual Space Immersion

Taking cues from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and Gravity Mindfield Games' upcoming title Pollen wants to bring players to the great beyond in the solar system. With the usage of the Oculus Rift their goal is to make people feel like they're traversing inside a massive space ship. From the five-minute demonstration I experience at PAX East, it's safe to say they're very well on their way to accomplishing this.

Wearing the Oculus Rift it was an almost-immediate sensation of being in space. Walking around Space Station M just about everything that was in arm's reach could be interacted with. I could cook some food in a microwave, run on the treadmill, take a photograph and study the Polaroid front and back that pops out, do some weightlifting, and even get a game of darts in just to kill some time. While there is a lot to do to kill some time the lack of other astronauts was very apparent, and whether I was on a solo mission or my fellow crew-mates have gone missing rang through my brain at every step of the way.

As the demo was short I was not able to check out how space itself will be like with the Oculus. With that being said, the realism that Mindfield Games was able to bring to their Pollen demo was quite breathtaking. The attention to detail in the ship, the objects, and even the photograph you take is the sort of quality that even most AAA studios have yet to accomplish this current generation. I have no idea what gamers will fully be in store for when the game comes out, but if this demo was any indication players will have no trouble jumping into this little space oddity.

Pollen is due for the PC later this year.