Starship Home [Meta Quest 3] | REVIEW

For me, the potential of mixed reality has always been one of the most exciting aspects of the Meta Quest 3, and now, with Starship Home, the platform has its first full experience that utilises the tech.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Like all mixed reality experiences on the Meta Quest 3, the entirety of Starship Home takes place from inside a room in your own home, with players receiving a sci-fi device which is used to deliver a fairly ordinary looking package. However, in this package are all of the gizmos that make up a starship, with the player having to carefully place them around their room. This includes a ship control panel, which when placed sees you receiving a message from an alien creature. It turns out that these ship parts actually belong to them, but with something known as The Blight slowly tainting all plant life across the universe, they’re happy to work with you as a means to stop it.

What follows is a planet-hopping journey that sees you travelling across the galaxy as a means to recover plants that have been affected by The Blight, with the goal being to nurture each one to allow it to heal. How do you do this? By entering its dreams, of course, which are wacky psychedelic experiences that add a dose of weirdness to the game.

That might sound like it makes for a pretty unusual experience, but honestly, I found Starship Home so endearing to play that it has quickly established itself as one of my favourite mixed reality experiences. There’s something so satisfying about setting up your own living space into a little starship, whether that’s when interacting with the gizmos you place or simply peering out of the windows and soaking in the gorgeous sights of the galaxy. It’s incredibly immersive, whilst the clever use of colour adds an additional sense of sci-fi realism to your surroundings.

“Starship Home is a delight to play, with the planet-hopping, plant-treating adventure a lot of fun for virtual reality gamers.”

Of course, it’s all well and good to look and feel cool, but Starship Home also has a fun and easy-going gameplay loop. As mentioned, everything revolves around caring for plant life, with players having to move between planets and collecting different species of plants to look after on their ship. I should make it clear immediately that you are confined to just your ship during this process, so you won’t be stepping foot on any of these planets – you won’t control your ship in real-time either, with the player instead setting their destination on their handy star map. It makes sense from a gameplay perspective, especially with the game’s focus on mixed reality, but honestly? I would have loved to have controlled the ship during flight, especially since everything looks so cool when you do blast off between destinations.

Thankfully, Starship Home offers enough interactivity to ensure that it always feels immersive, whilst there’s something satisfying about sending out a drone in order to scan each planet and collect the plant life required for examination – especially since you get some control of the drone and get an up-close view of what exactly it can see. Entering each plant’s dreams always makes for an intriguing experience too, especially since they each offer a mini-game to complete that utilises the mixed reality features of Starship Home in some creative ways. They’re each simple in design (the first revolves around moving special pads to bounce dripping water onto the plant), but challenge players to do something a little different that adds a fun bit of variety to the experience.

You’ll then have to care for the plants, which involves watering them, using the substance from special creatures from your on-board terrarium to treat them (it’s not as sketchy as I’ve made it sound, trust me), and re-potting them in order to ensure that they can thrive. And when a plant is happy? It’ll sing a nice little tune, which is always pleasant as you move between planets and onto different plants.

Check out some screenshots down below:

It makes for a satisfying gameplay loop that’s relaxing and evenly paced to ensure it’ll feel enjoyable to virtual reality gamers of all skill levels. I know a ton of folk who aren’t really interested in gaming, but looking after space plants in your own sci-fi transformed living room? Yeah, it’d be perfect for them, whilst it’s also accessible enough for younger players to enjoy. The only caveat is that there is a bit of repetition, especially when moving between planets. Whilst you’ll see some new sights and complete some additional tasks within the plants’ dreams, you’ll still be going through a lot of the same processes when scanning planets and actually caring for the plant life. It doesn’t stop Starship Home from being enjoyable to play at all, but it might have been nice to see a few extra ideas sprinkled in between planet traversal just to spice things up a little.

I still found Starship Home to be an absolute delight to play though, and hey, if you do want to refresh things a little, you can change up the layout of your ship. Whilst I did find it a little fiddly to grab and move some objects (particularly the terrarium), there was something comforting about being able to switch things up now and then. Just be warned: going back to your NORMAL living space will make everything feel a little less exciting after spending time in Starship Home.

Developer: Creature
Publisher: Creature
Platform(s): Meta Quest 3 (Reviewed)
Website: https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/starship-home/5959677854068956/