Colosseum VR Review on Oculus Rift

Explore the Colosseum and ancient Rome in this educational, if technically lacking Oculus Rift experience.

Back in August we reviewed Dino VR, an educational virtual reality experience that enables the participant to explore a island packed with dinosaurs. It’s a fun, insightful but technically lacking experience that with more work and a higher budget would become a fantastic educational experience. Colosseum VR continues this trend, enabling the viewer to visit ancient Rome, it’s temples and the Colosseum while discovering interesting facts and figures. It’s another bold, creative idea that on paper sound utterly enchanting, but once again, a lack of polish, attention to detail and budget holds it back from becoming a first-rate Oculus Rift experience.

Load the game (or course, as Unimersiv calls it) and you’re presented with three options: a guided tour of Rome and the Colosseum, a free-roam mode where you can explore the buildings at will, and a multiplayer mode that lets you interact with other players while checking out the sights.  The guided tour is where most would begin, and it starts on-board a futuristic ship where a floating robot guide explains the basics behind the experience. Unfortunately the AI guide is voiced by a Siri-like computer, which means ancient words and names (such as Emperor Vespasian) are mispronounced or cut short. However, with it’s charming face and friendly demeanour the AI guide makes for a nice addition. Shortly after launching the guided mode you’re teleported to ancient Rome, where its buildings, statues and citizens have come back to life. As the AI guide reveals details about the Arch of Constantine you’ll get to marvel at its detail and structure. Overhead a large bird soars, while in the distance a handful of Roman citizens stand chatting. Soon you get to check out the Colossus of Nero, a giant statue which stands proud — perhaps a little too proud — with a glistening bronze appendage that looks peculiarly large. Soon, however, you’re whisked into the Colosseum, where four gladiators are practising their moves while a dozen or so spectators watch from the stands. It’s a nice moment, if cut short by the tour abruptly ending.

Back at the menu, the game offers the chance to explore Rome in either single or multiplayer modes. Both let you explore the virtual city at will, and there’s plenty to see, with some nice recreations of the Temple of Venus, the Elagabalium and some surrounding houses. The only building you can enter is the Colosseum, but there’s not much to see up-close except a few lit torches and some empty corridors. Additionally, in multiplayer mode you’re unlikely to encounter any other areas unless you’re connected to a local LAN.

Graphically Colosseum VR is basic to look at. Textures are either pin-sharp or very low res, while missing polygons are replaced with vibrant blocks of color. There’s also a curious lack of detail in important areas, so while the Colosseum looks great from a distance, as you enter it’s labyrinth of corridors you’ll notice that there is no detail to be examined up-close, making it look like a giant toy set, rather than a grand building. Thankfully the sense of scale is nice, so when you enter the Colosseum stage and look up you’ll actually feel as though you’re standing in the middle of the ancient building.

Colosseum VR is available as part of Unimersiv’s Premium plan. It’s priced $10 a month, and gives you access to every course and experience available on the Unimersiv website. At the time of writing only Dino VR and Colosseum VR are “premium” courses, making the $10 expensive, but with time (the company is promising one new VR experience per month) it should become a viable and attractive offering.

Colosseum VR at the Unimersiv Website