Rec Room

The Rec Room developers call their brainchild not a "game", but a virtual multiplayer space for spending time together. And, surprisingly, they absolutely do not bend their souls. The Rec Room is just an open virtual space that can be absolutely anything.

And you can play here too. Basically, it is a hybrid of VR Chat with various multiplayer competitive platforms. They are only supported and created by gamers rather than developers.

The virtual reality we deserve

The most attractive feature of virtual reality is that you can fully realize your fantasies here. If you want, you plow the vastness of distant galaxies on a spaceship and fight with a lightsaber against many-legged aliens, whose bodies are covered with purple tentacles. If you want, you go to the dragon's cave to rescue the princess from there, for whom the desperate king promised half a kingdom and a horse to boot. If you want, you plunge into the atmosphere of sticky horror, which has brought a creature more ancient than all human gods, to which the Sphinx is a cousin.

There are of course some limitations. They are caused, for example, by the fact that the developers do not seek to fulfill the fantasies and dreams of any particular person. They are more likely to target the mass user and therefore create "average" virtual spaces that can be liked by everyone at once.

Therefore, if you want to fulfill your own dream in virtual reality, do the development yourself. And Rec Room is a creative sandbox for creating projects like this.

What to do in the Rec Room

VR multiplayer chat with Rec Room games actually offers quite a few activities available. The developers have already provided for a few:

• Paintball arena. Almost like a tactical team shooter, only without the "serious face". You can play with friends, against friends and alone - when everyone around is exclusively opponents;
• Cooperative quests. Small multiplayer adventures focused on playing with friends;
• Laser tag. Almost like paintball, only instead of paint guns - laser blasters. And the rules are exactly the same;
• Rec Royale. A simple but understandable "battle royale" in which you need to survive yourself and simultaneously get rid of all competitors on the map;
• Mini-games. 3D puzzles, disco golf and other rainball for a pleasant casual time;
• Walking in the park. Large virtual location, quite calm and comfortable. On it you can meet with friends and just sit and talk.

This is content from the developers. But the beauty of Rec Room is that it lets you create your own virtual entertainment. As a result, hundreds of rooms are available at any time, each of which has a new environment, new rules, an unusual setting, and so on.

This was achieved through the use of special technologies for creating virtual spaces. The 3D editing tools in Rec Room are as simple and straightforward as possible, they do not require prior study and preparation. So you can literally immediately after installation start sandbox mode and start building something of your own.

And here you can just chat. Meet friends and other players from all over the world, conduct conversations on any topic - even about the weather, even about politics. However, it is worth considering that the creators of the chat rooms have moderation tools in their hands, so they can ban an unwanted player or simply mute his microphone.

In addition, it is worth considering that the game's community is mostly English-speaking. Therefore, most of the players staying on the server also speak exclusively in English. But these are the subtleties and particulars that you quickly get used to. But, given the need to use expensive equipment to play in the Rec Room, the users present here are usually calm and polite.

Microtransactions and Donations in the Rec Room

Until 2019, Rec Room, despite its wide gameplay and multiplayer capabilities, was distributed completely free of charge. It was even surprising given the responsiveness of the developers and the composition of the community.

But then the developers still added donations and microtransactions. Certain editing tools, as well as cosmetic and gameplay items, are now available exclusively for real money. However, even without any purchases at all, the Rec Room can still be played comfortably while enjoying the pre-created worlds and locations. Yes, and it is quite possible to create your own sites, albeit not as interactive and functional.