Arcsmith | Oculus Quest Review

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Bithell Games here at The Gaming Outsider. Thomas Was Alone was a masterpiece for two of us, and both Subsurface Circular and John Wick Hex received high marks from each critic. Needless to say, I was very excited to get my hands on the latest title to have a legendary name attached to it. Arcsmith takes those moments you spend at workbenches in other games and makes an entire virtual reality experience out of it. It’s a fantastic concept with tools that work remarkably well, but it was tougher for me to wrap my head around than I had hoped.

Always Two, There Are

In Arcsmith, you play as an unnamed engineer apprentice under the tutelage of Korith Dinn. This one-handed alien, voiced by Dave Fennoy of The Walking Dead fame, reluctantly guides you through the basics. He starts with a simple radio, slowly handing you more assignments as you master each task. His robot companion, who only speaks in single-word sentences, offers some slightly comical banter.

You might think a game about working at an engineer’s table wouldn’t offer much in story, but you’d be surprised. Korith has a story to share, but he’s unwilling to do so…at first. After completing each puzzle, the game rewards you with a cutscene. Each one slowly peels back the layer of the character’s past while also offering an intriguing interstellar conflict. The juxtaposition of puzzle and plot work surprisingly well together, and the in between beats never feel unwelcome or overused.

That Satisfying “Click”

The meat and potatoes of the game takes place at a workbench. Yes, you’ll be in a seated position for the entirety of Arcsmith. Each of the Oculus controllers in your hands acts as an engineering tool. You can grab objects, flip them around, and connect them to other components like a digital LEGO set. You even have to freedom to make personal adjustments to your monitor, which sounds like it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s a godsend when you realize you can.

Piecing together a device is a bit more complicated than merely sticking them together. You’ll need a power source that routes energy to your construction. But you need a certain amount, so putting too much power or not enough will cause a problem for you. In addition, you have to monitor your heat output. Your work could literally burst apart at the seams if you overheat, which can be very frustrating after putting together several components.

Although the game doesn’t feel like it was designed this way, I found myself using trial-and-error methods more often than not. There are multiple tools at your disposal to track your item’s power and heat transference, but I simply couldn’t wrap my head around it. Certain parts diffuse heat, others release unused energy, but no matter how much I tinkered, I couldn’t make head or tail of how I was getting the correct solution. I truly can’t tell if this is a fault of the game or something that simply wouldn’t click in my head.

Teach Me, My Master

There’s a fantastic game buried here, but a more specific tutorial could have made my learning process more smooth. Instead of randomly piecing parts together, I wanted to understand how each one worked. Despite reading each line of instruction, I felt more lost, even after starting the game over completely. I understood the basics and that this piece diffused heat and this piece released energy. But I didn’t know why well enough to be able to effectively use each part in the way the game wanted me to.

This made later puzzles nearly impossible for me, as the complexity ramps up extremely quickly. There are so many layers to more difficult devices that I felt my only option was to putz around until I made something that worked. If I had one request, it would be for the game to teach me its core design more in-depth early on.

Arcsmith Final Verdict

Do you remember the section of the Batman: Arkham VR game on PlayStation VR where you had to piece together pieces of evidence to look for clues? When I played that title, part of me wanted an entire game around that mechanic. That’s exactly what Arcsmith is, and I applaud the developers for what they’ve put together here. The systems, despite taking some time to get use to, work quite well. I worry about the accessibility for many people who could get even more frustrated than I did with the lack of instruction. Which is weird to say, because the tutorial is decently-lengthed. I just wish it look each step more slowly so I could absorb it better.

With all that said, I’m still playing it. I’m intrigued by the story, and I love the mechanics. I’m determined to play Arcsmith in the way the developers intended instead of slapping pieces together and hoping something works. Or maybe I’m simply not smart enough and all of you will enjoy this much more than I. Either way, it’s worth a look, and I hope to see more implementation of these mechanics as supplementary pieces of future titles.

This review is based on an Oculus Quest copy of Arcsmith provided by NEONHIVE for coverage purposes. As of this writing, it is exclusive to that platform.