Each record has three challenges that you have to complete in order to unlock the next record, such as achieving a minimum score on certain difficulties across tracks. Songs are unlocked through records, collections of 4-5 tracks. I found myself constantly surprised at just how far Anotherway have pushed the Quest’s capabilities - nothing else that uses hand tracking has been able to display such a degree or speed or accuracy. Just look at the video embedded above of Get The Funk Out by Extreme on Hard difficulty - it’s one of the game’s later tracks and really pushes chord changes and fast notes strumming to its limits. That being said, the game still gets surprisingly complex - more than you would think it would be able to, given the limitations of Quest’s hand tracking technology. However, it’s not quite as technical or advanced as Guitar Hero or Rock Band, in terms of the complexity of the songs - as Jamie pointed out in his hands-on, you won’t be busting out Through the Fire and the Flames in Unplugged just yet. Gone are the days of bulky, plastic peripherals - using a VR headset lets the genre move towards something more immersive and thrilling, keeping the same spirit while also doing its own thing. Unplugged started as a side project by Ricardo Acosta in April 2020, but was picked up by publisher Vertigo Games in December. For all its faults or shortcomings, it genuinely feels like the start of a franchise that harnesses hand tracking in a way that no other app has been able to do, both on a conceptual and technical level.
Now, that’s not to say that the game doesn’t have it’s limitations or quirks - we’ll get to those later - but it’s important to impress just how amazing Unplugged can feel in its best moments. This game doesn’t simulate real life guitar - it instead embarks on a fantasy-fulfilling journey of letting you feel like a true rockstar, shredding through air and playing to a pumping crowd.
Developer Anotherway has caught onto something magical here: it has brought to life an activity that, up until now, only existed in your imagination. No other hand tracking experience comes even remotely close in terms of sheer thrill and innovation.
#Game gitar hero full#
Here’s our full Unplugged review.īefore getting into detail, let’s get something straight about Unplugged: the feeling of using just your hands to act out air guitar moves (in what is essentially VR’s spiritual successor to Guitar Hero) is a completely unmatched experience and technical accomplishment on Oculus Quest. While it has its limitations, the game ultimately offers a hand tracking concept that surpasses everything else on the Quest platform. Unplugged is the biggest and most ambitious game to go all-in on hand tracking on Quest, bringing your air guitar dreams to life.