Platform played: PC
Atom Universe is a virtual reality theme-park game developed by Atom Republic. The game features fun-filled rides, mini-games and sophisticated social interactions. It’s kinda like The Sims series but you get to play as one of them. The game is still in development and that means this preview might get old as the game development progresses.
Atom Universe centers around a large scale theme park composed of main hub, where most of the people gather and drive your car around. The Shooting Gallery is where you can hone your FPS skills on holographic targets and Motor Stunts that lets you drive a buggy on a track course with ridges, slopes, loops and more other stuff in it. More joy rides and mini-games will come out soon.
Aside from doing some fun in the Shooting Gallery and Motor Stunts, you can also interact with almost anything around the place by just pressing [Space] to show the Advanced Interactions HUD with four hexagons. You can interact with the environment by sitting on benches and lean on walls. You can do actions to take poses and express yourself with gestures. You can interact with another player such as handshaking, hugs, piggyback rides. And you can drive vehicles and let passengers ride in it.
Atom Universe uses the game engine that’s present in AAA titles such as Batman Arkham series, Bioshock series and Epic’s very own Unreal series; this game engine is widely known as Unreal Engine 4. This cutting-edge technology is really exciting with its rich patterns, realtime global illumination, realistic skin and other things that makes it look like a photograph rather than a game.
The music inside the Crowbots dance club is quite catchy. The simple rhythm of electronic dance music generally fits really well with its neon-styled setting. It provides a soothing atmosphere for the game but they didn’t add much music in the game since it only gives an idea on what it really does but I can contemplate a really good soundtrack once this game is out.
In short, Atom Universe is just about the simple joys of player interaction. It’s really great and has stunning simulation, where virtual people can have fun together to heart’s content. There is no main objectives but do expect exciting events and random scenarios.
This preview was based on Atom Republic Demo Version 6 from Atom Republic’s official website.
