"Wallace and Gromit" captures the essence of Aardman animation in its Immersive Venice debut. Here's a preview of our full hands-on experience.
Like many British people of my age, I enjoyed Wallace and Gromit as a child. Starting with a journey to the moon to find cheese, the duo's subsequent adventures take us to many strange places. Between the Bunnyman, the robot dog, and that airy penguin, it's still a delight decades later. "Escape" made me feel as if I had entered another movie.
This adventure is divided into 12 chapters, starting with an unexpectedly stupid situation. When Wallace realizes he's messed up the dates for the upcoming holiday, the famous pair use their iconic orange rockets to make the time. In a most ridiculous and preventable way, they quickly veer off course and end up on Mars.
The initial chapter begins with the control of Caddy, a golf-themed robot. Utilizing its retractable arms, the concept is quite unique. Retrieve items via motion controls and place them near your head so Caddy the robot can spit them into the suitcase. Is this practical from a gameplay perspective? Not entirely practical. Is it interesting? Absolutely interesting. Because Wallace's inventions were never simple. The robot Caddy feels right at home in this world, as does the charming AI robot Beryl, voiced enthusiastically by Miriam Margoyles.
There is no freedom of movement in the game except when your own legs cannot move, although the robot Caddy can teleport to designated locations. It's not exactly a "track-by-track" format, but "Escape" limits scenes to specific paths, which I'm told is for narrative purposes. This does a great job of maintaining a cinematic feel while also reducing the risk of motion sickness, making it friendly to those new to immersive VR.
Soon after, I started playing Gromit. Naturally, he can't teleport or telescopic grab, but I found myself working my way through a series of mini-puzzles preparing the rocket for takeoff, repairing gears and brakes, and more. This requires finding items in the environment, which Escape doesn't do much to guide. After I got stuck, Beryl gave some tips and I quickly discovered items I had overlooked.
The puzzles are fun to solve, but the real highlight is how well the humor is incorporated. I won't describe the jokes in specific detail because that would ruin the joy of the experience, but I laughed out loud many times. Comedy isn't easy in a user-controlled environment because timing is so important, but Escape does it, and the interactions work with the series' signature sense of humor.
We expect this to be a short two-hour adventure, and overall the visuals match Aardman's stop-motion animation style very well. Everyone looks great and the comedy elements are very engaging. I love the interactivity that Escape brings to the world, and so far Aardman and No Ghost seem to be handling this new medium very well.
My demo ended with a landing on Mars, leaving me hungry for more. While I wasn't able to test this out at the Immersive Show in Venice, I'd love to try out hand-tracking controls, as Aardman confirmed the feature will be included at launch. I could see Wallace & Gromit convincing someone new to immersive VR to buy oneQuest 2Or Quest 3, if the overall game keeps up this momentum, we're in for a treat.
"Wallace and Gromit's Escape" is coming this yearMeta Questplatform. If you want to know more, check out our full interview with Aardman, No Ghost and Atlas V:
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