A VR puzzle adventure with a touch of horror
Red Matter is a short, atmospheric VR puzzle adventure with a touch of horror. On Quest 3, I loved exploring its abandoned research base and handling its tactile machinery. The eerie events give the mystery an unsettling edge, but solving environmental puzzles is the main attraction.
In Red Matter you take the role of an astronaut who arrives at an abandoned brutalist research base on one of Saturn's moons. As you explore the intriguing facility, you'll slowly uncover what happened to the previous crew through notes, audio logs, and clues left around the environment. As is usual with these types of games, not everything is as it seems, and strange supernatural events begin to unfold the deeper you venture into the USSR retro-futuristic mysterious base.
How Red Matter looks on Quest 3
One of the first things that stands out about Red Matter on Quest 3 is the visual polish. Now while I haven't played Red Matter 2 which I've heard is the best looking game on the Quest 3, the original game is kinda stunning too although it originally came out in 2019. Vertical Robot clearly know what they are doing.
Walking through the abandoned corridors and domed rooms of the research base is a consistently incredible experience, as every texture and material have a fairly large amount of detail. The same can be said about the lighting and reflections that make the somewhat eerie spaces feel that much more convincing.
Puzzles and VR controls
In terms of gameplay, Red Matter follows a traditional puzzle adventure formula. You'll explore each section of the base searching for clues and using contextual puzzles to further the story. Examples include powering up defunct systems, decoding logs in a fictional language, and manipulating massive machines through a series of button presses and lever pulls. While the puzzles aren't particularly brain-bending, they feel natural extensions of the environments and help flesh out the mysterious narrative.
One of Red Matter's strengths is how well it controls and utilizes VR. Manipulating objects with two grip-controlled hands feels intuitive, while bigger interactions like operating control panels are a satisfying spectacle. Different locomotion options are available like teleportation and smooth movement, both of which work well.
How long is Red Matter?
In terms of game length, a single playthrough of Red Matter will take around 2-3 hours for most players, depending on how quickly you solve puzzles. While it could be considered short compared to flatscreen games, for the price it's a respectable runtime for a well-polished VR adventure title. I played through Meta Quest+ for this March 2024 review; that describes how I accessed it at the time, rather than a guarantee about the current subscription catalog.
Red Matter is easily one of the best puzzle adventure games that I've played so far on my Quest 3. From its impressively detailed environments and objects, to the smooth controls and intriguing story, it feels like a benchmark title for story-driven VR games. While relatively short, the experience is so polished and absorbing that multiple playthroughs could certainly be warranted to catch anything missed the first time. This is an essential game for any Quest 3 owner. Thanks for reading!
