Virtual reality is all about immersing oneself in different environments, realities, and concept. Project Time Travel seems to take this concept to the next level, as it is quite an entertaining VR experience. However, this is not just a game, as the app serves as a valuable history lesson in a VR environment. Quite an innovative project, although it is not necessarily perfect.
Project Time Travel Has Its Merits
Virtual reality will play a big role in the educational industry over the coming years. Rather than trying to explain things to children and young adults in a semi-boring way, it is far better to let them experience things. Especially where history lessons are cornered, virtual reality can be of great value. After all, it is far more immersive than a museum experience, as awesome as those might be.
Project Time Travel is an education-oriented virtual reality app, yet it removes the “boring” aspect almost entirely. The user seemingly creates a time machine, allowing them to travel to different time periods. Once the player arrives in a specific time, they can witness major historical events. Rather than dealing with text or stuffy educational tools, the user is present in those historic events and gets a first-row experience.
While the time traveling machine itself looks cool and all, there is no “sense” of leaving the “real world” when switching to a different part of history. That is a bit of a downer, although it is unclear what one should expect when time traveling becomes a real thing. Some sort of transition would be nice, though, but that is something that can be addressed with a software update in the coming months.
The bread and butter of Project Time Travel is done quite well. Whether one wants to experience the time of the Viking raids, Pompei right before it turned into a magma field, or even World War II, all locations are at one’s disposal. However, there are some minor letdowns in this regard as well, with some missed opportunities when it comes to audiovisual effects. Additionally, the lack of other animated characters creates a feeling of being alone during a major historical event. It’s not a deal breaker, but things could have been done a lot better.
While Project Time Travel is trying to do things well, it falls short in some key areas that make it a fun one-time experience, but not for repeated time travel. No character interaction, being unable to enter certain buildings, and somewhat dull scenery is not helping the app by any means. However, it goes to show virtual reality lends itself well when it comes to conveying parts of history in a more engaging manner. Unfortunately, some of that engagement is blatantly absent in the current iteration of the app.
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