If you are unfamiliar with Richie’s Plank Experience, it involves entering an elevator located at the bottom of a tall building. Once the elevator reaches its destination, you are faced with a vast void ahead of you. The objective is to maintain your balance on a virtual wooden plank that hovers above the chasm.
When you place an actual plank on the floor and feel the wooden surface beneath your feet, the experience becomes even more mentally demanding. The virtual plank can be modified to match the physical plank’s measurements, enhancing realism and intensifying fear. Click here to get it on Meta Store.
In 2023, the updated graphics of Richie’s Plank Experience did not make it any more impressive.
This week, Richie’s Plank Experience received a free update that adds an atmospheric mixed-reality component to the VR experience, projecting a virtual elevator into your physical surroundings. Once you enter the elevator, the rest of the experience takes place in virtual reality. It’s a more immersive introduction to the whole experience, but nothing earth-shattering, and there’s certainly room for improvement in the use of mixed reality.
The update comes with graphical improvements, including a higher resolution, reworked textures, and better lighting.
The Canyon’s Edge DLC also follows the same pattern, with a price of $4. It introduces a unique setting inspired by the Rocky Mountains. However, the visuals are somewhat compromised due to what appears to be an excessively intense fixed-foveated rendering technique.
Still efficient, yet costly according to current standards.
Despite its visual shortcomings, Richie’s Plank Experience serves its main purpose: it takes courage to balance on the wooden plank over the abyss, and it is good for demonstrating the power of virtual reality to your friends, or just to see their reaction.
The price of $15 might have been acceptable back in 2017, but it is no longer reasonable today. Furthermore, the additional downloadable content is excessively expensive. Along with the plank activity, players have the option to traverse the city by flying and demolishing missiles. However, this aspect is not particularly impressive due to the rough nature of the city environment.
Richie’s Plank Experience is available on the Meta Quest Store and on Steam. The studio also has a promising VR platformer in development, Max Mustard, which will be released in 2024.
