TEST Red Matter: a gripping narration against the backdrop of a secret Soviet base in VR

The story of RedMatter puts the player in the shoes of the agent Epsilon, an astronautAtlantic Unionagent who will have to investigate a mysterious abandoned base located on the moon of saturn, Rhea. Through a voice in our headset, we are guided by our superior who seems to want to push us to discover all the secrets of our enemies, the Volgravians.

A fascinating and never blocking adventure.

Here you will not be able to quench your thirst for war and blood. Red Matter is above all a contemplative and narrative adventure, with science fiction sauce, which is strewn with puzzles of relative difficulty. Aware of motion sickness issues, the studio Vertical Robot has taken care to leave the player the choice of his movements. In the form of leaps by playing on the gravity of Rhea or via teleportation, the experience is pleasant in both cases. To solve the puzzles that arise, we have an effective and easy to use multi-tool. We can thus use a flashlight, a translator that allows us to understand the texts that we find as the adventure progresses, or even pliers to manipulate objects in the environment.

Much of the game involves scanning and reading numerous documents, signs, and other propaganda scattered around the base. The translation is rather good and the title is entirely localized in French in the text. We appreciate the configurable subtitles for better readability, for example we can choose a black background for the subtitles. The puzzles are not difficult, but require us to analyze the environment well. They are varied, so that once started it is difficult to get out of the adventure. The various puzzles test our ability to think and logic while occupying our hands with various manipulations and never repeating themselves.

For independent production, Red Matter stands out for the polished quality of its graphics. The textures are clean, the lighting effects stunning and it is without a doubt one of the best experiences VR on Meta Quest. The sound is important for the immersion and, if the sound effects are rather good, we regret a soundtrack that is a little absent. Everything is done to remind us of the best science fiction series of the 90s.

RedMatter is a high-quality immersive experience, but not without flaws. We note for example a certain slowness in the movements when we use the leap mode. As we pointed out, the puzzles, if they are well thought out, are rather easy and do not resist long to seasoned players. The lifespan is therefore quite low, count about 2 or 3 hours for those in a hurry and 3 to 4 hours for others. Nevertheless, it is a game that we strongly recommend. If you liked Lone Echo (you can find the test from Lone Echo II here), Red Matter will please you.

Optimize the graphics of Red Matter with our QGO app and if you haven’t taken the step yet, you can buy a Meta Quest 2 at €349.99 on Amazon.