Virtual tourism is the one of the most interesting aspects of VR. To visit exotic locales I may never get a chance to explore is something I'm really looking forward to. Everest VR is one of these globetrotting virtual experiences, and given the ethos behind climbing Mount Everest, it's fitting to be one of the first.
Harsh winds pushed against the tents at base camp in the dead of night. It was hard to see past a few tents in front of me, so I kneeled down and made my way into a nearby tent to find a working flashlight. I got up and teleported to my fellow hikers using the controller touchpad. The screen then faded to black... and a scenic overview of the mountain played as an intermission between the demo phases.
The view was beautiful, a 3D model recreation of the mountain with the help of the Nvidia GeForce. Snow on the mountain peaks glistened in the sun, and the winds were calmer now so everything felt peaceful. For a second I forgot I was actually in an E3 meeting room.
Next phase had me on the Hillary Step, a steep and narrow rock wall that leads to the summit. I had to (slowly) make my way across a slender bridge of snow that at times looked like it would give out from under me—a reality climbers face with constant avalanches and weather changes—and then hook myself to a single rope to push myself up the rock, one hand at a time.
At this point in the expedition climbers are about 8,790 m high, exhausted but steps away from their destination. Those steps may take a while to ascend though, as it's here where a bottleneck forms and people may have to wait up to three hours to get to the top. And thanks to Everest VR I had a better idea of why that is; while the demo doesn't recreate the people overflow issue the real Everest faces (thankfully), by experiencing what the Hillary Step is like I had an easier time understanding the issue I've been reading and watching documentaries about.
Eventually there I was at the top, taking in the impressive view only those who have what it takes have seen firsthand.
Solfar Studios' Everest experience will remain that, an experience, as it won't have game elements of failing or leveling up. It’ll be about an hour or two of highlighting the biggest moments of the climb, like using a ladder as your only means to walk over a crevasse, mixed in with the rewarding views.
Mulling over my time with Everest VR, it's made me even more excited in the future of virtual tourism. By having this available, not only can those like me who may never take the Everest challenge still see what it's like, think of the loved ones of Everest climbers. Now they have a chance to see what they see, and maybe get a better sense of the answer to the question, "why do you climb?"
With video games serving as a bridge between personal experiences and virtual simulations, there's so much to explore. Where else can we go that seemed unreachable? What other questions can VR help us answer? The technology is here, all we have to do is wait.
Esmeralda Portillo is IGN’s Executive Editor of Custom Content. Follow her on Twitter @EsmeraldaIP to tell her how awesome she is (or if you disagree... still tell her she's awesome).
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