VR fans! Hold on to your hats as blasts from the past greet you now that The Unspoken is finally back on the Meta Store. “Ahem.” Temple of fun was returned along with its older brethren to enable VR spellcasting brawls-and this could be termed quite miraculous, considering how long these titles remained out of circulation. Stormland, Feral Rites, and Edge of Nowhere were also returned from the retro store;”quite a situation” given some of these titles’ ages.
Okay, so what’s the deal with The Unspoken? Did you miss it the first time around? Or perhaps you just forgot it even existed? No shame there. This was that rare first-wave VR masterpiece that had VR adopters saying, “Whoa, magic dueling in VR is actually awesome.” You fling fireballs, summon an ethereal shield, and really feel like a wizard from some kind of urban fantasy novel. There was a competitive multiplayer scene for a while; now it’s back, and who knows, maybe some fresh spell-slingers will revive those servers.
Why did it go away in the first place? Well, that’s a bit of a mystery. Insomniac was bought by Sony at some point, and since then, their VR projects have been… let us say shelved. But hey, here we are-the return of The Unspoken, right back from the dead, so to speak. The listing in the Meta Store doesn’t mention any update or remaster, so I gather it has got to be the original experience standing there warts and all. Still, wins for anyone who missed out or wants to remember the good times, I say.
And so the rest of the line-up: Stormland, which might have been VR’s version of open-world sci-fi exploration before going off the map; Feral Rites, an oddly pleasing action-adventure; and Edge of Nowhere, a Lovecraftian horror that still stands tall. From what we can gather, none of these see any new content, but having them back, even if only for nostalgia’s sake, is quite a nice gesture.
But why now, exactly? Beats me. Perhaps some store listings are being cleaned-up by Meta, maybe Insomniac put forth its consent, or someone just happened upon a dusty hard drive labeled “VR Games DO NOT DELETE.” Whatever the reason, it’s a tiny little bonus for anyone who still rocks an Oculus headset.
What are you waiting for? If you have a Meta Quest or a Rift lying about, get to playing before the doom of delisting shadows upon it again. Or bask in the nostalgia for when VR was still coming into its own. Weird little revival-anyone would find it hard to resist.
And by the way, if you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing The Unspoken, go get a friend because you’re about to be blasted with the most ridiculous spells ever. Just don’t hit the ceiling fan. Again.
