When you think about animation, there are different kinds of styles. You have hand-drawn, motion caption, etc., but probably one of my favorite types of styles is stop-motion. Maybe it’s the physical manipulation in small amounts, maybe it’s the characters, or maybe it’s just the way everything comes together when everything is all said and done. From T.V. to the movies there is just something about seeing these characters that were created and allowing them to come alive in front of our eyes that just makes it all so special. So do developers, Aardman, Atlas V, No Ghost, and Albyon Renard Films bring the familiar likes of Wallace & Gromit into a new realm of environment for all to enjoy? Let’s find out with Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway for the Quest 3.
Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway is an interactive, narrative-led VR experience that will take fans on a brand-new adventure with much-loved characters Wallace & Gromit. Step into the shoes and paws of the legendary duo and join them on an epic new adventure.
Now, before you join the legendary duo, there are a few things to remember. First, make sure you have at least some arm’s length of space. You will be reaching for things and you don’t want to hit anyone or anything. Second, make sure your headset and Touch controllers are charged. You don’t want to run out of power right in the middle of the adventure, do you? Third, I am not going to spoil anything for anyone. Finally, just have some fun. With all that said, let’s continue…
For those who may not be familiar with Wallace & Gromit, they are a British stop-motion comedy franchise that includes TV shows and movies that children of all ages enjoy and deliver a positive message. You have the two main characters of Wallace & Gromit. Wallace is the self-prone inventor and Gromit is the loyal canine friend who helps Wallace in many ways who live on 62 West Wallaby Street.
Now that we are somewhat caught up with who these characters are, to give you a little insight into this adventure, Wallace & Gromit have been looking for a chance to relax on their upcoming holiday (vacation) getaway to see the sights, take some pics, and play some Golf. But, of course, being Wallace, things are not going to go as planned. So before getting a little too far into the story, let’s look at a few things here.
When you first start, you are presented with that in-your-face type of moment with a suitcase that will serve as the menu. Usually, I would say go to Options, however, every time I clicked on Options, nothing happened. The only other choice to select from is to delete your saved data. But that’s ok, don’t let that stop the fun. When you start a new game, it is broken down into chapters, knowing a little bit about the Wallace & Gromit short films, having chapters was the right way to go here.
So in the beginning, we see that Wallace realizes that what he thought was supposed to be the getaway for tomorrow, is actually today. But to get to where we need to go, simply traveling to the point by walking or motorized vehicle transportation will not do. But what will do is the rocket that Wallace has built in the other room of the house. I am pretty sure that Gromit had the chance to make sure things were right after this rocket was built. But to be on time, it’s going to be up to you, Auto-Caddy, to help find things around the room to put into the suitcase. It’s not too challenging to find the items as you do have a list. But to get to a different part of the room, you need to put your hands in front of your face like you are looking with binoculars.
Once inside the rocket, you will need to perform different things until, well, things happen and it seems that you have left Wallaby Street, into space, and well, landed on a planet. However, for the possibility of hope of getting back home, you will need to complete certain tasks, like you have done before, with the rest of the chapters. But, Wallace seems to be, well, Wallace and not realizing the situation, thinks that this planet is the grand getaway he was hoping for. So what does Wallace do? He is off to play golf.
During the chapters, you will be playing as either Gromit or Auto-Caddy. You do have an AI assistant in the name of Beryl, that will help you along the way. Within the chapters, as you are trying to find different objects, there are going to be either mini-games to play or puzzles to solve, which are not hard and are amusing to play. One of the fun things about the mini-games is that you can keep playing to see if you can do better than your last attempt.
Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. If you have ever seen Wallace & Gromit then you already expect how things should look. The developers did a great job of bringing that world into Virtual Reality. Everything looked good on the Quest 3 from being in the house and looking at the simple things such as the toaster, light, and even the window with the houses across the street to the characters themselves appearing as I was watching the world unfold right in front of me and I was part of it.
Now, part of the experience is the Mixed Reality of Wallace & Gromit Jamtastic. This makes you a tester for Wallace’s breakfast contraption as you get to use the newest and his revolutionary, jam-to-toast delivery system. As toast pops from the toaster, it’s going to be up to you to shoot jam at the toaster. The higher you go in levels, the more challenging it becomes. But it is kind of cool to see arms come from the ceiling and then you can shoot butter or jam all over your room.
The sound was equally as good with the voices of the characters, the music, and even objects that you get to interact with sounded good and I liked how the music played and would change based on what you were doing and didn’t overpower anything else.
There are a few things that I would love to see. First, the options. As I mentioned earlier, when I clicked on it, nothing happened. I was trying to see if there was a way to play seated, which I did, but there were times I had to stand up due to the way objects would be close to the top of my head while sitting. Second, leaderboards. I had a lot of fun with Jamtastic and would love to see how others did while playing it. It would be just fun to be able to climb some leaderboards. Third, more time with the characters. While playing, I just wanted to interact more with the different environments and the characters. And finally, more adventures. I do hope that there are more adventures planned for the future as there is something very pure here that anyone, of any age, can just set back and have some crazy fun.
Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway brings the fun of these characters and does a wonderful job and giving them some VR love. It’s an experience where parents do not have to worry and know that their kids are safe and is appropriate for a family audience. In life and as time goes by, our children grow up and they may leave regardless if it is outside on the streets, in a different city, town, state, or even country, we have family that we worry about and care about, and just want them to be as happy and healthy as possible. Sometimes things go as we hope while other times, they don’t go as planned. But all we can do is hope we did the right thing and isn’t it important to hold on to the time we have with them while we still can?
Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway is out now for the Quest 2, 3, & Pro on the Meta Store. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Aardaman, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
To learn more about Atlas V, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.
To learn more about No Ghost, please visit their site and follow them on Twitter.
To learn more about Albyon Renard Films, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, like them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to do some more Jamtastic.
