The House of Da Vinci series is one that I’ve heard of before but never actually played. It  always seemed to be on my periphery, but never further than that. However, when the VR version was announced for the Meta Quest 3, I couldn’t help but be interested. I’m already a fan of puzzle games and this one looked fabulous.

Being essentially a remake of the first game, rebuilding it from the ground up for virtual reality, The House of Da Vinci VR features similar settings and puzzles but altered to make them fit the medium. As this often changes many of the puzzle elements (and even adds some whole new ones), this also means its a great way for fans of the original to revisit the classic in a whole new light.

But, will Blue Brain Games succeed at adapting it well?

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A VR RENAISSANCE
Set in Florence during the renaissance era, you play as Leonardo Da Vinci’s apprentice who has arrived in the city after being summoned by his master. However, you soon find out that the genius has gone missing, thus leaving you to explore his residence and try to piece together what has happened to him.

There’s not a lot of story progression outside or receiving the occasional scroll introducing you to your latest location, but it also doesn’t matter all that much either. The setting is more than sufficient for the puzzling involved, as both the stunning environments and creative contraptions are more than enough to keep you captivated.

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And I’m not kidding about the gorgeous locations either. One of the first things you notice as the game loads up is the beautiful night-time landscape of the city outside, which even managed to outshine the likes of Vampire the Masquerade – Justice, which also opts a similar Italian setting. Unfortunately though, these outside environments don’t pop up all that much, but at least the interiors still look great too – and that includes Leonardo’s fantastic inventions.

Speaking of which, these delightful contraptions are what makes up the bulk of the experience. Each chapter features a myriad of devices for you to unravel. Typically this consists of moving various part, finding hidden items, or solving puzzle in order to open them up. I particularly liked how different things in the room tend to work together, meaning you’ll often find a part in one area that you then have to use in a previously used gizmo in order to expand it further. It all has a very satisfying feel to it, especially as they all seem to have very weighty mechanisms to them, adding to that sense of realism.

On the whole, the difficulty of the puzzles found throughout feel very balanced in order to ensure that nothing ever feels impossible. There’s no ‘big brain’ thinking really required a lot of the time, only paying attention to your surroundings and uncovering what you need to do. Sure, there are certainly some logic puzzles thrown in to test your wits, but they’re mostly manageable. I particularly enjoyed one of the ones earlier in the game that involved you overtaking a map of Europe using careful strategy, which managed to feel engaging without being overly tough. That’s not to say every puzzle is a winner though, as I found myself rolling my eyes at the inclusion of the generic container filling puzzle and sliding puzzles, but at least those instances are infrequent enough not to feel like an issue.

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What sets The House of Da Vinci VR apart from similar games, however (aside from the mechanical contraptions), is the addition of a special tool added to your gloves that allow you to see certain things that are hidden from your normal view; this could be secret writing that reveal a code needed for you to input, or hidden machinery that you can turn. The knob on your left hand also allows you to see certain images from a previous point in time, allowing you to observe Leonardo’s fiddling to see exactly what you need to do in order to proceed. It’s incorporated really well and adds an extra layer to the puzzling.

Should you ever get stuck, there’s also a great hint system that guides you where to go next and nudges you as to what you need to do. It feels balanced enough not to ruin a puzzle, but also ensures that you don’t miss anything either. At one point I used it when I was stuck, only to realise that I had unlocked a compartment with a key that I just simply didn’t spot due to the viewpoint. This is something that would have been really annoying without the useful hint system, but ends up being a bit of a non-issue instead.

It’s worth mentioning this viewpoint too, as that is something that may end up being a bit of a sore point for VR veterans. There’s no free movement, nor smooth turning, and that can end up feeling really frustrating for those averse to it – especially at the start of the game as you slowly teleport down long streets. However, once the game starts up properly, it’s easy to see why the game has been made this way. Puzzles are designed around being at set locations, and having free movement would simply break a lot of them apart. It also helps too that you spend a fair bit of time with contraptions in a given area, so you soon forget that you can’t move around everywhere. I expected the lack of movement to be an issue, but honestly it ends up feeling rather natural after the first couple of chapters. I still wish that there was a smooth turning option, but it’s also not a dealbreaker either.

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And I think a lot of that is down to just how well they’ve managed to incorporate VR into the main game. As mentioned at the top of the review, they haven’t simply added VR elements into their existing game – they’ve completely redesigned it to work with VR. Having watched footage of the original game, you can see how a lot of that simply wouldn’t have worked; however, these new designs make the most of sliding open compartments, fiddling around with key items, pulling levers, and the like. They really have put in a lot of work, and the result is a fantastic puzzle experience that you won’t want to miss!

VERDICT
The House of Da Vinci VR is not only a visually stunning game, but a remarkably clever one too. They’ve done a fantastic job at adapting the game to work well in VR, which will no doubt please both veterans and newcomers alike. I can only hope that we end up seeing more from Blue Brain Games in the future on the Meta Quest 3, as this game quite clearly shows that they certainly know what they’re doing!