Virtual reality is a powerful medium, whose use is not limited to video games, but also to other types of experiences. Today, in particular, we are talking about a documentary, specially designed to be enjoyed with this immersion and experience, especially with Sony’s Playstation VR
The Coconut Island
Off the coast of Costa Rica is a beautiful island, named after Coconut Island (Cocos Island in English, from which the title of the documentary). The tropical waters surrounding the island are home to many types of flora and fauna, but in particular these waters are famous for the presence of numerous species of sharks.
These creatures, both fascinating and fearful of being close to each other, are the protagonists of this documentary, a film of a little over ten minutes, which illustrates the life of the Coconut Island waters. Being a video specifically shot for virtual reality, you can not expect the quality of a high definition movie, and the classic blur effect that always accompanies the VR also comes in this video.
Nevertheless, seeing the various types of fish and sharks present in these crystalline waters can still compensate for what is lost in the visual impact, ensuring a complete immersion into the ocean in all directions .
The documentary is narrated by a voice that, unfortunately, only speaks in English: I say unfortunately because this makes the experience unhelpful for those who do not have an ear trained in listening to the language, given the total absence of subtitles.
One (short) dive
As we said, the video was shot by a submarine team who was immersed for a short while in the waters of the Coconut Island, approaching the sharks that, fortunately, have been more interested in fish and troupe. During the experience we can not move or do anything: we can only look around, admire the landscape and hear the narrative voice to explain the local living habits of the local fauna.
There is absolutely no interface in the game, and the only two options we have will be to pause the movie or to get it started again.
As you will understand, this Cocos: Shark Island is nothing more than a VR experience, far from being a real game. This is a 10-minute documentary that, in the face of a low cost, aims to bring you down with the experts of the trade in the shark study.
This is a rather basic experience with obvious technical limitations: hope is that experiences like this will, in the future, bring to our consoles more complete experiences and are able to compete seriously with those that can be used without a viewer. For now, this is an interesting experiment, but little more.
