Pollen gamescom 2015 Preview

Following in the footsteps of games like Gone Home, Pollen is an experience that is more like a story book than a game; meant to tell a story rather than thrill the player. Don't let that deceive you, its immersion allows for an equally enjoyable experience to that of an action or strategy game.

You know very little about what is going on in Pollen; the whole point of the game is to figure out the steps and story yourself, rather than have it spelt out to you. It's set in almost an identical fashion to Gone Home, except with a sci-fi exploration upon a space station in mind, instead of a simple home. All that is told to you is that you are a replacement crew member upon a space station after an accident occurred. Through finding clues on the station, you can uncover the past behind the place and the circumstances behind this mysterious 'accident.'

The environment is very immersive, with just about every object having the option to be picked up and observed. The physics work in a similar way to that of Amnesia, with the item being held in front of you and can be rotated and thrown.

In order to add some interaction to the experience, puzzles are a frequent occurrence. These puzzles have multiple, rational solutions. One example was a section that was blocked off by electrified water, and the solutions included using boxes to build a path, draining the water or turning off the power; all of which were valid methods to get across and progress.

Despite being a Sci-Fi exploration experience set in space, magic is an element that will be present in the game. The demo didn't go too deep into this however, perhaps indicating it has a deeper and more intricate meaning. From what we saw, there was a strange magic aura that, upon entering, transformed the environment, possibly into a past rendition of the station. The magic in Pollen may be one of the key clues to discovering what happened before the arrival of the player.

Pollen is also fully optimised for VR use, and actually functions better with it. Not only this, but hand-detection controllers can also be used to the same extent, allowing for a fully immersive experience. The game is still playable without these and nothing will be missed without them, but the developer stated that the game functions a lot better with Virtual Reality equipment.

I was given a brief hands on with the VR in Pollen, and I could instantly see what they meant when they said that the game really was intended for Virtual Reality. It was very precise and responsive, not being clunky or a burden at all. Moving your head forward actually zooms in and allows you to read small print on objects that is otherwise unreadable. It is made very clear that Pollen will be a lot more enjoyable if you use VR technology

Overall, Pollen looks as if it has promise. Pushing the limits of storytelling within games with the Virtual Reality technology and intense level of immersion, it's got a lot of potential to sweep the market by surprise.