Cosmonious High Preview: An Entertaining and Promising VR Title
Owlchemy, makers of Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator, are developing and publishing Cosmonious High, a VR alien adventure that is shaping up to be both amusing and entertaining with plenty of content to explore outside of the main objectives. The first few hours of Cosmonious High introduce the mechanics and grant the opportunity to explore some of the school both inside and outside of classrooms. The demo included two unique classes and a handful of story objectives.
Cosmonious High is the story of a Prismi and their first day of high school. Prismi are aliens that adapt their bodies depending on their situation, so when the Prismi's school bus crashes, they adapt to produce water and put out the fires. The students and teachers welcome the Prismi and ask them to perform various tasks as they navigate through the malfunctioning school. At the start of Cosmonious High, each new classroom visited also results in the Prismi gaining a new ability.
Like other Owlchemy games, Cosmonious High is a first-person VR title that lets the player interact with their environment however they want to, and the NPCs respond accordingly. Cosmonious High takes things a step further by adding in speech bubbles and hand gestures, so waving, fist-bumping, and handing off objects all trigger various responses that are unique for each character. The Prismi can also use their special powers to interact with the NPCs and their environment.
The bulk of the Cosmonious High demo served to introduce the Prismi's powers and how they can be used to fix things in the school. The game's available demo classes were Visualetics and Chemosophy, which were art and science classes. In Visualetics, the Prismi learns how to produce crystals, which can be used to create art, connect broken wires, or produce objects for other students. There are also opportunities to experiment with paints, talk to the teacher and students, and either clean or wreck the classroom.
In Chemosophy, there are various chemical combinations to test out, and each one has a different effect on the environment or the characters. For example, there's a helium chemical that can be crafted to make objects float or spray at NPCs to make their voices higher. In Chemosophy, the Prismi learns how to use ice, which is at the center of completing experiments and passing the class. Chemosophy also has some of the funniest and best NPCs to interact with.
For the first couple of hours of Cosmonious High, everything runs smoothly, and the controls are easy to learn. The only issue came with switching between the Prismi's powers. The power menu was a bit finicky and would close before the power was selected. This was only a minor flaw in an otherwise pleasant and entertaining VR experience. Having the ability to see the power menu also showed that there are many more abilities that the Prismi can learn in the full game.
Cosmonious High is a vibrant and colorful game with interesting characters and enough freedom to have different experiences in multiple playthroughs. The classrooms serve to introduce new abilities and give some structure to the story, but it seems there will also be a fair amount of gameplay outside of actually completing the game. Cosmonious High looks to be a solid VR title that expands on the concepts of Owlchemy's previously successful games.
Cosmonious High will release on March 31, 2022, for Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR. Screen Rant was provided a digital Meta Quest 2 download code for the purpose of this preview.