VIVE Pro Review & First Impressions

VIVE Pro has to be one of, if not the most, precise VR units on the market at the moment. From the comfortable easily adjustable headset to the intuitive controls, VIVE Pro is perfectly balanced and incredibly well designed. 

Despite being a PC exclusive, I was pleased to find out that my three-year-old PC runs the VIVE Pro with no problems. Not only can my PC run the VIVE Pro, it handles it well.

Upon opening the box I was assaulted with a pile of things and was a little worried that this would be an all day set up. Pleasantly, the instructions have easy to follow steps which had me up and ready to go within 15 mins.

VIVE Pro Review

Until I had to update some software…

Which still wasn’t a massive problem and actually gave time to re-arrange my lounge room. Regarding setting up your room, the VIVE Pro has two main play modes. This will differ by the game as some have the option to switch to the smaller play space if your lacking in space and vice versa.

As time progressed household objects have slowly crept back into my play space. Too many times I’ve had to yell out to a child before they smash a clothes horse, chair or sibling.

With the Vive ready to go and room aplenty I fired up Steam VR. I was immediately blown away by the accuracy of the rendered controls and the tracking of the real ones in my hands. 

Sure, this was just a menu, but the accuracy was to the point that when the VR controls would touch at the same time the ones in my hand did. Here I was fully immersed and not even playing a game yet!

I began by downloading a few free games to have a test run. One of these was a rollercoaster track floating in space. There was no background and no points of reference. It was lacklustre at best and I was a little disappointed.

The Files are inside the Computer

Before changing games I decided to try another track. Whoa! Suddenly it was like something in a theme park. With a rendered ground for reference, I was now able to tell when I flipped or turned. At one point I felt myself lean into a corner and needed to step to stop from falling.

This is a good example of VR in general. At first, you may seem underwhelmed, but if you change a few things slightly or try something new, you’ll find what works for you. Thankfully, the VIVE Pro makes everything so simple, easy and intuitive that I wanted to get the best from it.

To have sound accompany you while you play in VR, you’ll need to plug a headset into the jack at the rear of the VIVE Pro unit. Games with sound programmed to make use of the VR surroundings help to pull you so much further into the VR world.

Thankfully, the VIVE Pro headset is designed to easily allow you to use headphones while you wear it. Obviously, you’re going to be blind and deaf to the real world, but thanks to the VIVE’s intuitive set-up and play modes, you should be pretty safe. 

Impressive, not gimmicky

Too many times new technologies have come out for gaming and fallen flat. Although they were great and shiny when new, they often felt gimmicky. Motion controls, cameras, touch screens and even Xbox’s Kinect fall into this category.

Interestingly, VR is a combination of a lot of these technologies. The VIVE Pro seems to be the ultimate combination and ultimate VR solution currently available.

It’s not just the headset that’s great though. There are many standout games already available for VR and VIVE in particular which helps elevate the VIVE Pro above other competing VR headsets. If you’re looking to get into VR, the VIVE Pro is definitely the place to start.

Keep an eye out for more coverage on the VIVE Pro coming soon. 

A VIVE Pro unit was loaned to PowerUp! for this story.