It’s been almost a year since the latest round of VR headsets were released, and while hardware and technology is all fine and dandy, it doesn’t mean squat without solid experiences. That’s what 2017 is all about: content, content, content. While 2016 saw creators doing some amazing stuff in VR, 2017 is already shaping up to be the year that defines and advances the medium, and that’s exactly what Oculus Story Studio has done with Dear Angelica.
With a run time of about 12 minutes, Dear Angelica is a brief yet powerful emotional journey like no other I’ve experienced in VR. The story of the relationship between a child and mother isn’t overly unique or full of surprises, but it is a universal narrative of connection, comfort, joy, sadness and eventually loss that everyone can relate to, and that makes for an engaging and far-reaching experience.
Dear Angelica begins in a sparse, dark room, with Jessica (Mae Whitman) burrowed in her bed writing a letter to her late mother — actress Angelica (Geena Davis) – as Jessica watches her old movies on a seemingly weightless television, a set piece that pops up again and again and acts as Jessica’s lifeline to her mother. You stand over Jessica as ribbony script appears before you, syncing with Whitman’s voiceover. It’s simultaneously intimate and detached, serene and unsettling, and I felt as if I was both an unwelcomed intruder yet trusted confidant in both Jessica’s room and mind as I heard her deepest thoughts.
While the scenes in Jessica’s room are placid and subdued, as Jessica reminisces about her mother’s movies and the time they spent together, you are hastily enveloped by a torrent of vibrant, colorful brushstrokes. Frantic images appear all around, and it’s as if you’re in the middle of a painting during creation. Tying in with the calligraphic style of the script, illustrator Wesley Allsbrook uses a ribbon-like style in her artwork which draws the eye across vast spaces, compels you to look to and fro and conveys a sense of frantic motion. It’s beautiful and overwhelming all at the same time, and I felt as if I was in the middle of a paint tornado.
Source: Dear Angelica Review: If Someone Cries in a VR Headset, Does Anyone See It?