DownStream: VR Whitewater Kayaking Reviews

Positive: - Graphics - Pphysics - Challenge - Haptic feedback - Does a bit for fitness Neutral: - Not a fan of most of the power ups but good thing is you can ignore them. - I can imagine it's ntense or too intense for some people but for me it works well. Negative: - Very long loading times - Highscore is missleading because power-ups are random

its a pity the devs have finished with this game as its got so much promise to it. The water effects are great and you really feel like you are floating down a river. A few maps have basic landscape graphics but you can forgive them as you try to get throu a rapid and end up backwards. The physic feel right. those sooking about two paddles..... do what i did, tape some pvc pipe between your controllers and physically join them. works brilliantly for me. the only letdown is no multiplayer and lack of maps (there is 3 areas each with 4 rivers. after doing thm all you crave for more). having a mate join you would be so good.

Have to say this game is lots of fun. An absolute steal on sale. Still want to hook the controllers up to a bar to make it more realistic.

DownStream is one of the most underrated games on Steam! It's whitewater kayaking with powerups. The game is a blast and a good workout. Some VR legs required. [b]Modes[/b] Tutorial - Learn the basics of how to control the kayak. Freestyle - Endless powerups, no health damage, no leaderboards. This mode is good for learning the powerups and not having to worry about the health of your kayak. Time Trial - Powerups need to be picked up, the kayak is damaged by collisions and you leave your mark on the leaderboards. This is where the real competition is and where I now spend most of my time. [b]Paddles[/b] The paddles are split so they’re not necessarily aligned like a real kayak paddle. I like my paddles aligned and strive for immersion so I play with my controllers attached to a stick, but since I can’t press the triggers on the controllers I have a dance mat to activate the power ups with my feet. There’s no orientation calibration for a stick setup so you need to get the orientation right or fix the orientation and offset with Driver4VR. [b]Motion sickness[/b] I used to get motion sickness in this game but not anymore. I got used to motion in VR and since I got better at controlling the kayak I can anticipate where the kayak is going and don't hit rocks or go backwards often. Some rivers have more drops than others. If you want to ease into the game, start with the easy rivers without a lot of drops or narrow corners. [b]Performance[/b] I sometimes got stuttering but i think it improved after I shrunk the window on the monitor. Need to test some more to see if the stutter is gone. There are graphics settings to help improve performance if needed. [b]Verdict[/b] One of my top VR hidden gems. I've started to use it to get a workout and have fun. I have a gold time on all rivers and now I want to climb to the top of the leaderboards. [h1]Feedback for a DownStream 2[/h1] [b]Pure racing mode[/b] I'm missing a pure racing mode without powerups with a separate leaderboard. This mode would be purely skill based as the randomness of which powerups you get would be gone. Also, this is where most stick users would play since figuring out a way to activate the powerups if you're not holding the controller in your hand can be tricky. [b]Paddles always aligned[/b] I would've liked the paddles to always be aligned. I fixed that for myself by using a real stick but the ghosts of most other players I compete with don't have the paddles aligned which breaks the immersion a bit. [b]Stick orientation/offset calibration for stick setups.[/b] As it is now you need to align them yourself or use Driver4VR to fix the alignment/offset

This is a very good game and feels really great in VR, the feeling you get on the water feels so much better than what I got from Kayak VR: Mirage which I refunded because it was so boring no matter how good the graphics were... the graphics in this game are fine though, they are simple but I think they still look good ingame and good water physics too, will probably have to wait for Whitewater VR: Extreme Kayaking Adventure for a similar game to this but with more realistic graphics though, but this game will definitely do until then.

An outstanding niche title, which show cases how immersive VR can be! Movement: First off, yes it's true you have two paddles instead of one. At first it looks a bit odd, but they did it for physics reasons which fully show. The river feels alive and flowing, can reach your paddle out more or less for different variations of control. Speaking of controls. They do take a bit of time to get used to even if you have kayak'd before. I found with enough practice, I can control without needing to think about it anymore, just like with a real kayak. You don't turn on a dime, you need to go with the flow of the river and pre-plan your movements. There are 3 control difficulties, each step up gives you more speed at the cost of handling. So it could be a good way to step up into how to control your kayak, advanced feels like it is the way it's meant to be played. Downside: As of now my biggest issue would be the pickups, while super fun to use a parasail or grappling hook for speed. The game is time trial based but the pickups are random, so I find myself restarting when I am getting health or armor over and over instead of something for a speed boost. (My suggestion would be for a no-pick up time trial mode, maybe just start with one parasail and one grapple, or nothing) With that said, you can also just cruise down the river at your own pace if you are not into racing and still have a fun immersive experience. Some racing games are not really that fun if you are not going fast, but this truely is one that is still fun to just relax down the river in. Immersion: Some might find the graphics kill the immersion but to me the physics and feeling of it are so good that it get's me fully immersed. The game has you center your view which just doing that has been fine for me, but can also adjust your sitting height on top of that if it's doesn't quiet feel right to you. The flow of the current is very well done, where I was able to tell if the current would help slow and turn me before smashing into a rock, or if I needed to jam my paddles down to lose some of my speed and drift a turn. Even though the paddles/controllers are separate you can always attach your controllers to a broom stick or pvc pipe whatever you can find. - One caution with doing that, is it will be harder to use your pickups, but the dev stated looking into ways to trigger them like that, but still questionable if they will find a good way to make it work, for example hitting you paddle up to activate might work for some things, but the parasail you hold and can reserve it's use, so that method wouldn't work so well, so it's tricky. Gameplay and Content: Time Trial type game play is the focus with ghosts to race against and leaderboards. There is no active multiplayer. Your own ghost is one of the ghost you will always race against, so you always have something to strive to beat even if you can't yet beat the others or dominated them. There is also freeplay if you just want to relax or still trying to learn and tired of breaking your kayak or want to learn to use the speed boost pickups better. As of now there are 12 rivers set across 3 environments, with a varying degree of width and difficulty. If you are familiar with time trials and like to try to push your self then for the price it's well worth it. The Rivers are 2-3mins or under if done with a decent amount of speed, longer obviously if relaxing. which might not sound like much, but with restarting and trying to beat your time, I feel they are a nice length and for the price provide enough content and replayability to recommend the game especially if you have an itch to scratch for this type of game like I did.

Really brilliant; one of VRs finest games, and I've played many AAAs and other Indies for comparison. It gets more fun the more you play, because you learn the physics of the kayak handling, and get to crazy speeds around corners without crashing. Great for fitness too as it can be a workout. 10/10 package with the music, gameplay, graphics and leaderboards. I just wish there was a sequel or DLC.

OMG I just got done playing this VR kayaking game ... let me tell you, I've been to Hawaii kayaking for quite a journey and the last 1/4 of the trip I felt my arms were going to die. Well ... this game does it justice, it's like the real thing. If you are as weak your arms will feel like they want to fall off by the end, paddling, struggling, until you get the hang of it. It feels like the real thing folks, I just need to get my spray bottle and a fan and we'll be ready to go. It helps that I have the butt kicker since I can feel the white water rapids in my seat. In the beginning levels i was skeptical and then the later levels came and ohh man it's fast, it's wild, and if you don't paddle right you end backwards crashing into everything whining like a little baby that a monkey ripped your arms off. Two thumbs way up. For the price ... since this is the only game like this pretty much, (I got it 35% off today) it was well worth my 100+ game inventory and i'm a hard critic of VR games.

Really like it. I put it on the hardest setting & it requires a lot of effort. So if you want a fun game that will burn calories this is really good. A few bugs like going through the rocks instead of bouncing off & then when i pushed off it went a bit crazy. But its one of the best sports games I have played. We just need a good skiing game now.

Great Fun! Tie your controllers to a broomstick and feel like kayaking in real life! Add wrist weights for a workout and ask your children to spray you with water while you are playing this. This is one of the most enjoyable VR games. Probably not for those who get VR sick easily, though...