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Irrational Exuberance: Prologue Game Cover

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Irrational Exuberance: Prologue is a single player action game. It was developed by Buffalo Vision and was released on April 5, 2016. It received positive reviews from players.

Irrational Exuberance is an experiment to probe the possibilities of full room-scale VR and the HTC Vive, unfolding organically as you discover and engage with deep space phenomena. Prologue is the first taste of the galactic fantasy, delivering you to a lonely asteroid in deep space, underneath comets and giant stars. Irrational Exuberance has been an audience favorite at Sundance and the Kaleido…

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87%Audience ScoreBased on 290 reviews
graphics11 positive mentions
optimization7 negative mentions

  • Immersive and awe-inspiring VR experience with stunning visuals and a strong sense of space scale.
  • Simple and intuitive interactions that effectively showcase VR’s potential, making it an excellent introduction for newcomers.
  • Free to play and polished, with unique physics and atmospheric environments that evoke curiosity and wonder.
  • Extremely short duration with no real gameplay, story, or objectives, making it feel more like a tech demo or abstract experience than a game.
  • Performance issues including freezing, crashing, and stuttering reported on high-end systems, severely affecting playability.
  • Lack of locomotion options and problematic transitions (such as flashing lights) can cause discomfort and break immersion.
  • graphics

    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics are generally praised for being stunning, clear, and well-stylized, offering a strong sense of immersion in VR despite occasionally unstable performance issues with certain setups. Visuals range from breathtaking space scenes and detailed effects to effectively blending textures and lighting for realism, though some users find them simple or limited. Overall, the combination of visuals and physics creates a captivating experience.

    • “The visuals of this game are stunning and breathtaking.”
    • “The graphics are clear and stylized, which works excellently on the Vive's limited screen resolution, but the truly astounding feature is the physics.”
    • “Really nice graphics and great sense of being in VR.”
    • “Despite my VR setup, the graphics in the demo just freeze while the sound continues to play moments after booting the program.”
    • “What's annoying is that the VR graphics are very unstable, and the Vive VR dome appears every several seconds.”
    • “Poor graphics.”
  • optimization

    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from significant optimization problems, including stuttering, freezing, crashing, and constant loading screens, even on high-end PCs. These persistent performance issues have remained unaddressed since launch, severely impacting the experience despite the system requirements being more than adequate. Users express frustration over the lack of developer acknowledgment and fixes, making the game poorly optimized overall.

    • “It was pretty, and I didn't have any performance issues as others have had.”
    • “It's weird because, e.g., Nvidia VR Funhouse is a lot more performance hungry and it runs fine.”
    • “Having played this on an i7-6700k/GTX 1080/16GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM combo PC, the problems I experienced are inexcusable.”
    • “As beautiful and other-worldly as this title may be, the entire experience is extensively hindered and ruined due to performance issues that have gone unaddressed since launch (April 2016).”
    • “Having played this on an i7-6700k/GTX 1080/16GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM combo PC, the problems I experienced are inexcusable, and it's even more worrisome that the developer hasn't even acknowledged the existence of performance issues.”
    • “Hopefully they can fix this before the actual game releases - I've never had so much stuttering between the game itself and the 'waiting for' dialog box, and I'm on a high-end overclocked system.”
  • atmosphere

    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive, surreal, and visually striking environments that evoke a cinematic and otherworldly mood. Reviewers highlight its unique and engrossing ambiance, particularly noting standout moments like the blue dust storm, which contribute to a polished and captivating experience.

    • “It has great potential, and I still haven't played anything else that has fully captured this kind of atmosphere.”
    • “The atmosphere and mood of this game was perfect.”
    • “Fantastic "teaser" demo, shows the team really knows how to create engaging virtual spaces that just ooze atmosphere.”
  • gameplay

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay is minimal and lacks clear direction or tutorial, resulting in a short experience that feels more like a series of venues than a full game. While some appreciate its surreal atmosphere and intuitive feel, many find it underdeveloped and not engaging. Overall, it serves more as a teaser than a substantive gameplay experience.

    • “Not much gameplay... not very long... but I so so so can't wait for the final game, and I have myself gone through this experience many times and shown it to everyone when demoing my Vive.”
    • “Irrational exuberance sets the bar for Vive surreal atmosphere and superb intuitive gameplay (of which there is none... which is also why it is so good).”
    • “It comes with no tutorial, and it lets the player figure out how to proceed with the gameplay.”
    • “Also, be aware that this game is very short and is really more of a series of venues rather than an intro for any actual gameplay.”
    • “The asteroid you're in is made of ugly polygons, and there is no gameplay worth mentioning.”
  • story

    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story aspect is unclear and lacks depth, with users feeling there is little to no narrative or character development. The experience is seen more as an art or tech demo rather than a traditional game with a meaningful story. Overall, the story fails to engage or provide context for the gameplay.

    • “I have no idea what it was a prelude to, but without being shown any idea of story or characters or gameplay, I really found myself not caring.”
    • “Though from what I gathered at a glance, the full release is going to just be more of the same experience (just different scenes with no story).”
    • “Limited interactivity or story.”
  • stability

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from frequent freezes, crashes, and unresponsiveness, often requiring force quits and causing SteamVR to lock up. While the experience is promising, its current stability issues significantly hinder gameplay.

    • “The game freezes and locks up all of SteamVR within a minute of the intro sequence starting, requiring a force quit.”
    • “Freezes, stutters, and crashes a lot.”
    • “Freezes and I have to go to the task manager; Steam doesn't respond.”
  • emotional

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players express that the game evokes uniquely powerful and indescribable emotions, creating a deeply novel and moving experience through simple interactions like exploring and touching the environment.

    • “I'm really failing at words here... this game made me feel something unlike anything before.”
  • grinding

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game requires having a second live option to effectively manage the grinding process, indicating that grinding can be time-consuming or challenging without additional resources.

  • humor

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users highlight the humor as a surprising and enjoyable contrast to the intense fear experienced, often resulting in genuine laughter and a sense of awe at the immersive VR experience.

  • music

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users praise the music for its strong impact, highlighting that the combination of music, sound effects, and graphic style significantly enhances their overall experience.

    • “The music, the sounds, and the graphic style are what made it for me.”
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Frequently Asked Questions

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue is a action game.

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue is available on PC, Virtual Reality and Windows.

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue was released on April 5, 2016.

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue was developed by Buffalo Vision.

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked Irrational Exuberance: Prologue for its graphics but disliked it for its optimization.

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue is a single player game.

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