Thunderbird: The Legend Begins

About

"Thunderbird: The Legend Begins" is a 15-minute VR game that won Best VR Experience of 2016 at the Unity AR/VR Vision Summit. It offers high-quality, puzzle-based gameplay designed for true room-scale VR, requiring 3.6m x 2m of play space for optimal movement and interaction. The game may expand with additional content in the future, available for free to existing users.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Thunderbird: The Legend Begins screenshot

46%

Audience ScoreBased on 52 reviews

graphics12 positive mentions

stability8 negative mentions

The game features beautiful graphics and light effects, creating an immersive atmosphere.
Puzzles are intuitive and fun, providing a sense of engagement despite the short playtime.
The developers are responsive and actively working to fix bugs and add more content.

The game is extremely short, with most players completing it in about 10-15 minutes, making it feel more like a tech demo than a full game.
Gameplay mechanics are often frustrating and buggy, leading to a poor user experience.
There has been a lack of promised content updates, leaving players feeling disappointed and unfulfilled.

graphics
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
12%
13%
The graphics in the game are consistently praised for their high polish, beautiful light effects, and overall visual appeal, creating an engaging atmosphere. However, many players express disappointment with the game's brevity, as the impressive visuals are overshadowed by a sudden and unsatisfying conclusion. Overall, while the graphics are a standout feature, they are not enough to compensate for the game's short length and abrupt ending.
- “The puzzles are intuitive and fun, the graphics are highly polished and the hands-on interaction is natural.”
- “Fantastic experience with great graphics, beautiful light effects and interesting puzzles.”
- “However the game world is very pretty (turn up the graphics option as soon as the game launches) and the music is suitably hauntingly soulful, and the game starts to build up an air of mystery.”
- “The door closed, but I was presented with a turn-around graphic and then a white cube room of no escape.”
- “The door closed, but I was presented with a turn-around graphic and then a white cube room of no escape.”
gameplay
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing the short duration and buggy mechanics, particularly in puzzle-solving elements that require excessive precision. While some find the visuals and certain mechanics interesting, the overall experience is deemed frustrating and lacking value for the price, although future updates may enhance the content.
- “This game is very short, but offers some interesting visuals and mechanics.”
- “In general, the mechanics are pretty good, but some of them required too much precision, especially when placing objects.”
- “I am told more gameplay will be added for no additional cost, so perhaps it is not a bad deal if you want to take an early peek.”
- “For a game that relies on puzzle-solving mechanics, the actual mechanics are poorly done and buggy.”
- “Way too short for the price tag, also very frustrating mechanics.”
- “The game looks like it will be pretty fun, but it is a very short experience if you are familiar with this type of puzzle mechanic.”
stability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is criticized for being plagued by bugs and glitches, particularly in its puzzle-solving mechanics, which feel poorly implemented and rushed. Users report issues with grabbing and teleportation functions, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences. While developers are reportedly addressing these problems, many players feel the game lacks adequate quality assurance prior to release.
- “For a game that relies on puzzle-solving mechanics, the actual mechanics are poorly done and buggy.”
- “Puzzles are way too simple (literally 10 seconds) or buggy and baffling.”
- “After at least 20 minutes of positioning the light in different spots with the concave and convex sides of the mirror, I am convinced the game is too buggy and seems like it was rushed to publish without proper QA and bug-squashing.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
75%
The music and sound effects in the game are highly praised for enhancing the atmosphere and suspense, with a hauntingly soulful quality that contributes to a sense of mystery. However, some players feel that the experience is undermined by an abrupt ending that disrupts the buildup created by the music.
- “The use of music and sound effects is great and adds to the suspense.”
- “The game world is very pretty (turn up the graphics option as soon as the game launches) and the music is suitably hauntingly soulful, building an air of mystery.”
- “The music is suitably hauntingly soulful, but it ultimately fails to leave a lasting impression.”
- “While the game world is visually stunning, the music feels repetitive and lacks variety.”
- “The soundtrack is forgettable and does not enhance the overall experience of the game.”
story
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The reviews indicate uncertainty regarding the presence of a cohesive story, suggesting that the game may focus more on a series of puzzles rather than a narrative-driven experience.
- “It is hard to tell from this if there will be a story, or just a series of puzzles to solve.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
150%
The game offers minimal replayability, as it consists of a few light-based puzzles that can be solved through trial and error, allowing players to complete the entire experience in about 10 minutes once the solutions are known.
- “It's a handful of light-based 'puzzles' which you can trial and error your way through - and once you know how to pass them, the entire title is completable in roughly 10 minutes with little to no replay value.”
- “The game lacks depth and variety, making it feel more like a one-time experience rather than something worth revisiting.”
- “After finishing the game, I found no incentive to play again; the lack of different outcomes or challenges really diminishes its replayability.”