The moment many of you have been waiting for is finally here; Onward is now available in Oculus Quest. But how does it stack up alongside the original PC VR? Find out in our chart comparison below.
NOTE: This is a comparison of the PC VR version before This week’s update that allows cross play with the Quest version.
Better get ready for this one.
Comparison of charts onwards
For starters, let’s point out that getting Onward to run in Quest is a great accomplishment, especially with a solid frame rate. Just that, along with the wireless freedom of the headphones, will give many people many reasons to love this port. But there is no escape heavy sacrifices made to get it here.
Functionally, everything Onward is here. Well most of it is true: certain maps have been modified from PC VR versions to fit Quest, but the original editions are also being edited to allow PC cross play to Quest. You can see some of those differences in this article, but we are here specifically to talk about graphics and honestly this is one of the hardest Quest ports out there.
In the previous video, we went through three of the online shooter levels (note that this is the pre-patch version for PC). They vary in differences, but we’ll start with Suburbia, which is essentially Onward’s answer to Call of Duty’s Nuketown map. The conversion is perhaps the most striking in the entire port.
There is a lot to go here, and it is better to leave it in the video above. But even at a glance, the differences are day and night. Suburbia suffers from dramatically reduced foliage; There are no trees to speak of and the colorful plants that line the houses have been reduced to small green spots. The surrounding border has been drawn directly, making the map more like a laser tag course than a real-world location. On the move, you’ll also notice a strong emerging texture, particularly when you get close to the red car there.
Heading inward is almost the same story. You will notice a lot of missing items and changed items, plus the map is missing many other details such as the smoke that plummets in the distance and even the fire effects of one of the houses completely disappeared. This washing machine here offers a clear example of the emerging texture that we are talking about.
Our other two maps are very similar. Pay close attention to Quarantine, for example, where even the architecture of some buildings changes radically, and there is also a big difference in lighting contrast. On the first floor of the construction site, the roof of the roof covers a teammate in the shade when clearly there are many light sources entering. We will leave you with this particularly damning enemy model that speaks for itself.
Once again, even with all of these cuts, Onward is absolutely playable in Quest and for many hardcore fans, these blemishes may not be of much concern. Plus, there are incredibly impressive technical achievements like making scopes work. But you might have to ask yourself how important is the presentation aspect of a game before choosing this port. If you value that aspect, you may want to delay Onward on Quest at this early stage.
What do you think of our chart comparison going forward? Let us know in the comments below!
