This is what a VR speedrun looks like

This is what a VR speedrun looks like

VR games require more movement than conventional games. This looks correspondingly fierce in speedruns.

Virtual reality thrives on space-filling movement, because that's how three-dimensionality is experienced the best. Instead of a mouse and keyboard or gamepad, you use special VR controllers that bring your own hands into virtual reality. This allows more realistic interactions with virtual objects by physically imitating corresponding movements.

The VR game I Expect You To Die and its sequel live from such hand interactions. You take on the role of a secret agent who has to escape from all kinds of life-threatening situations in Bond style and thwart the plans of the villain and adversary Dr. Zor for world domination with a lot of brains and skill.

Save the world in ten minutes

The game is played sitting down and doesn't require any locomotion, neither in the game nor in reality. All the more you have to interact with your hands. Flipping switches, pressing buttons and opening locks: these are still the simplest interactions. Thanks to the telekinesis ability, you can even manipulate objects from a distance.

What that looks like in high-speed is shown by the current speedrun world record of I Expect You To Die 2. The game consists of six levels, which speedrunner Doommakerguy (DMG) completes in ten minutes, or more precisely: 10 minutes, 32 seconds, including the loading times and the sequences in the agent hideout that come before and after each mission.

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Almost as fast as light

The video looks like playing a normal game recording at double or triple speed. It's remarkable how precise and elegant the individual hand movements are. The scenes where the hands perform different actions in parallel are especially impressive.

Memorizing the individual sequences and executing them perfectly requires a lot of muscle memory and plenty of coordination. It's a pity that DMG didn't film itself in real life. Seeing the physical hand movements with such speed and precision would certainly be fascinating and reminds me of a Half-Life Alyx speed run.

I Expect You To Die 2, by the way, has its own speedrun challenges and rewards you with achievements if you complete missions under a certain time. DMG's video might help you achieve that goal - assuming you can follow his moves, of course.

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