A beautiful and surreal experience that has been on my wish list for years. Hopefully the next episodes wont take quite so long!
Synthesis Universe -Episode 00-
- Release Date:
- Nov 12, 2019
- Developer:
- OlivierJT
- Publisher:
- Synthesis Universe
- Platforms:
- Windows
Game Tags
About This Game
Update Notes
V2.5 is Live! New Room, new menu system to pause & re-calibrate. Latest LIV sdk support!
V2.4 Coming soon (Q2-3 2021) -Minor optimization update-
V2.1 January 6th 2020: LIV full support.
Press L to toggle Full LIV Post process On/OFF (LIV V1)
V2.0 Dec 12th 2019 update adds 3 tracks and 2 rooms to the main hub:
-Robot building: a retake on SU most famous track/experience.
-Training room: a place to chill out and meditate.
-Fragment Memory 01 (available in the Timeline room in Episode X)
About the Game

Welcome to Synthesis Universe - Story -
An incredible story within a Musical civilization.
Every notes, every beat is alive and surrounds you.

Episode 00 is about you, who are you in that story: a witness from the future
A Music album: each sequence is a story moment, inspired by the structure of the music.
Feeling the beat!

- 7 Music tracks.
- 4 main sequences + 3 extra.
- A Hub and a Timeline room (Containing the 3 extra)
- This is not a game, even if the world is aware of your actions.
- Expect a unique level of immersion, no menu or text, pure true VR interactions.

Take your time! Look around: the world is aware of your actions & will reward you.
CAUTION: Built entirely for VR:
Standing strongly recommended, 360 necessary sometimes.
(Playing seated is possible but not optimal)
Can be played just standing up, even with very limited play space!
Try to go off bounds!
Mostly gaze activated, the motion controllers are not much used in Episode 00
Play time should be about 30 minutes, but time is not limited.
Key and button in game:
M: Toggle screen mirror mode ON/OFF
Pressing Both sticks: Recenter/reorient view.
Esc: Quit
Screenshots
User Reviews
It took me a minute or two to figure out that action was progressed using gaze only. But I once I got the hang of things, It was a sexy bloomtastic experience! It's like if Tron Bikes met that crystal enemy from Evangelian while playing Electrosynthetic music.
Very cool! If you're wondering what exactly this experience is, if you liked Surge then you may like this as well although it's still a very different animal. It's a semi-interactive musical experience that's oozing with style. It's got polished visuals, great music, and it just super weird (in a good way). It appears to be setting up for episodic content to be released later on as it gives a an intriguing preview of what's to come at the end of this experience. Looking forward to more!
I would call this an interactive immersive VR music experience. I felt like I was stepping into an art installation from the future with a dose of nostalgia reminiscent of Tron with a gorgeous glowing pallete of neon, sci-fi vibe and a classic synth soundtrack that fully takes advantage of awesome Index speakers. I immediately appreciated that it was built to take advantage of gaze and physical position of the user...making this a true VR experience. To even progress requires the understanding of this. I gotta say that I spent a good 10 minutes with grin on my face playing with the audio which would change as I slowed and sped up time via the positioning of my body. You can tell a lot of love went into this. With the title 'Episode 00' I was a expecting this to be a sort of intro to a greater story so was ok with the shorter length which provided a welcomed trip into an interesting world of sight and sound. Sidenote....bump this baby up to 120/144hz if you can.
Woot! This is clearly a lobour of love! Super saturated colour, trippy sounds and musical epicness. SU is a peek into the future and its awesome! Can't wait for more from this creator. Games are trying to cross the chasm to mainstream and art driven offerings like Synthesis Universe are a great step in that direction! Great Job Olivier!
[h1]Experienced on the Meta Quest 2[/h1] You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/IAIZnvVtLS0 [u]This is a neutral recommendation.[/u] I personally didn't vibe with this experience at all. It's about a 30 minute, experimental, artistic music video for VR with mostly gaze-based interactions. While you can play this seated, it is better played standing with some room to move as you will be looking around 360 for some of the gaze-based interactions where you do have to look at a specific spot. The music is mostly electronic, synthesizer based music. The art is pretty minimalistic with mostly simple shapes and patterns to the few objects on screen with mostly basic colors. The music also has simple beats. The art didn't really speak to me. However, it seems others enjoyed this more than I did based on the Steam reviews. However, it does feel like this was an unfinished experience and this was just the start of a much bigger intended experience that never came to fruition...
Very pretty and out of the box experience ! It's not a game, not long if you rush it but let it take some time to work on you, it is actually quite intruiging. Pass, if you just want some ordinary, more of the same entertainment stuff, but pick it up if you want to expand your VR horizon. To cite a line from the lyrics of the B-side version of an old Prince song (Alphabet Street): "this is not music, this is a trip" Well done !
Synthesis Universe is a beautiful transformative experience. The stylized art and the music go hand in hand and create a wonderful environment I can't wait to see more of. I have first seen a preview of this many years ago at Oculus Connect 1 and it has not lost its magic. The design and mysterious world building hint at so much more. Looking forward to the next one! There aren't a lot of arty VR experiences, so this one is definitely worth your attention.
Aesthetically cohesive introduction to an audio-visual adventure. I can appreciate that for some, $10 may be a bit pricey considering it's an 'introduction', but I am very glad I bought this (on sale for $6)! What's here is already a really wonderful and unique experience, immersive and appealing. Sound, music, visuals all are really excellent. While this is just an 'introduction', it is a completed introduction that shows polish and care and vision. It engaged me in its 'synthesis universe'. There's also a neat 'meditation room' included, it's nothing mind-blowing but I could see it being used as a pleasant space to just sit sometimes, or perhaps use something like OVRDrop to get work done while sitting in this space. Yeah it's relatively short. But I highly recommend it! I found the dev has a twitter too, it's clear they are working away at Episode 01 (https://twitter.com/OlivierJT_SU)
A surreal and unique experience, albeit very very short right now. Looking forward to future updates and some deeper interactivity.
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System Requirements
Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 8.1
- Processor: Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 580 or greater
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 2250 MB available space
- VR Support: SteamVR. Standing or Room Scale
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 8.1
- Processor: Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R9 580 or greater
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 2250 MB available space
FAQ
How much does Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- cost?
Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- costs $9.99.
What are the system requirements for Synthesis Universe -Episode 00-?
Minimum: Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 8.1 Processor: Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 580 or greater DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 2250 MB available space VR Support: SteamVR. Standing or Room Scale Recommended: Recommended: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 8.1 Processor: Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R9 580 or greater DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 2250 MB available space
What platforms is Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- available on?
Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- is available on Windows PC.
Is Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- worth buying?
Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- has 84% positive reviews from 31 players.
When was Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- released?
Synthesis Universe -Episode 00- was released on Nov 12, 2019.
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