The Lab

The Lab is a collection of short games and technology demos created by Valve to showcase the capabilities of the HTC Vive and roomscale VR. The player moves through the virtual laboratory of Aperture Science, from which they enter individual mini-games – from shooting a bow at robotic targets, through taking care of a dog named Rychlík by throwing a disc, to a driving simulator or exploring the surface of another world. Each part focuses on a different form of VR interaction and serves as a gentle introduction to virtual reality for new users experiencing a headset for the first time.

Graphically, The Lab is stylized and undemanding, which fits its purpose as a demonstration title meant to run on a wide range of hardware, including weaker home PCs. The humor, drawing on the atmosphere of the Portal series – the AI's lines, references to Aperture Science – gives the collection a distinctive tone that pleasantly reminds many players of Valve's original games. Each mini-game is short but carefully tuned to showcase a different advantage of VR, such as spatial audio, physical distance estimation, or a sense of scale when looking down from great height.

At the time of release, The Lab was often recommended as a first experience for new VR headset owners, since it offered, for free, a varied and technically impressive showcase of what virtual reality makes possible. Even years later it remains a popular demonstration of roomscale VR capabilities, and several of its mini-games, especially the one with the dog Rychlík, became a frequently cited symbol of the early era of VR on PC. Its free distribution also helped spread awareness of VR among players who otherwise wouldn't have bought a paid game, and several of its mini-games are still cited today as examples of elegant, clear VR design that needs no complicated explanations or an extensive tutorial. Precisely because each mini-game lasts only a few minutes, The Lab is also often used when demonstrating VR at public events, where there's a need to quickly and reliably show various aspects of this technology to new people.

Why play it: For new VR headset owners looking for a free, technically impressive showcase of roomscale VR – just a few minutes are enough, even for the mini-game with the dog Rychlík.