Valve Index Review – with BONEWORKS

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This may be the biggest leap in VR technology in a while, and now you can even use some of it’s groundbreaking features. Valve’s Index headset launched mid last year and got a lot of people excited. In this video I’m going to walk you through each component, test it out, and talk about the reasons why you might, or might not want one yourself. Let’s start with the headset.

It’s amazing, for a lot of reasons. Coming from an original HTC Vive, having 1440×1600 resolution per eye and clearer lenses makes this so much better. It’s clear, text is actually readable and you can’t really see the pixels. It’s also now even smoother, running at 120Hz stock, but with an option to run at 144hz if you’d prefer – although currently there are a few bugs with that so software updates are supposedly coming. Going from 90 to 120Hz is a pretty big deal in perceived smoothness, and can help with people who would normally feel motion sick with a Vive.

That higher refresh rate, coupled with the better resolution makes gaming on it brilliant. Games like Beat Saber are great as the fast refresh rate means you are able to swing for blocks more accurately, and hit those sweet sweet combos more often. For games like Project Cars 2, it’s also a great experience, nice and smooth and a good bit more immersive when you are rushing through a corner and powering down a straight, than the old vive. 

It’s also much more comfortable thanks to it’s headband design, rather than the elastic strap on the Vive. You can adjust pretty much everything on it making for a pretty comfy design. No longer do you take the headset off and get ski goggle imprints. The face plate is also only held in with magnets which makes it super easy to remove and clean or swap out. Big thumbs up there.

The headset comes with speakers pre-attached, and while it does have a headphone jack recessed into the front under the face plate, the speakers are actually pretty good. They are clear enough, despite not actually sitting on your ears, and because they aren’t there, you can actually hear what’s going on around you and be at least somewhat aware of your surroundings while in VR. A novel concept, I know.

So, that’s the headset, what about the shiny new controllers? Well, they are pretty incredible. These controllers, which I should add are backwards compatible with the old Vive, and old Vive controllers and forwards compatible with the index, are game changing, literally. They strap to your hand around your palm when you put them on, as they are able to track every single finger’s position and force on it, meaning, yes, you can stick your middle finger up at AI, or yourself, in game. It also means the “resting” state with these controllers is actually letting go of them and letting them stick in your palm. That takes a while to get used to, but once you do it’s pretty good. 

While Valve’s own Half Life Alyx isn’t out at the time of filming, Brandon from the old FreddieW videos game, Boneworks, is out, and it’s mind blowing. It’s the first game that was actually designed around the Index, and you can really tell. Movement just makes sense, you can climb ladders by grabbing each rung, you can hold objects, and throw them, and when it comes to the guns, you hold them right, you load the mags, you cock them, then fire. It all works, and makes so much sense. You just walk over, grab the controller and your player picks up the object, and as long as you keep hold of the controller, you have whatever you picked up. 

As a mini review of Boneworks by the way, it’s amazing. Hands down the best VR game, at least with a story anyway, and well worth playing if you have an Index. 

So, that’s the headset and controllers, now to talk gripes, starting with the gen 2 lighthouses, the boxes that let the headset and controllers know where they are in the room. The way they work is a spinning mirror scatters lasers around the room and the old lighthouses made a little hum, nothing bad, but could be heard if the room was quiet. Sadly, the gen 2 lighthouses make a high pitched whine that was loud enough to actually annoy me. Happily you can have them turn off fully when SteamVR is closed, which does mean they take about 30 seconds to turn back on when you want to start playing, but it’s not too bad. 

The other gripe has to be the price. It’s nearing £1000 for the full kit, and while you can mix and match – so you can use gen 1 lighthouses with the index headset and vive controllers, or new lighthouses with vive headset and new controllers, and so on, it’s a pretty high barrier to entry. To add to that, you’ll need an even better PC than before, thanks to both the resolution and refresh rate increases. I had to swap to a 1080ti to get a good experience, and I’d even recommend a 2080ti if you can afford it. 

But, if you can afford it’s very, very high price tag. Man what an experience. With more and more games coming out, supporting the new controllers too, experiences like Boneworks, it gets more and more worth it by the day. I should add, I did pay for this, but I bought it from a friend and didn’t pay full price, so take that as you will. 

Want one? https://techteamgb.co.uk/valveindex