Gameplay Here

Keep in mind throughout this review that the game is free. Entirely. Totally. Free.

Cures & Curios was a major surprise for me. It's a quality potion brewing game that continues to add interesting layers as you go. The art style is original and not merely pasted assets.

Pros:
- Polished and deep gameplay
- Tim Burton-esque art style
- A basic but fun storyline to tie things together
- Free.
- Did I mention it's free?

Cons:
- Requires a large playspace. You can grip items to you but to place them you need to have a large space or good aim on throws.

I really can't fault this game aside from the issue with playspace listed above. I'm not sure how deep you can get in the game, but you'll easily have a fun hour or two in this totally free game.

Recommended.

You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/gGmbOcZOe8g

I did enjoy this free to play game and I do recommend it, however, it's not for everyone. If you've played a cooking simulator or bartending simulator, then you know what this gameplay is about. There's even quite a few magic-inspired ones just like this one. So there is nothing technically new here and there's better paid versions of this game.

However, although this game starts out quite simple, you will soon discover that it has some depth to the gameplay. That alone sets it apart from many games of this type. New cooking stations open up where you have to do things differently enough to keep your interest in the game. Customers will soon ask for recipes with items that you don't quite have and you'll have to figure out how to conjure them up. Money (or soul) management will soon be an issue as you can run out of ingredients and you'll have limited souls to restock your inventory. Should you move to a new location or not (you can grab certain ingredients for free at certain locations)? You'll soon find yourself asking those questions as you look to maximize your profits.

Interactions are point and click magnet hands. While it is easy to grab items, it's not always easy to put items in a specific location. You can technically grab items if you hover over them and see them highlighted. So while a big room-scale would probably make interactions a bit better, they are not as polished as I would have preferred. You will need at least a bit more than 360 standing room as you'll have to work with cooking stations all around you.

The tutorial was not the best as it is very bare-bones. I didn't even realize there was a knife behind me stuck to the cupboard (for a while after it was needed) that you'll need to prepare items as it's in a different spot during the mini-tutorial. I also experienced a crash where I had to manually terminate the program from task manager. Lastly, at one point it seemed the game got stuck at the end of a level where the next one did not start (and the game does not save your progress!)

Rate 6/10.

amazing atmosphere and a simple but engaging system, short game, but i hope they take what they learned from it and flesh it out into a bigger title, id be sure to buy it, loved the ending bit.

It's a crime that such a fun and well made free game has only 10 reviews after 5 years. Cool creepy visual style, intuitive puzzle-like cooking gameplay, well thought difficulty curve. On the minus side: some jankiness with telekinesis and possible game breaking bug if you fail during tutorial section.

3x3m play space requirement is highly exaggerated: you can easily finish it with 2x2m by throwing items to customers and using telekinesis to reach far objects.

P.s. The game works fine on Reverb G2.

Cures & Curios is a free VR game where you are making potions for customers. It worked on my HTC Vive and Index system. looked ok, sounded ok, played ok. Looks like has long play value. Game does not hold your hand. Just roomscale movement, and has magnetic hands. Requires 3 m x 3 m play space.

Cons: Needs more instructions.

Try this VR game for free, maybe you might like it.

⠀

hear me out

gamesense

neat but very limited

I want to say yes, because it's a fun game and free, but every time I launch it it starts me over from the beginning. I only see options to Start Game, or Quit. So frustrating and I don't understand why it won't save my progress.