Bear in mind, it is an early acess game.
And like with any early access game, by purchasing it you will greatly support the development of the game and speed up the progress towards a final release.
The core game is really nice and though it lacks a bit of content now, I'm confident that the final product will provide a fully digitalised version of the sport orienteering.

Briefly:

Positives:
+convincing running simulation, just like running IRL
+graphics
+weather settings and night/day time settings
+online course and results sharing
+course replay, well done!
+customisable settings for map and course
+menus have a nice appearance, especially the earth screen when selecting country
+close interactions between community and developer

Negatives:
-limited content (so far), only two maps, no city scape terrains..
-online sharing is a bit messy
-no map converter
-match between map and terrain not always perfect

Targeted players: if you are aiming to learn orienteering, improve skills for the real sport in front of your computer or just want to compete in a digital version of the sport, this game is what you seek. If not, I don't see any reason for you to buy it.

in depth:

If you're looking for an orienteering simulator, this is it. The essence of orienteering is brought into this video game making it possible to sharpen your technical skills despite ailments that hinders you from doing it IRL. What makes the game really enjoyable is the online course and results sharing which challenge you to compete against other players.

As for now the game only provides two different sets of terrain/maps which makes the experience a bit limited. Although the "orienteering" works nicely on these two maps, there is a lot of room for improvements when it comes to the different in-game menus. It's a bit bulky to work with, both finding your way through the different options and learning how to use the course builder takes time. There are some tutorials uploaded to steam and youtube to get you going faster. The online course list is a bit of a mess and not all courses uploaded by players seem runable even. The course builder does, despite it being a little tricky to comprehend at first, provide a lot of ways to customise the races you upload. There are certain presets of map appearance such as brown for example and beginner tools like position assistant to mention some of the features that you can add to your race.

The actual "orienteering simulation": The running seems very natural and the running speed vary with respect to terrain/map symbols as well as steepness of the ground just as it does when doing it for real. There is even direction disturbance applied to make you loose your direction when running through dense vegetation and so on. Obviously A lot of things have been taken into consideration when simulating the running in this game which makes it really convincing.
The map handling takes time to get used to however. You can rebind the keys if you want but there are a lot of commands to handle the map. I find it easiest just to use the "focus on current leg" and the "scroll" to manage my map handling. It takes practice however. But all in all, the game really accomplishes a good orienteering simulator, which makes it a great tool for practising in that sense.

Terrain: Very beautiful. There are a lot of options when it comes to weather and time of day which is really nice when you want to add a nice atmosphere.

When it comes to map generation: There is currently no map converter implemented and as I understand, there is no promise there will be one available to the ordinary user in the future either. The current maps coincides well with the generated terrain with the exception of some smaller height/brown details that I found to be missing while playing around. Hopefully the developer finds a way to respect those details, which probably were'nt on the lidar data from which the terrain was generated, during future map converting.

The Virtual-O community together with a very engaged developer makes it easy for you to ask questions and/or add your opinions to discussions held on either Steam or facebook forums. If you encounter problems with the game the support will help to resolve these as well as ask for any bugs you find. Interaction between user and developer is close which encourages progress of the game.

To summarise:
There is stilll a lot of content missing and some rough edges that needs polishing before this game becomes a fully fledged orienteering simulator. But seeing as this game has just launched as an early access, with the quality it currently holds, I'm sure that the finished product will be well worth its price. The game is a bit expensive compared to other steam games and if you're hesitating about buying it I recommend to wait and see how it progresses. In the meantime I and those of you who decide to buy it will have a pleasant time running each others courses, competing to become the very best. This is really what holds the fun whilst the content is limited!

Unfortunately the game is abandoned, so I can't recommend to buy it, unless activity starts again in the development.
It is very sad because even as an early access stage it is very nice (but not worth the current price (>50 CDN!! ). So with more work it would be an awesome simulator.
Again, very very sad.

tl;dr : Buy this game if you are orienteering fan. Buy this game if you want to try orienteering and you don't mind the higher price. Wait if you want a complete game with lot of content.


If you're an orienteering fan this game is a must buy for you. If not but you like reading the map and want to try orienteering in comfort of your home you will like this game. Graphics are suprisingly good for such a niche game, and running feels very realistic.

Just be aware that the game is still in early access and as of now does have only two maps, but they are very well done. And there are plenty of courses availlable for the maps, so you will have plenty of hours of fun and the course editor is easy to use, so you can make your own courses easilly.

The developer is very good at listening to the community and implementing requested features.

Very few maps, developer stopped caring about the project.
Very expensive

Virtual-O is still in it's early stages, but I do want to write a review on the game in Early Access. However some of the negative things I write here are hopefully gone within the next weeks and months.

To start with the postitive feedback. This game is the best game in the world for orienteteerers to train on their tecnique. Old games like catching features, can't compare to the realistic terrains and map handling of this game. The graffic is outstanding compared to old games of the same genre. So for the people that can't get enough of orienteering, this game is a must buy.

For me as both a hobby orienteerer and gamer, this game is perfect. but if I was only one of this things, I wouldn't recommend it, atleast for now.

The reasons for this is that there are only two maps, and without the possibility to create your own terrain from your own maps, you will pretty soon feel that you have "completed" the game. I'm sure that the developer will get more terrains out soon, but the game isn't going to be really excellent untill you can run on your own maps. For example in your own home town. So the avarage orienteerer aren't really going to be completely satisfied with the game as it is right now.

If I was only a gamer, this game would be so hard to learn properly. If you like a big challenge, maybe you would like it. And you would learn a pretty important skill to have in life. How to get from A to B using a map.

However, for most gamers this is not a game to buy, and I know that wasn't the intesions of the developer either. But I do personally belive that when the game is developed to it's final state. It has some potential to get some none orienteerers in to the game. But then there will have to be a course for beginners to orienteering that will learn you the basics of the sport. As of now, this isn't really a part of the game. At least not good enough.

To end on a positive note. I do feel like I'm actually running orienteering while playing this game. That's how realistic it is. And that is why I recommend the game.

I personally are going to play the game untill it's stops being developed. And if it in it's final stage are awsome. I'm probably gonna play it for decades.

So... this game for me is fantastic
I think it is successor after Catching Features :)
Positive +
Graphics awesome work
For orienteer people it is good training
Early access
And main thing: daily updates from author, he is doing on this every day. Make updates very often and he listen to players and others.

Negative -
I think prize could be better
There are two maps, but it is in early access (others are coming)

Keep going on this good work.
Sadly the people thinks this is jsut walking simulator or survival ......
Orienteering is good sport and in game?! Wow...

Awesome! Hope the future is available with VR.

YES It is very good but I think the game has been abandoned by the designer. I left a suggestion for the game early December but had no response.

For people who do the sport of orienteering or want to learn about it.

Really fun and enjoyable game! Altough it would be great to see some more maps added and also more frequent updates. Keep up the good work!