In the early years of VR’s resurgence, when standalone headsets were sheer fantasy and rooms were covered in cables, developers were getting very creative. This was also the era of the ‘VR experience’ when games were fairly short to see what ideas worked. One of those was Turbo Button’s Floor Plan, a delightful puzzler where you spent all your time in an elevator. Now the studio has brought this little slice of VR nostalgia back, which meant XR Source had to review Floor Plan Remastered.
The premise here is very, very simple. You find yourself in a hotel elevator tasked with one goal, find all the components of a spacesuit. Completely plausible! In any case, to do this you have to visit various floors, encounter some unusual characters and solve each puzzle. The trick here is that each floor isn’t some individual challenge, they all interlink. Challenging your memory as well as those puzzle-solving skills.
Only one way up
Because of the era in which it was built, Floor Plan Remastered features no locomotion whatsoever. You stay entirely inside the elevator, interacting with its floor buttons and room items with a simple distance grab. Simplicity is the name of the game here, nothing is too overly complicated or convoluted.
You get six floors to begin with, which then expands the further you progress. Rooms range from chilly freezers to boiling hot lava pits. Some have characters with which you can interact whilst others are seemingly devoid of life. None of them are devoid of a hidden use, however. The puzzles are fairly logical, plants like water, for example, or to dig a hole you’ll need a spade. The key is discovering how they all connect. Some work by being adjacent to each other, others require a bit more reach.
Floor Plan Remastered doesn’t present too many hurdles but if you do get stuck there’s a handy intercom. The garbled voice coming through will offer up two clues should you need them, the latter giving a direct nod to the answer.
Short but sweet
The problem with remastering a game like Floor Plan so many years later is whether it’ll find an audience now. Modern VR gamers want bold, expansive experiences that provide hours of entertainment rather than the short titles of old. And Floor Plan Remastered is short, there’s no doubt about it. Turbo Button states around an hour of gameplay but I made it through the game in 30 minutes – you get a stats list at the end. You unlock the prototype after completing the campaign. This gives an interesting look at the origins of the game, but as it is a prototype only lasts a few minutes.
However, I do believe there is a place for cheap VR experiences like this. Floor Plan Remastered would be great for VR newbies and younger players as it’s very comfortable due to the lack of locomotion. Plus, it’s not too complex making the gameplay easy to pick up.
Floor Plan Remastered Review Summary
Having played the original so many years ago I did wonder if I’d get any enjoyment a second time around. While I did get that familiar feeling of nostalgia it was still nice to ascend the Floor Plan elevator once again. The selection of improvements such as new comfort options, improved controls, models, textures, and lighting are welcome, breathing some fresh life into the game. Its short gameplay won’t be for everyone – which is where Floor Plan 2 comes in – but for the cheap price, we’re not going to complain.
