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The Lab
Valve's first foray into the world of Virtual Reality is a free collection of mini-games and other room-scale VR experiences.
Overview
The Lab is a free VR-only mini-game collection developed and digitally released by Valve for the PC (Platform) on April 5, 2016.
Developed in partnership with hardware manufacturer HTC for their HTC Vive line of virtual reality devices, The Lab features a collection of short "room-scale" VR experiences, presented comically within the Portal (Franchise) universe's training material for Aperture Laboratories (as seen in promotional material for Portal 2 (Game)). Along with being Valve's first foray into VR, it is notable for mostly being created in the Unity engine, rather than Valve's own Source engine.
It later received a major rework on August 28, 2019, improving the interactivity with the game's various objects while adding a more in-skeletal input system (intended for the Valve Index controllers). Valve later revisited the concept of using the Portal universe as the backdrop for free promotional games with Aperture Hand Lab (Game) (for the Valve Index) and Aperture Desk Job (Game) (for the Steam Deck).
Experiments
The game has eight total "experiments", with three mini-games and five interactive experiences. Bringing them all together is the game's hub world, known as "The Lab", where players can interact with a variety of objects (including a working whiteboard and things to have the player's robotic dog companion FetchBot fetch for them). Each experiment is presented as "pocket universes", with players navigating between them by grabbing and pulling portal-like orbs towards their visor. By participating in experiments, players unlock bonus objects to use in the hub world.
All three mini-games received global leaderboard support shortly after its original release.
Slingshot
Set in the Aperture Storage Annex, Slingshot is a physics-puzzle game in which players take the role of a Calibration Trainee as they recklessly destroy the vast warehouse by flinging Cores around with the large, stationary, Core Calibration slingshot. Players start with five Cores at their disposal, and must fling them one-by-one at various targets, gaining score and additional Cores through destruction. The game ends when the player has no more Cores at their disposal.
Controls involve grabbing the slingshot handle with either hand and using rotation and movement to set the horizontal direction, the vertical angle, and the velocity of the shot, releasing the handle to launch the shot (unless its back to its neutral position).
While launching Cores directly at crates and boxes are often less fruitful, they can use physics and well-placed shots to knock over scaffolding. In addition, red explosive barrels are everywhere, causing large amounts of damage when they explode (either through direct impact or by falling a certain height). Making a direct impact on blue boxes scattered throughout the warehouse grants the player a Tracer Core (Character), which have the ability to visualize the trajectory of their flight as the player is aiming, allowing players to easily hit difficult and faraway shots.
There are a large variety of Cores, each with their own voice acting and comedic gimmick. However, they have no changes in gameplay.
Longbow
Set in a tabletop hexagonal model of the outside of a medieval castle gate and making use of the little pictogram-like people, Longbow is a bow-and-arrow game that puts players on top of the ramparts with a longbow as they launch arrows at waves of enemies moving towards the gate. The game ends once the gate is broken and an enemy passes through.
Controls involving grabbing onto the bow with either hand and using it to aim, with the other hand automatically holding on to the arrow as they launch it as they would in real-life (by gripping and nocking the arrow correctly, pulling back, and releasing), with the velocity based on how far it was pulled back.
Enemy invaders take one of several paths to the gate and are destroyed through direct arrow hits or through traps scattered throughout the field (including explosive barrels and targets that release flaming oil cauldrons). They are often armored, either through a helmet (which deflects one direct arrow shot before breaking) or with a shield (which deflects all arrows, although it can be destroyed by engulfing the arrow in fire beforehand), sometimes with both. Destroying an enemy releases two balloons (three if it was a headshot), and destroying a balloon either repairs a part of the gate or, if it's fully repaired, grants bonus points.
While the game was originally shipped with eight waves, it received an update shortly after its release that gave it an endless amount of waves (taking breaks after every eighth wave, restocking the oil cauldrons and explosive barrels in the process) that gets more difficult.
Xortex 26XX
A unique take on a third-person bullet hell space shooter, Xortex 26XX has players piloting their starfighter around like a toy by grabbing it and moving themselves around their sphere-like room, where they must destroy enemies by pointing the ship at them and dodge various projectiles in a 3D space (where one hit prematurely ends the game). Players must progressively destroy the Xortex Core by completing four waves of progressively-difficult enemies and then fighting a boss battle against the Core.
There are multiple types of enemies, including small missiles that hurl themselves towards the ship, chunkier enemies that shoot energy balls at the ship (with larger ones shooting barrages of them), enemies that emits continuous laser beams from both ends, and enemies that lay mines. Some enemies drop power-ups that, when collected, charge up a powerful Super Laser. Collecting four of them fully charges it up, which can then be activated by pulling the trigger.
The game received an alternate "Infinite" mode shortly after release, which replaces the wave-based system with an endless score-based mode without boss battles. This version is unique for its scoring system, where picking up power-ups instead increases your score multiplier (up to 10x) and can be expended (at 2x or higher) for a screen-clearing Bomb explosion.
Other Experiences
- Postcards has players visiting 3D-scanned recreations of four real-world locations (the mountainous Vesper Peak in Washington state, the fields of Snæfellsjökull National Park in Iceland (Location), a back-alley square in Venice, Italy, and the caverns of the Raufarhólshellir Lava Tube in Iceland. In the first three locales, players are accompanied by their FetchBot and can play fetch with a stick on the ground. In the cavern, players instead find a device to blow up balloons. When players start The Lab for the first time, they are brought into the "Vesper Peak" postcard.
- Solar System has players moving around a room-size model of the Solar System, where they can pick up and interact with planets.
- Human Body Scan has players interacting with a detailed 3D model of the human body, comprised of CT medical scans.
The following two use their own separate interfaces. Robot Repair is also notable for being created in Source 2 (Concept), rather than Unity.
- Robot Repair, originally released as a tech demo, is a short and comedic interactive movie set directly in the Portal (Franchise) universe, with the player as a human participant using their multi-tools in an effort to repair the broken robot ATLAS (Character).
- Secret Shop, set in the world of Dota 2 (Game), puts players in a recreation of the game's item shop as they interact with various relics, spells, and characters from the game.
Other bonus experiences found in the hub world includes the Xortex 26XX arcade cabinet itself, which is used for the game's interactive credits (as a rudimentary 2D shoot-'em-up), and two hidden areas set in Valve's offices.
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- Name
- The Lab
- Release Date
- April 5, 2016
- Platform
- PC (Platform)
- Developer
- Publisher
- Genre
- Minigame Collection (Genre)
- Theme
- Sci-Fi (Theme)
Comedy (Theme) - Franchise
- Half-Life (Franchise), Portal (Franchise)
- Aliases
- Longbow
Xortex