Visiting The Yucatán For Cave Adventures, Guided Tours, And White Water Racing In Kayak VR’s New DLC

Kayak VR: Mirage has made quite the splash with its latest Yucatán DLC, offering a visually stunning journey through Mexico’s famed peninsula.

Following the path of Kayak VR: Mirage’s previous DLC content, the Yucatán pack offers 3 different modes of play. To start off, let’s take a look at the guided tour. The entire time I was experiencing this part of the DLC, all I could imagine was being on one of those lazy river rides at our local amusement park.

As I floated along the narrow cave passages, I found myself instinctively ducking at various points, a clear testament to the presence and immersion I was feeling in this highly detailed environment. As the passageways started to open up, suddenly I found myself in a massive cavern filled with bioluminescent worms that cast a magical glow across my path, almost resembling a starry sky overhead.

Stalactites and stalagmites towered all around me as the environment played nicely with my sense of scale. These massive structures looked convincingly real with excellent textures that gave them the wet look one would expect to see in a cave system like this. It’s small details like this that truly enhance the game’s exceptional graphical fidelity and what kept me wanting to do this part over and over again to see what I might have missed the first time through.

While the tour was lengthy, it was very calming and could be an ideal experience for anyone seeking relaxation without the need for interaction with the game. In this mode, you just sit back, relax, and let the visuals and peaceful ambient music wash over you. However, be aware that if you’re claustrophobic, some of the cave sections can be quite tight, and even though these parts do enhance the sense of realism, some players might find it a bit uncomfortable.

The free roam mode was exactly that… you get to explore what you just experienced on the tour at your own pace. This was great because it gave me the opportunity to really soak in all of the details here and gave me an even deeper sense of immersion now that I was actually paddling my way through this massive and intricate cave system. This mode also allowed me to sharpen my control over my kayak for what was to come next, and that was the racing mode.

This was the mode that really got my immersion amped up to 11. In race mode you get to compete against other players in a fast-paced set of courses, each with the difficulty level ramping up. I recently received a Yaw VR 3 personal motion simulator and was excited to see that telemetry support for Sim Racing Studio was an option in the game now. After seeing this, I quickly turned it on and jumped into my simulator for an experience that was as virtually close to the real thing as you can get from the comfort of your own home.

When paired with a powerful PC VR system and a proper motion profile, playing Kayak VR: Mirage’s Yucatán DLC this way seemed to almost help me feel even the bumps of the rocks beneath the water as it pitched back and forth. The chair created for me a sense of buoyancy I’ve never experienced before in a simulation. We’ve seen lots of folks putting together a variety of setups to increase their immersion in games like Kayak, ranging from ultra-cheap hacked together solutions to expensive rigs like Yaw. This particular chair I used might be out of the price range for the vast majority of readers at $3,990, but if you can seek out a first-hand demo on any motion platform it can help to gain understanding of why synchronized motion in VR can feel like a next-level experience.

Overall, I was impressed with my time spent kayaking across the virtual Yucatán, and this has given me a new appreciation for the level of detail that developer Better Than Life has put into the game and each of its paid DLC packs. Kayak VR: Mirage is currently available for PC VR users through Steam and also on PlayStation VR2. On Steam, the game goes for a price of $22.99, with the DLC costing an additional $7.99, or you can get the main game and previously released Soča Valley DLC as part of the Complete Edition, for a 15% discounted price of $33.12, giving you several amazing environments to explore.

We will be keeping an eye out for any new DLCs that Better Than Life might bring to the game in a future update. If you know of any other great virtual kayak experiences or other extreme sports in VR, we want to hear about them, so make sure to comment below or send an email to [email protected].