The Outer Limits

Journeys to the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment

- ALEX SPENCER

Wednesday morning, with a huddle of nervy arts journalists — these are not ideal conditions for a rave. But such are the joys of writing this column, and I am nothing if not committed. So, as my compatriots stand with arms behind their backs, I throw every shape I have in my arsenal. It does help, at least, that we're all wearing headsets, and I know they can see me only as a human-shaped wireframe of glowing particles, like your man from Rez.

In Pursuit Of Repetitive Beats advertises itself as “the UK’s biggest immersive VR experience”. It’s essentially a VR documentary about the UK’s acid-house parties that took place in the late ’80s, and the police efforts to shut them down, specifically in and around Coventry. Over its 40-minute duration, Repetitive Beats shifts between various modes. One of these is more what you'd expect to see in a museum: life-size dioramas of a bedroom, a car park, a police station, with actors posed in place like volumetrically scanned waxworks, while TVs — and, in a nice touch, promotional flyers that come to life — play archive footage and video interviews.