[Review] Wearing 'MetaQuest 3S' for Boxing Game Made Me Sweat... Perfect for Beginners

Cost-effective MR Headset 'MetaQuest 3S'
A Digital Window Appears in My Room, It's Amazing
Increased Game Immersion... Headset Weight Is a Drawback

Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) devices have only been experienced at exhibitions before, but this is the first time I am using them directly at home. To briefly share my first impressions, the MR headset ‘Meta Quest 3S’ offers excellent cost-effectiveness for consumers who want to get started with MR devices, considering its starting price of 439,000 KRW.

Meta Quest 3S Headset and Controller / Photo by Seoyul Hwang chestnut@

To use the Meta Quest 3S, you need to create a Meta account, log in to the ‘Meta Horizon’ application (app), and pair the device with your smartphone. After completing the setup, I was able to experience various functions such as watching videos and playing games.

Windows appearing in midair at home... Click by touching thumb and index finger

When I wore the Meta Quest 3S, a digital window appeared in my room
Photo by Seoyul Hwang chestnut@

When I turned on the headset, windows appeared floating in the air of my home. When I raised my hand in front of my eyes, a white outline appeared around my hand. As I moved my hand around, a white dot appeared at the tip of my finger like a mouse cursor. When I touched my thumb and index finger together, it registered as a click, and when I grabbed the top bar of a window with my thumb and index finger and moved it upward, the window moved toward the ceiling. Scenes I had only seen in sci-fi movies unfolded right in my home.

Wearing a headset, I watched a 360-degree polar bear video. When I turned my head to the right, I could see the polar bear even closer. Photo by Seoyul Hwang chestnut@

The image quality was not great, but the immersion in the videos was quite good. When I pressed the YouTube VR app, the background of my home changed into a virtual space. It created an environment where I could focus solely on the video, making me feel as if I were alone in a movie theater. I was also able to experience 360-degree videos. I watched a video related to polar bears, and wherever I turned my head, the video was there, making me feel like I was under a giant screen surrounding me. However, the image quality was still not very good. There is also a lying-down viewing mode, which might be worth trying. The sound comes from the headset itself. One minor downside was that there is a space left open for the nose, through which the real world occasionally became visible.

After playing a boxing game, the opponent appeared right in front of me... Moving games cause motion sickness

I installed and tried two games from the app: the boxing game ‘The Thrill of the Fight’ and the mystery game ‘Among Us VR.’ To play the games, you need to hold and operate the controllers in your hands.

I put on the Meta Quest 3S and launched the boxing game 'The Thrill of the Fight.' When I turned my head toward our team coach, he gave me a thumbs-up in encouragement.
Photo by Seoyul Hwang chestnut@

Starting with my review of The Thrill of the Fight, after finishing the game, I was drenched in sweat as if a real match had ended. You have to engage in a one-on-one boxing match in the sparring ring, and after punching for two minutes, sweating is inevitable. The opponent’s punches flying toward me were visible right in front of my eyes, which increased immersion. There was no delay in the movement of my punches. The sense of space was good. When I turned my head to the right to look outside the sparring ring, my coach gave me a thumbs-up in support. However, perhaps due to the weight of the headset, after removing it, marks remained above my cheekbones.

The game 'Among Us VR' played on Meta Quest 3S. The immersion was high, but I felt a bit of motion sickness during movement. Photo by Hwang Seoyul chestnut@

The Among Us VR game is similar to Mafia; you move up, down, left, and right using the controller, complete tasks, and try to identify the ‘Impostor,’ who corresponds to the Mafia, through deduction. Since the game is played in a 360-degree environment rather than a flat world, it was initially not easy to enter the real Among Us world and operate buttons to move. However, feeling like I was truly inside that space made me very anxious when trying to complete quests with time limits. Still, I couldn’t play the Among Us game as long as the boxing game. Because the screen moved quite fast while my body remained still, I felt dizziness similar to motion sickness.