When comparing The Lab vs Audioshield, the Slant community recommends The Lab for most people. In the question“What are the best HTC Vive games?” The Lab is ranked 5th while Audioshield is ranked 30th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Shows what the system is capable of doing
Pro Amazingly fun collection of mini games and experiences
The lab is a collection of a bunch of very fun mini games. You get to use a bow and arrow to defend your castle against waves of enemies, control a fighter drone in a classic arcade style shoot-em-up, repair a Aperture science robot, explore the secret shop from Dota and more. Although each game is simple, they are all very well executed and make fantastic use of VR mechanics.
Pro Nice VR games collection
Pro Perfect for showing your friends what the Vive can do
All the games and experiences are very easy to play and are simply an incredible introduction to the capabilities of VR.
Pro Free
It's free so there's no risk of wasting money in case it turns out you don't like it.
Pro Amusing writing
The Lab is a mini game collection created y Valve, who are know for a very specific witty sense of humor. That is not lost in The Lab whatsoever as the writing is cleverly funny, which makes a mini game collection game all that more enjoyable.
Pro Non game sections are really interesting
The user can stand on the top of an Icelandic mountain top and look around, there is no game to it, it is just an experience but one that is quite interesting as it is almost like actually being there.
Pro Ability to use your own music
You use your own music for the game in order to create the rhythm and difficulty of the gameplay. This means an infinite amount of stages to play on being that each is different due to the rhythm of a song.
Pro Users will work up a sweat
Especially with fast paced songs, you move a lot and quickly so you can work up a sweat quite easily. Much like boxing where you keep your hands up at all times, your hands will never dip below your waist for this game, while that may not sound too difficult, in all actuality keeping ones arms and hands up for extended periods of time can be quite exhausting, usually pretty quickly. Being that you will be constantly swinging your arms while keeping them up, this adds to the exertion you will experience. While it may not be the point of the game, it will allow for quite a workout.
Pro Works with Soundcloud
On top of being able to use your own local music there is built in support for Soundcloud, which makes for an easy built in way to select tracks online.
Pro Detailed leaderboards
Each and every song played in the game by its users will have a leaderboard listing for that song. Even if no one else ever uses that song. This makes for an insurmountable amount of tracks to play and compete in, making for an endless experience for those interested in competing on the leaderboards.
Cons
Con More a proof of concept than a full fledged game
The mini games are quite short and will not provide a whole lot of entertainment. The purpose of this title is to showcase what room scale VR is capable of (which it does well), but when considered as a game for those interested in gaming it falls a bit short.
Con Music and orbs only have a slight connection
The game has a hard time actually detecting relevant rhythms in most songs. So you cannot hits orbs in synchrony with the base of a song, which detracts from being considered any type of rhythm based gameplay.
Con Unclear menu system
Things such as song difficulty or types of shields are not explained in the menus, leaving the player guessing as to what they do. This makes for an experience where you just need to learn as you play to eventually figure it out.