Gaming is all about immersion. Visuals are the entry point to our digital worlds, gameplay the mechanical interaction, while audio can wrap, envelop and enhance the entire experience, but how can we take all of that further? Woojer know a thing or two about immersion, releasing a series of haptic-enhanced belts and vests over the last five years, designed to take your gaming immersion to a new level. Now, they’re releasing the Vest 3, the culmination of everything that’s gone before. If you’re looking for a new level of immersion, especially in VR, it’s the ultimate accessory.
The Woojer Vest 3 feels like a premium experience from the moment you open the box. The sleek, glossy packaging opens up to reveal the backplate of the vest, black leather, fabric and stitching pulled together by a white, rubberised Woojer logo.
Pulling it free of the packaging, one of the first things you’ll wonder is how much weight there is to it, and that’s despite slimming down from the previous version. The 1.5kg of weight is all thanks to the bevy of tech attached to the Vest 3, with all the fabric and leather punctuated by a chunky battery pack, control unit, and six haptic units. Frankly, it looks like something straight out of Cyberpunk, and it’s possibly the most exciting piece of gaming hardware I’ve seen in a long time.
You won’t notice that weight when you’re wearing it. The Vest 3 does a great job of dispersing the weight evenly across your back and shoulders, and when you’re focused on your game, it practically disappears. Save for all the thumping.
You’re strapped in via a thin clasp across the chest, and a chunky belt strap at the waist, and there’s plenty of variability for different body sizes. I’m relatively small and slim, and I have both the belt and chest straps nearly fully tightened, and there’s a lot of slack if you need it. Smaller players, like the kids in our house, were able to wear it too, though the effect wasn’t quite the same as the haptics couldn’t all sit directly against their body. Overall, I’d expect the majority of teens and adults to be able to wear it comfortably, living up to what Woojer describe as, “One size fits most”.
The front view gives you a clearer look at the haptic units, with two positioned at your chest, and another two attached to the waist straps. Each is a black plastic disc, etched with the Woojer logo, and when you touch them they actually feel lighter than you’d expect.
The main control unit sits on the left hand side if the vest, giving you easy access to all the controls you’ll need. It lights up brightly, depending on what you’re doing, and if you’re choosing to watch something via a flat panel display, it’s worth knowing that the lights may well reflect on your screen.
The control panel houses a large power button, physical volume controls and buttons for setting the overall haptic level, while there’s also LED displays for the connection types and the different levels. Meanwhile, the underside of the panel has 3.5mm sockets for incoming and outgoing audio, and a USB-C port at the centre.
The first thing you’ll want to do is charge the Vest 3, and there’s some mild confusion to be found here, with the vest having two USB-C ports. The one on the front control unit is not for charging, so you’ll need to flip it over and use the one on the back. In fairness, there’s a very clear sign on the rear, and in the instructions, but I still managed to get it wrong. I imagine that plenty more will along the way.
That comes down to the multitude of inputs the Vest 3 is capable of, with wired USB-C audio sitting alongside analog 3.5mm and wireless Bluetooth connections. When connecting via Bluetooth you can use the Vest 3’s mutipoint connection to receive audio, before sending it to separate Bluetooth headphones, at the same time, while adding in its haptic response.
And what a response it is. We reviewed the original Woojer Vest Edge, and it felt absolutely great. The Vest 3 takes things up a step, and its Osci V2 TRX transducers – which claim to be the most powerful and precise iterations of this tech – thump away in unison in an utterly beguiling way. If you want to literally feel your music, movies and games, Woojer have a compelling solution.
I tested the Vest 3 across a range of different platforms and use cases, and I started with the PlayStation 5, wired audio connections, and The Last of Us Part I. This is an interesting game to play with the Vest 3. The heavy-hitting action is punctuated by plenty of moments of silence, but then it ramps up, with percussive gunshots sitting alongside the game’s evocative acoustic music. It certainly adds an additional layer to the game, and the moments of light and dark make a perfect match for the Vest 3. There’s a sense though, that you’re not getting everything out of it.
What you need is Doom: The Dark Ages. If the Woojer Vest 3 needs a proof of concept for flatscreen play, then Doom is it. From the moment the id Software logo rumbles into view, and the Vest 3 responds with a resonating rumble, you know you’re in for something special. Combine the unbelievably weighty gunplay with the heavy metal soundtrack and ominous cracks of thunder and lightning, and the Vest 3 translates all of that into a full body experience. Doom: The Dark Ages doesn’t even feel remotely the same now playing it without the Vest 3, and if you’re a fan of this type of FPS, I’m telling you to start saving for a Woojer device right now. You’ll thank me later.
Of course, VR remains the ultimate expression of the Vest 3’s potential. Here, all of those brushes, rumbles and thumps become real and physical actions that aren’t quite translated in the same way when you’re playing on a flatscreen. Batman: Arkham Shadow is an ideal candidate for this, with its bruising, high-intensity combat made all the more enthralling by being able to physically feel the impacts you’re dishing out and receiving.
The best VR game? Given that it would sit at the top of most VR lists, it’s little surprise to find that Beat Saber gets even better when the music is coursing through your body as well as your ears. While you flail around with neon lightsabers, the music is translated into all-encompassing thumps and rumbles, making it all feel like some futuristic clubbing experience where the music is booming through your body. If you’re looking for the next step in a Beat Saber addiction, here it is.
As a side note, while the Vest 3 has some seriously powerful haptics, I don’t think they’d ever be capable of causing actual bruising, unless you’re medically predisposed to them. If you are, then I’d perhaps check in with a medical professional before playing.
There is plenty of customisation to the effects that the Woojer Vest 3 is capable of, which is pretty important to tune to your liking. The vest produces its haptic feedback based via the audio input, as opposed to triggering in tandem with a gamepad rumble – this would require game and platform-level support. To that end, the manual recommends turning up your source device to 100% and then altering the volume and haptic response on the Vest itself, but I had more success with turning the input down ever so slightly – to more like 80% – as that seemed to help the Vest 3 focus on the larger or more serious impacts or beats, rather than translating everything you hear into a rumble. It does remarkably steer clear of speech, and your setup will, of course, change from game to game, but I do recommend tweaking and tuning each time to find the right level of feedback.
At £450, the Woojer Vest 3 is a significant investment, though they are currently offering a serious reduction to £360 via their official website to make the price slightly more palatable. It’s clearly a luxury product, but if you’re a household that already has its gaming systems in place – particularly when it comes to VR – and you’re looking for the next level of immersion, the Woojer Vest 3 makes a very compelling argument for its pricetag.