How We Soar

How We Soar
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Penny Black Studios
Publisher	Penny Black Studios
Platform	PlayStation VR
Device	PlayStation VR
Operating System	PlayStation 4
Type	Game
Genre	Flight
Input Device	DualShock 4
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	November 29, 2016
Price	US$19.99
App Store	PlayStation Store

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

How We Soar is a virtual reality flight game developed and published by the British studio Penny Black Studios for the PlayStation VR headset on PlayStation 4. The player rides a giant phoenix through a papercraft world created in the mind and memories of a character called "The Author", steering the bird with a DualShock 4 controller that acts as its reins. It was the studio's first game and was released exclusively for PlayStation VR on the PlayStation Store on 29 November 2016 at US$19.99.

Critics praised the papercraft visuals, the soundtrack and the relaxed pace of the flying, while several reviews found the gameplay thin. The game holds a Metascore of 67 ("mixed or average") on Metacritic from 11 critic reviews.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Developer, studio background, announcement, gone-gold and release dates, price and PlayStation Store requirements, gameplay description, composer interview, Metacritic and OpenCritic aggregates, every review score, reviewer name and quotation, against each cited source. About review dates.

Gameplay

How We Soar is played with a DualShock 4. The controller appears inside the game as a paper object attached to the bird's reins. The left analog stick steers the phoenix while head movement controls the camera; TheSixthAxis noted that head tracking cannot be used for turning and that a flick of the controller gives a small speed boost. According to the developer, the player can build up speed or hover to look at the scenery.

Each level begins as a torn, unfolded paper world. Flying through it makes the paper curl and reform into recognizable places, and flying close to a surface restores its color, a mechanic the developer called "painting by flight". Level goals include flying through rings and collecting a set number of colored orbs. The orb colors match the controller's face buttons; collecting all of them in a level releases birds (which TheSixthAxis's reviewer called "Orb Birds") that the player must catch, and the caught birds act as keys to the focal point of each scene. UploadVR reported that orbs also open portals to new areas and that a level takes 10 to 20 minutes. There is no fail state: when the player crashes, a brightly lit tunnel returns them to the game world. Trophies are awarded for fully coloring levels.

The story follows an author with writer's block who is raising a family, and the levels show both his fictional worlds and his own life. The Author narrates his thoughts on creative writing as the player flies. Destructoid counted 11 levels. Settings described in reviews include a messy office, a battlefield with siege equipment, a fairy-tale castle with a dragon, and levels set in space and underwater.

Development

Penny Black Studios is a small developer in the English Midlands, formed in 2015 by former staff of Free Radical Design and Crytek; How We Soar was its first game. Power Up Gaming described the studio as founded by three former Crytek UK staff and led by Tom Turner, previously studio manager at The Chinese Room. Turner, the studio's managing director, announced the game on the PlayStation Blog on 8 June 2016 with a release planned for later that year. In the announcement Turner compared the experience to Bastian riding Falkor the Luckdragon in The NeverEnding Story and Harry Potter riding a hippogriff in Prisoner of Azkaban. UploadVR's report on the announcement said the art style "owes a debt to Media Molecule's Tearaway". The PlayStation Store listing states that the game was built with Unreal Engine 4.

The music was written by Steve Burke, who had previously spent nine years in the audio department at Microsoft and Rare; Ross Tregenza handled sound design. In an interview with VGMO, Burke said that Graeme Norgate, who had also worked at Rare, put him in touch with the studio and that he pitched demo tracks before being hired. He wrote the E3 trailer music first, then the level music, and finally the hub areas, menus, cutscenes and credits. The score is sample-based and uses Spitfire Audio orchestral libraries, with synthesized versions of the main themes in the hub levels; Burke described it as "quite a laid back score with ambient sections followed by swells and resolution of themes".

Release

In November 2016 the developer confirmed that the game had gone gold. It was released on 29 November 2016 as a PlayStation VR exclusive and is published on the PlayStation Store by Penny Black Studios Ltd. The store listing requires the PlayStation VR headset and, on PS4, the PlayStation Camera; it lists the game as playable on PS5, carries an ESRB rating of Everyone and is single-player only.

Platform	Release date	Notes
PlayStation VR (PlayStation 4)	29 November 2016	PlayStation Store; US$19.99; requires PlayStation VR and PlayStation Camera

As of October 2026 the game is still listed on the US PlayStation Store at US$19.99.

Reception

On Metacritic, How We Soar has a Metascore of 67 ("mixed or average") from 11 critic reviews. OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 75, with 45% of critics recommending it.

Publication	Reviewer	Score
Metacritic (aggregate)	11 critic reviews	67/100
OpenCritic (aggregate)	Top Critic Average	75/100
TechRaptor	Samuel Guglielmo	9/10
TheSixthAxis	Aran Suddi	8/10
Push Square	Simon Fitzgerald	8/10
Hardcore Gamer	Jeremy Peeples	4/5
PlayStation Universe	John-Paul Jones	7.5/10
Destructoid	Jordan Devore	7/10
CGMagazine	Elias Blondeau	6/10
COGconnected	Sidd Masand	55/100

Aran Suddi of TheSixthAxis wrote that "the artwork throughout is sublime and the music fits it all perfectly" and called the soundtrack one of the best of the year. He finished the game in about four and a half hours, and found some stages disorienting enough that he had to remove the headset a couple of times, noting that there were no comfort settings at the time of review. John-Paul Jones of PlayStation Universe said that motion sickness was not a problem, that the visuals were in "a class of its own" among PSVR games, and that "controlling your airborne mount is a pleasure", but also that "there just isn't a whole lot of game crammed in there". He estimated three to four hours to finish, compared it with Ubisoft's Eagle Flight as more contemplative and less challenging, and summed it up as "a charming title that embraces calming spectacle over mechanical ambition".

Jamie Feltham of UploadVR called it "a pretty wonderful experience" and "one of PS VR's most uplifting experiences", while noting that it lacks the "mechanical complexity and gameplay loop that many will be looking for" and that the deliberately sluggish controls and weak boost could frustrate players searching for the last orb in a level. Jordan Devore of Destructoid wrote that "the flying alone carries this game far", although the mechanics do not change much as the game goes on.