I took a walk through the future, and I want more. Instead of rooting you to a fixed point in your room and wrapping a 360-view around you, the $799 HTC Vive lets you stand up and explore it.

Room-tracking technology is eerily accurate; Smooth graphics with little latency; Touch controllers are easy to use and highly adaptable; Large library of games

Requires a lot of space and electrical outlets to use; No built-in audio; SteamVR Interface can be difficult to navigate

A few weeks back, we gave you virtual reality kit. While we were able to explain the Vive's specifications, setup, configuration, and give some opinions on the experience, at that point, we hadn't had the kit long enough to form any solid, concrete opinions.

The HTC Vive has proved to be quite a formidable piece of kit. Not only did it surprise when it stole much of Oculus' pre-release thunder with roomscale and hand tracked controllers, but it surprised post launch by being more widely available.

Room scale is hands down; the best VR experience you can have; Motion controllers make interaction in VR natural; Tracking is almost flawless with proper sensor placement; Chaperone gives you confidence to move around in VR; Headset is comfortable over long play sessions; Zero motion sickness...

Clearing space can be a pain; especially in smaller British homes – but it is worth it; Set up can be a bit fiddly; Steam VR still crashes; Lens contours can occasionally be seen in scenes with bright light sources; Headset weighting needs improvement; Crisp; bright screen makes pixels a little more...

We've dabbled in VR many times before, even as far back as the beginning of the 90s with W Industries' Virtuality system. More recent years have given us mobile-based devices, such as Samsung's Gear VR and Google Cardboard , but such devices are essentially tasters of VR's potential by comparison.

Innovative VR that allows you to move around in a virtual space; excellent visuals thanks to high-res displays; controllers are excellent and offer developers many options for use

Setup is far from straight forward thanks to sensor placement; occasional crashes when installing; Room Space requires a large area to play in; headphones not built-in

HTC Vive: Room-scale VR is an experience like no other, and nothing does it better than the HTC Vive

The best room-scale VR experience available; HTC is investing in the Vive ecosystem; Can be used either seated or standing

Most expensive headset on the market, Still aren't quite enough killer apps out there, So; Many; Cables

It asks more of you than Oculus does, but Vive also rewards you with an even more immersive, transformative VR experience

Room-scale is the best kind of VR; Motion controllers make you feel even more immersed; Steam support means it's easier to get games

Heavier; less secure on your bonce than Oculus Rift; Fiddly firmware and a mess of cables; Currently lacking fully formed games

Is the room-scale HTC Vive worth the £599 price tag? We've spent some time with the HTC Vive, and here's what we thought.

Having said all that, there is nothing else out there like the HTC Vive. While PlayStation VR plays in a similar space with its hand-tracking facilities, and Oculus Touch has the potential to make Oculus Rift as intuitive as the Vive when it finally launches, I confidently predict neither of them...

The HTC Vive is the sci-fi, virtual reality future we've all been waiting for, but if developers and content creators don't embrace it, all the technological innovation in the world won't save it from the scrapheap.

Incredibly immersive

Expensive; Requires a lot of space; Cabling can be awkward; Lack of stand-out games and apps

There's an ethereal, intangible effect that VR has on you, one which lingers long after the headset is off and you're back to your real life responsibilities. The technology still has a ways to go before it's user-friendly enough for the average gamer to set up, and it definitely needs to add some...