The Lab
Mild overall intensityWhat's in it
Bloodless cartoon action: firing arrows at faceless silhouette figures attacking a castle, launching robot cores to smash debris and explosives, and dodging/shooting projectiles in an arcade bullet-hell segment.
Who can reach your kid
What it is
The Lab is a free virtual-reality collection from Valve set in the comedic Aperture Science universe of the Portal games. From a central hub room, players pick up snow globes to jump into eight short room-scale experiences: defending a castle with a bow and arrow, an arcade-style space shooter, a slingshot demolition game, repairing a robot, playing fetch with a mechanical dog, exploring scenic landscapes and the solar system, and peeling back the layers of a 3D human body built from CT scans. The action content is limited to bloodless, cartoon-style combat—shooting arrows or projectiles at simple paper-cutout figures and blasting piles of debris—plus a clinical medical scan of a human figure. There is no bad language, sexual content, substances, or online interaction.
How it's framed
Content is presented as light, playful tech demonstrations with tongue-in-cheek Portal-style humor. The combat is abstract and consequence-free—enemies are stylized silhouettes rather than realistic people—and the medical scan is framed neutrally as an educational and scientific showcase of what VR can do.
Details
- Developer
- Valve
- Publisher
- Valve
- Released
- Apr 5, 2016
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