Samsung’s no-glasses 3D monitor could rise above gimmickry, but needs stronger game support to do it

PC gaming hasn’t seen much 3D hardware since Nvidia shuttered its goggles-based, Alec-damaging 3D Vision prospect in 2019. Death by lack of compelling use cases, or by VR coming along and doing the whole “S’like it’s coming right at me” thing more comprehensively? Maybe a bit of both, but in any case, Samsung is having another go with its new Odyssey 3D gaming monitor. Outwardly resembling just another 4K IPS screen, its three-dimensification of select games involves collaborations with their original developers, with the final effect being delivered without the need for any glasses or headwear at all.

I recently had a go on the Odyssey 3D, and it’s certainly a few steps up from yer dusty Nintendo 3DS. A combination of eye-tracking cameras and an internal array of lenticular lenses produces the 3D effect, maintains it as long as your head stays roughly centred, and at least for me, manages to avoid inflicting agony of the eyes or brain. It’s impressive tech, though if it’s to become a serious desk-topping option, the Odyssey 3D will need a lot more games to get on board with it.

So far, the confirmed library, verified to play nice with 3D by mine own sight, amounts to The First Berserker: Khazan. I played The First Berserker: Khazan. And that’s it. Samsung’s reps shared with me that “50 to 60” games are set to get similarly dev-assisted Odyssey 3D support in the coming months, and some further searching indicated Lies of P will be one of them, but it does appear that this monitor has launched with a single soulslike behind it.

Still, it didn’t take too long for Khazan alone to make an impression. This was deep, stable, glasses-quality 3D, with tribal baddies lunging tangibly toward me and individual snowflakes blowing through a distinct foreground. The effect was markedly stronger on closer objects, as you’d expect, and to my eyes there is a slight loss of overall sharpness compared to 2D 4K, but this was nevertheless the cleanest and most convincing take on playable 3D that I’ve seen outside of a VR headset.

Is it transformative – a palpably ‘new’ way to perceive a familiar game? No, but then I don’t think it needs to be, as long as the third dimension is adding something. In Khazan’s case, it’s less a twist on the hacking and slashing and more a heightened sense of place: its frozen forests feel colder when the wind seems to be flicking barely past your eyelashes, and the chunky, blood-sodden snowprints you leave behind gain a visible depth.

Now, then, it’s just a case of repeating that in several dozen more times (at the minimum), and the Odyssey 3D might just become worth buying. Other games don’t strictly need Samsung-specific dev input to run in 3D, but I’m told by Samsung themselves that the effect won’t be as deep or as detailed as those that’ve had it. It’s probably telling that I wasn’t offered any games besides Khazan to try out. I did see how the extra dimension can be added to videos, YouTube uploads included, but while the effect was reasonably neat it clear lacked the sophistication of Khazan’s fine-tuned visuals.

This lack of fully compatible games could haunt the Odyseey 3D. For one thing, it suggests a degree of gun-jumping on the release: this is not a concept design but a real monitor, on sale right now, for the hardly low price of £1299 / $2000. Then there’s the more immediate concern that so, we’ve only seen a narrow sliver of how these fully optimised games perform. It’s an encouraging sliver, but not to the point where we can assume all future games will work equally well, especially when we don’t even know yet which games are definitely getting the treatment. Then there’s the matter of the more distant future – 50-60 games would be a decent start for 2025, but if I’m parting with £1,299 for a monitor, I’d expect its defining feature to stay supported for years. That’s an enormous commitment, for both Samsung and their game dev partners.

It is somewhat affirming that outside of the 3D stuff, this screen can function as just a good-specced 2D gaming monitor, in what I believe to be a first – previous glasses-free 3D displays have focused on the productivity and business markets. It’s fast for a 4K screen, with a 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms grey-to-grey response time, and its anti-tearing AMD FreeSync Premium support can be piggybacked upon by Nvidia G-Sync. I’ve seen for myself its vibrant colours and nice, sleek build as well. Still, other monitors like this already exist, and cost a lot less. For the Odyssey 3D to make sense, let alone to make 3D a serious gaming prospect again, Samsung must make sure that it isn’t starved of quality games that can fully take advantage of it.