I feel weird reviewing things before their production release, but this is a special case. I remember being a child and trying super old VR rigs at Disney and other places. It was great but not something you'd ever have in your house, and it essentially was like being in a weird 3D Atari game. There has been a lot of hype around Virtual Reality starting with Oculus, and now Sony's Project Morpheus, Samsung Gear, etc. Luckily I work at a company where I've got a very in-depth experience with them all, and I can honestly say that the Vive is by far the greatest.
For those who are not familiar, the Vive isn't just a headset but a full rig. There's 2 laser emitting sensors that you place around your room, creating a 10'x10' "virtual playground" anywhere you chose. There's also 2 wands that act as controllers that come with the kit. The lasers act as trackers, sensing the location and movement of the wands and headset within your designated space. They do an amazing job of doing so as well.
I've run through numerous demo's and games (Portal Robot Lab, Tiltbrush, etc) with the Vive and I can honestly say that it's a true "mind fuck". Even after spending 5 minutes in the virtual world your senses adapt as if it were real, and taking the set off causes a brief period of nausea. That is however a good thing. It's literally so convincing to your brain that it requires an adjustment going between real and the virtual world.
There's one way I can describe the experience that I think is most relevant. Every once in a while something new comes along and changes the way you look at technology. I remember getting my first Windows computer and spending hours using MS Paint because holy crap! I could draw on a computer! At the time it was mind blowing. The simplest of things reinvented to the point of making it a totally new experience. That's what VR is going to be. Tiltbrush, which is essentially a drawing/painting game in a 3D space, has made me feel that all over again. I could spend endless hours just drawing random things and it would be endlessly entertaining again, just as it was in MS Paint. But this is something different, something greater. I can't even begin to fathom the uses and possibilities for VR. My favorite book of all time, Ready Player One (read it if you haven't), seems fightingly possible. Travel, education, gaming, anything you can think of can be accomplished in VR and in a convincingly real fashion. Oculus was a great first step but the motion tracking and control with the handheld wands of the Vive make it a truly immersive experience.
The future is coming, and Virtual Reality is undoubtedly going to play a very large role. Like the HD-DVD vs Blu Ray battle, there will be a great battle of tech fighting for the number one spot. As it currently stands, the HTC Vive is the clear winner.