THE VR GRID

PSVR PSVR‘ alt=’PSVR’ id=’templ_icon_36′ width=’40’ height=’40’ /> Hub Category: PSVR PSVR

  • Fracked

    Fracked

    Developer / Publisher – nDreams
    Price – US $29.99 / CA $39.99 / EU €29.99  / UK £24.99 / AU $44.95
    Release date – August 20th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Move Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR

    As the PlayStation VR headset enters its twilight years and game development shifting towards titles that can run on the Quest headsets, bigger games that can utilize the power of our console seem to be a thing of the past as we only seem to get 1 or 2 standout titles every few months now.  Fracked looks to be one of those exceptional titles as you are thrown into the shoes (ski boots?) of a hapless hero who must fight back a horde of inter-dimensional beings who have started their invasion of Earth at a fracking operation on a remote mountain.

    It all starts with a scenic trip down a mountain.

    Fracked has clearly been designed with the Moves in mind as one hand is devoted to movement while the other is your gun hand.  When walking, simply hold the Move button down and tilt the controller in the direction you want to go with a double tap of the move button allowing you to sprint.  Turning is handled by button presses on your shooting hand with options for smooth and click-turning available as well blinders for those that need them.  Once the fighting starts, it’ll be up to you to take cover which is handled in a unique way as, to duck or peer around corners, you move into position and grab the environment with your off-hand, anchoring yourself in that spot, but allowing you to drag yourself within arms length of what you are grabbing, making for a very natural way to shoot, take cover and shoot some more.  When you want or need to reload, you’ll have to expel your clip and an icon appears where the ammo should be placed.  Bringing your hand up to that icon and grabbing it will shove the next clip into your weapon, and a quick cocking of the gun or lever pull will have the gun ready for more shooting action.  If you aren’t walking, you’re skiing which is handled by simple head steering controls, freeing up your hands to shoot the bad guys as you careen down the mountain.   You will have to also climb around the environment, having to scale walls to get across gaps, ascend ladders and some more extreme sections that hearken back to some of the crazier moments seen in the Uncharted Series, with ziplines scattered throughout the campaign allowing for some quick traversal to lower levels and surprise attacks.   The campaign is comprised of 8 stages, each playable on easy or medium with hard being locked until you beat the game and I recommend playing on medium 1st as encounters are challenging, but not too bad with easy being to easy thanks to a laser sight. Playing on hard only gives you one life so if you die, you need to restart the mission.  Depending upon how you play, the campaign probably won’t take more than 3 to 4 hours to get through but for those completionists out there, coins are hidden throughout the game that will require you to explore every nook and cranny to find them, extending game time.

    The magnum kicks ass!

    I’ve said it many times before, but some of the best-looking VR games are those that go for a more cartoonish look with the Fracked devs clearly reading my mind as this game looks very similar to Borderlands ‘not-quite’ cell-shaded art style.  Everything in Fracked looks like it was inspired and based upon real-world objects and locations, but with a comic-book overlay that just pops in headset.  Draw distance seems endless and while those distant objects can look a little blobbish thanks to the art style and headset resolution, the fact that you can as far as you can makes this one of the more impressive PSVR games I have seen in awhile.  The opening stage takes you on a ski trip down a mountain during an avalanche, followed by an action-packed tour of a nearby mining operation, a climb and ski to a science facility, a battle above a rig and so many more interesting locations that really make this feel like an action film as no 2 set pieces are quite alike.  The enemy zombie/drones you face only come in a few forms from gun-toting peons in winter gear, weird looking gem encrusted dudes that try to get close to you before they explode, larger monstrosities armed with rocket launchers and 1 or 2 more, leaving the total enemy count quite small, but I never got tired of seeing the purple blood explode out of their bodies after a successful hit.  You’ll acquire a few guns in the game from a stock pistol that never runs out of ammo and a machine gun with some temporary weapons being found in the game that once picked up must be expended as you can’t drop them or store them.  These include a shotgun, Magnum and grenade launcher and whenever you see them lying around, expect a big fight up ahead.  When you look at whichever weapon is in a hand, you can see a sort-of x-ray vision of the gun and how many remaining shots you have left which is handy for the temp weapons which don’t have counters on them.  There is a verticality and sense of freedom in the level design that offers multiple paths you can choose to defend and attack from with the enemies doing the same so you always have to be aware of where they may be coming as they can sneak up on you.  Lastly would be the lack of dynamic lighting which honestly doesn’t hurt the game much with the levels often incorporating shadows that match the angle of the sun giving a sense of proper lighting.  Nearby explosions may cause your vision to change color for a second, once again giving the appearance of some dynamic lighting but given the art style chosen, those lacking effects never really hurt what is otherwise a great looking game.

    These guys can sneak up on you quick!

    Audio design is on point with this playing very much like an action-movie type game as you, the player, drops the occasional line of dialogue in between encounters or when he chat’s it up with Rosalez, your helicopter flying partner, who shows up more than a few times to save your butt.  3D audio isn’t the best with it sounding a little more like left or right channels only which gets the job done, but it can be hard to narrow down where enemies may be by their grunts and screams, especially if they are above or below you.  A rather generic, high-octane rock soundtrack accompanies the game and kicks in loudly when in a firefight with some more serene tunes playing when you are on the slopes, giving the overall impression that you are in an action movie and not just a game.

    Fracked feels a lot like Blood & Truth, only with A LOT more freedom of movement and a little more B-Movie narration which should get a lot of people excited.  The cover mechanics work great, and the single-handed gunplay feels awesome.  The climbing sections are a nice break from the shooting and the skiing stuff was also a ton of ‘James Bond(esque) fun.  I honestly didn’t run into many issues at all save for some minor pop-in and the occasional enemy that would appear out of nowhere, sometimes right in front of me.  That does lead me to me one notable gripe which is that deaths in Fracked can sometimes feel cheap thanks to those surprise enemies and that there are explosive containers EVERYWHERE which can be used to your advantage, but on more than a few occasions, the enemy shot ones I was standing close too, causing some deaths that were hard to avoid.  The checkpoint system is mostly fair, and I typically started very close to where I died, but for those that are playing on hard, those unavoidable deaths could really hamper the fun and add some frustration.  In the grand scheme of things though, these gripes are near inconsequential to just how much fun is packed in here.  It may seem a little short, but it really is non-stop action from beginning to end and was one of the more entertaining campaigns I have played through in VR in recent memory.

    You don’t want to get this close to these guys.

    Fracked is an action-packed adventure that doesn’t let up on the thrills from the moment it begins.  The variety in the game mechanics combined with the slick presentation makes this a must play PSVR exclusive and shows their still plenty of life left in the aging headset.

    What would I pay?  This is $30 which does seem a tad high given the rather brief campaign though I can’t deny the fun I had in my time with the game.  It’s just too bad there isn’t more reason to replay the campaign besides changing difficulty settings and finding coins.

    nDreams provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Pistol Whip

    Pistol Whip

    Developer / Publisher – Cloudhead Games
    Price – US $29.99 / CAN $39.99 / EU €29.99 / UK £24.99 / AU $42.95
    Release Date – Nov 7th, 2019 (PCVR)
    Input – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area –  Standing, Roomscale
    Store – PlayStation, Steam, Oculus
    Reviewed on – Oculus Quest 2 (w/ link), PSVR (PS5)

    Pistol Whip has been a VR staple for the last 2 years offering some intense rhythm-based combat that is unlike any other game on the market.  Since its original 2019 release, the game has nearly tripled in size offering more stages, more guns and more ways to play the game.  For those that aren’t aware, Pistol Whip is a merging of the rhythm and shooter genres that has you navigating through ‘on the rails’ stages while you shoot or smash the baddies in your way with bonus points being rewarded for taking them out to the beat.

    You gotta be quick or your dead!

    Armed with a pistol, or pistols if you decide you want to dual-wield, it’s up to you to shoot everything in your path as you navigate through 1 of 28 musical tracks.  You’ll need 2 tracked motion controllers with the default mode in here only arming you with one pistol, though should you be feeling spicy, you can visit the gameplay modifiers to make things easier or harder for yourself with one of the many options being to dual wield.  Other modifiers turn off the auto-aim which dramatically ups the difficulty or reduce the amount of hits you can take to one or cause bullets to deflect back at you with those detrimental effects increasing your score modifier while the ones that make the game easier lower it.   Each of the tracks can be played on 3 difficulty settings with easy, for myself, being exactly that and medium offering some decent challenge but if you want to test the limits of your skills, Hard is where this game shines.  Most of the songs are available right away with the exception of the 2 included campaigns; 2089 and Smoke & Thunder, each has 5 stages that need to be unlocked by beating the stage before it. Regardless of the skill level you play on, not only will you be shooting the bad guys that appear all around in front of you, but you’ll have to dodge their incoming bullets and occasionally Pistol Whip any fools that get too close.  There are also obstacles to avoid by dodging left, right or by crouching that make this one of the more physical games I have ever played in VR.  Seriously, on hard mode I was moving around my play space like a character from the Matrix while bullets whizzed all around me, taking out seemingly endless amounts of enemies all while trying to do so to the beat and it was exhausting and exhilarating.

    Dual wielding is pretty damned fun!

    Each song is its own themed stage as identified by the movie poster selection screen which highlights the song and artist as well as stage specific details like beats per minute, enemy count and length of song.  The 2 campaigns each tell their own separate story, building upon the core gameplay by introducing new themes, comic-book cut-scenes and boss battles.  The enemies you face are little more then broken glass, connected to form humanoid shapes and upon seeing them, I was instantly reminded of SUPERHOT though the variety in which the enemies come in keeps each stage feeling fresh.  The campaign enemies go beyond the human as you’ll be facing turrets, ships, horse riding cowboys and a few baddies that mix up the presentation nicely.   The stages are all on the rails and take you through some very abstract and crazy settings that pulse to the beat of music.  You may start off in the city streets during a ‘day of the dead’ celebrations, in a church type area, an airship or just play in something completely bizarre and no matter which stage you play, the visuals are striking.  Bullets fly past you in slow motion, enemies will often appear far away or right in front you, demanding your immediate attention. Some run around giving you a chance to take them out before they fire, and others will spawn and shoot almost instantly.  Level design is key as enemies always spawn in the same places during a track so they may appear in odd formations all around you but this is by design as every single villain in this game is designed to be killed to the beat.

    It’s a rhythm game, so the soundtrack is the most important aspect to making this a success and it’s solid but those looking for an expansive genre list may be disappointed.  The soundtrack is heavy EDM beats and dubstep which fits the action nicely and even though I didn’t care for all the songs, I can’t deny how well they fit the action…mostly.  With 28 tracks to choose from, there is a lot to like and I really dug the campaign offerings as they did venture a little outside of the base game’s soundtrack. Musical preferences aside, everything here is on point with guns sounding fantastic (you can actually select from a variety of gun sounds) and when I got into the groove, killing fools to the beat while dodging their shots was nothing short of a great time!

    Plenty of options to choose from.

    There really isn’t much to complain about in Pistol Whip as the game really offers some of the most intense fun you can have in a headset.   Playing on the PSVR, I have to mention The Move controllers, which can be troublesome at times.  I have my camera in a fairly decent setup and for the most part, my tracking was flawless but on a few rare occasions, my gun would go wonky as I pushed the limits of the tracking area.  On a similar note, would be to ensure your play space can accommodate your movements as I found myself near flailing to dodge incoming fire while dishing it out, moving way more than I thought I would. Beyond the various tracks and modifiers are the online leaderboards as well as challenge modes, which task the player with specific maps and mods once again mixing up the action.  It is a game that relies quite heavily on replayability but the number of ways you can customize the game as well as the campaign content, really keeps the replay factor at an all time high.

    Looks like he needs a good pistol whippin’!

    Pistol Whip is one of those VR titles that just could not work outside of the headset.  Its reliance on reflexes while wielding a gun (or guns) just couldn’t translate to the flat screen.  That alone doesn’t make it a great VR title, but the addictive and intense combat along with the plethora of songs & modifiers plus the motivation to shoot bad guys to the beat has me hooked.  It’s a rhythm game like no other, a shooter like no other, a VR gem like no other and I think just about any player who enjoys a little action, and a little sweat, will enjoy this immensely.

    What would I pay? With all the content added since launch, Cloudhead Games has decided to up the price to $30 US and it is still easily worth that price thanks to the amount & quality of that content.  Pistol Whip is a must own title for anyone looking for some intense VR fun.

    Cloudhead Games provided The VR Grid with codes for this review and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Synth Riders

    Synth Riders

    Developer / Publisher – Kluge Interactive
    Price – US $24.99 / CA $33.49 / EU €24.99  / UK £19.99 / AU $36.95
    Release date – August 10th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Move Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR

    This game was originally reviewed by The VR Grid back in 2019 with this review replacing that one, reflecting the additional content released since that original publishing.

    Synth Riders has FINALLY made its way to the PlayStation headset after being out for just over 3 years on PC side of things, and just shy of 2 years on the Quest headsets, and looks to bring a wide array of music and activity to the rhythm genre as you try and hit all the notes flying your way in some fairly trippy environments

    Be ready…those spheres come at you fast!

    Those familiar with VR rhythm games like Box VR or Dance Collider will know exactly what’s going on here as you need to hit incoming blue & red orbs with color matched hands to get the most points.  Left is blue, Right is red with the goal being to not just connect with those spheres but to also get as close to the center of those orbs as possible for max points with 2 different base modes of play available.  The 1st is ‘Rhythm’ which plays like you would expect, hitting those orbs, riding rails and avoiding walls with the 2nd mode being ‘Force’ which plays the same as Rhythm except you need to punch the orbs to get max score.  There are 54 tracks to choose from at launch with 25 additional licensed tracks available as paid DLC giving Synth Riders an impressive collection of songs to get through.  Leaderboards are available for every single way you to choose to play whether it’s the difficulty setting, if you play in spin mode, no fail, color changing orbs and whole bunch more ensuring that if you kick ass at something, you will be recognized globally for it.  There is no campaign and everything is unlocked as soon the game is turned on (minus paid DLC), allowing for the freedom to play however and whatever you want.   Lastly, should you have some friends nearby, you can choose ‘Party’ mode which let’s you swap the headset with others allowing for some friendly, local competition.

    Some of the environments are mesmerizing!

    The presentation her is straight up my jam as I love that retro 80’s sci-fi synthwave look.   There are 17 environments to choose from or you can select them randomly and enjoy some surreal and epic visuals.  Some stages have you moving forward through weird dystopian landscapes with monoliths in the distance while others have you remaining stationary as the orbs come towards you and while they almost all look great, I felt the stages that moved offered a little more flare and fun.  The standard mode has the orbs coming at you from directly in front of you and will occasionally appear as yellow orbs, which require both hands to hit those notes, or on rails where you need to have that matching hand ride them mixing up just how you interact with each song.  Spin mode is something special as the beat maps will come at you roughly 90 degrees in front of you but unlike other games which may have them coming at specific points in that area, Synth Riders organically has those orbs move back in forth in some impressive (and frenetic action) and it added a whole new level of fun and challenge to the game.  There is a customizable HUD that can be adjusted or removed entirely that displays your score information including combo meters and score multipliers.  Bottom line here is the game looks great and can be tailored to your visual likes or randomized if you want to keep things feeling fresh.

    Riding these rails is harder than it looks

    As I said, there are a lot of songs included with the base game and the DLC tracks give us a total of 79 musical selections which is A LOT to chew through.  Of course, not every song will be a winner based on your specific tastes (I myself did not care for the Electro-swing genre) but there’s just so much here that even when I randomized tracks and just played for awhile, I didn’t even mind when I hit those songs I didn’t care for.  Beyond the synth and swing songs are some dub-step, rock, pop, some Offspring songs, Muse, Pennywise and a host more making the total package here and eclectic one.

    Synth Riders is a solid rhythm game though it did take a me an hour or so to get comfortable with the mechanics or more specifically, it took me an hour or so to find my groove.   Unlike Beat Saber, the movements in this are much more about falling into a rhythm and dance mode.  What I mean by that is I didn’t really start to have success during songs until I moved a lot more, making my arms a little more fluid and having my body move with them.  Of course, with all that movement, I started to sweat a little which was awesome as that physicality make each go just a little more personal.  Getting into a song and trying to beat a previous best typically means moving a bit faster though some songs are near impossible to react to, especially on the hardest difficulties) meaning that if you want to get good, you’ll probably have to practice to memorizes the specific patterns on a song.  All songs are also not created equal with a lot of the earlier released tracks being a little simpler in regard to their beat placement, so while I was crushing some of the ‘Synth Essentials’ stuff on Hard, heading over to the swing stuff put me back in my place.  That is fairly typical of the rhythm genre as a whole and of course, should you not want to worry about leaderboards and the pressure of scores, you can turn on no fail and a few more options that make the game more ‘casual’ friendly, though the game really is pretty inviting and easy to pick up and play.  At the time of launch, it should be noted that the multiplayer mode available on the other headsets is currently not offered in the PSVR version so minus party mode, you’ll be playing solo…at least for the foreseeable future.

    You customize many aspects of the game to your liking.

    When people talk about the VR rhythm genre, the 2 games that get mentioned the most are Beat Saber and Synth Riders and there’s a good reason why as both highlight the strengths of the genre, but in different ways.  It sounds a bit silly but compared to Synth Riders, I find Beat Sabers gameplay to be bit more rigid, and what I mean by that is the motions I made with Synth Riders just felt more natural and the number of songs and how you customize just about every element in the game has this feeling more friendly.  That’s ultimately where I think Synth Riders strengths lay as its that ability to customize how you play that makes this so easy to come back too.  Pick the songs you like, make a playlist, choose your background, whatever other modifiers you want and enjoy the sick beats while getting a little workout in the process…what more could you want?

    What would I pay?  The base price of $25 is a great price as that gives you over 50 songs to chew through.  If you want everything currently available in the game, that’ll put you out $53 or you can pick individual songs for $2 a pop or buy specific 5 song bundles for $8, each once again letting you choose what and how you want to play.  The licensed stuff may be a tad more expensive when compared to base games’ offerings, but all things considered I think the pricing across the board on Synth Riders is great PLUS, the developers have promised that multiplayer is coming to the PSVR version at some point down the road.

    Kluge Interactive provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Arashi: Castles of Sin

    Arashi: Castles of Sin

    Developer / Publisher – Endeavor One
    Price – US $29.99 / CA $39.99 / EU €29.99  / UK £24.99 / AU $44.95
    Release date – August 10th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Move Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR

    Stealth games in VR are awesome, or at least, as long as they are made well, they are awesome.  We’ve seen our fair share of good and bad stealth games in VR and when it fails, it sucks…BUT when it works, it can be undeniably awesome as YOU are now the assassin, taking out foes from the shadows as a silent killer.  Enter Arashi, where you play as the Shinobi assassin Kenshiro, who must seek revenge upon the Six Oni of Iga, ruthless warriors that have carved a path of destruction across Japan, amassing power and armies in the process.

    Your cousin will give you your next target. Your dog Haru is happy to help out.

    2 Moves are required for this one with 2 control scheme options available, one that maps movement to the face buttons, the other which uses the direction of your Move controllers to navigate and was easily my preferred way to play.  Options for smooth or click turning with varying degrees of sensitivity are available for those that prefer one way or the other as well blinders which can be turned on or off.  l Initially you are given only a pair of swords and a grapple gun as your armament though soon enough you’ll pick up and bow & arrow, throwing stars, dart gun and a host more weapons to assist in all that stealthy killing. . You can also climb and jump to higher surfaces which will be key in taking out your enemies when hiding in the shadows isn’t an option.  Some lights can give you away and you can also hide in tall grass and when completely hidden from the enemy, you will look invisible not unlike The Predator, and when spotted a small reticle will pop up and become less transparent the longer you are within sight of an enemy soldier.  The stealth elements can feel a little basic at times and even exploitable, but they work, and I enjoyed sneaking above my foes, jumping down and dispatching them with a single strike before disappearing into nearby cover and using my various weapons and distractions to take out others.  In truth, it reminded me A LOT of the Tenchu series, and I mean that in the most positive way I can.  Beyond all that sneaking and killing is your dog Haru who accompanies you on most of your journey (he doesn’t like entering large buildings) and can be used to help distract or attack foes as well as dig for loot in specifically marked locations.  Enemies will come in a few forms from easy to dispatch peons to much tougher opponents and should you alert them to your presence, you’ll have to flee or defend yourself in some close quarters combat which is the weakest part of the game.  Enemies will come at you using scripted attacks and you must block those attacks and strike in between them, not unlike Golem, though this can be finicky as enemies can jump and attack through your defences causing unnecessary damage and death as you can only take a few hits.  There is a save system in place in the form of altars, that when found, give you a spawn point where you return too if you die, though any items found, and enemies killed up to your death will reset.  Additionally, there are a items and areas to be located that flesh out the story and mythos of the world making for a title with a ton of depth.

    Sneaking up on your opponents is ALWAYS the best way to go.

    Arashi looks solid, reminding me very much of Immortal Legacy in regard to dancing between that AA and AAA quality in presentation though it is held back by the lesser powered PS4 console with no PS4 Pro or PS5 support as of yet.  Aliasing is an issue but look past that and feudal Japan looks pretty slick.  You’ll travel along cliff sides, and forest trails, making your way to and through each of the 6 Oni’s fortresses, each with a slightly different theme and layout.  The enemies you face come in only a handful of forms with fair bit of detail so what they lack in variety, they make up for in quality.  Lighting effects are on point and to be used to your advantage as some lights can be extinguished, bathing that area in darkness and hiding you from sight.  Just standing next to a torch and seeing that light reflect off my body (yup, full body) and weapons added a ton to the realism factor.   Each of the 6 stages is broken up by waypoints that bring you to the next level with each section being loaded in its entirety save for some minor pop-in on environmental textures.  The levels are typically laid out with a few paths to choose from, each offering their own ways to take down enemy soldiers 1 at a time.  Minus your home, a small grotto, the game occurs largely during the nighttime, which makes perfect sense, and to aid in seeing the bad guys is ability to highlight enemies with a sort-of sonar pulse which will outline them in a blue hue, letting you track unseen soldiers as they go about their patrols.  When you cause any sort of damage, blood will spray for a second but that’s about as far as the violence goes with enemies showing no other damage and their bodies disappearing soon after being killed.  It can be a mixed bag at times, but overall, I was impressed with the presentation and found myself lost in the role of an assassin, dropping down upon my foes from rooftops for quick kills, or lurking in the shadows, waiting for my turn to strike.

    Haru makes for an excellent distraction!

    There is a lot of voice work in Arashi though it’s all in Japanese with subtitles which added a lot to the authenticity the game is going for.  Music comes in a much more subtle form typically falling into the background, subtly adding tension to all that sneaking around and kicking in a little more with a drum heavy beat when your are in combat.  3D audio is thankfully present and will be needed to help alert you to nearby patrols with the sounds of their footsteps helping give them away.  You can also make noise should you sprint so it’s best to stick to a slower pace.  The ‘ting’ of blades as they connect and the screams of the soldier’s death is always satisfying and just about every action you can do in the game from leaping to rooftops, taking out a foe from a distance with a shuriken or bow or just stabbing fools from behind, is satisfying.

    Death from above AND from a distance…this is the way.

    I’ll preface this next little bit by saying that I really enjoyed my time with Arashi as it really brought me back to playing Tenchu when I was much younger but adds a ton of depth that really surprised me.  Haru, your dog, behaves as he should, but he reacts to geometry in some crazy ways, even getting in the way of a passing soldier who will stop and just stand there until I told Haru to move on, whereupon the soldier continued on his merry way…and subsequent death by my blades.  The save system can also feel a tad unfair at times as they can be spaced far enough apart that death had me repeating 20 minutes of game, killing the same guys I already killed just to finally make it to the dude that killed me and trying to find a way to surprise attack him to avoid the close quarters combat as much as I could.  If you can avoid those sword fights, you’ll have a way better time though the bosses demand this action and I struggled against almost every one until I found a sweet spot with my blades that would block most of their attacks save for when they just got to close and attacked through my defences with trial, error and luck getting me through those encounters and onto more peon killing.  As you accrue more weapons, you can choose 4 of them to be in your loadout for the next mission which is awesome as variety is the spice of life, but in order to scroll through your armament, you need to press either square or triangle to cycle though them which is a pain in the ass and tedious as it’s also easy to scroll past what you’re looking for, especially in a panic situation though holding those respective buttons down will bring up your sword or grapple gun quickly. All these gripes are minor in the grand scheme of things for one very simple reason, the stealth works, and no matter what I may have struggled with in prior moments, whenever I made my next kill, it was always satisfying, and I felt like a badass assassin.

    The melee combat might not be great…but it looks cool!

    Arashi has some kinks to iron out for sure, but there is a ton of game and gameplay elements in here to keep anyone entertained.  The campaign is a lengthier one taking somewhere in the 8-hour range to beat with all those collectibles to find in every stage adding to the replay factor.  The story is a dramatic tale about revenge and is fleshed out enough to make me care about my cause, grinning as I cut a swath of destruction the hapless soldiers before dispatching the next tyrant plaguing the people in his land.  If the notion of being a stealthy assassin appeals to you, Arashi delivers a ton of game, story and violence and may just be one of the best stealth games we have in VR.

    What would I pay?  This is $30 US and totally worth it.  Taking the time to make every kill a stealthy one, planning my route and executing it flawlessy is some of the most rewarding VR gameplay I’ve experienced in awhile.

    Endeavor One provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • NeonHAT

    NeonHAT

    Developer / Publisher – Entalto Studios
    Price – US $24.99 / CA $29.99 / EU €24.99  / UK £19.99 / AU $32.95
    Release date – July 29th, 2021
    Control Method – DS4, 2 x Move Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR

    One of the best things about VR games is when you get to fly in them.  Whether it’s cruising in a plane over the Islands in Ultrawings, fighting off robots in Iron Man VR or just soaring through the remains of France in Eagle Flight, VR’s ability to put you in the game makes flying in them typically awesome.  NeonHAT is something we haven’t quite seen before on the PSVR headsets as you must race against drones, fight them and compete in some epic boss battles, all in in effort to stop some baddies from I guess taking over stuff…it’s not really clear, nor does it really matter.

    It’s a neon synthwave kind of world

    You can play using 2 Moves or a Ds4 and while the core controls are the same, playing with the Moves is substantially more fun and easier thanks to having 2 separate jets instead of having them locked together.  Using the Triggers allows you to accelerate and brake and pointing your jets will steer you in that direction with turning assigned to pressing ‘O’ on a controller which will be needed to turn around corners.  You can also fire a laser with either rocket on the Moves, but on Ds4 you can only fire a single shot.  Each stage is a racetrack with 3 modes attached to it, the 1st is your standard race which pits you against 3 other drones while dodging obstacles on the track.  ‘Chase’ has you flying down a drone that is protected by 3 other respawning drones that give your target shields and must taken out 1st.  The last mode is ‘Extreme Derby’, which dramatically increases the speed of the race and only lets you take a limited amount of crash damage and is easily the hardest mode in the game.  No matter which mode you play, once you complete a course, you unlock the next course with every 3 completed culminating in a boss battle where you’ll need to dodge a flurry of incoming attacks.  Each stage has 3 trophies attached it which, as far as I can tell, just comes down to finishing a stage as fast as you can.  There are 2 additional stages that are only accessible after you have finished at least one mode on each track and all the stages are supposed to have attached leaderboards though I only ever saw one after completing the tutorial and couldn’t find them in any of the stages so I’m not sure if they are broken or just hidden very well.

    The stages come in a variety of themes

    Everything in NeonHAT is inspired by Synthwave with courses coming in many different, abstract themes all being comprised of grids and geometric shapes, outlined with neon lines. You’ll be racing up mountain sides, across bridge, through city streets all populated with sometimes relevant objects like cars or giant pistons and gears while not so relevant items like holographic fish and toilets cruise along the general path you travel above.  The holograms won’t get in your way but some of those objects can definitely halt your progress with some appearing right before you like a geyser that spouts cubes of water, upside down traffic, boxes and a host more items.  Despite their dramatic differences, the art style had the courses feeling samey with the exception being those boss battles which will have you facing an armed ship, giant snake and a huge mech, all on a straight course while dodging their attacks and are the better looking stages in the game thanks the linearity in their design that avoids some of the issues that do hurt the presentation.  While some of the courses look a little more open than they actually are, when you come close the edge of the play area, a grid will show up indicating where you can’t move anymore.  The draw distance is also limited and while you won’t notice it during most levels, in some of the more open stages, watching the background come into view wasn’t a highlight moment for the game.  Besides that though, the game looks alright carrying with it a lot of retro/indie charm.

    Synthwave is the name of the game here and that is prevalent in the soundtrack which I believe has a unique song for every stage in the game for a total of 14 very catchy tunes.  Every race had me bobbing my head to the upbeat and intense synthesized 80’s soundtrack.  Other sound effects are on point and while there’s not much else going on outside of the soundtrack, sounds of your jets and whatever attacks may be coming your way, it works, and I really didn’t have any issues with the audio design.

    It’s not always the prettiest, but it’s got style.

    NeonHAT is alright for what it is and it’s surprising we haven’t seen a racer like this in VR sooner.  I mentioned that playing with Moves is the better way to go and I think I need to emphasize that while the DS4 is supported, it’s really puts the player at a significant disadvantage as you now need to aim and steer with the same controller making boss battles near impossible and the chase mode way more challenging and in my testing, I couldn’t beat certain bosses using the DS4, and switched back to the Moves whereupon I bet them on my 1st try.  Some the races also go on way to long which I think could just come down the flight mechanics being a little too simple making the game feel a little boring, especially when you are just running the same laps 3 times over in every race.  I also found the turning mechanic to be incredibly clunky as it would slow down your speed but wasn’t fast enough to make those finer movements to hit all the speed boosts ahead of me and attached to that is a sort of drift mechanic that, when turning sharp enough for a long enough time, you’ll come out of a turn with said boost, but many of the stages are designed with turns that are too short to utilize that ability and in my experience, it seemed hard to trigger even on turns that did allow for it. There are 3 difficulty options for Race and Chase modes which speeds things up a bit but even with those options selected and the challenge increased, the more I played, the more monotonous it felt.  The boss battles are a nice change of pace as each requires a different strategy to defeat with the final boss being the craziest encounter in the game taking you back through all the courses you completed to get to it.

    The boss battles can be fairly tough

    I liked NeonHAT as their really is nothing like it available for the PSVR and uses the flight mechanics in some fun and creative ways.  There is a story attached to the game, as explained in some wordy text when you choose a stage, but it’s convoluted and easy to ignore as the mechanics really don’t fit with narrative anyways leaving us with a flight racer/shooter that includes 14 tracks and a few modes to play them.  The developers promise no sim sickness in this one and if you dig the retro synthwave presentation, including the kick-ass soundtrack, then this could be for you.

    What would I pay? For me, this all falls apart with the $25 asking price as that is just to high for the content offered up here and the budget presentation accompanying it.  It’s fun but as I said, by the end of the game I was bored, making me feel like this should be somewhere in the $15 range instead.

    Entalto Studios provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • DeMagnete VR

    DeMagnete VR

    Developer / Publisher – BitCake Studio
    Price – US $19.99 / CA $22.99 / EU €19.99  / UK £17.99 / AU $32.95
    Release date – July 27th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR, Steam, Oculus

    Oh man do I love a good old-fashioned physics-based puzzler.  Ever since Portal (HOW IS THERE NO PORTAL VR!) I have fallen in love with 1st person puzzler with VR obviously amplifying that genre and delivering us excellent titles like Red Matter, Transpose, Statik and a host more so when I heard about DeMagnete, I was immediately intrigued as it has a unique puzzle element in the use of magnets as well what looks to be a pretty slick story, a combination that truly makes for an excellent puzzler.

    Meet Q, you’ll like her a lot!

    Standards first person VR controls are in effect here with options for smooth locomotion on the PC side of things with slider bars as well for faster and slower movement, which is awesome, though many of those options are lacking on the PSVR version which is relegated to teleport & click turning only.  Each of your hands can push or pull items using your magnetic force gloves with a bulk of the puzzles having you manipulate small boxes to hit buttons to open the door to the next puzzle, not unlike Portal.  It’s how that magnetism is used that makes this so fun as the puzzles may require you to use similarly charged boxes to push against each other while using opposing charged boxes to slam together to hold buttons in place, opening doors to access other buttons and the eventual exit.  You may have to guide a box through a mini maze using only the force of the magnets with a bulk of the opening puzzles relying largely upon that core mechanic.  Soon enough though, you’ll encounter switches for barriers that only let specifically charged blocks through, bounce pads that will knock a box around the environment, boat rides where you need to push and pull at posts to navigate lava filled lakes & circuit systems that need activation.   The puzzles of course start off easy enough and I blasted through the 1st few chapters quickly with the latter half of the game often stopping me in my tracks multiple times as I tried to decipher the next puzzle and the solutions only got more complicated.  There is a light story here involving you, D, and your companion Q, as she initially monitors your progress and eventually joining you as you venture further and further into this underground facility unlocking the secrets of its existence.

    You are the Magneto of puzzle solving.

    DeMagnete looks great, reminding of VR classics like Vertigo Remastered or even Budget Cuts with it’s cartoonish aesthetic built around a world that feels authentic and real.  You wake up in what appears some sort of underground living quarters and venture through a facility that looks futuristic and a little alien.  As you get through the campaign, the facility starts to experience problems, allowing for a little more freedom of exploration between puzzles, which is recommended as some of the discoveries hidden off your main path will drop some  hints as to the much larger story. Lighting effects are on point and there’s a nice level of detail to everything you can see from the little sparks of electricity bouncing off the blocks and circuits running throughout the facility to the towering doors and cavernous walls. Some puzzles are small, typically being in a room no bigger than the top floor of a house while others can be massive as you may need to move blocks across those larger rooms to press a button that’s very far away from you.  Your magnets show their active field of magnetism in the form of a see-through globe and are inactive when they are in your hands so you don’t need to fight their magnetic forces unnecessarily while moving them around and when put down, indicate which direction they will move, if any, if they are attracted or repelled by anything nearby.  It’s a fantastic looking game with a great sense of scale, impressive physics and a refinement in the visuals that we need to see more of.

    An ambient soundtrack accompanies you on your journey, oftentimes falling into the background ahead of the sounds of dripping caves and thrumming devices though is always there and helps amplify whatever situation you may find yourself in.  Q, voiced by the fantastic Ashly Burch, is ridiculously charming and endearing as your little floating robot companion who seems to be in charge of the facility but seems just as confused as you at times as she drip feeds tidbits of info about the facility while reacting in surprise when machines don’t work like they are supposed too.  Really, the sound design is also on-point with the overall presentation being a welcome break from the (too)many smaller titles we have been getting in recent memory.

    It’s hotter than hell down here!

    There is a quality to Demagente that seems to be lacking in VR of late with the emphasis being on the Quest headsets, which just can’t do what PCVR & PSVR can. As such, Demagnete is not only a welcome change of pace from the norm when it comes to VR in 2021, but also feels like a throwback to those puzzle/escape room type games like Portal or The Stanley Parable and that includes the level of polish both those games come with.  It’s not perfect, with the PSVR version suffering the most thanks the exclusion of those smooth locomotion options though there are a few other problems that I need to mention.  While the PC has smooth locomotion, when it came to getting into and out of my lava boats, I had to switch to teleport as the game had me colliding with invisible walls.  Some puzzles are also exploitable thanks the ability to walk through certain walls or even move your hands past certain wall types, allowing some complicated puzzles to be solved quite easily.   There is also no seated option for play so I either had to stand or play the game as a little person which thankfully didn’t mess anything up but my view.  Switches can also be really finicky as you need to keep your hand on them, though many are floating in place, subtly moving up and down and if I wasn’t looking to ensure my hand stayed near it, I often stopped pressing the button as I looked away, trying to move a block into position.  Lastly would be the save system, which only lets you start at the beginning of a particular stage but with each stage containing multiple puzzles, getting stuck on 1 and quitting will force you to play through that stage again to get caught up. Otherwise though, it was a relatively smooth experience and the 4-hour campaign was a treat from beginning to end.

    The taller the puzzler, the harder the puzzle

    DeMagnete is a puzzle lovers delight offering up more than 40 individual conundrums to get through in a great looking world loaded with detail.  The puzzles get very challenging, and the way magnets are used to solve them makes for an experience that feels a little familiar, but wholly unique.  If you are looking for a little more quality in your VR puzzlers, don’t look past DeMagnete as it delivers satisfying and immersive gameplay packed full of charm and polish.

    What would I pay?  This is $20 and a bargain at that price, assuming you like tickling your brain. If you are on the fence there’s also a demo available on Steam you can try 1st but I’m telling you, if you like physics-based puzzlers, you’ll like this!

    BitCake Studio provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Winds & Leaves

    Winds & Leaves

    Developer / Publisher – Trebuchet
    Price – US $29.99 / CA $39.99 / EU €29.99  / UK £24.99 / AU $44.95
    Release date – July 27th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Move Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR

    For those looking for a little more chill in their VR experiences, Winds and Leaves looks to bring just that to our headsets by placing you in the role of a gardener.   You are not just any gardener though as you are the only being left alive that can bring life back to the world after some kind of calamity has rid itof almost all it’s vegetation.  It’s up to you to explore, uncover secrets, and learn new techniques to restore the landscape to its former beauty.

    Spread your seed across the land!

    2 Move controllers are a must as you are in control of a (sort of) mech like contraption that allows you to traverse the landscape much faster than using your own 2 feet thanks to being able to raise and lower the height of your stilt legs.  The introductory moments in the game explain the core mechanics, and with a little trial and error you’ll soon be off, planting seeds and expanding your forests across the landscape.  Movement is handled in a unique, but sometimes cumbersome manor in that each of your mech’s legs are connected to handles so too walk you need to move them back and forth as if you were holding 2 massive levers.  That actually works better than it sounds, but there are no good turn options as it’s either 45 degree click-turning or by looking/pointing with your headset/controller and pressing a button to face that direction which, for myself, was really annoying, especially when combined with the incredibly intrusive guardian system, which at the game’s launch, can’t be turned off.  Mounted on your stilted mech are 3 items you’ll need to grow the plant life; a stick that punches the ground below you and creates a hole for the seed, a pouch containing the different seeds found in the game and a device which let’s you accelerate time by grabbing it and turning it on its side, allowing for those little seedlings to sprout into trees.  Where things get tricky is that certain seeds only thrive in certain soil types with some being discovered during the campaign with others having to be made by combining different seed types, creating new hybrids.  Expanding your forests will require more than just planting seeds, leading me to your 4th item, a sort of wooden Mug that contains the essence of the life around you.  When not walking on the greenery, that essence is used up and should you not make it to the next patch of green before it’s consumed, you effectively die and are sent back to your last checkpoint tree.  Those trees replenish your tree juice but in order for them to be active, you need to have your forests touch them and therein lies the overall game loop as you need to expand your forests where you can but must travel across the wastes which could potentially kill you.  Later in the game, you’ll also have to contend with weather that could kill your saplings as well as a grapple mechanic that allows you to fly to newer areas.

    Make you activate these post so you can travel further

    Winds and Leaves is a striking game though by no means is it a fantastic looking thanks to the rather simple art style used and some serious pop-in that can be off-putting.  This is an open-world title so if you see it, you can walk (or fly) there though natural barriers like cliff sides and a windy, dusty desert in between islands limits just how far you can travel.  The world can look quite drab at times though that is by design as your forests add a ton a vibrance, turning the ground green and rife with foliage while trees grow larger and larger and when you revert a large section of land, it turns into a full-blown forest.  Unfortunately, that pop-in did interfere with my enjoyment of the visuals as moving through any area will often times have some pretty glaring texture changes, especially on the tree’s leaves which may change shape and color as you approach them.  It’s understandable as the world is quite large and the game has to keep track of every tree you have planted with the only loading screen occurring when the game starts or when you die, which is awesome.  Ancient wooden structures are scattered around the landscape with some being quite small while others are massive and may even need to be climbed to unlock the next section of the game.  By far, the best effect in the game is your ability to fast forward time, which when activated has the sun and moon rising and falling while clouds blast on by and weather patterns shift around the map.  Watching your forest grow is always a treat and an effect that never really got old to me as it was always cool to just see the world transform before my eyes though the trees also follow the same growth patterns, so walking through my older forests, I noticed just how similar each tree looked.  The world is a series of islands, big and small, and separating those lands is a sandstorm that washes away all colors and is a desolate waste that saps the life out of anything in it creating a wonderful counter to the beauty that lies outside of it.  It’s not the best-looking game (It is optimized for PS4 Pro) but what’s here still delivers a solid show.

    Different soil types require different seeds

    While the visuals may be lacking in some departments, the audio design is on point offering a super chill and near therapeutic experience.  Some very light and effective fanciful music will kick in at pivotal points when you make some significant advancements, but for the most part it’s all about the sounds of nature.  Trees rustle in the breeze, rivers flow and your wooden footsteps crunch the ground below them making for a very personal experience.  Walking into the blight changes everything your exposed to as not only can you barely see outside of it, but all you can hear is the gusting of the dust while your energy slowly depletes and the pulsating music that plays only adds to that intensity.  It’s a beautiful game with equally beautiful sound design that amplifies the overall experience.

    Winds & Leaves is a game based largely upon repetition as you’ll be harvesting seeds by either picking them off the ground or off the trees themselves and while it’s easier to go for the low hanging fruit, you’ll have to climb many to gather the ones out of reach.  Expanding your forests will take time as you plant and pass time and plant and pass time, trying to reach the next tree that will recharge your energy for long trips on corrupted land.  While the walking mechanic wants you to move your handles like levers, I ended up keeping them near me and moving them like a pair of maracas and while that may sound less immersive, it still works surprisingly well and never annoyed me.  Each seed is marked by 3 symbols indicating its genome and when planting seeds, the game displays which species will grow in that ground making it very easy to see if you have the right seeds or what seeds you may need to plant to create the hybrid.  All the games instructions are told via cave paintings from the worlds past inhabitants so pay attention to them as they often tell you how to bypass the next obstacle.  The auto-save function worked great in my play with death just bringing me back to the nearest safe land without any lost progress.  Unfortunately, in my play I experienced numerous game crashes that sometimes cost me a little progression and while I expect this to be remedied near launch, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that they happened frequently and affected my game to a point where the last crash I had corrupted my game with no way to load a past save as PlayStation’s online backup was days old costing me around 4-hours of progress.  As such, I couldn’t beat the game ahead of this review but nonetheless enjoyed the experience greatly until I couldn’t.  As I said, I expect this to be fixed and maybe I just happened to be the 1 guy that experienced that issue, but as it bricked my game, I gotta mention it.

    You’ll have to contend with the elements which include tornado’s and rainstorms

    Winds & Leaves is oddly addicting thanks to its expansion mechanics which makes every tree planted feel like progress, and as such there’s a constant sense of accomplishment as I slowly turned the world from a blight to a paradise.  We have seen a few flora building games in VR, but for myself, this is easily the most satisfying one I have ever played and those looking for a slightly more chill experience should not look past this one as it’s a fantastic and unique title.

    What would I pay?  Despite the crashing issues I had, I really enjoyed the game and, assuming those issues are fixed, this is easily worth the asking price of $30 US as, this has some legs with a roughly 6–8-hour campaign loaded with a very rewarding game loop.

    Trebuchet provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Rhythm ‘n Bullets

    Rhythm ‘n Bullets

    Developer / Publisher – DB Creations
    Price – US $10.99 / CA $13.49 / EU €10.99  / UK £8.99 / AU $14.95
    Release date – July 22nd, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Move Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR, Steam, Oculus

    In the last few months, we have seen a few new shoot ’em ups grace our various headsets with Rhythm ‘n Bullets being the latest to arrive on the PSVR headset.  Like the title says, this is a mix of genres as it offers a sampling of a bullet hell shooter and a little rhythm combined with some very retro graphics.

    This stage gets crazy

    You’ll need 2 Tracked controllers (Moves) as each hand will control a ship that must defend the orb in front of you from approaching bad guys.  Where things get interesting is that each ship’s shots can alternate between 3 colours with the enemies coming in those same colours, so you need to switch your bullet types to match them otherwise your foes won’t take any damage.  Enemies come in a variety of forms and come at you slowly, so it starts of easy enough though by the 3rd stage, you’ll be frantically trying to balance all the games mechanics.  Power-ups will pop up from time to time, amplifying the power or frequency of your attacks temporarily and even slowing down time for a few seconds, allowing you to catch your breath and clean up the rabble that could be overwhelming you. Bosses will require all the same tactics as the enemies you face up to that point and will also need you to deflect shots to weaken the shields defending their vulnerable core with a shield ability that allows you to return non-colored shapes with all of these mechanics being taught in quick tutorial.   All of this is done to some retro electronic tunes and where that rhythm aspect comes into play is that, to get the most points, you need to shoot in time to the beat, a task way easier said, than done.  There are 3 stages to get through in the campaign with an additional endless mode which contains 2 more stages and has an attached leaderboard for those looking to prove their skills to the world.

    Boss battles require a little more strategy

    The stylized presentation has your ships fully realized, but everything else, backgrounds and enemies are little more than vector graphics very similar to games like Asteroids or the some of the stuff we have gotten from Llamasoft (Polyibius, Mooselife etc..) with some bright colours and dynamic backgrounds mixing up the games look.  Each of the 5 stages is its own theme and looks completely different from the rest and include a Tech City, Japanese Garden, Galaxy Zone, Holiday Forest and Retro zone with that stylized look allowing the game to run at 120 Hz on the PSVR.  All the stages are stationary with the Orb you need to protect floating before you while regular enemies come from high and low launching their various attacks, typically spawning in the distance and coming toward you with bosses coming in much larger forms.  Some of the environments are a little more dynamic than the others with the opening city stage being quite dull, but they all do the job and when the bullets and enemies start coming in large numbers, you’ll be too focused on survival to worry about what’s going on in the distance.

    Each stage has its own unique music playing and, matching the visual style, are some 80’s inspired techno electronic tunes that are pretty damn catchy.  That rhythm aspect needed for max points has your shots making additional noises upon impact with an enemy and I found it near impossible to try and time my shots to the music, especially in the later stages when you’ll be too busy trying to survive to worry about the beat.  Ignoring that rhythm factor, the sound design is on point offering retro ‘pew, pew’ noises and various effects and when combined with the soundtrack delivers a game loaded with retro appeal.

    The bosses also get steadily more challenging

    Rhythm ‘n Bullets offers a fair bit of challenge after the first couple of stages with that color changing mechanic always keeping me on my toes.  New enemies show up in each successive stage further adding to the madness though it shouldn’t take any more than 45 minutes to get through the campaign content minus that challenge factor which will hold a few people up.  Where the lasting appeal lies in this is the various ships designs you can use which require you to perform specific tasks like ‘beating the campaign’ or ‘playing endless mode 10 times’ allowing for a little personal flare in your ship choice and of course, playing said endless mode and climbing the ranks.  There is a ‘Relax’ mode in here which let’s you spawn and shoot passive enemies as well as letting you tweak the background visuals, but that kind of stuff really isn’t my jam and felt tacked on more than anything else.  I didn’t run into too many problems other than some slight tracking issue on PSVR when my Moves were to close together, which was easy enough to remedy.  For those that need it, there is a colour-blind mode which changes up the colours of the enemies to make them a little more distinct (something I always appreciate in a game) making for a total package that is small, but feels complete, nonetheless.

    Easily the coolest looking stage in the game

    I enjoyed Rhythm and Bullets for what it is, but what it is isn’t exactly going to blow anyone’s mind.  I dug the soundtrack, the variety in the mechanics and the challenge in the last stage and Endless Mode really had me struggling to keep from being overwhelmed.  For those that dug the Star Fox stage in Pixel Ripped 1995, I bet you’ll dig this too as there really aren’t a lot of shoot ‘em ups hlike this for the headset and this one is solid.

    What would I pay? This is $10 and if you are into these types of shooters, then I think that’s worth it.  If you are a little more on the fence, maybe wait for a sale as the bulk of the appeal in this one will be on replaying the campaign and trying to climb the leaderboard in endless mode.

    DB Creations provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • 1976: Back to Midway

    1976: Back to Midway

    Developer / Publisher – Ivanovich Games
    Price – US $19.99 / CA $26.99 / EU €19.99  / UK £17.99 / AU $28.95
    Release date – July 8th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Game Controllers, DS4 (PSVR)
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5)
    Store Links – PSVR, Oculus, Steam

    Ivanovich Games continues to put new VR spins on classic gaming genres with 1976 paying homage to classic games like 1942 and its many off shoots.  In Back to Midway, you play as a pilot from a future that has discovered time travel and must go back to classic battles and turn the tide in the allies favour however, every time you change the course history, the future responds in kind, making for a true to form top-down bullet hell shooter with a comedic twist and whole lot more.

    It’s a 2D top/down shooter like you’ve never seen before!

    You can use the DS4 or a single Move, and if you’re on PC or Quest you can choose to go with tracked or button press controls, as you are in a simulation cockpit of-sorts while viewing a giant TV Screen.  If you use tracked controls, you grab the joystick in front of you and fly the plane as if you were in the actual cockpit emulating an arcade joystick.  While this method works, it’s cumbersome and awkward and makes the game unnecessarily challenging and I highly recommend sticking with thumbstick controls.  The stages slowly crawl forward in traditional fashion with stationary enemies appearing as you fly through a stage while more mobile foes may fly at you from any side, including above and below your plane.  Of course, power-ups will appear in the level as you destroy the enemy units, powering up your shots, adding reinforcements or aiding in your defences with some temporary shields.  Each stage has 1 or 2 ‘immersion zones’ which transfer you to 1st or much closer 3rd person action as you fly your plane from the comfort of your cockpit though you still only move forward so navigation is limited to moving up, down, left & right with some of the missions requiring you to land on a carrier at the end, which I wasn’t always successful at.  Each of the 16 stages has specific objectives to achieve in and out of immersion zone which reward you with more points and more coin and depending upon how well you do at these, you may need to revisit previous stages as every few stages are blocked by a minimum star count needed to move on.  The coin can be spent in the store where you can unlock and upgrade plane attributes including health regeneration, bombs, increased firepower and so on, allowing you to take and deliver more damage and making previous stages much easier.  Online leaderboards challenge you to do better and that’s just about the core of the gameplay loop with the campaign taking somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3 hours to get through.

    Immersion mode (sometimes) puts you right in the cockpit!

    1976, at first, is a simple looking game with you in your cockpit, sitting in front a screen displaying some 16/32-bit era visuals with everything in the actual game looking great!  Your cockpit looks alright though lacks much in the way of finer details but seeing as how you’ll mostly looking at the screen that’s not the biggest issue.  Where things get fun is when the game goes beyond the game and embraces the glories of VR by having enemies drop in, appearing much closer to you and when you finish a stage your plane leaves the 2D screen and flies behind you which I always enjoyed.  Immersion mode puts you in the actual cockpit or just behind the plane and you now view everything in glorious 3D.  These sections never last more than a minute or 2 and don’t carry the most detail but mix up the gameplay nicely as it offers a completely different challenge from the core gameplay.   As enemies differ, new attacks show up and have you dodging various bullets in various patterns but soon enough you’ll be dodging homing missiles, lasers and even the environment itself.  While the game looks solid, when you start a stage, you are treated to a still image cut scene that uses images expanded way beyond what they should’ve been, providing some poorly rendered and recycled images of Dr. Ivanovich as he talks to about your exploits and for the reasons listed next, are the weakest part of the game.

    It’s like playing in a huge big screen with extra levels of 3D.

    Sound effects are point with every shot and vehicle sounding as I expected with a lively military inspired arcade soundtrack here to accompany you during each stage.  Where the game falls flat is the plot as explained Dr. Ivanonich, a scientist dude, who’s comedy stylings I normally appreciate but come in such a high number that they became grating in mere moments and while there is a slight charm to that whacky narration, it’s just to frequent and too not funny.  Whenever I encountered a stages boss, the music would also cut in and out randomly causing for some erratic sounds and everything seemed to get louder or quieter for no reason.

    I enjoyed Back to Midway for what it is which is to say that it is a great translation of that genre, but it still falls victim to its trappings, the worst one being repetition.  While you upgrade and see new enemy types, the first stage and the last stage feel nearly identical despite the increase in difficulty.  Upgrading my plane was satisfying as each increase in my planes abilities was noticeable, however slight, but as the game got increasingly more challenging, those abilities really just evened the playing field.  Visiting older stages after you have upgraded will more than likely increase your score but that’s assuming you have the drive to do so, which I don’t meaning any sort of replay factor is going to rely heavily upon how successful you were on your 1st attempts and whether you care about scoreboards.  Beyond that is a simple run of the mill top-down shooter that delivers upon the gameplay and while it utilized VR in some fun ways, it still ultimately feels like those games of old which depending upon who you are might be a good thing or might be a not-so good thing.

    Sometimes ‘Immersion Mode’ places you outside of the cockpit

    1976 delivers upon the promise of a top-down shooter in VR but is still hampered by the constraints of the genre.  It’s pretty slick when the 2D stuff goes 3D and gets right in your face, but I found the immersion mode was hampered by the simplistic and sluggish controls. Still, if you are a fan of arcade classics like this than I’m sure you’ll be happy with the package as it delivers classic top-down shooter action in a unique way.

    What would I pay? This is roughly $20 US depending on your platform and while not terrible, it feels high considering the repetition involved with the gameloop and I’d be happier with a price half of that as it does feel like a smaller game overall.

    Ivanovich Games provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Sniper Elite VR

    Sniper Elite VR

    Developer / Publisher – Rebellion / Just Add Water / Coatsink
    Price – US $29.99 / CA $34.99 / EU €29.99  / UK £25.99 / AU $38.95
    Release date – July 8th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Game Controllers, (PSVR) Aim, DS4, 2 x Moves
    Play Area – Seated, Standing, Roomscale
    Reviewed on – PSVR (PS5), Quest 2, Quest 2 w/ link
    Store Links – PSVR, Oculus, Steam

    With 8 entries in a meager 15 years, the Sniper Elite franchise has proven itself to be a reliable shooter based around the idea of hiding and killing your foes from a distance.  In Sniper Elite VR, you play a member of the resistance against the Nazi incursion in Italy circa 1943 and must take arms against your oppressors, fighting them at every turn and, as the stakes increase, your situation only gets more dire.

    You know the name of the game here…shoot to kill.

    On the PC and Quest headsets, this controls identically with said controls being familiar to anyone who has played an FPS in VR.  Beyond the base controls are a plethora of options that can tailor the game to your liking including a wide array of comfort settings that leave nothing out and even include a few color blind options.  You can further customize how you play the game by choosing how you grab and hold on to items as well as how you rearm your weapons so if you want to go the more sim route, you can, having to cock and reload every shot and grab ammo from your waist and place it in the weapon when you run out.  If you want to go a more arcade route, you can relegate those controls to button presses or even make things fully automatic, removing most of the simulation in the gunplay but streamlining the encounters as you fire round after round with little interruption. Those options are also available for the Moves on the PlayStation VR headset though I found the button layout to be incredibly cumbersome and quickly moved on to the Aim and DS4 options, which remove the realism of reloading weapons, but having an Aim controller in my hands while holding a sniper rifle is a sacrifice worth making with the DS4 playing identically but creates a disconnect between what your hands are doing in real life compared to the game.   Ammo will be scattered around a stage with grenades and explosives also being available though (thankfully) you don’t physically throw them but equipping them brings up a throwing arc marker so you can accurately toss them without fail.  It’s not just about sniping either as you’ll find a host of automated firearms, pistols, shotguns and few others that can be added to your arsenal and chosen at anytime at your armory, allowing you 3 custom loadouts.  Once you find said items and complete that stage, those weapons become available to you, possibly making previous stages a little easier as automatic and silenced weapons are found later in the campaign with the latter being sooooooo satisfying to use.  There are 18 stages in the campaign, each with their own 3-star objectives, some as simple as just beating a stage, doing so in a set time, using specific weapons, getting ‘x’ number of kills and so on, adding some fun reasons to go back to stages already beaten.  Each stage has attached online leaderboards with points being rewarded for accurate kills (headshots for the most points, of course) and the distance of your shot, time you completed the mission and probably a few more options I’m not aware of.  Some of the stages can be beaten in only a few short minutes while others are substantially longer giving the campaign a decent 6-hour length in my playthough.  I’m sure once a stage has been memorized, you could probably shave a few hours of that time by just running and gunning like a madman.  It may not be as ‘open-world’ as its non-VR counterparts and plays in a very linear fashion but given just how much there is to do here and the many ways you can do that, it still feels like a full game.

    Stealth is the key to a successful mission.

    Presentation is up next and while I wouldn’t say this is a AAA VR experience, it’s no slouch either offering up some impressive moments no matter which headset you play this on.  Playing on the PC offers up the best fidelity with better lighting, textures and details and thanks to the higher resolution of the Quest 2 (with link) everything looks crisp and clear making this the clear winner as far as looks go.  Playing on the PSVR offers up a similar quality though the lower resolution of that headset combined with the apparent lack of a PS4 Pro or PS5 optimized patch makes everything in here look blurry and washed out and while not terrible, is off putting, especially in the darker areas where textures are more washed out making some of the geometry look very bland.  None of these complaints for that headset are game breaking by any stretch and if I wasn’t comparing all the versions side-by-side I would excuse most of these shortcoming save for the “blurry” visuals which make everything just look a bit fuzzy.  Lastly would be the Quest 2 version which is surprisingly comparable to it’s more powerful counterparts thanks to the higher resolution of the headset. Sacrifices have clearly been made to cram all this game onto the Quest as textures and detritus around the environment have been dumbed down or removed completely but given the scope and scale of the game, it is arguably one the best-looking games available for that headset and it’s nothing short of impressive that Coat Sink managed to translate Sniper Elite VR to the level that they did.

    The presentation on the Quest 2 is impressive!

    As you progress through the story, you’ll start off in the besieged town of Pazzano before travelling across the Italian landscape in search of lost allies and retribution.  Destroyed cities, Nazi bases, factories, cliffsides & country sides all await your arrival, each of which carrying its own unique designs that change up how you play the game.  Some missions are almost exclusively all about sniping as you’ll be defending a location from a Nazi incursion from a high vantage point while others are much more compact requiring some more close quarters action as you sneak through hallways and tunnels trying to elude or kill your enemies with many stages mixing up the action by combining elements of both to make for a campaign that kept me on my toes though never strays too far from sniping action.  The Sniper Elite franchise is famous for it’s bullet cam kills which are thankfully in the VR version and are just as satisfying as ever no matter which headset you play this on.  You customize how often you see these from none at all to way too much and I set these to the minimum as they can really break up the gameplay, especially when was on a sniping role though are immensely satisfying EVERY TIME as I watched a bullet penetrate the X-rayed version of my target, shattering bones and obliterating organs before exiting the body.  You don’t have a full body and are just a pair of floating hands with a belt at waist level which is a tad disappointing but not unexpected with the guns you handle all being rendered quite nicely and as they are the star of the show, that makes sense.  Bringing your scope to eye level and zooming in on a target has never been more satisfying in VR and once downed, there bodies remain, highlighting just how deadly you are.  As I said, environments come in a wide variety and while it may not be the prettiest game on the market, the level design and polish in each stage did an excellent job of making me feel like I was in a battle for my life during World War II and that’s really all that counts.

    It looks good across all versions of the game!

    Audio is a little more a mixed bag with some odd choices made that aren’t’ equal across all the headsets.  The opening monologue on the PSVR by the protagonist some time after the war, plays to a subtle music track that cuts to silence while he talks before kicking back in during his pauses in speech, and then cutting off once more when he talks, is hilariously bad though I only noticed this at the game’s onset and only on that version of the game.  The music is timely for the era, offering up some patriotic war time music typical of World War 2 films and games, that kicks in during those bigger moments with many stages bathed in silence, which is good as you’ll have to use the environment to hide the sounds of you bullets and steps IF you are trying to play stealthily.  Those louder noises typically only come in the form of planes flying overhead or busted generators though a few stages have some wartime sounds that give you the advantage in surprising your foes.  3D audio is here, and maybe it’s just me but I found it incredibly erratic with soldiers sounding like they were right behind me when no one was nearby or maybe even a few rooms away and I quickly learned to not rely on my auditory senses.  The ambient noises sounded fine, but soldiers and other noises became too hard to tell where they were coming from causing frustration and this was once again especially apparent on the PSVR version.  As a bulk of the action in here is from a distance, this is less of an issue than it sounds, but it is here and it did bug me with it being better on the other headsets, but still being a minor issue.

    The missions where you need to assassinate a specific target are extra challenging!

    Sniper Elite VR is great, though admittedly I am a huge sucker for sniping in VR.  It feels like a more streamlined version of what we have come to expect from the franchise, but it still works offering a satisfying campaign that never once bored me.  There are a few odd choices or omittances made here that did take away from the realism like the inability go prone or the lack of a melee attack, the latter of which could definitely be used when trying to stealithily take down your foes.  Not all of the stages are created equal as some, on my 1st go, took no longer than 3 minutes to complete which was a bit jarring as it felt like I had barely started before it was over while others take upwards of 20 minutes or more when I was trying to play things safe.  You can run and gun through this, but the most satisfying way to play Sniper Elite is by carefully planning each shot and taking your time to get through a stage unseen and though no matter how you choose to play, with leaderboards, objectives and hidden items needing to found or shot in each stage, there are plenty of reasons to replay each level, especially when you factor in the various loadouts and thus play styles you can choose from.  I had no issues with tracking on the PC or Quest side save some minor jank when trying to manually reload on the quest which just felt a tad finicky as I fumbled to place ammo in my weapons and cock back handles though the PSVR is a different beast.  On PSVR I was constantly fighting drift with both the DS4 and Aim controller, oftentimes resetting them as the game became unplayable with said reset remedying that issue for a bit, but I always returned. I had very little tracking issues with the moves though my camera is placed fairly high to ensure it can see everything it needs to avoid tracking issues and give the obtuse button layout, I stuck with the Aim while playing that version anyways.

    Gawd I love the kill cam!!!

    Sniper Elite VR takes a few missteps and is a smaller game than I expected, but still kicks a ton of ass.  Sniping in VR just never gets old to me and the campaign did an excellent job of mixing up the action to ensure those that might get sick of the scope still have plenty to play around with.  In many ways it feels like a Medal of Honor Game with one soldier taking on the world in a linear WW2 campaign and that’s not a bad thing as it offers up a very satisfying and rewarding experience.  Bottom line here is no matter which headset you pick this up for, you are going to have a blast ridding the world of the Nazi scum.

    What would I pay?  This is $30 US no matter which version you decide to purchase and that’s a damn fine price for the content offered up.  A highly repayable, lengthy campaign that mixes up sniping and run & gun action with a variety of stage designs, objectives and online leaderboards and some kick-ass kill cams that NEVER get old!

    Rebellion provided The VR Grid with a press code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!