THE VR GRID

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

  • Boxed In

    Boxed In

    Developer / Publisher – Red Chain Games
    Price(PS) – US $5.99 / CA $7.99 / EU €5.99 / UK 4.99 / AU $9.95
    Release Date – May 27th, 2021
    Control Method – DS4, Aim, 2 x Moves
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR(PS5)
    Store Links – PlayStation, Steam

    Boxed In makes its way to the PSVR headset after being out for some time on the PC side of things and takes the traditional ‘match 3’ type game made extremely popular on mobile devices and places you ‘in the game’.   Now you need to blast or create blocks of specific color to create chains of 3 or more same-colored cubes, causing them to disappear as more appear behind them all in an effort to climb the leaderboards.

    Looks simple until you realize THEY JUST KEEP COMING!

    Armed with a Ds4 or Aim, this plays like a traditional VR shooter as you are equipped with a gun and must change the color of the blocks by shooting them, which will change the blocks to the color of the laser coming out of your weapon, which will cycle randomly as you shoot.  Using the Moves however gives you 2 guns, one for teleportation and movement with the other being dedicated to block manipulation.  Instead of changing the color of a cube, you can create a block by pointing at one of the cubes faces pressing the ‘X’ button allowing you create in an attempt to destroy.  Should you be feeling particularly adventurous, you can choose which direction the blocks come at you, either from side, above or below or you can remove the stress of encroaching doom by playing in ‘Solitaire’ mode which places you in a room where the blocks are stationary, and you can try and remove them using the least number of moves.  Multiple locomotion options are available for all 3 control methods with the default being click and teleport only, which I found to be rather cumbersome when compared to the smooth locomotion options.  Should matching 3 colors and 3 blocks just be way to easy for you, you can add a 4th or even 5th color into the mix and change from matching 3 in a row to 4 in a square, which dramatically increases the difficulty.  Of course, online leaderboards are present so you can see where your skills stack up compared to the rest of the world or just your friends.

    There are plenty of gameplay options to choose from!

    So, there isn’t too much to talk about in regard to the visuals outside of the fact that they work for what’s here.  You are in a black and white checkered room with the brightly coloured shapes coming at you from whatever wall you chose.  The floor of the room has a nice reflective surface and there isn’t too much else going on.  Your gun looks like a child’s toy and does little to impress but gets the job done with the best aspect of the game being the approaching cubes.  As they get closer the pressure only intensifies and that claustrophobic feeling as your space dwindles only gets worse which is made even more dramatic when the shapes are coming from above or when you are riding the boxes as they rise slowly from the ground.    Matching the intensity of the slowly approaching wall is some suspenseful very retro midi style music that perfectly matches the action.  Your gun makes little beeps and boops when you change a blocks colors or create new one and when destroyed, more beeps and boops follow.  Presentation-wise, Blocked In is not going to blow anyone’s minds, but what is here is really all that’s needed to get the job done.

    Boxed in works plain and simple and while it’s not shooting for the stars, what’s here gives a unique take on classic non-VR puzzle types.  This is basically like being IN a Tetris inspired game and for those that lamented the lack of immersion in Tetris Effect, you may find more of that here.  With that said, unless you are into score chasing, I think most will get bored or frustrated rather quickly.  Even a few solid tries will take upwards of an hour or so and the variety in the modes should give those looking for more challenge plenty to chew on.  Each mode is assigned its own leaderboard, so you know that the guys and gals ahead of you in points did so on an ALMOST even playing field.  I say almost as while the DS4 and Aim control identically, breaking up the controls on to 2 Moves provides its own learning curve as I was constantly fumbling over which buttons do what and while the scheme for these is simple, in execution I found them to be quite cumbersome.  That’s more a ‘too each their own’ type issue but I wouldn’t mind seeing some custom button options as even the defaults on the other controls could have better assignment.

    When the blocks come from up high, it feels like there’s more pressure!

    Boxed In will appeal to fans of games like Tetris or Bejewelled and if you dislike those types of games than this probably isn’t for you.  If you are into those games than combining them into a 1st person VR experience is a winning formula.  It’s simple but effective and I had a lot more fun with this than I expected too.

    What would I pay?  This is a whopping $6 US and for that price, if you have any interest than I say pick this up!

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

  • Gadgeteer

    Gadgeteer

    Developer / Publisher – Metanaut VR
    Price(PS) – US $14.99 / CA $18.99 / EU €14.99 / UK £12.99 / AU $18.95
    Release Date(PSVR) – May 25th, 2021
    Control Method – DS4, 2 x Moves
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR(PS5)
    Store Links – PlayStation, Steam

    We have had a few Rube Goldberg(esque) titles in VR though, as far as I have seen, none have truly captured the magic of making a maze-like contraption with proper real-world physics.  Sure, we have had games like Domino Craft or Crazy Machines, but both of those games lacked the true free form creation that makes messing around with these puzzles so much fun.  Gadgeteer released in early 2019 on the PC side of things and has made its way onto the PSVR headset and I see if it can live up to expectation or just be another throw away puzzler.

    Every contraption offers its own unique challenges

    You can use a DS4 or 2 Move controllers with either method working quite well save for the limited tracking on the DS4, which I guarantee will cause many frustrations when trying to make those finer movements and should only be used if you don’t have the option of those ball headed wands.  You can play with blinders on or off but that’s about it as far as comfort goes with click-turning being the only option available.  To move you need to physically grab and drag yourself around the house you are in which initially seemed awkward and cumbersome, but once I got used to the controls, soon felt natural and, in truth, I didn’t even mind the click turning though I’d still like a smooth option.  Your main hand (you can choose left or right) acts as your multi-tool and allows you to place, remove and manipulate the many pieces you can use to solve the variety of puzzles put before you.  Your off hand is used to bring up the items you can use and includes an undo and start button.  Each puzzle starts with a small box that will typically push a block or ball, triggering a series of events that will hit the small box at the end of the puzzle.  There is a lengthy campaign (puzzle mode) that essentially takes you on a tour of the house as you solve incomplete puzzle after incomplete puzzle, and they get steadily more complicated the further you get.  Each puzzle only gives you access to specific pieces and I urge anyone playing this to not hit the “unlock all levels” option in the games main menu as it will take a way a substantial amount of fun and satisfaction from playing through the campaign.  Should the pre-made levels not be good enough for you, you can venture into online “Maker” mode which lets you not only play other creations, but submit your own, ensuring essentially endless content save for the fact that not every user created contraption is a winner.

    There are a 100 items to play with

    Gadgeteer looks simplistic as you are basically playing in lightly populated house with puzzles placed around it.  The campaign takes you from room to room and uses the natural environment in conjunction with “floating” pieces to make these elaborate puzzles.  There isn’t anything in the way of lighting effects or crazy details, besides changing the time of day you play, but regardless of any shortcoming this game may have visually, I never once took any issue with what I was looking at.  The puzzles start off simple enough, tasking you with placing blocks in domino-like fashion though soon enough you’ll be manipulating ramps, balls, buckets, see-saws, hammers, shoes and a host more items that make this a true Rube Goldberg experience.  The physics are the star of the show and are realistic enough that starting any puzzle, just to see where my skills were needed, was an absolute treat.  What makes these physics seem real is that you may not always get the same result as the last due to the way the pieces interact with each other.  The satisfaction in watching these elaborate machines do their work is just so damn…satisfying, I honestly can’t think of a better word.  The visuals may not be amazing, but textures look good enough and even the “blurriness” I have come to associate with the aging PSVR headset is absent, leaving me with a pleasant and refined game that delivers where it needs too visually.

    As the experience is a passive one, there’s not a lot going on save for the sounds of the pieces you place and of course the orchestra of a successful machine as you hear domino’s fall, balls roll and items impact with each other.  This is all done to a quiet acoustic guitar soundtrack which just adds to the pleasantness of it all.

    Build in any room in the house!

    Gadgeteer really doesn’t have a lot of faults and any that are in here are minor at worst.  The controls are intuitive and though I did have some issues with my Moves when I tried to subtly manipulate any pieces, those tracking problems really only held me up for a second or 2 before bypassed them.  To place objects “frozen” in the air, you need to activate the freeze function which bathes the pieces in a light frost and on numerous occasions I would forget that it was activated causing me to place immovable objects that I subsequently had to fix which was annoying, but that’s really more on me than the game.  There is maximum piece limit when you want to create your online creations which may affect some grander designs, but you can still build using plenty of pieces and I’m sure most of the hardcore designers will easily work around those limitations.

    I can’t imagine how long it took to make this!

    There is a lot to like in Gadgeteer and even if you ignore the campaign and just want to see the crazy contraptions people have already made, it’s hypnotizing just to watch those in action.  I highly recommend playing through the campaign, which will take a few hours with the latter half having some substantially difficult puzzles and with the online portion already having a fair bit of custom created content, once fully released, there should be plenty of reason to return to this again and again.  Anybody waiting for a Rube Goldberg type game should be ecstatic with what’s offered up in Gadgeteer, I’m having a blast with it!

    What would I pay? This is $15 US and worth every penny.  You’ll know from the game footage if this is a game you want in your life or not and if you have any interest in these types of whacky puzzlers, then just buy it…you won’t regret it.

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

  • Solaris: Off-World Combat

    Solaris: Off-World Combat

    Developer / Publisher – First Contact Entertainment
    Price – US $24.99 / CA $28.99 / EU €24.99  / UK £22.19 / AU $34.95
    Release date – September 24th, 2020 (Oculus)
    Control Method – Quest/Rift – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers / PSVR – Aim/DS4
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – Oculus Rift, Quest 2, PSVR(PS5)
    Store Links – Oculus, PlayStation

    This review has been updated from he original to encompass changes made since the games original launch and the release on the PlayStation VR headset.

    The next multiplayer combat game from the creators of Firewall: Zero Hour is here and goes in a very different direction from that Rainbow Six style PSVR exclusive title.  Gone is the slower pacing of tactical combat and instead we are given a fast-paced E-sport style arena shooter, similar to Unreal or Quake, where teams of 4 must compete in king of the hill type action across several maps.

    GO GO GO!!!

    Solaris plays in traditional FPS fashion with a few little quirks that add a bit of depth to the action and plays the same whether you play on Rift, Quest or the PSVR save for the control options on the PlayStation side of things.   Your hands are tracked on the PC and Quest versions though your off hand offers little more than immersion as all your weapons are handled by your dominant hand and bringing the 2nd hand over just looks like you are stabilizing it without doing anything. With the DS4 and Aim controllers being your only options on the PSVR side, every weapon handles as if you were holding it with 2 hands so it pretty much plays identically to its Oculus counterparts save for the fact that game feels designed for the Aim controller, which is my favorite and most immersive way to play the game.  You can sprint and slide while running, allowing you to come around corners at an angle that your opponents may not be facing.   Each match starts you with a stock pistol with additional weapons being scattered around the map like shotguns and grenade launchers.  Also scattered around each stage are health pickups, mines, shields and a physical shield you can drop for some additional defense.  Control Point is the only game mode available which pits 2 teams of up to 4 players in classic king if the hill action where the hill in question randomly moves throughout the map after one team has spent 30 seconds of time in it.  Should a rival player enter that area, the timer is on hold until one of the factions is destroyed.  There are 6 randomly chosen maps and should you reach certain levels based upon the experience accrued from kills and victories, you can unlock custom modifications for your avatar with many of these requiring significant play time to achieve.

    It’s worth picking up a bigger gun!

    Solaris is all about polish and delivers a game with striking presentation thanks in large part to the superbly mapped avatars, both yours and your allies no matter which headset you play this on.  Other than some minor loss in detail and some slightly flatter looking textures, the Quest 2 version and the Rift version look surprisingly similar with the PSVR coming in 3rd thanks to its lower resolution screen, but still looks solid, just a bit blurry.  You play as an Athlon, Elite VR athletes who look the part as they wear some futuristic body suits with some very slick helmets.  Those helmets are how you view the action with the HUD in the helmet being very reminiscent of the Iron Man films and VR game and are a fantastic way of immersing you in this competitive world.  The stages themselves are rather stark and barren but pop thanks to the rigid art style used which combines simple color palettes and some neon lighting.  In truth, I got Tron vibes from the presentation and though it lacks the blue and black style from that franchise, the similarities are apparent.  That said, the 6 stages have dramatically different layouts but tend to look similar making the 6 stages feel more like 2 or 3 as they all felt samey despite their differences.   A visual standout is when an Athlon dies, causing him or her to fall or jump in the air organically in slow motion before fading out of existence which was an effect that just never got old.   Even watching your hands and arm animate just by twisting your wrists showcases realistic looking movements and when it’s all said and done, Solaris is strikingly beautiful in its simplicity.

    Audio wise, everything sounds exactly as it should with some light commentary thrown in courtesy of PSVR Frank.  3D audio is here though given just how fast paced almost every moment is in here, I was relying way more on my eyes than my ears to determine where the enemy may be coming from.  Some ambient 80’s sci-fi music plays quietly in the background and never gets in the way as far as hearing the action, but when I noticed it, it added to the future sport presentation quite nicely.

    Be quick or be dead!

    The best word to describe the gameplay in Solaris is refined, unfortunately the second-best word would be lacking.   A few of my smaller Oculus launch gripes have been remedied as you can now easily squad up with friends and can mute those that may be annoying.  Those additions are welcome, but they don’t fix Solaris’s largest issue, which is how repetitive it can feel.  I know they are going for the e-sport market with this one, but I personally need more from my multiplayer games as playing King of the Hill over and over just got old to me, especially with some of the balancing issues during matchmaking.  As many times as I had 4 v 4, I was just as often in 4 v 3 matches (or less) which makes for some very lopsided bouts.  You get more experience for finishing those one-sided rounds but getting my ass handed to me until the other team won just so I could run the clock for a few meager experience points isn’t exactly ideal.  Noticeably absent is a jump button which is obviously a choice made by the devs but I can’t really see a reason why it’s not here given the verticality in the stages and just how fast-paced this is.  Lastly, would be the promise of cross-play which has been delayed for reasons unknown and should be implemented sooner than later to help bolster the player base.

    Head shots are always the way to go.

    Solaris has an amazing foundation to build off of as it really does have some of the most polished gameplay I’ve ever seen when compared to other VR multiplayer titles.  First Contact really did nail the gameplay and future sport feel but as it stands today, Solaris just lacks enough substance to make me highly recommended this.  That said, if you are looking to kick some ass online against fellow headset wearers, what is here is still a lot of fun.

    What would I pay?  The asking price on this is $25 which, 8 months after initial release now seems a tad high.  With so many other MP titles out there, $15 seems a little more appropriate for the current content…or lack thereof.

    First Contact Entertainment provided The VR Grid with press codes for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • Layers of Fear VR

    Layers of Fear VR

    Developer / Publisher – Bloober Team
    Price(PS) – US $19.99 / CA $24.99 / EU €19.99 / UK £17.99 / AU $28.95
    Release Date – April 29th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – PSVR(PS5)
    Store Links – PlayStation, Steam, Oculus

    Haunted house experiences have been a staple of VR with so many being released it’s hard to keep track of them all.  Layers of Fear looks to take that genre to a new level offering psychological terror unlike any other game as you piece together the horrific events of the house prior to your arrival.

    The house gets creepier the more you play

    Layers of Fear is a game designed around suspense and terror but is a mostly passive experience as you explore this bizarre house.  On the PlayStation VR side, Moves are the only supported controllers and work well enough with a few comfort options in place to help those who get sim sickness.   Most of this game is just walking through the mansion, exploring every nook and cranny for items and articles that flesh out the story.  You can duck and run as well with the former being needed to grab items off the floor or open those lower drawers and the latter allows for a quicker run through the game, but can be too fast for the game, causing scares to happen as you are moving past them instead of ahead of you. You’ll encounter environmental puzzles that will require to find keys or items needed to move along and more complicated ones that will need you to be a little more observant as clues to combination locks will be nearby.  Each chapter is broken up a by a key item intrinsic to the plot and once discovered places you back in a room with a painting that slowly reveals itself with every new discovery.  Many of those discoveries come in the form of written articles found throughout the house and are pivotal in determining the games outcome.  There is an auto-save system in play that works just fine, saving often and once you beat the game, you can keep playing and to try an unlock 1 of the 3 endings available based upon the items found and events triggered during the game.

    Standard ghostly scares are here and they work pretty damn good.

    Where Layers of Fear shines is the mansion and the way it lays out scares and tension.  The first time I entered a room and turned around only to see the door I entered had vanished in place of a wall or hallway, I knew I was in for an unnerving treat.  Unfortunately, the conversion to the PSVR is a rough one with most of the game looking dull and bland with minimal lighting effects and lower resolution textures that do hurt the visual experience.  It’s not awful, but it’s unfortunate that this game doesn’t look as good as it’s PC or flat counterparts as that boost in fidelity would only amplify the tension in the house.  Regardless, the house itself is massive and a maze with every door possibly leading to any other room in the house with the scares coming in all forms. The house is in crazy disarray with disturbing art all over it thanks to one of the resident’s proclivity for macabre imagery.   Jump scares will abound as well as some more tense moments where walls may bleed or a ghost may be seen roaming the halls, but the best scares come in the form of the ‘visions’ which is an option that can be toggled for comfort’s sake but offers up an incredibly unique visual experience as your vision may blur, warp or skew entirely as you are assailed by haunting visions that may or may not be real.  The further you get in the campaign the more dramatic and intense these visions become, and I look forward to them and when my vision started to go a little wonky, I knew something horrific was about to happen.  As I said, it’s not visually stunning in any way, but the game design and pacing in the scares along with the constant level of tension make this one of the freakiest games I have played in VR.

    You probably shouldn’t talk to her.

    Where the visuals suffer, the audio does not and this NEEDS to be played with a set of headphones as there is a constant barrage of subtle and not so subtle effects and music that follows you throughout the house.  From the sounds of crying babies, screaming ghouls, rattling doorknobs and slamming doors, what’s here may be familiar too horror junkies but works quite well at keeping the player uneasy.  There is a little voice acting, typically triggered by getting those key items and I found it to be delivered quite well carrying with it some decent emotion surrounding the tragic story of the house.

    I was pleasantly surprised by Layers of Fear as I honestly wrote it off as being nothing more than a glorified walk-a-thon in a haunted house and while it is exactly that, the unique scares and overall tension had me enjoying this way more than I expected.  The presentation is definitely the largest knock against this, but the gameplay does it’s best to counter the lacking visuals.  I wasn’t aware of the multiple endings until I happened across a guide online and to get any of the 3 ending requires some obtuse choices that don’t seem like choices when you play.  One of those is to pick up the documents I mentioned, which is fine but in order to do this you’ll have to open every drawer and closet to ensure they don’t have anything and most of the time they don’t and in my play, after about an hour of searching everything, I just gave up as it was nothing short of tedious and unrewarding.  After my single play…roughly 3 hours, I was done with the game and cared little about the alternate ending as I was satisfied with the conclusion I unlocked.

    The visions get very trippy

    Layers of Fear delivers where it needs to be a satisfying and scary horror title.  The story takes some dark turns and while it does tread familiar territory regarding the narrative, I was happy with how everything unfolded.  If you have enjoyed past horror title like Paranormal Activity or Exorcist: Legion than this fits in right with those titles but offers some next-level scares in the form of the visions that separate it from the rest of the horror/suspense pack.

    What would I pay?  This is $20 US and worth it for those that are looking for a good scare.  The campaign is addicting, and the game constantly surprised me and only gets more bizarre the further you get.

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

  • Star Wars Pinball VR

    Star Wars Pinball VR

    Developer / Publisher – Zen Studios
    Price – US $24.99 / CA $28.99 / EU €20.99  / UK £24.99 / AU $35.95
    Release date – April 29th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, standing
    Reviewed on – Oculus Quest
    Store Links – Steam, Oculus, PlayStation

    Ever since Zen released their 1st VR Pinball game, Pinball FX2 and its subsequent DLC, players have been asking for more tables, which is fair as outside of VR, it seems like every other week a new table was being released on one platform or another.  Now, just over 4 years after FX2 got the VR treatment do we get FX3, or rather we get a bunch of the Star Wars tables released for Pinball FX3 including 2 new tables, a host of collectibles and other VR goodies.

    Welcome to your humble Star Wars abode.

    This is a pinball game so the controls here are pretty basic as you just use your right and left triggers to control the right and left paddles with some choice table option requiring a face button to select.  You have a couple options of play; the 1st is simply choosing a table and picking from tournament or arcade mode and seeing how far up the leader boards you can get with the former mode being much more simulation and the latter having more bonus stuff happening including force modifiers.   The 3rd option is career mode which will have you perform specific tasks on any of the 8 tables in the game.   These could be as simple as hitting certain scores within a certain time or playing solely with multi-balls or being limited in the number of balls you get.   With this being VR though, it’s more than just pinball and includes a few mini games like a speeder run, lightsaber duel or flamethrower game and while these are very simplified versions of what you might expect from those descriptions, they do add some nice little VR flare beyond just tapping paddles but are relegated to simply looking where you want to aim or button presses for lightsaber action which can be cumbersome until you play a few times.  Once you unlock a character or 2, multi-ball and duelling multi-ball options will light up on the tables for some added chaos with the former mode balancing 2 balls in unique ways.  Also available is the “Fan Cave” which is your Star Wars themed game room where you can display all the collectibles you have unlocked during your play as well as a leaderboard screen and Tv where you can select the games locomotion and comfort options when navigating the room.

    One of the new tables…this is the way.

    Just like Pinball FX 2, the pinball tables from the flat side of things have been ported over wonderfully into VR and include background distractions as well like droids that move past your tables, a nearby dark Jedi who tries to intimidate you or just some errant ships that fly past you in the middle of a game.  It’s those extra bits that add a ton of fantasy and fan service to the game as not only are many of the crazier moments on the table just not possible on real machines, or even on flat screens, they just don’t have the depth that VR offers, allowing you to lean in close to check out all the finer details.  The 8 tables are built around the original trilogy, Rogue One, The Mandalorian, Rebels with the final 2 centred around the Jedi and Star Wars figurines of all things.  Sorry sequel trilogy fans, nothing here for you…thankfully.    Each one looks great with some being a little busier than others, but no matter which one you play on, they each offer their own nuances that make them feel a bit different from the others. Total Immersion is a fun addition that lets you view the pinball action from inside the machine itself giving you an ant sized view of the machine, which is cool, but I don’t think score chasers will play much in this mode as it’s incredibly hard to keep track of the ball. The Fan Cave looks pretty slick too, once you unlock some decorations, and it’s fun to mess around with statues of main characters, posters and other props that make the overall spectacle here a fun one.

    In VR you can view the action from inside the table.

    One thing you can always say about any Star Wars game is the that the audio is typically on point thanks to the licensed sound effects and soundtrack.  Some of the sound bytes for the characters can be a tad rough thanks to them not being the original actors, but this is also stock for these franchise offshoot titles and they still get the job done.  The beeps, boops, whirls and other effects all sound fantastic with all machines constantly bombarding you with some kinds of effect as you rack up points.  There is a Cantina Jukebox which features many of the John Williams Star Wars classic songs we know and love so you can enjoy those tunes while playing.

    So where does Star Wars Pinball fail? Nowhere really?  Sure, you could ask for more tables but with 8 tables included with the base game including 2 new ones, there is plenty of content to get through, especially if you are trying to unlock all the collectibles or just get high scores.  Initial runs may be over quick, but once I figured out a table’s nuances, games lasted much longer taking upwards of 20 minutes or more before my reaction skills tapped out.  Pinball in VR is one of the easiest real word “things” you can put in VR and I honestly would have been happy with a small room and the tables given.   Career mode is a bonus for those who don’t want to commit hours to getting good and the motivation to unlock all those goodies to customize your Star Wars fan cave is a strong one.  Bottom line here is there really isn’t much to complain about except if you haven’t cared for Pinball in VR before as this does little beyond giving us more tables to mess around with.

    Each table offers its own unique designs.

    Pinball in VR is awesome and as a Star Wars fan, Star Wars Pinball in VR is awesome!  I love having my own little Star Wars space in VR and being able to customize it is kind of cool.  Those of us waiting for more Zen Pinball goodness should be ecstatic with these offerings as they deliver everything we expect from this franchise and even a little bit more!

    What would I pay? $30US is totally fine for this!  That puts this at less than $4 per table PLUS all the other content.  Leaderboard chasers will spend hours in here giving this game a fair bit of bang for your buck and even casual gamers have a lot to mess around with.

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

  • Maskmaker

    Maskmaker

    Developer / Publisher – InnerspaceVR / MWM Interactive
    Price(PS) – US $24.99 / CA $29.99 / EU €24.99 / UK £19.99 / AU $36.95
    Release Date – April 20th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – Oculus Quest 2 via link
    Store Links – Oculus, PlayStation, Steam

    Maskmaker is the follow up title to Innerspaces’s previous VR puzzler ‘A Fisherman’s Tale’ released back in 2019.  I praised that game for it’s wonderful use of VR and scale-based puzzles though it was a fairly short affair and I craved more!  Now just over 2 years later we get to see if that VR ingenuity can carry over into Maskmaker, a much larger game that has you assuming the role of a magic mask makers new apprentice tasked with continuing the work he started many years prior from the comforts of his mask shop.

    Making masks is oddly satisfying

    You never leave the mask shop or rather, your body never does, though by no means does this mean the game is small.  The core mechanic that pushes everything along is said mask making which is an in-depth and satisfying process.  Once you discover the creation room, you’ll be introduced to the process of mask making which requires you to have a basic blueprint for the mask whereupon you carve it out using a hammer and chisel (easier than it sounds) and proceed to paint it and add the decorations needed to make it magical.   Those decorations are where the game takes a turn as they are hidden throughout a mysterious world only accessible by wearing specifically coloured masks.  The initial 3 base colors (red, yellow & blue) bring you to 3 areas of the mask world with each of those broken up into smaller sections only accessible by creating new masks. This same formula continues in the 2nd half of the game when you unlock 3 more base masks, opening up 3 more stages to explore.   When navigating each world using full locomotion or teleportation (along with standard comfort settings) you’ll come across other mask wearing wooden beings frozen in place.  By summoning a spyglass found early on, you can effectively scan them, unlocking the blueprint for that mask and, once created, allows you to teleport into that being.  The thing is, in order to make these masks you’ll have to find those decorations scattered throughout each world and are often blocked by environmental puzzles that are creative, fun & challenging.  Some of these are as simple as turning dials on knobs in the correct pattern with others being much more complex like operating a series of dams or transferring potion ingredients from one mask wearer to another.  While you steadily progress towards each worlds castle and beyond, you’ll also find items that elaborate upon the story of the Maskmaker and the mask world as well as statues that reveal that there may be more going on than is initially apparent.

    Each world is it’s own spectacle!

    Maskmaker has a wonderful art style reminiscent of games like Falcon Age or Fisherman’s Tale with a more minimalist and cartoonish art-style that looks great in VR.  For the most part, you’ll visit several major areas during the campaign which include a beach, swamp, mines and few others with all of them containing an array of smaller zones including various villages, bamboo forest, caverns, cliff sides and a bunch more smaller biomes that are a treat to travel through.  While the art style used can look a little stark at time, there is an attention and care in the details that make it all feel very authentic.  Abandoned villages have items strewn about and are in disrepair, the looming tower in the distance hints at the ominous happenings that affected this world before your arrival with each stage packed full of plants, debris, and details that immediately had me immersed in this game.  The mask maker’s shop is a compact little building packed full of all the items you’ll need to create your masks.  It’s a fun activity that has you mixing paints and dipping items in said paints before applying them to a mask, mounted on an extension arm with new tools unlocking the further you get.  Creating new masks is a satisfying process not just because it’s so tactile, but also because the next magical mask you make unlocks the next section in your journey.  There is an overall refinement in the presentation here that makes it all feel very organic and while the game may seem to be quite small at 1st, once I unlocked a few masks, it soon became clear that it is much larger than I initially thought.

    You’ll have to work with yourself to solve puzzles!

    The care that went into the visual presentation carries over into the audio side of side of things thanks to some fantastic voice acting and ambient soundtrack which kicks in only when needed.  Accompanying you on your quest is the King of the mask world who elaborates on everything you stumble across and pick up.  His sombre and solemn tone carry with it a heavy burden and the undertones that he may be withholding information from you.  Back in the real-world, the masks hanging around the shop offer up advice about mask making.  3D audio is on point though there isn’t a lot happening at any given time with the soundtrack adding to the weight of heavier moments but falling into the background when you are just roaming around giving the entire game a nice cinematic quality.

    I almost instantly fell in love Maskmaker as there is a lot to take it and it all works near seamlessly. At the time of this review, the locomotion options are messy with click-turning having an automatic 180 reverse option mapped to pushing down on your right thumb stick.  As you also turn with that thumb stick, I found myself accidentally turning 180 degrees while turning 45 degrees at the same time causing for bouts of disorientation as I regained my bearings.  Smooth locomotion removes that 180-turn function and has a slider to increase or decrease the speed of the turn, but even at max is still painfully slow and I ended up going back and forth between both options until one drove me mad enough to go back the other.  It can also be easy to miss decorations for the masks so make sure you fully explore every area as paths may not look obvious and 2 times during my play, I was wandering around each masks area just to find a tiny item I had missed on my previous passthrough of that level.  My last issue won’t affect everyone, but as a guy with some mild red/green color blindness a few of the masks held me up as I tried to decipher some of the colors, specifically the orange color which looked both red and yellow at times though each blueprint does tell you at the bottom how many different colors are needed which helped me narrow down my choices.  All my issues are minimal at worst with my largest one easily fixed by a quick patch meaning that there really isn’t a lot to complain about.

    You never know what the game is going to throw at you next!

    Maskmaker is my kind of game offering up a unique take on puzzling by having you transfer from body to body, working with yourself to complete objectives.  In many ways it reminded me of Transpose, one of the best VR puzzlers ever made, but where that game lacked story, this one has it in spades.  The narrative has some nice twists and turns, especially in the latter half of the game and when combined with the pleasant visuals, clever puzzles and just how that story unfolds, I really can’t deny how much fun I had with this!

    What would I pay?  I am so cool with the $25 US asking price on this as it’s honestly worth more!  The campaign has some legs taking somewhere in the 6-to-8-hour realm to beat and entertained me from beginning to end.  Fans of games like Transpose, A Fisherman’s’ Tale or Red Matter should eat this up as it’s one of the most engaging VR puzzle games I have ever played.

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

  • ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

    ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

    Developer / Publisher – My Dearest Inc.
    Price(PS) – US $29.99 / CA $33.99 / EU €29.99 / UK £24.99 / AU $42.95
    Release Date – October 7th, 2019
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – Oculus Quest 2
    Store Links – Oculus, PlayStation, Steam

    ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos is the follow up title to 2019’s Tokyo Chronos, and while the titles may share a similar name, this is not a true sequel as it does take place in the same universe, but set hundreds of years in the future and has no ties to the original…at least as far as I can tell.  In this future Earth, the world has been decimated by Meteora, an alien life form that has devastated the planets surface, forcing what remains of humanity to live in the subterranean cities from which they fight against the monstrous creatures with giant mechs called Makhia that venture out to the surface.  You play as Chloe, an artificial human, who has been fighting the Meteora but has suffered a tragic loss that has not only affected her but has greater ramifications than anyone could have imagined.

    It all centres around Coco’s death

    As this is a virtual VR novel, there’s not a lot to work with regards to controls as most of the game is just listening or reading along with the story as it unfolds before your eyes.  That said, there is more to do in here than you might expect thanks to some lighter interaction with some environments and the mech battles that require you to perform some basic motions to line up attacks and while these moments are often brief, they break up the narrative nicely.  You’ll still have to button press through lengthy conversations but now you can make a lot more choices using the games ‘Libra’ system with some morale consequences as you choose sides in conflicts or just create your own narrative by making some selfish or selfless acts with potentially heavy consequences.  Complimentary to the Libra system is the Ariadne system which lets you revisit any choice you made in the game and choose a different one.  That allows for entirely new story paths that reveal more about the world, the characters and could lead to one of the many endings this game has.  Therein lies the drive to play this again and again as to fully play through this, you’ll have to replay the story over and over in a choose your adventure type game just to see what may or may not happen.

    Sit back, relax and enjoy the conversation

    Altdeus looks pretty slick with a large focus being on the characters who looked ripped right from your favourite anime and while most of the people you interact with are human militia types, you’ll be at odds with a cyborg named Professor Julie with some insane looking appendages as well the AI hologram Noa who is also along for the journey assisting in your control of the mechs.  Some of the settings you find yourself in can look a little drab and low resolution, especially the stuff in the distance though this is only apparent during a couple the areas with most looking smaller and thus better.  When in conversation, NPC’s will remain pretty much motionless save for their mouths, which animate perfectly, and the occasional subtle movements but most of the time, those characters will fade in and out into new poses as they continue talking to you.  There are a few moments when you’ll be doing more than talking as you interact with a few items scattered around a room or when you head to battle and take control of the mech as you try and defeat the Meteora, large orb like creatures that launch a dark energy at you.  A few other epic moments in the latter half of the story look great, the majority of this game is all about those closer interactions and you’ll spend a lot of time in smaller rooms listening to yourself and all the characters around you chatting it up but, given the nature of the genre, it all works quite well and even provides some nice surprises.

    Thankfully, the entire script has been translated to English so unless you want too (and you might) you can sit back and enjoy the unfolding story without having to read tons of dialogue, an issue that plagued Tokyo Chronos.  The voice acting is, for the most, on point though of course some of the characters can come off as either wooden or over-the-top but, once again, that’s on par for the genre.  Some great 3D audio is in place so when someone is behind you or on your sides, it sounds like it, making it easy to turn to see who’s chatting things up with the larger effects during the battles doing a fine enough job though these can sometimes sound a tad muted.  Still, minus the issues I’ll address below, the audio presentation and full English translation was a nice surprise and made enjoying the story way easier.

    Some choices matter much more than others

    My largest issue with the game comes when playing without scrolling text in that it can often times be near impossible to tell the difference between a dramatic pause and the end of that dialogue leaving me either accidentally cutting someone off as they are about to deliver their next line or waiting impatiently to see if they are going to continue while no one speaks.  Due to this, I ended up turning on subtitles as that made it much easier to see when these conversation prompts were happening though I still jumped the gun on moving conversations forward when they weren’t quite done talking.  You can turn-auto play on, so it plays cinematically, but after any Libra choice, that option resets back to default, forcing you to turn it on multiple times. I also found some of the dialogue to be a tad repetitious with multiple characters repeating the same plot points over and over to a point where I was rolling my eyes when conversations would just circle a singular idea for an entire 10-minute conversation that could’ve taken 1/4 of the time.  That is sort of the name of the game with the genre and while it was a little tedious at moments on my 1st go, once you beat the game the 1st time, you can skip just about any part of the game on your subsequent plays. The replay factor is high as it’s based upon the choices you have made throughout the story, taking sides or just going along with one character or another in order to reveal one of the many endings.

    The mech battles are a nice little break from all the chatting

    I appreciate the extra efforts made in giving the VR player something to do besides just listening to people talk and I’m sure you know if this is for you or not simply based upon the genre.  My 1st hour in this was nothing short of confusing as the game just throws you in with no backstory and tosses a lot of information at you, which was nothing short of overwhelming and did turn me off playing again right away.  Once I dove back in and completed the game and unlocked those new conversation options though, the drive to return just to see what might happen pulled me in for a few more goes.  The story may be a little shorter than Tokyo Chronos, roughly 3 hors or so, but that replay factor extends the game time exponentially making for an experience that will take 10 or more hours of your time before you put it down.

    What would I pay? This is $30 US and worth it, assuming you have an interest in the genre.  It’s superior to its predecessor in almost every way and I appreciated the sci-fi aspects it…once I started to get a little more familiar with the universe.

    My Dearest Inc. provided the VR GRid with a code for this title and, regardless of this review, we thank them for that!

  • ALVO

    ALVO

    Developer / Publisher – Mardonpol, Outsidein Entertainment
    Price – US $39.99 / CA $49.99 / EU €34.99  / UK £29.99 / AU $62.95
    Release date – April 13th, 2021
    Control Method – Aim Controller, DS4, 2 x Move
    Play Area – Seated, standing
    Reviewed on – PlayStation 5/PSVR
    Store Links – PlayStation

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    Alvo has finally arrived after its 1st announcement nearly 3 1/2 years ago.  It’s been nothing short of an arduous journey for Mardonpol as the development of this game was plagued by funding issues, dev team changes, cancellations and a host more obstacles that kept this game in development hell for way too long.  Video teasers in late 2019 showed some early gameplay footage and in that time the game has been refined thanks to an extended private beta and now we have one of the most anticipated games in the PlayStation VR library.

    The aim controller is soooo satisfying!

    All 3 PSVR control options are available and while the DS4 works alright, if you have the Aim controller, that is easily the best way to play thanks to the DS4’s limited tracking and the borderline broken Moves which anchors one hand on your weapon with the other used solely for navigation and removes the ability to move backwards or strafe with overall awkward button placement.  Regardless of your method of play, the game controls relatively the same using standard FPS controls more akin to what we see on the flat gaming side.  What I mean by that is that everything is relegated to button presses including grenade tosses, crouching or going prone, sliding and even climbing ladders.  Many will lament the lack of “VR hands” in this as it does remove much of the simulation factor many may be hoping for from a military shooter, but it is for good reason.  The advantages of that design choice are clear as the action is fast-paced and fumbling to grab at a grenade & toss it or scrambling for your next clip would spell disaster in the game this quick.  It feels much more akin to games like Counterstrike or Call of Duty than Onward or Contractors.  There are 3 modes to choose from; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch & Search & Destroy, all of which support up to 10 players and you can bring a party of up to 5 into the matchmaking.  The first 2 modes are stock for the genre with Search & Destroy mixing up the action by adding a little Firewall into this as players are broken up into 2 teams; 1 tasked with defending multiple locations from the opposing side, who must successfully arm a bomb at any of those spots and prevent the defenders from disarming it before it goes off with the 1st team to claim 5 victories being the winner.  The kicker is you only have 1 life each round but if you die, you can still view the map via multiple spectator cams and talk to your allies about the enemies’ movements. After each round, players can stay together and vote on the next map with money being accrued after each match that can be spent on new weapons, skins and attachments.  You can customize your player from a selection of male and female avatars with 4 different loadouts available to tweak to your liking and can be changed upon death during a match.  Those loadouts include not just weapon and attachment options but also your choice of 3 grenade types and a few kill steak choices from simple NAV reveals on your radar, remote controlled drones, a killer pack of dogs and a few more with the overall package offering a little of everything we expect from modern day shooters.

    I love this night sky.

    Alvo can look really good at times and not so good at others with earlier maps not looking quite as polished as the later entries though nothing in here looks bad.  There are 5-stages available at launch, some with day or night options which changes up the game a bit as it’s just easier to see your foes when the sun is high.  The scope of most of stages is actually very large and at first, I thought they were too big for just 10 people, but as it turns out, given just how fast you can cruise through a stage, it’s much less of an issue and allows for some sniping action.  Aiding those map sizes is an impressive draw distance that let’s you see enemies all the way on the other end of a level.  You’ll play in a house area with underground tunnels, an industrial complex with some impressive verticality, a desert town with tons off alleyways to sneak around, a close quarters mountain top monastery & city street.  Each one offers its own unique feel with some pushing for more fast-paced action while others allow for a little more strategy, especially in the larger ones that are designed with Search & Destroy in mind.  The nighttime settings just look better largely because the environmental lighting hides the games shortcomings when it comes to texture and environment design.  By no means does the game look bad in daylight, but the lack of dynamic lighting, shadows and some simple textures belies the games indie roots.  Character animations on the other hand look surprisingly good without much jank at all as do the weapons with an impressive inclusion being the scoped rifles that work flawlessly and are my favourite way to make a kill.  Alvo’s visuals get the job done regardless of some minor shortcomings giving us, for the most part, what we expect from multiplayer military shooters in VR.

    A few of the levels have some massive scale!

    Sound design is a little more suspect with menu’s and loading screens having some intense music to get you in the combat mood with the actual stages playing in musical silence.  Weapons all sound alright but some of the 3D audio can be confusing and misleading, especially when kill streaks are called in with drones and dogs sounding like they are on top of you no matter where you are on the map.  Playing deathmatch lets you chat with all your enemies while the team modes only allow you to talk to your allies with mics always hot unless you mute someone.  For the most part the audio is serviceable but just need some fine tuning.

    I really enjoy Alvo for what it brings to PSVR headsets but it’s clear there is plenty of room for it to grow.  A 4-month road map highlights plans to optimize the game further and add more content including new maps, weapons, attachments, and many other finer tweaks which is great! As it stands at launch however, there are a few, minor issues.  With only 5 maps, things can start to be a little repetitious and while you earn money towards those new weapons, attachments and scopes, there aren’t a ton of those in here either and I suspect that soon enough, most players will have unlocked everything the game offers making the progression system in here satisfying, but brief.  The move controls as they stand at launch are laughable and while I appreciate the efforts of trying to make that control option work, without thumbsticks, Move users will always be at a disadvantage no matter what control scheme is implemented. Other issues like sliding without any sort of transitional animation, spawn points that allow for camper kills, not enough fall damage from huge heights as well as balancing issues are typical at launch and once this is in the wild, I expect most of them to be remedied shortly after release.  Saying this feels ‘early access’ is a bit too harsh but I expect a few months down the road that this game will feel a lot more polished which is great because as it stands today it’s already a lot of fun.

    Get yo snipe on!

    Alvo gets enough right to make me easily recommended it to those who have been waiting 4 and half years to play something like it on the PlayStation VR.  Its not perfect by any stretch but checks off enough boxes to satisfy those looking for a fast-paced online shooter.  Any multiplayer game will live or die based upon the player base and I think this will succeed where others have failed.  Only time will tell but I can tell you that at launch, despite my issues, this is some of the most fun I’ve had in VR in awhile.

    What would I pay? This is $40 US and I cautiously say it’s worth that price assuming the developers dole out all that is promised in their 4-month roadmap. At launch this is 25% off and at that price, there is no good reason not to buy this unless you have no interest in online shooters.  It shouldn’t have taken this long to get a shooter like this on PSVR and thankfully, this one delivers.

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

  • Traffic Jams

    Traffic Jams

    Developer / Publisher – Little Chicken Game Co / Vertigo Games
    Price – US $19.99 / CA $22.99 / EU €19.99  / UK £17.99 / AU $24.95
    Release date – April 8th, 2021
    Control Method – 2 x Tracked Motion Controllers
    Play Area – Seated, Standing
    Reviewed on – Oculus Quest 2
    Store Links – Oculus, Steam, PSVR

    I’ve performed many “jobs” in VR, many of them from behind a counter or desk with few taking me into larger environments.  Traffic Jams looks to change that by placing you in a variety of city streets from around the world as you try and direct both traffic and pedestrians to safety.  Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it sounds and soon enough a wide array of obstacles will get in your way from getting those top scores and climbing the global leaderboards.

    It starts off easy, but gets very hard.

    A brief tutorial has your teacher, Dennis, explain the basics of traffic control which are extremely simple as you point at the person or vehicle you want to interact with and either wave them forward to speed them up or put up your hand in a stop motion to stop them.  To unlock the next stage, you need to complete objectives like getting higher scores, finding Dennis as he pops up a few times during a stage or any number of stage specific goals.  When the wackiness ensues, thing can get crazy.  You can only keep people still for so long as an annoyance meter slowly builds and when that happens, they will no longer listen to your instructions.  Some stages have large trams which slowly travel through the intersection hindering your efforts and you’ll have to contend with smog clouds that obscure your vision, a wasp attack, zombies and a few more surprises that may just be out of this world.  On your hand is a wristwatch that, when brought toward you, displays how to achieve each stages goals and with either hand you can perform specific hand gestures just for fun though it’s best to figure out the point motion as some tasks will require you to use that motion as the auto-point feature won’t trigger on optional targets. It’s a simple game, at least at first, with the difficulty of each stage getting only slightly harder, easing you into the harder stages and you’ll know when you have hit them as you’ll be causing crashes left and right as you try and keep track of everything happening around you.

    These tram cars are a pain in the ass.

    It’s not all about you and, if you have some friends around, they can join in on the action via a mobile device by visiting this link in a browser and entering a 4-digit code assigned to that specific game.  This gives the VR player the same overall experience, but let’s up to 4 other players get in on the action by having a top-down view the street and give them the ability to spawn their own people, cars and obstacles and if they spawn enough small stuff, they can summon some of the bigger events found in the game.  It’s a nice way to include your friends on that action as they get to watch their VR friend contend with all the chaos thrown their way.

    Everything in Traffic Jams is light-hearted and comedic.  Characters are little more than a series of shapes smooshed together and dressed up with a variety of costumes and… that works just great.  The first person you’ll meet is Dennis and for some reason I find his eccentric actions really funny as he puts off an ignorant smarmy charm that just works.  You’ll start off on a simple quiet 3-way stop with brick buildings, apartment and it all feels very small and quaint though each of the 5 stages gets successively larger and more complex.  There are some light shadow effects at play as well as day and night options, though for the most part everything looks fairly static save for what you are guiding and the obstacles that get in your way.  The color palette swaps also help ease that sense of repetition.   It comes off looking very simplistic, which is expected for a Quest game but everything in here works and animates well enough that I forgave its visuals shortcoming for the on-point gameplay which works near flawlessly.

    When traffic comes from all sides, things get tricky

    The emphasis is on the action happening before you, so you’ll be more focused on audio prompts then the ambient music and the devs realized this as well and placed some quiet happy elevator tunes to accompany the chaos of any given stage.  3D audio is on point, and needed, as it can be all to easy to lose track of what is happening around you.  Vehicles will honk impatiently; people will groan in frustration if they are waiting too long, and those audio queues greatly help in keeping the traffic flowing.

    Repetition is the name of the game here with each stage only getting more complicated and having a lot of goals, completionists will love the extra added challenge of those objectives.  Some of those objectives however can be incredibly obtuse, or rather they are simple, but the methods to go about them can be incredibly challenging or way worse, just confusing.  Tips during loading screens tell you some of the game’s mechanics, but not all of them.  Trying to stop a meteor is one such mission, but on the stage in question, smog would be blown in my face which takes time to clear and I could never clear it before that meteor crashed into the street.  Finding Dennis is easy enough, but the game never tells you how to do that or explains that your thumbsticks can make different hand gestures, which are needed to trigger that objective.  Some of this stuff, I figured out on my own but other tasks still elude me as of this writing causing frustration as I can’t unlock the final stage until I check off a few more boxes.  The only other issue getting in my way is the throwing mechanic as I just can’t seem to toss stuff with any accuracy forcing me to not bother with those challenges…at least not yet.

    Zombies mess everything up!

    I’m enjoying this more than I expected too and the extra stuff in here like handling zombies, finding Dennis and even the local multiplayer is a lot of fun…in smaller doses.  Despite the increasing difficulty, it is the same gameplay loop over and over and I did find myself turning the game off after a few stages, just so I wouldn’t get game fatigue.  For those job sim enthusiasts out there, this is something not only unique, but entertaining and a pretty good one to share with others too.

    What would I pay? This is $20 US and for myself, that’s bit high.  It will take plenty of time to get through all the games content (I’m guessing at least 3 to 4 hours) but the repetition and frustration did get to me and when combined with the more simplistic visuals, just had me losing interest the more I played.

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

  • Doom 3 VR Edition

    Doom 3 VR Edition

    Developer / Publisher – id Software, Archiact / Bethesda
    Price – US $19.99 / CA $24.99 / EU €19.99  / UK £17.49 / AU $26.95
    Release date – March 29th, 2021
    Control Method – Aim Controller, DS4
    Play Area – Seated, standing
    Reviewed on – PlayStation 5/PSVR
    Store Links – PlayStation

    Regardless of how you feel about this specific title getting the VR treatment, it’s always a good sign when a developer decides to port an older, lauded title to our headsets.  Doom 3’s original release was all the way back in 2004 to mostly positive fanfare thanks to it’s mixing up of the gameplay from the previous titles as well as it’s transition into a fully realized 3D shooter with nary a 2D sprite to be found.  Doom 3 really hearkened the franchise into a new era adding story and narrative elements that became a staple of the series moving forward and now we PSVR users get to experience all the horrors of hell on Earth….errrmm, I mean Mars.

    The big guns are even bigger in VR!

    DS4 and the Aim controller is supported with Moves being left behind and I’m fine with that as the action in this Mars science facility can get frenetic and having to fumble with a control scheme not involving thumbsticks would hamper the experience here. Standard comfort options are available for blinders and click or smooth turning.  The opening “tutorial” section is nothing short of awkward as your fists float in your face and cut scenes run rampant, interrupting any sort of rhythm as you try and get used to the controls.  Once you get a pistol and the hell finally unleashes, the gameplay becomes much smoother and falls into a more standard fast-paced doom formula.  As the game was never built with VR mind, many interactions you might want from being in this world are missing as you touch computers by aiming your gun as if it were a mouse and using your PDA via a stock flat menu. That PDA will be your main source of info as you find other crew PDAs throughout the campaign and can listen to audio and written logs that flesh out the story up to that point, reveal passcodes for nearby lockups and allow access through doors needing special clearance.  You may spend some time searching for those PDA’s as they can be hard to spot, but rest assured the emphasis here is on the action.  Enemies will typically lie in wait ahead of you, though often appear behind as well or burst out of nearby cover so you need to always be on your toes.  Thankfully, you have a not-so-trusty flashlight which illuminates the path before you as well as run and duck options to help navigate the more ‘platformy’ sections of the game.  You’ll find ammo, health and armour pickups throughout the story as well as new weapons which simply require you to move near them to pick up and are cycled via button press.  Bottom line here is that while there are a few breaks in the action, non-stop killing of the demonic horde is always at the forefront of the game.

    Despite it’s age, some of the enemies are just as disturbing as ever!

    Doom 3 has been cleaned up for Virtual Reality, but still looks very much like the 2004 version save for few elements.  I don’t want to harp on this too much as this game is 17 years old and, in many ways, it shows, particularly in the character and monster models which have very sharp edges and some dated textures with the lower resolution of the PSVR headset making the game looking a little muddy at times.  Cutscenes also remove you from VR and are displayed as cinematic screens only which is especially annoying during games opening section but eases up after the 1st hour.  It’s in those transitions when you’ll see the resolution increase for cut scenes, then drop when you are placed back in the game and I’m not quite sure why there is such a dramatic change for an older game.  With that in mind though, being in the world of Doom kicks ass and having Imps, Demons Revenants and every other type of Hell spawn in your face is awesome.  The corridors of this facility are dark with the lighting effects this game was praised for back in 2004 still looking sharp even by today’s standards.  As this is a AAA title from yesteryear, the care and quality we expect from bigger games is still here with some huge levels extending over the 10+ regular campaign plus the 2 included DLC packs, Resurrection of Evil & The Lost Mission.  The facility is fully realized with crew quarters, mess halls and a variety of sections devoted to other ‘sciency’ stuff.  You won’t just be chilling in the comfort of your Mars home and will have to occasionally venture out the planets surface, trying to get from one building to the next while enemies assail you and your oxygen depletes.  No Doom game is complete without a visit to Hell and the underworld in this looks amazing with flowing lava falls, monstrous statues & floating rocks which make for some light platforming while you try and get to the big bad.  Shadow effects, weapons and your wristwatch have been optimized for VR, so your ammo is always on display with your watch providing your health and armor info.  While it does suffer from its age, Doom 3 is no slouch and still delivers a solid looking and expansive VR game!

    Interacting with computers feels off.

    Doom was known for its more upbeat ass-kicking music tracks and while those are in here, Doom 3 looks to be a little more cerebral with long moments of musical silence adding to the overall suspense that never lets you breathe a sigh of relief.  Gun volume has been amplified giving every weapon a little more kick and I swear the monsters are even louder too, but that could just be in my head as they are just so much larger in VR.  The voice-acting in here is more cheesy than serious, but given just how ‘B’ movie this whole franchise is, I dug the over-the-top performances.  3D audio is also used quite well and was a life saver on more than a few occasions as enemies tried to surprise me from behind.   Presentation wise, just about everything in here delivers what it is supposed too, making for a fantastic, fully realize classic VR FPS.

    Of all the weapons in the game…none is more trusty that the shotty!

    For those looking to scratch that nostalgia itch, this plays almost exactly like the original version of the game and that’s not a bad thing at all.  The extra immersion added by VR like letting you shoot around corners and having all your vital statistics added to your arms and weapons is a great work around to any kind of on-screen HUD.  Accessing audio and text logs through the PDA is nothing short of cumbersome as it’s just not organized that well and I found myself constantly scrolling through sub menu’s as I tried to track down an errant locker code though at worst, this is just a minor convenience.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Dr. Beef Quest version which does not play as well as this but managed to figure out a way smoother solution to keep cut scenes in VR and also gives you the use of both hands to mess around with your PDA and monitors.  Not having 2 separate hands in this can feel weird at times but using the Aim controller and feeling those 2-handed weapons in both my hands is a trade-off I’d happily make.  Other than that, and the dated visuals, this a faithful port that brought be back to a time when ass-kickery was still at the forefront of the Doom franchise, just with a little more suspense sprinkled in for good measure.

    The bigger they are…

    Doom 3, for myself, is a prime example of why older games can see new life in Virtual Reality.  This is pushing 20 years old and while there have been some minor improvements to this version of the game, that original 2004 experience is still here and… it’s still awesome!  I would love to see more ports of older games (where you at Bioshock?) and this has proved that VR makes for a better gaming experience and can revitalize older titles.  There is literally no good reason not to play this as it offers a substantial campaign, DLC and the classic Doom action we expect from the franchise. Aim controller kicks ass and while that, and the DS4 support, does remove a lot the expected interactivity of your hands in VR, holding a big rifle while holding a big gun in a game just feels fantastic.

    What would I pay?  This $20 US and totally worth it.  I love the pricing on this as they could’ve probably charged a few more bucks without much complaint but decided to appeal to the masses and make this one of the easiest purchase decisions in PlayStation VR’s history.  Unless you hate shooters, you owe it to yourself to revisit this modern classic in Virtual Reality!

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