In this post-apocalyptic world, hell has quite literally frozen over. A freak ice age has decimated humanity and given rise to the Snowbreed, kind of zombie ice-people that freeze you solid instead of eating your brains. Thankfully, it doesn’t need to make a lot of sense, as it’s all just a vehicle to scare your pants off and give you things to shoot at.

The campaign revolves around slaying Snowbreed and collecting Harvest as you make your way from one safe house to the next. Each time you reach a place of safety you can spend the Harvest on upgrades and consumables such as explosives, as well as top up your ammo. There’s not a great deal of gameplay variety, but then even titles like Back 4 Blood are focus-designed to produce a very specific gaming high and this is no different.

What gives it the spin is that, in VR, shooting rampaging hordes of zombies feels more desperate and at the same time more cathartic. But it does take some getting used to, especially if you’re not accustomed to fast-paced action in VR. If you can handle the inertia of smooth turning, it’s not a million miles from a normal shooter. If like me you struggle to keep your dinner down during long VR sessions, then the teleport movement will help but immersion takes a knock.

Yet, blasting away with two guns, reloading as you backpedal to relative safety, or hurling pipe bombs into a charging mass really don’t get old. Playing with friends elevates the experience further, as the feeling of companionship and camaraderie in the face of overwhelming odds is nothing short of addictive. There are several settings to adjust for comfort, too, such as the height if your gunbelt and how you select different weapons.

I played After the Fall on two different VR platforms during review, with varying results. On Vive Pro 2, the graphics are crisp and the engine runs like melted butter on a crumpet, but the Pro itself is an expensive acquisition and requires a significant time investment just to set up. It also asks a lot in terms of space, which was my main struggle. On the Meta Quest 2, the graphics take a noticeable hit, but the freedom of movement and room requirements just make it more convenient.

Either way, the sound design is more important than what the world looks like. Neither version is bad-looking and there’s enough ambient detail to bring the environments around you to life, but the sound is where the atmosphere really excels. You’ll hear the distant hordes coming closer, gunfire has a visceral, jarring kick to it, and it’s a really immersive experience.

Weapon acquisition in After the Fall is interesting, and adds an element of grind that works well with the relatively short missions. As you explore and survive you’ll find Floppy Discs (this being an alternate history where the world ended in the 80s, which for many will be pretty on-the-nose). Each one can be used to unlock new weapons or upgrade existing ones. The recent Shock and Awe update added a Tommy Gun to the arsenal, for example. Vertigo have done a good job making each weapon feel different and unique, but honestly I just have more fun John Wick-ing everywhere with twin twin pistols.

The lack of a dedicated melee attack is somewhat jarring though. While there are tactile elements such as opening lockers and interacting with the environment, you can’t pick up a piece of 2×4 or baseball bat and go ham. It’s especially noticeable when you’re surrounded and you can’t punch or push the Snowbreed and have to just keep trying to backpedal or shoot them. Of course this is where playing as a team comes in, as you’ll need to protect one another to stay alive.

The simple mission structure, replyability and overall catharsis of After the Fall make it a triumph of VR gaming. Whether you’re on a state-of-the-art headset or a more affordable version, the action is fast-paced, satisfying, and stylish.

The post After the Fall review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

YUKI opens up in the bedroom of an anime-obsessed schoolgirl, enamoured by a fictional character called Yuki The Space Ranger. Flipping open a box in front of you reveals an action figure of the aforementioned hero. All wings and sleek anime design, Yuki could have been ripped straight from a Cave shooter. You are whisked into the fantastical imagination-world of the young lass, which means an incredibly intense third-person, rogue-like rail shooter.

YUKI: Bullet-hell in VR

Some of the gameplay recalls the likes of Rez or the Panzer Dragoon titles, however the way that danmaku stylings have been implemented her is borderline genius. You control Yuki using two Move controllers. The right looks after movement, aiming and shooting, whereas the left controls a feline-styled floating orb that is used to hoover up power ups and collectables. You know how in a 2D bullet hell game you have to collect all kinds of medals, gemstones and other stuff that spills from your defeated foes? This cute cat ball thing does that here.

Apart from some impressive and memorable boss designs, the enemy grunts, AI and movement patterns are for the most part pretty dull and uninspiring. The shooting and weaponry could do with a bit more grunt and oomph, it needs to feel meaty and destructive. What isn’t dull are the swathes of bullets you need to twist, turn and negotiate. This aspect of the game is incredible fun. It becomes quite physical as well – you will need plenty of room if you are to attempt to play this one standing up. Yeah, my arm hurts, but I just burned off that half a box of mince pies I had earlier.

Randomised reality

Every run is ostensibly different – however there’s not a huge amount of variety on offer. As can often be the case with randomised levels, sometimes you end up in situations where you have no hope of progressing – such as being thrown into a crazy maze of beams and structures whilst a bunch of enemies fling balls of ordnance at you from every angle. Thankfully this doesn’t occur that often.

What is cool is the way that once you get wiped-out on a playthrough you can spend the in-game currency you have hoovered up on pimping Yuki with improved firearms and abilities. Once you rub out the end boss, there isn’t a great deal left to play for, but what you do get is fun, looks terrific, and gives a high-octane approximation of what it would be like to vicariously spend a day inside a Japanese TATE arcade cabinet.

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Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife: A creeping sense of dread

Familiarity with the source material is far from essential here. The narrative-driven plot is easily enjoyed without understanding the lore and history. Eschewing vampires, werewolves and quasi-historical settings of other Darkness tie-ins, this one is set in a sprawling modern mansion. It is the home of elderly Hollywood actor Howard Barclay, and is one of the most unsettling places I have ever explored in a videogame. The game begins by introducing our protagonist Ed, who has been on an assignment at Barclay’s gaff to photograph a séance.

Anyone with even a passing acknowledgment of the horror genre knows that messing with seances and the mysteries of the unknown usually leads to some bad stuff happening. And lo and behold, poor Ed has woken up to realise he somehow pegged out during this attempt to communicate with the dead, and is now a Wraith. Donning the VR headgear, it is up to you to help the ghostly ex-snapper find out what the hell happened, in the crumbling, disturbing setting of a bizarre shadow-version of the Barclay Manor. Brrrr.

Something strange in the neighborhood

I don’t want to give too much away, as the plot and the slow trickle of abilities and surprises are key to what keeps this one fresh and interesting. Essentially, Ed is not alone in this vile, decaying palace. He encounters the Shadow version of himself, who helps him come to terms with the new crazy ghost abilities he can now harness, borne of the more negative aspects of his living personality. And then of course there are some nastier, altogether more evil denizens patrolling the mansion.

These Spectres will attack Ed, and it is up to you to either employ stealth to avoid them, or use your meagre array of weaponry to defend yourself. Sneaking past them is far from easy, as they can pick up on the slightest noise, like when I triggered an attack by messing up and stepping on some broken glass. You soon begin to feel terribly vulnerable, which increases the sense of foreboding and dread. It is immersive VR horror at its best – helped immensely by a deliberately slow pace, exceptional sound design and music, and well-earned moments of action amidst the tension.

The Spectres are absolutely horrifying, and every encounter with them is a ghoulish, pulse-quickening highlight. Amazingly, you also find yourself almost empathising with these poor wretched creatures, as you discover their fate in death, and how they ended up with their grotesque physical appearances. The story is exceptionally well constructed, even if the voice acting can sometimes be a bit dopey. It brings in loads of elements from the source board game that long time fans will recognise, but tells a blinding story that explores the nature of life after death, and gives proper humanity to its cast of tragic characters.

Afraid of the dark

Fast Travel Games have actually gone on record to acknowledge that the lengthy cutscenes and dialogue may not always be ideal in a VR game. But if you get as absorbed by the atmosphere and plot as I did, it shouldn’t be too much of a chore. There are intuitive controls and comfort settings that allow you to play seated or standing. With options around the amount of blur, I had no issues with nausea or discomfort in the six or so hours I spent being suitably panic-stricken in Barclay Manor.

The visuals are far from a tour-de-force, but the fact you know you are in a shadowy nether-realm and the wonderful creeping sense of dread mean that it is easy to suspend your disbelief. Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife is probably the best VR horror game you will play this year. Treat yourself to a disturbing outpost of the World of Darkness.

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It’s storytelling is fairly clumsy. While I commend Rebellion for bothering, the issues arose early. As the game opens, your Italian sniper is reminiscing about his past, watching a family cavort in their garden while reminding us that, no matter how cool a slow-motion kill-cam is, war is hell. Only I’m not listening. Like, at all. Instead I’m faffing with the stuff in front of me, wondering if I can pick any of it up and throw it at the family. Not out of malice, but because that kind of thing is cool. Sadly I can’t, and by the time I’ve come to terms with it, the tableau is fading and the scene is seguing into some military base or another.

Sniper Elite VR: Exhilarating kill-shots

Now I’m in more familiar territory. Things are exploding, people are running. As I fumble with my rifle I half-hear the word “tank” and my ears prick up like a dog hearing the word “walkies”. Unfortunately, the opportunity to one-shot a Panzer from the nearby rooftop does not present itself. Obviously Sniper Elite VR thinks I came here to sight-see. It’s fine. There’ll be heads to pop later.

Sure enough, it’s not long before my prayers are answered. After roughly four attempts I grab the handgun the game offers me with the air of a man who has a burger in one hand but must also burden himself with celery. I also follow the on-screen instructions on how to load my rifle, and learn that I must chamber a round between each shot on this particular gun. I will then proceed to forget this fact every three seconds for the next forty-five minutes.

Anyone who has played a sniper game in VR will know that it’s not easy. You can’t correctly triangulate the rifle without a solid grip, and so achieving a steady hand is about as likely as slicing the top off an egg while on a rollercoaster. Instead, you have to rely on the fact that you can squeeze the left trigger to enter Focus Mode. This slows your character’s breathing, forces the reticule to move less, and allows you a better chance to hit your target.

Snipe train

My biggest problem with the shooting in Sniper Elite VR is that immersion simply goes out the window. I played on Oculus Quest 2, and whenever I automatically crouched with my real legs, I’d lose vision or find myself stuck in my own ammo belt. Instead you have to push a button to crouch, which isn’t the end of the world. Much more of a problem is that when I brought my hands up to a point that the imaginary rifle felt somewhat comfortable, I’d lose vision down the sight. I was constantly compensating for this, which ruined my enjoyment over and over again.

I hasten to course-correct this review before you begin to think I didn’t like the game. In actual fact I really enjoyed a lot of it. Nailing a long distance shot is an exhilarating feeling, especially as there’s an option to leave bullet-tracking on. And yes, that means if you want to shoot a Nazi directly through the spleen and follow the bullet’s entire journey like you’re an unlucky fly with a high calibre round stuck up its arse, you can. Really, the narrative becomes less and less important in direct parallel to how competent you become with the rifles. You just don’t need it. All you’ll want to do is get back out there and snipe. If you want to turn the accessibility options off and contend with wind resistance and bullet drop, etc, you can do that too. I didn’t, because I have the hand-eye coordination of a drunk gibbon.

Reverting to snipe

That said, it becomes irritating every time Sniper Elite VR stops you sniping and makes you shoot people with handguns and machine guns. I’ve played plenty of VR games with shooting mechanics, from Arizona Sunshine to SuperHOT to Pistol Whip. I know how satisfying it can be to put virtual holes in virtual heads. Sadly, unless you’re sniping, Sniper Elite VR misses the mark more often than not. Other weapons feel imprecise and sluggish, and don’t even bother with the melee attack. As a result, any time I had to indulge in close combat I got really apathetic towards the whole experience.

I will commend the comfort options though. As someone who gets motion sickness from walking to the loo too quickly, having the option to teleport and snap-turn was a plus. You can also play the whole game sitting down if you want to, though try to avoid slamming your head down on the desk when you instinctively duck a tank round. This hurts almost as much as an actual tank round in the face. Believe me.

Sniper Elite VR: Make every shot count

Graphically, Sniper Elite VR does a decent enough job. Obviously you’ll have a better experience on Rift than on Quest, but it’s not awful either way. Textures are a little feathery and the level of detail is low, but the important things are there. The slow-motion Nazi kill-cam, for example, is still great. Ultimately, Sniper Elite VR has the goods where it counts. If you can find the right level of comfort or, perhaps, the right position, the sniping is very good. Moving through the stages is easy regardless of your preferred comfort level. And it’s exciting.

Popping up to nail that perfect shot while bullets click-clack off the wall by your face is thrilling. Hitting the perfect trajectory to smash another sniper’s eyeball to mush like that one bit in Saving Private Ryan is excellent. It’s just a shame that any time you’re not actively sniping, you’ll be really, really wishing you were.

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Having purchased the Oculus Quest 2 in order to leave the tangle of wires behind and experience VR plus freedom of movement (honestly, there’s nothing worse than getting your hand caught in a cable as a headcrab zombie staggers towards you), I’ve been trying a handful of different titles. Being able to move the Quest 2 to a different room away from the fairly confined space of my PC set-up has allowed me to sample a variety of VR games, such as The Climb, Vader Immortal, and this, In Death Unchained, a roguelike bow shooter from Superbright.

First things first, I have a history of suffering inertia after prolonged sessions in VR, but thanks to the Quest 2’s wonderful head-tracking tech and the fact that many VR devs actively work to assuage these problems, it’s been getting easier. In Death Unchained, for example, I can play for hours and the only complaint is that my arms are knackered.

In it, you play an unnamed fallen angel fighting their way back up through Purgatory to reach Heaven, which for some reason involves taking a bow and arrow to the heads of a parade of ghastly monsters, corrupted knights, cherubic nasties, and massive bosses. Combat is all bow-based, and you have a shield to block incoming attacks and a nifty dodge move to slip out of harm’s way in a pinch.

Set across a network of floating battlements, towering spires, and shadowed archways, In Death Unchained features a roguelike structure that gives you one life per run, though once you unlock additional areas they stay unlocked. Interestingly, though it does support free movement, I found that the alternate mode works better. This allows you to fire a teleport arrow wherever you want to go and, provided you can land the arrow, you’ll teleport there instantly. It’s handy for getting around the place fast if you want to, but it’s also the ideal way to take your time, too, picking your way through the corridors to assess what lies ahead.

All enemies have an audio tell, so you’ll know what type of monster is ahead of you but not the quantity. Some will charge you, others will stagger towards you, launch arrows from afar, fly at you, or float through walls seemingly out of nowhere. A variety of special arrows that free, burn, or launch a burst of ammo at the enemy can help turn the odds in your favour, but things like healing grails and save points are few and far between.

Sooner or later you’ll unlock the crossbow, which is more powerful and arguably more accurate, but it never felt to me as much fun as using the bow, though it’s certainly easier on the upper arms. It makes boss fights that much easier, too, as you can do more damage and equip special bolts that, for example, explode on impact.

The boss fights themselves are possibly the weakest element. There’s no doubt that they’re incredibly tough, and massively tense as a result, but they also feel weirdly at odds with the creeping dread of the minute-to-minute gameplay.

At certain points in each randomly-generated area, you’ll find a point where you can save and take a break, or buy ammo and health if you have enough gold. And at the end of a mission, you’ll see the progress you’ve made towards a huge variety of milestones which take the sting out of the relatively sparse character progression by at least making you feel like you’re achieving something.

But it’s in the rhythm of the raw combat that In Death Unchained really sinks its claws in. The shuffle of approaching enemies, the physics of each soaring arrow, the elation when you speedily clear the room or land a distant headshot that you were sure was impossible. It’s not the most beautiful VR game, but the latest Oculus Quest 2 patch has improved the draw distance and texturing, added in extra details, atmospheric touches such as roiling mist, and made the whole experience run smoother than before.

I’ve played for well over 8 hours in teleport mode and I’ve experienced no discomfort, no dizziness, and no little spacial accidents (which could occur if you’re not careful as there is potential to get spun around a bit in the heat of the moment). The sound direction is wonderfully immersive and the atmospheric visuals make it feel like you’re the unfortunate protagonist of a Dark Souls game, and makes me wonder what Superbright could do if they built a sequel using fully modern VR tech. For now, this is a great bow game that’s still a lot of fun despite a dark, unsettling atmosphere.

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The main premise of Pistol Whip is to get the highest score possible by picking levels – or scenes – to play through and shoot in time to the music. Each level has a different theme and setting. Espionage, anime, and science fiction are only a few of the inspirations for the level design, and each one has a different track from a wide range of artists off the Kannibalen Records label. Whether you’re a fan or not, the thumping dubstep, electro, and trap tunes make your eyes water in the best way imaginable.

Remember that scene in the first John Wick where he makes his way through the nightclub in search of Iosef Tarasov? The heaving beats and flashing lights, the river of bullets, the excitement. Pistol Whip delivers this kind of experience, but turns up the intensity to levels you never knew possible. Taking the responsibility of having to run means your sole responsibility is shooting the bad guys and dodging bullets. You’ll start off with one pistol, and as you move through the different scenes (which there are loads of), three enemy types will appear. Some will only take a single bullet to take down, others two, and the final one requires at least four bullets to make them disappear.

As the beats ravish your senses, firing bullets in time to the music nets you more points. If you get shot, you can replenish health by killing enough enemies in quick succession. Reloading is easy, whereby pointing the gun down to the ground refills your magazine. Sometimes you’ll be firing at more than five people at a time, at the same time trying to dodge bullets. A simple move of the head will get you out of the line of fire, but trying to shoot and evade enemy fire can be particularly challenging. Walls and low ceilings will also require you to duck and move out of the way, making Pistol Whip as much a workout than a shootout.

There’re are a surprising amount of options to make the game harder. Modifications like Deadeye mean you don’t have any assistance when firing at your enemies. You can choose to Dual Wield two pistols with the Move Controllers, but you’re rewarded for accuracy, so it all depends on what your play style is. You can also remove obstacles allowing you to focus solely on shooting, but this will take 20% off what your score would be if you were playing without these modifiers. You can also play around with your gun controls, including an option to chance the recoil. All of these options make Pistol Whip more challenging, forcing you to weigh up the risk and reward of your choices.

I love the aesthetic so much. It is one of the nicest looking games on PSVR, and has a mix of different styles that feel familiar as well as original. Every environment reacts to the music – like a heartbeat – as the rhythm moves in time with every beat. I enjoyed every level. Some are harder than others. Some are more intense whilst others opt for endurance, but they all offer something special. What I did love about Pistol Whip is the option to play any level at any time, meaning your not limited by progression. If you’re struggling with one you can move onto the next one without frustration seeping in.

There’s an element of customisation in your pistols which adds a nice touch to how your weapons look as your fire them off at your enemies. You can chance the colour and pattern, as well as select a range of gun styles. You can even change the sound of when you pull the trigger, including that satisfying silencer squeezing well-placed bullets at your enemies. It’s no surprise that Pistol Whip is heavily inspired by John Wick, so much so that there’s a Baba Yaga Collection of guns straight from the movies. If you didn’t feel like the legendary assassin before, you certainly will now.

Pistol Whip is my favourite PSVR game of all time. The excitement of moving through the gorgeous levels whilst firing your gun in different directions, all whilst listening to an exhilarating soundtrack make it feel like nothing I’ve played before. With three difficulty levels, multiple gun controls, and various modifiers, you’re given plenty of control in how you play as well as making the game as challenging or as easy as you want.

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But anyway, that’s where we find ourselves in Phantom: Covert Ops, a game with such a teeth-clenchingly generic title that you’d be hard pressed to even read the blurb as far as “Oh, and the guy is in a kayak.” But he is, and thus you are, as Phantom is also a VR game. It follows the exploits of your nameless protagonist (I’d like to think his name is something cool yet prescient, like John Waterbobbins or Jack Kayakson) who is sent to infiltrate the headquarters of a Soviet madman in possession of nuclear launch codes and yeah, it’s that kind of game, to be honest. The plot is as generic as the title except, well, there’s a kayak.

You’d think the developers would have leaned into somewhat, because frankly the actual gameplay is pretty damn good, it’s just so incredibly po-faced. Armed with a silenced pistol, a sniper rifle, a submachine gun and a pair of cool viewfinder goggles, you set off into the long dark river, where you’ll spend the next five hours or so trying to look inconspicuous.

Controlling the kayak is a matter of picking up the paddle and actually rowing, thrusting the oar in the water to brake, hiding in reeds and under bridges for cover, and only shooting people when you really have to. Seriously, you get told off a lot for killing people that your handlers deem as unnecessary casualties, to the point where I started popping heads out of spite. You do get marked down in the post-mission scoring area, so it’s probably best to not follow my example. Which is kind of a shame, because the shooting is great. The guns are accurate and responsive, headshots are guaranteed kills, and there are even explosives you can toss around. Sadly though, Phantom really wants you to sneak by, shooting objects to cause distractions or open gates, and generally keeping your head down. When it does go wrong, you won’t survive long, mainly because of the aforementioned canoe. It’s difficult to dive for cover with your legs wedged inside 16 feet of rotomolded polyethelene.

There’s a ton of content, too. While you can replay all the missions to try to increase your rating, you can also unlock a free play mode which allows you to take any of your unlocked goods into the missions, and another mode that turns the game on its head and asks that you kill everyone in a given mission as quickly and quietly as possible.

My only real complaints with Phantom: Covert Ops are around how dark it is. I get that it’s night, but it’s super hard to see your surroundings sometimes. The guns handle well enough, but aiming at anything in almost pitch darkness requires superhuman senses. I’m also not a big fan of the AI: enemies follow quite strict routines and will investigate noises, but I wonder at the efficacy of their training when they can’t spot a full-sized kayak in a bed of reeds from ten feet away. When they do spot you, they spend a long time shouting about it before opening fire, during which time you’re often able to escape and get back to a hiding spot. Still, I really can’t fault the atmosphere. Drawing and holstering your guns, gripping the oars and paddling your canoe, the soft sounds of the water and the cloying atmosphere of the missions areas combine to keep you fully immersed in the moment.

If you suffer from serious inertia when playing VR games, then Phantom probably isn’t for you. Movement is smooth and the rhythm of rowing quickly becomes comfortable (though tiring, after a while), but the motion of the water had me playing in 20 to 30 minute chunks and no more – but if you’re not bothered by the side effects, I’d say get stuck in, because this a weird curio that can only really work, and indeed does work, in VR.

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You play as Eqqo’s mother, who serves as a narrator guiding Eqqo through the dream world of the game. As he is unable to see, Eqqo navigates the world by following the sound of you tapping the ground – essentially turning the game into a point and click adventure. On this journey you’ll soon meet the egg of a snake god that you call the Enkolal, and thus begins your quest to guide Eqqo and the egg safely through the world.

Each stage of Eqqo is a large 3D area with different stars you can switch between to change your viewpoint. You can view an entire 360 degrees from your perspective, which is often important as it’s not easy to find the different mechanisms that can help Eqqo progress. You’ll spent the majority of the time cranking levers, telling Eqqo to put his hand in holes or throwing rocks at different objects. It’s rare that progressing in a level requires much more thought than locating a switch or two, and I rarely felt excited to tackle a new challenge in my path.

Sometimes there is a level of tension, as small creatures and towering shadow monsters all want a piece of the Enkolal’s tasty contents. Usually the way to keep the egg safe is to either rush back to it, or throw objects at the thieving creature in question. The design of the sinister main antagonist is very intimidating though.

One of the problems with these tense time-critical moments is that controlling the game is unwieldy at best, using any of the control options. It becomes apparent quickly that Eqqo was designed with VR and mobile devices in mind. Touch and gyroscope controls are awkward, and using the Joy-Cons just feels too sluggish. Guiding Eqqo around is just more fiddly than it needs to be, and it definitely hurts at the game’s more critical moments.

I loved the idea of helping Eqqo past the obdtacles given the limitations his blindness places on him, but Eqqo’s sight is never really used as a game mechanic. Accidentally guide him into danger (such as a pit or enemy) and he will just stop as he approaches. It feels like the developers missed an opportunity to make Eqqo’s blindness an important part of the game, as it never feels any different to moving any character around in a point and click game.

Fortunately the storytelling uses Eqqo’s condition in much more interesting ways, and the pain in his mother’s voice as he faces his obstacles is palpaple. Eqqo faces some pretty major pitfalls on his quest, and his mother’s narration really brings out the emotion of the situations. When the story became more otherworldly, however, I found it generally less enjoyable.

The world of Eqqo is really quite beautiful, with a delightful colour palette and gorgeous architecture. From ruined temples to deep blue caves, the environments you spend your time scouring are a joy to look at.

One of the few optional objectives in Eqqo involves you smashing barrels to collect the story scrolls inside. The scrolls contain two pictures that add a little extra detail to the lore of the game. Although finding the scrolls isn’t particularly important to your understanding of the game, the art is good enough that I found myself looking for the barrels and smashing them around the world.

Eqqo is a game that never really managed to grab my attention. The concept of a blind protagonist is interesting, but the uninspired puzzles and poor controls meant I never felt invested in his quest. It doesn’t matter how beautiful a world is, when spending your time there is monotonous at best.

The post Eqqo review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The current Doctor, played tremendously by Jodie Whittaker, is trapped at the far edges of space and time. She manages to get in contact with you whilst you’re in the local launderettes and tells you that things are going to go bad, fast. What follows is a mix of completing arbitrary puzzles across five stages, each with a different setting. Connect wires correctly to open passages, redirecting lasers, and opening safes are just a few of the puzzles you’ll solve, and for the most part are relatively simple. Movement on the other hand is the biggest irritation regardless of how you prefer to play. You can adjust settings so that you can move around freely, or use the teleportation mechanic, but it’s so slow. There’s an option to move faster, but it doesn’t feel like it at all.

For a series that often relies on running away from an enemy, you’ll move like a slug in tar. It became increasingly frustrating the more I played. There’s also no way to move back when using the Move controllers, so either switching between 22.5, 45, or 90 degree angles is about the best option you have. There seems to be no particular reason why movement is so restrictive, and constantly moving slowly ruins the immersion and takes all the fun out of some of the game’s finer moments.

Speaking of those finer moments, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time provides some excellent guest service for fans of the show. Watching as the opening credit sequence plays out means you’re moving through the colourful time tunnels whilst listening to the iconic theme music. Subtle references to past doctors are also lovely, and walking around the TARDIS provided a nice touch. The Weeping Angels appear in one of the chapters, and having to deal with them in VR gave me a bloody heart attack. It’s done ever so well, adding a sense of horror I wasn’t expecting to see. Not only that, but the Doctor’s oldest enemy, the Daleks, also play a role in the story, and when you hear them for the first time outside the launderette, you’ll get goosebumps.

A lot of the sections require you to interact with certain objects, but it’s hard to know what can be touched as there’s no notable difference, other than when you move your hand over it and it glows white. When you’re struggling to find what to do next, the voiceover – whether the Doctor or someone else – just won’t shut up talking. It’s off-putting and really frustrating if you think you’re doing what you’re being told only for nothing to happen. An early puzzle set on the TARDIS almost caused me to headbutt the wall because the control panel was so fiddly, with tiny buttons and levers I needed to push that I struggled to interact with.

It feels like Maze Theory has played it as safe as possible, trying to focus more on fan service than actually making an intuitive VR game. The puzzles are dull, the movement is painfully slow, and the story is lacking any real bang. Think of the filler episodes where there’s no overarching story progression, and the aliens are unoriginal or just plain ridiculous. It’s by no means a terrible game, though. Some of the locations are pretty, and the atmosphere can be really tense. It’s a shame we don’t actually get to see Jodie Whitaker’s Doctor that often, and that almost all of her dialogue is delivered via audio only.

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time is a plain adventure that doesn’t push the boundaries of virtual reality. It’s more about fan service than it is about anything else, but it does have moments where it shines, particularly when the Weeping Angels pop up. If you’re a big fan of Doctor Who, you’re going to enjoy visiting the TARDIS, bumping into the Daleks, and swinging around the Sonic Screwdriver, but even then the excitement wears off rather quickly.

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But one that did catch my eye is Sairento, previously released on the Oculus Rift. Solid reviews. Ported to the PSVR and making use of twin move controllers, this Sci-fi slice-em-up makes impressive use of the still fairly limited technology.

You play a stealthy Ninja assassin in a futuristic cityscape tasked with finding and eliminating a terrorist cell after an explosion claims a load of innocent lives. The campaign sees you moving through the various districts and the environs, dispatching enemy ninjas with the Liberal application of blades and bullets.

Be warned going in: Sairento is incredibly fiddly until the control scheme clicks. Pushing the centre button on the left stick will cause you to walk in the direction you’re facing, though you’ll strafe rather than turn. In order to turn you’ll push triangle or square on the right stick to spin 45 degrees, or the square button on the left stick to flip 180 degrees. The centre button on the right stick allows you to aim a jump, which you can chain into double jumps. You can also wall-run and vault up vertical surfaces.

The verticality is impressive, essentially allowing you to sneak around above your enemy, using rooftops, balconies, awnings and signs to get the drop on the enemy. Stealth plays a big role as many enemies move in set patrol routes until they spot you, affording you the opportunity to remove them silently. On occasion, though, you’ll trigger an event where they just run at you, and you’ll need to use everything you have to stay alive.

Your pistols are holstered at your side, your swords sheathed on your back, and you’ll have to reach over your shoulder and down to your hip with the corresponding hand and a pressed button to draw them, which always feels cool as hell. When the combat is flowing right and you’ve mastered the movement controls, which for me took a long time, Sairento is one of the best action games you’ll play in VR. You have so much control over your avatar and the action is so fast satisfying that it’s hard not to get fully immersed. Switching from guns to swords is essentially for some enemies who will block your fire, which is where I struggled, as you’ll often need to out distance between you and the nearest enemy to give you time to make the switch. I’ll admit, I did miss the immediacy of just pressing Y to switch weapons.

Gear is unlocked between levels, giving you access to machine pistols and powerful revolvers, hatches, daggers and cruel-looking scythe-like weapons. You can also improve your armour and skills. Skills are the most important, improving things like melee range, jump distance, weapon accuracy and survivability. You’ll be able to slide to avoid danger or execute assassinations from above, slow time, and navigate security systems by taking out power supplies.

Between the main missions there are challenge modes and time trials, as well as a multiplayer mode that, if nothing else, highlights just how ridiculously dextrous some people are. I preferred the campaign, to be honest, as it allowed me to play at my pace and plan encounters from time to time.

You can play Sairento standing or sitting, and either is fine as long as you have plenty of arm space. You’ll be slashing left and right, blocking, aiming and dodging, and you will move around an awful lot without realising it. Be safe and give yourself room to move freely.

My only gripe with Sairento is one that many VR games struggle with: appearances. It’s not the prettiest or most detailed game, opting for an almost retro blockiness that reminds me of the early PS3 era. Character animation is fluid and your inputs are responsive, but the overall look is not particularly stunning. It goes for a Neo Tokyo style look in many of the environments, and mostly nails it, but it’s low detail and, despite the occasional sense of grand scale, it’s not much to look at.

Appearances aside, Sairento is the best action game I’ve played yet on the PSVR. It’s fast and fluid, and there are enough little flourishes in the gameplay to make you feel like a real badass. I should also report that despite suffering motion sickness in games like Operation: Flashpoint and Borderlands 2, I played Sairento for over an hour at a time on many occasions and didn’t suffer anything but some breathlessness after a tough fight. If you’re looking for a solid action game to really show what the PSVR and Move are capable of, Sairento is arguably the best available right now.

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It’s rather tricky to try and explain what’s going on in A Fisherman’s Tale, but I’ll have a bash. You are a puppet fisherman living in a model lighthouse, where your human counterpart exists above you, mirroring everything you do. The main goal is to turn on the light at the top of the lighthouse to save any fishing ships nearby (as a huge storm is coming). The mysteries uncovered throughout tell a story that not only deals with the danger of bad weather on a rocky ocean, but one of a much personal nature regarding the relationship between a father and his son.

In the first few chapters, your movement is mirrored in the model lighthouse, and if you look above you an even bigger version of yourself and the room also moves in sync with you. It’s hard to explain, but the puzzles require items from each version of the room to solve. You’ll be tasked with feeding a fish sardines, building your own ship, and fixing pipes that flood the lighthouse, to name a few, and the way in which you solve them requires some real thought, as well as plenty of patience.

Take the ‘pipes’ puzzle for example: there’s a small box with a pipe you can hold between your thumb and your index finger, but when you drop it into the model lighthouse, it falls from above you and becomes a bigger pipe that you can pick up and use to place into the piping mechanism. When you feed the fish sardines it asks for a bigger one, so you pick up a small one and drop it into the lighthouse again to have a much bigger one fall from above. You’ll also need to reach into the model lighthouse to pick up a captain’s hat, and grabbing it makes it shrink, but that’s good because it’s needed to put on a talking crab.

The puzzles become much more extravagant, and the constant change in what’s needed and how to acquire it gets rather difficult to keep with, and the controls make it even more laborious. If you pick something up and try and turn, and the item gets stuck between you and a staircase or a wall, the item will drop and you must wait for it to respawn, which can take a few minutes. Movement is point and click/teleportation, so free movement is non-existent; having that freedom would make things much easier and less frustrating.

As things progress the narration can become tiresome, and hints don’t always activate so you’re often struggling to work out where to go, but not all puzzles are that difficult. There’s one puzzle towards the end where you must light three lanterns, and I almost gave up because of the controls, not because the puzzle was hard. You can reach further by pressing one of the buttons on the move controller, but it became too finicky, and I wanted to scream. It’s a shame because not every puzzle is that awkward or exasperating, but when the matchstick you’re trying to move around doesn’t move at all the way you want it to, A Fisherman’s Tale becomes awfully irritating.

The game is designed beautifully, and even though the visuals aren’t particularly great, what it does with your surroundings is rather special. There are cutscenes that tether each chapter together and, being a big pussycat when it comes to being afraid of the sea, I had to close my eyes when you find yourself underwater during a terrible storm. The story that unfolds becomes quite interesting, but as the game ends it all feels somewhat abrupt, and you’re suddenly watching the credits not entirely sure what A Fisherman’s Tale is trying to tell you.

Nonetheless, the physics-based puzzles of A Fisherman’s Tale are beyond smart, and the level design is wonderful. The music is subtle yet moving, and the whimsical story grows darker as the game progresses. I enjoyed it, but there were times when movement became uncomfortably frustrating. That being said, it’s still certainly a game I’d recommend.

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Arca’s Path strips back VR to its fundamentals, with your head as the only controller. It’s a simple yet effective approach to gaming, never requiring too much thought but offering a challenge nonetheless. The purpose of the game is to guide a ball around various courses and through checkpoints with your noggin, collecting crystals if you wish, eventually reaching the end and moving onto the next level. Its simplistic mechanics mean that it can all be done as you sit back in your armchair and get lost in a rather pretty world, listening to a soothing soundtrack at the same time.

There are 25 levels in total, and whilst none of them are irritatingly difficult, it does take a bit of time to discover the nuances of movement. A green triangle represents exactly where you’re looking; if you look well in front of the ball, it’ll roll at a faster pace than if the triangle appears only a few inches away from it. Many of the earlier levels can be navigated easily as some of the pathways have barriers up, but as you progress platforms need to be carefully crossed or you’ll fall into oblivion.

Platforms move up and down, bridges will need to be nudged in order to lower so you can cross, and weird pyramid-like pillars require you to hit them to bring up ledges and more. There’s other stuff like breakable walls and halfpipes that you’ll roll down, where speed will pick up and your movement will need to be controlled effectively or you’ll drop the ball and restart at the last checkpoint.

The environments never differ drastically, but their designs continue to provide new challenges. The art style of the worlds looks very much like Tearaway, which is welcoming to the eyes. The biggest issue that comes with trying to appreciate the visuals is that you can’t just look around because you’re constantly having to monitor the ball. There is an option for you to press the Touchpad, but that negates the promise of only needing to use your head as the controller.

You can play through each level with the goal of just getting to the end, but there are various paths that let you go back on yourself and explore a little, thanks to the collectible crystals scattered across the world. I really appreciated the more open sections as it allowed me to test the movement to its fullest when slaloming down steep ramps, but when having to slowly manoeuvre around tight corners with no barriers there’s still a challenge to undertake.

Outside of the main mode, there’s a Time Trial mode if little else. It’ll take about 2 to 3 hours to finish the whole game, and I found little reason to go and play again, but if you fall in love with the simplicity of Arca’s Path, these Time Trials will push you to the limit. It is a puzzle game that can be played across every VR device, and a wonderful entry game to those people who have never tried VR like your Gran or you cat (please don’t strap the VR unit to your pet – Ed).

Arca’s Path is a relaxing puzzler that uses head-tracking controls in an effective way whilst still providing a challenge. Its pretty world and calming soundtrack are soothing and enjoyable, and whilst it can become repetitive due to the similar style of level design, it’s still worth a go.

The post Arca’s Path review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

What makes it even creepier is the presence of a mysterious guide known as The Warden, with a head made up of triangular shards, and a voice as unsettling as the Luteces from Bioshock: Infinite. You’ll never quite know when he’ll pop up, and it all starts to get a bit weird, but you need him to try and work out what’s going on – he’s all you’ve got.

At the very start of Blind, Jane and Scott are driving down a road that’s being pummelled by the rain, when suddenly you’re involved in a car accident. The next thing you know you’re in a mansion, everything in black and white, and you’re struggling to see. Being blind, you’d have thought that meant almost everything would be at least difficult to see, but much of your surroundings are visible despite the odd blindspot. Sound illuminates areas that are near it, and after unlocking the ability to use the cane earlier on, everything becomes visible if only for a few moments.

You can use the move controllers, but having a standard controller is much easier, using the left trigger to control the cane and the right to pick up items and investigate them. Depending on the strength at which you press the left trigger, the louder or quieter it’ll strike the ground. Make too much noise and it could be a problem for you, but press it softly and you’ll not see further than a few feet away. The constant pangs of light and constant readjustment to what you see actually made me feel nauseous, and ever since I’ve played VR this is the first time it’s affected me. There’s a lot to focus on while you can see, and once it cuts to black again, your eyes take a bit of a hammering.

The puzzles in Blind aren’t at all straightforward, often being obtuse or void of logic. It was one of the first puzzles I completed that had me exploring a room for well over 30 minutes to try and work out what I was supposed to do. Even though there was a gramophone playing the voice of The Warden into the room seemingly giving me clues, none of them were to clear enough to be deemed useful. There was a stand in the middle of the room with an ornament of a woman on it, and three shapes that looked as though specific items were to be placed there. One of the items was relatively easy to recover as it needed me to manoeuvre a ball around a maze to unlock it. The second was much harder.

After removing some of the paintings on one of the walls, two dials were found, and like a safe I had to twist them in the right way to open a panel there the second shape would be. The thing was, there was no indication how I had to move them, no hints – just a case of trial and error. I didn’t know how many times I had to move them and in what direction, there was just a scratch mark on the wall that must have been some kind of a clue; I still don’t know how I did it. The third required me to repeat a melody of the piano music playing on the music box. This wasn’t too tough, but the previous puzzle had left a bad taste in my mouth, thinking to myself if all puzzles were like this I wasn’t going to enjoy it.

Many of the puzzles require far too specific answers, and I began to fall out with Blind fast. It’s not the fact you’re playing whilst suffering from visual impairment either, just the answers were often too hidden via myriad curveballs. Some items within the puzzles are often required to be placed in slots, but the controls are often difficult to use, especially when picking up and placing in the required position.

Blind is a pretty game with nice art direction, but the puzzles let the game down. The manipulation of light is tough on the eyes, and the echolocation could do with some work as well. It’s always disappointing when a game with so much potential gets bogged down by its ideas, and this one is no exception.

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I’m not going to talk too much about the game itself, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has already been expertly reviewed by GodisaGeek, but I feel it would be remiss of me to not say that it’s an absolutely mind-blowing title. The game’s world is stunningly beautiful. Managing to be gorgeous yet brutal, serene yet terrifying all at the same time. Then there’s the use of binaural audio to give you positional awareness of your surroundings, along with using them to bombard your senses with the voices inside of Senua’s head.

It’s these voices which hit home with me.

Having them keep telling Senua that she should turn back, that she can do nothing except fail, but all while having that one quiet voice right at the back that’s saying “well, maybe we could…” is exactly how it feels from time to time. Couple this bombardment of the senses with the movement associated with the use of VR and you have an experience that can make the user feel totally overwhelmed and nauseated. Which is a good thing when the aim of the experience is to make the player feel exactly what Senua’s going through.

Now, onto the VR, which is why we’re all here.

The VR aspect to Hellblade: Senua’s sacrifice is clearly a labour of love from the people over at Ninja Theory. This is proven by the fact that it’s free for anyone on PC who own the game, but also in the little aspects that you can see in the game. For example, you’re not forced into a first person perspective as you may expect, the game still plays like we’re used to, however, you’re free to look around anywhere you want. The cool part is that where you look, you can see Senua looking there too. Giving the sense that you’re still controlling the character, despite being able to see her.

Controlling Senua can also be done by looking where you want to go. Pushing forward is done on the controller, but then the user can look in the direction they want to walk, and Senua will arc her movements into that direction. Of course, you can still perform all movements with the controller should you wish, but it’s nice to have the option to control the game simply by looking. Speaking of control methods, using the Xbox Controller (or a similar controller connected to the PC) is definitely the preferred method of play. The VR system I was using was the Oculus Rift, and I have the Oculus Touch controls, and while moving around the game world is absolutely fine using this method, the combat is an absolute shambles. Some attacks are on one controller, and some are on the other. I’m not too disappointed about this though, there’s no hand movements required in the game, so there’s no need to play using tracked controllers, and when the game starts it even suggests you use an Xbox One controller so I shouldn’t have been too surprised that using the Oculus Touch controllers was a hot mess. Still, I was curious, so I tried it.

As Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is quite the intensive experience, it’s recommended at the start of the game that the player takes regular breaks. About a ten minute break for every half an hour of play. I know that most games have a warning similar to this, and I also know that most of us toss that warning wantonly into the wind, however, I would advise against that with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. It’s very easy – due to a combination of the auditory assault and the VR motion – to start feeling quite nauseous, quite quickly. These little breaks, ensure that you can mentally place yourself back into the real world a little, before getting back into the action. Don’t miss the breaks. You’ll thank me in the long run.

The biggest downside for me was the fact that some of the game’s cutscenes were shown in a 2D style, flattened to a single plane as if you were watching it on a cinema screen inside of the headset. While I understand that the was a choice made in the pursuit of a stronger narrative, and making sure the player wasn’t aimlessly looking around while they’re trying to be shown important story beats, there’s no denying that it sucks you right out of the massively immersive experience.

On the opposite end of that scale, and important note has to be mentioned about the times when Senua talks to the voices in her head. In those moments, she looks directly into the camera, directly at you, and because of the headset and being able to naturally move your head around the environment, there’s little denying that it truly is YOU that she’s talking to in those moments. I’ve never felt so much a part of a game before. It was a truly mesmerising experience. In fact, in a moment early on in the game when Senua asks you to give back her “beloved”, and puts her hand on your face, you’d swear you could feel her touch. This moment, in particular, had me taking a break from the game for a little while. I was so immersed that, after it, I was left emotionally drained.

It really is that good.

The post Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Although it lasts little more than an hour or so, COTPOTA is full of neat ideas, giving you the chance to move like an ape, outwit the guards trying to protect the facility, as well as allowing you to feel the prejudice and resentment the humans have for them right from the get go. The climbing mechanic is very responsive, having you move your arms across drain pipes, walls – grabbing onto anything you can in order to sneak past the humans.

You move your monkey hands to a highlighted platform or object to grab it and pull the trigger, then move your other arm to grab the next one in front. Walls are easy to climb too: you scale it as though you would in real life, which gives you a great sense of freedom. The only issue with movement comes when you walk or run. A white outline of 139 appears in front of you, and you have to click it to move towards it, followed by moving the left and right move controllers to run towards it too. It’s not awkward, as such, but it does take away the freedom that offered when you’re not on the ground. VR is still finding its feet as a medium, however, so in time this could possibly be eradicated for future releases.

New mechanics are offered the further you play, such as when you beat your chest to attract a guard, taking out guards from behind, and picking up a gun and firing it like a monkey Rambo, but beyond the actual segments you are introduced to them, rarely do you get to try them out again. It feels like a great starting point to make more VR, but I wish there was a bit more, especially shooting. There’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had, mind you. Having knowledge of the films helps you to enjoy it more, but you can still take away a lot with the smart mechanics and controls of it all.

The visuals are pretty good, too, even if it’s only really based in the dank facility. The animations of the apes is excellent, and meeting up with Bone and Spear is a particular highlight, as you feel like you’re there with them, going through this great escape together (or ape escape, if you will, ahem). The human characters aren’t that fleshed out, but given the short run-time, you’re not really playing for a deep story, you’re playing it for the experience.

Crisis of the Planet of the Apes VR is great, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It has the best movement (and some of the most realistic) I’ve seen in my fledgling VR journey, with some lovely little touches to make you feel as though you’re doing it for Caesar, for the apes, and the survival of life itself. The need to reach the end is made more necessary due to Sergeant Richter being such a douche, and the friends you make along the way make this one well worth playing, even if it is on the short side.

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There are four beautifully rendered locations, all stunningly detailed and, if you own a PSVR or HTC Vive/Oculus Rift headset, you can have a good look around at these places as you sit beside the chess board. There’s a limited ability to do this while playing on your TV too, but that’s more about seeing the intricately designed pieces on the board. You can see the incredible level of detail lavished upon every square, and even on the surrounding room(s) of each locale. You can even play along to the sound of a hearthfire crackling peacefully. It really is beautiful game, from the surroundings to the pieces themselves.

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Those pieces come in a variety of different styles too, from traditional wooden figurines to checkers (complete with icons representing each piece) and even ornate pieces seen on the sort of boards I’d imagine might be in the drawing room of an old mansion in a Sherlock Holmes film. The old Basil Rathbone ones, not the newer takes on the character. Each style choice comes with its own selection of custom options, like playing using metallic pieces or even jade figurines. There really is an awful lot of choice for a simple game of chess, but this alone helps to differentiate Chess Ultra from the rest.

Now, you can be forgiven for thinking you might just jump into a game from there, and you can if you fancy doing so, but there are far more options than that. For instance if, like me, you haven’t played chess in about 18-20 years and need a refresher course, there’s a raft of in-depth tutorials that are perfect for that. They range from the most basic movement explanations and what the general rules are, to specific moves that are designed to teach both newbies and veterans alike. Some are worded a little poorly though, which can lead to a bit of confusion when you’re trying to work out how to simply play chess. Nothing too frustrating, but it’s irritating nonetheless. More advanced players will likely pick them up far more easily, however.

Again, you can be forgiven for thinking that you might get right into the chess games, now you’ve learned how to play or your memory of the game has been jogged, but there are still more options than that. There are several challenges designed to test your knowledge of the game or even help you to begin thinking three moves ahead. There are historic challenges that feature classic matches from the 1800s all the way through to the 20th century, which begin at a set point in the game, tasking you with winning in a certain number of moves. On top of those challenges, there are “Mate in 1” up to “Mate in 7”, which are probably self-explanatory, but I’ll explain anyway. These are essentially puzzles, laying out certain pieces in a specific way and you have to work out how to get to Checkmate within the allotted move limit. This isn’t as easy as you might think (unless you’re a master of chess, in which case you’ll probably think I’m an idiot and, well, you’d be right) because sometimes you simply won’t see the solution until after you’ve tried a few different approaches. The more moves needed for Checkmate, the more difficult the puzzles become and it’s a great way to bring something different to the table, instead of just bog-standard chess.

Beyond the challenges, we finally arrive at the standard game of chess. If you’re a solo gamer, the AI has ten different difficulty levels to choose from and all of them work very well. The easiest levels will challenge newbies a little, allowing them (and me) to ease themselves into the game before moving up to tougher levels, and these ones will probably beat you several times. You’ll get a feel for how to think ahead and watch for weaknesses in both your opponents’ and your own games. You won’t always have much time to think though, especially when playing in the (sadly online-only) tournaments, that use timers to keep things flowing. There are even 24-hour timers that can be used during general online play, giving you a full day to make your move, like an updated version of postal chess from ye olden days. This makes for a more relaxed game, which is kind of a big part of chess as far as I’m concerned.

Whether you are just starting out or have been playing for decades, Chess Ultra offers a comprehensive and content-rich experience that can challenge players of all levels. And damn, is it pretty.

The post Chess Ultra Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

In between the dialog you’ll have a chance to put what you’ve been told into practice. In doing this it means you leave the tutorial with a genuine understanding of what is expected of you in each of the four command stations. This will be vital in your adventures as it could be the difference between your ship becoming a burning wreck or a thing of legend.

The four command stations consist of captain, engineering, tactical officer, and helm. The first on the list is the most vital in the game and the one that is handed the most control and responsibility. As a captain you need to make sure the ship stays organised. When you’re commanding AI this is a simple, albeit slightly fiddly affair. When human players are there, though, you’ll need to be vocal and clear with your commands whilst making some tough decisions.

Engineering is in charge of power allocations and repairs, which will be important if you want a bit more speed to the engines or a bit more oomph to the shields. Tactical is the brawn of the outfit with the power to turn the shields on and off, fire weapons, and analyse targets. Finally you’ll be relying on helm to get you from A-to-B and maneuver you out of tricky situations.

It’s easy to develop an understanding over what you need to do in each role, although it will take a few missions to feel comfortable with it. The DualShock 4 method of control works but feels clunky. If you have the option you should embrace the Move controllers. It’s easy for them to break the immersion as well as improve upon it (considering you appear to be double jointed and able to rotate your wrist 360 degrees) but it feels much cooler pointing at something to “make it so”.

It also makes it feel like you’re actually in the environment when you’re not messing around with them. Your ship is littered with personnel and gadgets, but with your movement limited to your chair the level of interaction is key. It feels satisfying rerouting all power to the shield when a heavy attack is incoming. Intensity levels rise as you creep closer to an enemy target, hoping to get in range of scanning it without detection. As you try your hardest to find that balance you’ll soon find yourself absorbed.

When I started the game I told myself “I won’t roleplay this”, but my first interaction with someone online saw both of us talking to each other in character. I even did the Picard “engage” hand movement and delivery at every opportunity I had. As someone that has only a fleeting interest in Star Trek I can’t help but imagine the glee the game could bring to a die hard fan.

Therein lies the beauty of Star Trek: Bridge Crew. It’s a game so lovingly made for fans which still delivers a strong experience for the general gamer. Its voice acting is strong, graphics are decent, and the missions capture the wonder of space and fear of battle well. The main story missions in the game are there to help you get used to playing it and they do so in a way that challenges the player and sets up some lovely moments of combat. The fear of being in an enemy area, not knowing where their ships are, and hoping you can complete your mission before they hit you is a wonderful rush. After you’ve finished the main campaign you can progress onto the Ongoing Voyages mode, which randomly generates missions of various types for those that like to be surprised.

The urge to play these missions will rely heavily on the online community and the quality of the servers though. I had no issues with connection but, due to it being pre release, there weren’t many people online. I was able to get a crew of two and still had a great time. As a solo experience it was reasonably fun but it’s definitely at its strongest online and hopefully that community will be there.

If you have a virtual reality headset and you’ve always dreamed of being aboard a Star Trek starship then it’s a no brainer. It has a learning curve that may take you a few hours to get to grips with but don’t let that put you off. Sure, the Move controllers aren’t the greatest, but they assist in providing a level of immersion that will make you geek out a little harder. Even if you’re not a Star Trek fan this is still a game worth considering, especially if you’re after a social virtual reality experience. Just try not to become a redshirt.

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Now, thanks to the fact they air Rick and Morty, Adult Swim has turned to Owlchemy Labs (creators of Job Simulator, still one of the best VR games out there) to make a Rick and Morty VR game. The result is, well, it’s a Rick and Morty experience by the people who made Job Simulator.

As horribly reductive as that may seem, that is exactly what we’ve got here, and it’s often fucking brilliant. In fairness, Roiland and Harmon can do no wrong with the show (apart from make us wait an eternity for the third season, then show one episode and say more are coming months later), and given that Job Simulator is excellent, the marriage is indeed one made in… yeah, you get the idea.

The concept is that Rick has made a clone of Morty (you) and you’re expendable, obviously, like everyone else to Rick. Starting with the menial task of washing underwear, then leading onto picking up Rick’s package (an actual package, not his penis), fixing his computer (it’s riddled with porn ads), and then finally transporting to an alien world to shoot things, it’s just exactly what you’d want in a Rick and Morty game.

But it’s clever, as well, not only in the mechanics but in how they’re used. For example, Job Simulator asks you to pick things up, combine them, and put them in places. Here, because it’s a VR game, you don’t have full movement control. You can look at certain spots and teleport to them, but “because you’re a clone” you can’t leave Rick’s garage. Amazingly, you can use a Meeseeks box to get a ball you can throw which brings a Meeseeks to life. These aren’t proper Meeseeks, they’re “Youseeks” and they mirror everything you do, which, yeah, brought about this piece of gameplay that I tweeted about.

My experiences with it so far. GOTY? GOTY! tweeted:

Early on, this just lets you pick up a thing you can’t reach – outside the garage. But it’s only playing further into the (admittedly) short but sweet game that you become stumped on a puzzle. How the hell do you solve this? This thing keeps exploding and I literally cannot be in two places at the same time oh shit wait yes I can Mr Youseeks! The physical feeling of picking something up and handing something to yourself via a Youseeks is incredible, a genuine standout VR moment… in a Rick and Morty VR game.

Without spoiling too much, there are things to interact with everywhere. Everything can be fiddled with, from a Plumbus to tapes that are hidden around the game world you can play in Rick’s cassette player. You get to go in a microverse, you get to go through a portal, you get to hear Mr Poopybutthole. The fanservice references the very first episode and runs the gamut from the obscure to the obvious. It’s just brilliant.

The only problem, and it’s a big one, is that for how long it is, you’ll be paying a high price. Once you’ve finished it (it’ll take a few hours), the likelihood is that you’ll only revisit it to show off to your mates the fact you have a Rick and Morty VR game, or maybe to muck around with Rick’s stuff again, hoping to find a piece of content that’s buried in a cranny you previously missed.

I suppose, as obvious as it sounds, this is also a game that requires the hefty investment in a gaming PC with VR. I played the Rift and Steam versions both with the Oculus Touch controllers, and it feels intuitive and brilliant, but no game is worth spending that kind of money on.

Ultimately it’s too expensive for how long it is, but if you have invested in PC-based VR, it’s hard to imagine you’ll baulk at the price. I hope this isn’t the only dalliance with VR we see from Rick and Morty, because despite being a bit of a shallow, short experience, what is here is excellent. It’s funny, self aware, and has the same great voices from the TV show. It may be the most niche VR game ever, but if you’re a fan of Rick and Morty you owe it to yourself to find a way to play it (for less than it costs to buy a new PC and VR).

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Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality is an entirely standalone version of the 2013 patient hack-up-a-thon, and allows you to perform a range of surgeries on a host of poor subjects in hospitals, backs of ambulances, and in space. It includes all the content from the vanilla version minus any of the extra scenarios added to the Anniversary version, making it a little disappointing in its breadth of content. Once you’ve figured out how it all works mechanically, it can be easily finished in a single session of a mere hour or two. Mind you, it’s certainly not devoid of entertainment during that time.

A selection of blunt, sharp, and laser firing tools are available to help you perform the surgeries your patients require. It’s up to you to decide which tool is best for each situation as you perform surgeries that range from the relatively simple removal of teeth to organ replacement. Meanwhile, each location provides a different challenge, with the ambulance providing an unstable operating area and space removing gravity. Your goal is to perform the surgery quickly and efficiently enough so your patient doesn’t bleed out. You’re not required to put removed organs back and reattach them, nor do you need to attach the new organs, simply remove what’s bad and throw in what’s good. Job done, your patient will now (probably) live.

Of course, realism is not on the cards in Surgeon Simulator; the surgeries are rife with gory bone-crunching and organ-squishing slapstick comedy. It’s delightfully deranged. The cartoon aesthetic immediately sells you on this light-hearted theme, with solid colours and gentle textures. Meanwhile, a physics engine designed for hilarity makes your surgery attempts look like a lost Mr. Bean episode.

At the beginning of a surgery there’ll be a host of useless internal organs and structures that need breaking and removing in order to get to your primary objective. Rib cages need smashing, either with bone saws, hammers, or any blunt object you can find – such as the theatre lights or an alarm clock. Organs need cutting with scalpels and removing, before being delicately placed somewhere so they can be reattached later. Or you could simply laser or yank them out, then throw them away haphazardly. Meanwhile, your operating theatre can fill up with the organs and bone fragments that you’ve been throwing around, as well as your tools and surrounding equipment, which so easily goes flying with the slightest nudge. It’s funny to play and equally funny to watch.

With the physics sending objects flying around the operating theatre so easily, it can get a little frustrating. You’re fighting against the clock to finish your surgery before your patient bleeds out, and dropping a crucial tool and struggling to pick it up again can lead to plenty of failed attempts. Furthermore, if you try putting your hand where it doesn’t belong, like through a table or your patient, it’ll automatically phase through and show up as skeletal, preventing you from physically interacting with anything. And unfortunately this occurs frequently, costing you precious time.

Where the original non-VR version had intentional janky mouse control to aid in the slapstick, Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality is far more intuitive, as your VR motion controllers are more analogous to your hands. Moreover, the feedback you get from hitting and cutting is excellent, and goes a long way in immersing you in the ridiculous medical scenarios. It’s still inaccurate though, leading to plenty of the aforementioned hand phasing through things. Furthermore, having to use the grip buttons on the side of the HTC Vive wands to close your hand around objects is a little awkward.

The transition from ordinary to VR ends up not quite working for Surgeon Simulator. The intentionally awkward controls made the original version frustrating in the right kind of way but feel off in VR. It hurts the immersion, reminding you that there are artificial limitations imposed on your movements. Meanwhile, the lack of Anniversary content makes the package incomplete, and the standalone state and price point feel a little unfair to owners of the original that want to experience it in VR. However, it’s very much still the funny and fun surgery silliness that it always has been, making its VR variant’s prognosis still good.

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Windlands tells the tale of a lost civilisation, once a mighty empire, whose cities and towers were built with a mysterious power gained from sacred crystals, crystals which have now been smashed to pieces and scattered across the ruins of three regions – and it’s up to you, guardian, to go get them back.

In order to do this you’ll need to make use of a set of hooks for grappling, or grappling hooks as they’re commonly known, to attach yourself to objects as you swing around levels looking for crystal shards and broken tablets to piece together the very slight story and unlock progression across the three stages on offer.

Upon gaining control of your character, Windlands is an immediately exciting prospect; levels are huge and colourful and veer off in multiple directions into the distance in front of you, seemingly massive playgrounds for you to swing and parkour (the game’s bold description for very basic jumping/wall-jumping) around at your leisure.

However, it quickly becomes apparent that Windlands can’t live up to its promise for a variety of reasons. Firstly, traversal, the very thing the game is built around and the one thing it really needed to nail, just isn’t really any fun. The first couple of times you grapple a bush or wall and swing across a chasm it’s kinda exciting but then you get to a tricky section or try to get yourself somewhere specific and realise that it’s just not very responsive, it feels sloppy and you’ll spend a lot of time dangling off bushes trying desperately to figure out how to gain enough momentum to move on. You’ll also feel like smashing your controller, or at least I did, when you fail to make a straightforward jump between two simple ledges for the 100th time because the distance you cover with a jump as well as the distance you travel when you land seems so random.

It says a lot about the traversal system in Windlands that it’s at its very best as a game when played on Easy Mode, and I honestly don’t think I can remember another game I’ve played where that’s the case. On the easiest setting you can grapple any object you want to help propel you along, whereas higher difficulties restrict you to greenery only. I initially started playing on normal mode and spent a ridiculous amount of time screaming into my headset because I kept losing all my forward momentum crashing into trees, falling off ledges and dangling hopelessly out of bushes like Peter Parker after a massive bong. It doesn’t feel like a system that grows on you or one that you can learn to master; it feels half-assed.

Another problem with Windlands, ignoring the weak story, is that the three areas you play in across the course of the game, Jungle, City and Sky, are all practically identical bar the fact they’re slightly different colours. I could probably live with this if they weren’t also so empty. Beyond grappling from tree to tree and picking up a crystal or tablet here and there, there’s nothing else to see or do. There are no enemies, no threats and the gameplay doesn’t evolve from what you’re presented with in the opening couple of minutes, which again would be fine if the system of traversal had any depth or finesse to it whatsoever.

Having said all of this, it’s true that Windlands is at least an actual game, not a tech demo or a PSVR “experience”. It has a start, middle and end, a story of sorts and enough hours to muddle through that, if it’s your kind of game, you’ll feel like you got your money’s worth. At £18.99 it’s also not nearly as expensive as other, much worse, VR games that I’ve played on Sony’s device (I’m talking about you Robinson: The Journey).

Psytec must also be commended for the comprehensive comfort settings they’ve provided. Windlands allows you to swing, jump and (mostly) plummet massive distances very quickly and, if you’re not an idiot like me who ignores all of the provided warnings on account of testosterone, you’ll find the game has some combination of settings which allows you to do all of this comfortably and without the need to lie in a darkened room for a couple of hours afterwards.

Overall, Windlands is a pretty great idea that could have been an essential PSVR title had more thought been put into its traversal. With a much more precise means of movement married to interesting levels designed to encourage experimentation and mastery of parkour and grappling techniques, this could have been a wonderful playground to learn and get lost in; as it is it’s a disappointing, bland and frustrating experience with very little sense of progression or reward.

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Sometimes it’s nice to relax a bit when playing a game. Shooting, smashing, running, leaping and otherwise getting into action packed mischief is all well and good, but immersing yourself in a world and gradually uncovering its mysteries can often be just a satisfying. And indeed, Alice VR fits this bill wonderfully, taking you on an adventure of exploration and wonder through a re-imagined sci-fi version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

You play as Alice, having been woken up from cryosleep by your ship’s AI due to your ship suffering damage and being in need of fuel. After a few puzzles that result in repairs to your ship, you are whisked away to a nearby planet in order to fetch materials to get your ship flying through the cosmos again. However, with the planet’s citizens mysteriously missing, you soon find yourself on a quest to figure out precisely what is going on.

The pacing is slow and largely dictated by how quickly you want to proceed. Locations are large and full of detail. Visual oddities, cryptic advice from a mechanical companion, gravity based puzzles and an eerie musical score, accompany you and encouraged you to explore the beautiful and trippy scenery. It’s a very good sci-fi facsimile of Wonderland that does a great job of compelling you to discover its secrets, surprising you with clever nods to the book and straight up weird vistas that you won’t see anywhere else.

Beyond exploring and enjoying the tale, there are puzzles to solve. These are fairly simply ones as well, largely based on gravity, pattern recognition, shrinking, and, unfortunately, trial and error. They never yet too cerebral, but they often scratch just enough of your grey matter to feel satisfying to complete. The trial and error ones are less tolerable, and can take you out of the experience a bit, reminding you this otherwise intriguing planet is in fact a game environment. However, it all appears to be in service of the story and the exploration. Alice VR means to provide you with a wondrous world to experience at your own pace, with as few barriers as possibly to your progress. You’re not working from one puzzle to the next urgent to see the ending, instead you’re here to witness the brilliantly trippy sci-fi aesthetic.

However, whilst it’s intriguing enough to pull you in the first time you play it, its replayability isn’t so strong. There are plenty of hidden items to uncover, but once you’ve reached the end, experienced the story and seen all the locales, there’s little incentive to return. Mind you, with a five hour playthrough it’s one of the longer story-based VR titles, and with monitor support included, you can always experience the wacky world of Alice VR minus the VR.

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Eve Valkyrie is immediately technically impressive, its ship launching sequence easily the most impressive thing I’ve experienced so far on PSVR. Sitting in your sumptuously detailed ship cockpit, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with excitement as you first take the controls of your spacecraft and realise that you’re actually piloting this thing! You can move freely, barrel-roll and look all around you in this amazingly well-realised space battlefield. This is the immersive power of VR adding a whole new level of intensity and immersion to a well-worn genre.

Originally released for PC, developer CCP has done an amazing job transferring the full quality of the Oculus Rift version to the less powerful PSVR without any noticeable downgrade in graphics or performance. Indeed, of all the PSVR titles I’ve played so far, this is easily the most aesthetically pleasing. Within minutes of booting Eve Valkyrie up you’ll be taking part in fast-paced space dogfights, twisting and turning, boosting and braking through asteroid belts, picking your routes at breakneck speed as you wind your ship in and around floating junkyards and the remains of war fleets. This is the closest you’ve ever come to experiencing actual space combat and, if you’ve jumped into PSVR early doors, it’s exactly the kind of experience you’ll have been praying for.

However, beyond the spectacle, beyond the thrill and novelty provided by VR, Eve Valkyrie is actually a little bit of a pedestrian affair.

Three multiplayer game modes, Team Deathmatch, Control and Carrier Assault, take place across a handful of very pretty, but ultimately samey, maps. These are rounded out by a useful training mode, wave attack mode and Chronicles, a very slight single player element that boils down to little more than flying around the multiplayer maps alone, listening to recorded “echoes” and collecting salvage. For the £60 asking price there isn’t actually a great deal of content on offer here as things stand.

There is a story though, as you’d expect from an offshoot of something as rich as the Eve universe. You’re a clone, a talented pilot, resurrected to serve the ends of Valkyrie. Death is no more than a temporary setback, a lesson to be learned from as each time you die you’re simply uploaded into another body and flung back into battle a little wiser. It’s a narrative that’s added to by collecting echoes in the Chronicles mode, but really is little more than a clever device to explain the constant respawning.

As well as a lack of interesting or original multiplayer modes and an extremely spartan single player offering, the fact is that the gameplay does become repetitive very quickly. Once you’ve played a single round of each of the modes on offer you’ve pretty much seen it all. If you’re a fan of this type of arcade space dogfighting you’ll find plenty to love here, but if not you may find yourself moving on pretty quickly.

However, as I’ve mentioned, what is here is beautifully presented, from the wonderful head-tracked menus, narration by Battlestar Galactica’s Katie Sackhoff and visuals which see none of the blurry, muddy textures or jagged edges abundant in other PSVR launch titles, Eve Valkyrie oozes quality, and, as slight and repetitive as it may be, the gameplay is immediately enjoyable with accessible and responsive arcade controls.

Of the three multiplayer modes, Carrier Assault is easily the highlight. Two teams are tasked with engaging in a three part offensive on each other’s carrier ships. Control points must be captured by each side in order to lower carrier shields, enabling players to get in and destroy cooling nodes which are located perilously close to your enemy’s turret defences. Once enough cooling nodes have been destroyed the carrier’s core will be exposed, affording attacking players the opportunity to indulge in a little bit of Star Wars roleplaying as you guide your fighter on a trench-like run to inflict damage on the enemy core. It’s pretty thrilling stuff and having objectives to fulfil adds much needed purpose to the repetitive gameplay.

There are three ship classes, two of which will take a little getting used to, adding more depth to proceedings. Fighters are rookie-friendly craft consisting of Gatling guns, head-tracked missiles and countermeasures, while the heavy and support classes use flak cannons, short warp jumps and buff beams to both control areas of space and provide healing and support to teammates.

The head-tracked weapons are a revelation, fun to use and adding an ability which will be fully taken advantage of by more talented pilots. Shooting in one direction with your main guns while locking on and destroying targets with your face is a unique and exciting way to control things, even if it did lead to me becoming completely disorientated and smashing into asteroids and the sides of enemy carrier ships on occasion.

With the three different classes of ship on offer, as well as the generous amount of unlockable ships and aesthetic content which you can very slowly grind away for, there’s plenty to keep you busy if this type of thing is your bag, but it doesn’t stop things getting old too quickly for the rest of us. It’s also a massive shame that, with the tactical elements offered by the various types of craft and the fact that every player is mic-ready through their headsets and PS cameras, voice comms can only be activated if players go to the trouble of creating squads. It’s an odd decision which has left almost every game I’ve played completely bereft of team chatter and works completely against the application of teamwork during battles; something that would really have help inject a little more life into proceedings.

It should also be mentioned that microtransactions raise their ugly heads here and even though you’ve just shelled out £60 for the game, other players can get the jump on you, eschewing the slow crawl through unlockable gear by stumping up actual Earth cash to quickly gain access to more powerful ships. It’s a pity they are included here but I’m also not sure how much it actually affects gameplay as I found myself topping team scoreboards in my low-level craft on several occasions.

Overall then, Eve Valkyrie is a technically marvellous game – it’s the best looking title on PSVR and it has provided me with my favourite VR moment thus far, blasting out of the belly of a carrier ship at breakneck speed into beautiful, deadly space. However, the spectacle only thrills for so long and at its heart Valkyrie is a straightforward, arcade shooter which lacks enough variety in its gameplay to stop it growing stale quite quickly, and, for the asking price, it’s perhaps only fully recommendable to the most enthusiastic of space pirates.

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Simplicity is key, and most of the actual playing is done via head-tracking, which is smart and enables Ubi to put the game on all VR platforms. You are an eagle, and you move by looking where you want to go, tilting your head to turn, holding the triggers to speed up (RT) or slow down (LT), and attacking or defending with the face buttons. It’s something almost anyone can enjoy, and it’s fun in short bursts, which is good, since the campaign isn’t that long anyway.

Missions vary on the face of it, but most involve either going through rings, attacking things, or flying. Whether you’re racing underneath the tunnels of Paris to try and get three stars in a time trial, or catching fish from the river to impress your new friend, it all plays out similarly. Due to the nature of these missions, you can quickly restart should you fly directly into a wall, which is always a must in this kind of game.

The aiming is also based on head tracking, and to fire you often have to aim where something is going (like a scummy vulture, attacking your pal as is the case early on), rather than where it currently is, because, you know, you’re in flight. It’s satisfying but slightly fiddly as you have to not only aim at enemies, but also steer yourself through obstacles. As you progress, the missions get harder, and even the medium tunnel time trials have alternate routes that up the difficulty on the fly: it’s challenging, but not overly so, while offering a path for people who just want to get through it easily.

Impressively, it all looks lovely. Bright and colourful, this is a Paris that’s been taken back by nature, and giraffes and elephants can often be seen below you, as can flamingos and, well, you get the point: there are lots of animals and it’s pretty. As night falls it gives way to a more mellow look, almost the kind you’d see on a postcard, with a couple sitting outside a cafe quaffing an expensive meal on the Parisian streets. I had a few very minor frame-rate hiccups, but that’s almost certainly my machine and not the game, but there was no motion sickness (on Oculus Rift, that is) whatsoever, and the entire game is a smooth experience.

What is a shame, though, is that clearly the pickup rate for the game isn’t high. I would love to tell you about the multiplayer – a three on three competitive affair – but I simply couldn’t find a single game. The leaderboard for campaign missions suggests not a lot of people are playing them, and when you’re hitting the top 5 in a league (there are leagues you can, it seems, progress through), or are seeing only three people ranked on a challenge, that’s an issue.

Elsewhere, there are collectibles in the form of feathers (of course there are), and you can roam about to your heart’s content – it’s all fairly standard Ubisoft, really. But I like Eagle Flight. It’s interesting (even if the English chap reading out the story info misses the mark a little), uses VR well and is inclusive for all skillsets. It’s not something I’ll remember for the rest of my life, nor is it completely throwaway; it’s just a good, well made game.

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As it turns out, this sickeningly saccharine – sorry, I mean cute – army of kittens are in fact aliens in disguise that mean to destroy you. It’s up to you to mount a defence against the killer kitties, erecting towers with all manner of weapons affixed to cut them down as they waddle ever closer to your base.

From here on out, Kittypocalypse is precisely what you’d expect from the genre. Each level places you on a different island with new terrain and placements for your precious bases, offering you the puzzle of strategically placing your towers of death in order to quell the invading felines. And that in itself is amusing, challenging and fun. A pleasant selection of terrains keeps thing visually interesting and poses new challenges, meanwhile, the strategy of placing towers in the most effective areas while managing the cost is rewarding, with a big part of that reward being the cathartic annihilation of dozens of kittens.

Witnessing the adorable beasts march towards your fiendish traps is quite the boon. Moreover, the VR aspect of Kittypocalypse grants you the ability to fly around the islands to your heart’s content, allowing you to practically feel the green blood of your furry alien enemies splatter against your face. Or perhaps you’ll prefer hover high above the carnage in order to better manage the battlefield. In fact, the latter is largely what you’ll be doing; as fun as it is to go anywhere and watch from any angle and elevation in order to best conquer each level, having a bird’s eye view helps. This fights against the idea of Kittypocalypse being in VR at all. However, although the optimal camera position may be of the traditional nature, the VR capabilities are a nice extra and prove that genre isn’t necessarily a barrier to VR.

And there truly is a spectacle to behold if you do zoom in, thanks to a variety of different weapon types – from machine guns for maiming and bubble guns for slowing foes down – all of which can be upgraded, you’ve always got the tools to hand to deal with the ever-increasing number of kittens that attack on each wave, and plenty of delightful feline dismemberment to crunch popcorn to.

The cartoon aesthetic and bright colour palette ensures the kitty massacre is always splendid. Levels typically last anywhere from 10-20 minutes with each adding a new enemy class to deal with, as well as the corresponding weapons and upgrades to counter them. However, you’ll find little handholding in this fight, so expect heavy resistance from the alien kitties and the unfortunate trial and error method of figuring out how best to conquer a level. You’ll often find yourself up against a class of enemy that requires a specific weapon and upgrade to beat, punishing you significantly if you’ve placed the wrong kind of towers.

Of course, this puzzle-like mechanic of figuring out which towers suit a particular class of foe best, along with the most effective place to build them and when to build them between waves, is a big part of the genre’s appeal, and certainly fans of Tower Defence will find Kittypocalypse’s special take on the formula very familiar and fun. However, tactical variety appears to be an illusion, with many of the later levels restricted to single solutions to complete.

This also proves true if you wish to complete all the side objectives offered in each level, with challenges such as deploying a maximum number of towers, spending up to a certain amount of money, and restricting the amount of damage the cores of your bases suffer due the kitten attacks, all conspiring to lead you down a very specific build path.

Kittypocalypse is a fun Tower Defence title, one with a stiff enough challenge and enough side objectives to keep your VR headset firmly attached to your head, but it’s not the most cohesive VR experience. Whilst the movement is excellent and you feel god-like as you float above it all, only one camera angle suits the experience. Still, there’s plenty of deranged joy to be found in watching the action up close occasionally.

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A cheaper initial price point and built in headphones means that it is just far simpler to set up. A small sensor on a stand sits in front of you, plugs into the back of your PC via USB and is how the HMD is tracked, while the headset itself also requires a USB3 port and a HDMI output, and then you just plug the Xbox One wireless dongle in (you can wire a pad if you want, but you’d only want to do that if you are seriously low on USB ports), and that’s it – you’re off. It’s just a case of using the Oculus software and store to make sure everything is connected and tracking correctly. There’s an included remote for the Rift, but it seems a bit redundant for gaming use outside of the less-intense experiences that are designed for one-click play, and there the remote makes it friendlier for non-gaming friends and family.

But that genuinely is it. That’s it all set up and ready for you to play games with. It’s a stark contrast to the Vive, which requires room scale (more on that, later) set up and jury rigging the sensors to walls somehow, or on tripods – the Rift is just the unobtrusive sensor, a controller, and a headset. Of course it’s all packed in a nice box, attractively packed away with compartments hiding the controller, the Xbox One dongle, etc, but honestly, the focus utterly seems on getting you playing in the quickest possible time. The bundled (attached, but removable if you want to use your own) headphones are absolutely fine, and deliver decent sound at loud volumes; certainly enough to invest you in any game you’re playing, and the fact they are movable means you can quickly ping one headphone away from your ear if you’re trying to listen to people in the room with you.

I think I prefer the Oculus store to the way Steam operates for VR. It may be controversial, but Steam’s incorporation of VR feels a bit messy at times. Oculus don’t have fingers in other pies, so the store is solely designed for the Rift, and is structured in a way that just works. Every game in the store is for the Rift, and every game has a note which tells you how intense the VR actually is, which helps anyone new to the idea get used to it slowly. If you start DiRT Rally as your first game, for example, you’ll almost certainly throw up due to the intensity, so you can plan accordingly and ease yourself in.

Better yet, everything just works. Pick up the headset and put it on, and the interface notices the sensor and turns it on. The in-headset interface has been carefully designed to be friendly for all, and you simply have to look at a game, store item, or whatever, and click it (with the Xbox One A button, or the remote middle button) and it’ll load up, giving you options within. I hate to harp on about it, but it all works so intuitively. Aside from the occasional installation permission, you won’t have to take the Rift headset off once you put it on, and can flit between games comfortably without issue.

And this, I guess, means it’s all about the games. Flitting around the store, there’re some big hitters, some known developers, and some games that are clearly quick minigame-like titles that exist because of VR, rather than making use of what VR does so well. Take Insomniac’s Edge of Nowhere, for instance: it’s a gorgeous-looking game that instantly immerses you (a jump scare early on caught me out big time), but it makes absolutely no sense that it’s in VR at all. A third-person shooter, initially it works so well, but then you find a diary item and the camera position (your head) switches from behind your character. Suddenly, the protagonist has gone, so you look around and he’s to the left of you, reading that diary – and it makes no sense for him to do so. You get a flashlight, which you control with your head tracking: it makes sense, until you realise your character has a headlamp on as well, which moves in a similar way. It’s confused: am I the guy, or is he the guy? It’s actually a good game with some nice controls (the looking to aim guns is precise, and feels nice), it has atmosphere and nice visuals, but it could be a console game – it just doesn’t need to be in VR.

Driving games, as you’d expect, are bloody intense. I had never had VR-sickness until DiRT Rally, and despite the umpteen hours I’ve played across VR headsets, after one race the intensity got the better of me. It’s a phenomenal experience, but the intensity is genuinely high and having your co-pilot bark instructions at breakneck speed makes you feel like you’ve been playing rally games wrong all those years. Slow and steady, as the rain lashes down and the windscreen wipers thrash in front of your eyes, looking to the right at a cracked driver side window; this is genuinely an experience bettered by VR, and I can only imagine a wheel makes it feel as close to the real thing as we’re ever going to get, digitally.

Games like Hitman GO and Baskhead (a game where you have basketballs thrown at you constantly and you have to catch them in your face, as you’re the basketball hoop) are fun distractions, and while Hitman GO in VR is far better than you’d expect it to be, they’re just that: distractions. Existing PC games like Please, Don’t Touch Anything and Floor Plan are better in VR, but not essential to be played that way, while Galaxy Golf and VR Tennis Online are okay takes on arcade sports, but pretty forgettable. Minecraft is available on Rift, which is a massive boon, but it plays exactly as you’d expect, and because you’ve probably played so much of it already, it’s hard to get used to the headtracking, meaning you often accidentally try to use the right analog stick. Lucky’s Tale is a third person title where you are the camera, and it’s a nice 3D platformer that mixes elements of the 3D Mario games with Crash Bandicoot (a bit), but again, the fun doesn’t last much past a few levels for the experienced gamer.

Interestingly, my favourite title was the VR version of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. In case you’re not familiar with it, the controller holding player has to diffuse a bomb (there are lots of varieties of bombs) and your friends have to look up the instructions via a manual (digital, or you can print it if you want). Because VR is inherently solo, there is no way for your friends to see the bomb, so it relies entirely on your description: does it have red wires, how many batteries, etc? This kind of social VR gaming is something I’d love to see more of, because it takes an existing idea and spins it (almost accidentally in this case) in a way that feels unique, yet natural.

I’m barely scratching the surface of the games, of course, missing out EVE Valkyrie, Gunjack, Fated, Elite Dangerous, Final Approach, The Assembly, Chronos, Pinball FX2 (works fine, but better away from VR), ADR1FT, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and even Black Hat Cooperative. What I’m saying is that there’re lots of games available for the Rift, and you’ve probably heard of a lot of them.

And that, I guess, leads us to the elephant in the room: The Climb. Crytek’s visually impressive mountain climbing sim (sort of) is the strangest game I played in VR because it felt like something was missing: Oculus Touch. You see, while we know that the Rift can do room scale VR with touch controllers, we can’t test it yet. There’s no reason to assume it won’t be identical in style to the HTC Vive, and that games like Job Simulator will come over to the Oculus store (we know it’s coming to PSVR), but it’s a great shame that it’s not out already. Also, it’s really important to note that the Rift’s headset is smaller. To most of you, that won’t matter. To me, as a glasses wearer, it took some doing to get comfortable with. Now, my glasses are quite large, so your mileage may vary, but it’s a smaller space to get your head into than the Vive.

Which leaves us with a difficult product to sum up. I’m a lazy git and I adore the fact I can pick up the Rift headset, put it on and I’m playing almost instantly with no faffing. But I do think back fondly to some of those Vive games that, while gimmicky, felt truly 1:1. I’m torn: I want to play games with a controller, but I want the option of hand-mapped motions with those Touch controllers now. I absolutely adore the Rift. I love how easy it is to just get into and immerse yourself. The store is great, the hardware feels sturdy, and it’s something you can have set up without people even noticing. But until those Touch controllers arrive, we can’t fully know what the Oculus Rift is capable of. For now, it’s my favourite VR experience purely because of the ease of use and, crucially, because it has the best games available. But despite everything I’ve said above, I’d take this review as very much an “in progress” until we’ve tried out Rift’s version of room scale.

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In The Assembly, you don’t have to worry about looking in a particular direction in case you miss a crucial visual element of the story and you don’t have to worry about your meandering hurting the urgency of the plot. Instead, this is a slow paced, laid back experience with an interesting setting, range of characters and story for you to gradually uncover.

You switch between two characters: the long-time employee starting to doubt his employer’s ethics, Cal Pearson, and a new employee kidnapped and tested to see if they are a good fit for this organisation, Madeleine Stone. Each character is given a different perspective on the shadowy organisation known as The Assembly — faced with a series of puzzles and moral dilemmas that explore how far you’re willing to go to progress science.

Without the scrutiny of the outside world or oversight of any government, The Assembly have achieved staggering scientific breakthroughs and they look towards making plenty more. However, with such a lack of control comes questions of ethics and what price is too high to pay for progress. Through the two characters, you get to explore the organisation and make up your own mind as to how much is enough and it’s an intriguing journey of discovery.

The secret underground lab is packed with detail, providing an interesting environment to explore with information pouring in from every angle to better teach you the organisation’s history. The voice acting is mostly top-notch, with both protagonists happily talking to themselves and keeping you informed and engaged, whilst the rest of the cast help bring the mysterious organisation to life. There’re a few bum lines of dialogue that threaten to pull you out of the immersion but fortunately, they are few and far between. Unfortunately, so are the NPCs: direct interaction with other characters is rare and it makes the lab feel empty and less real as a result.

Intriguingly, The Assembly is a seated experience where exploring the lab is done through keyboard and mouse or a controller, even when using the Vive. However, it works well. You can move traditionally with smooth walking and turning with the mouse or analogue sticks, although this is often responsible for some nausea. Additionally, you can ‘blink’ around the environment, moving in quick, sharp stages when walking or turning, or selecting a point with a ghosted avatar and blinking directly there. You’re certain to find an option that suits you and the ability to switch between them is appreciated. Despite the Vive’s wands feeling so natural in similar titles, you may be surprised by how quickly you adapt back to using a controller without hurting the immersion.

After 4-5 hours you’ll come to end of your adventure in two minds about what you’ve experienced. The moral choices are poorly built upon, providing no real consequence while the puzzles you face as Madeleine make a great impression, even if they do leave you hungry for more. Furthermore, the option to play The Assembly traditionally without VR reveals it to be an unremarkable 3D point and click adventure. Indeed, the experience rests heavily on its the VR immersion.

The voyeurism of searching drawers for files and reading every post-it note and personal email is a compelling part of The Assembly, and whilst this kind of experience isn’t uncommon, VR truly immerses you in it — getting you closer to the non-action than ever before. A great sci-fi setting helps drive your exploration and some neat puzzles and a shift between two different perspectives keep the short play-time varied. If only there was more of it. More character interactions, more puzzles and more consequence would have helped The Assembly to really shine.

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And like the light-gun genre before it, Gunjack is comprised of extremely simple mechanics and an equally straightforward objective: look where you want to shoot, shoot, destroy enemies to amass points, rinse and repeat. Of course there’s some setup involved. You are a Gunjack amongst the crew of a mining platform with the task of defending said platform against any space pirates that intend to destroy or steal from you. This is also part of the EVE Online universe, although its ties are as superficial as the previous sentence. Regardless, it’s a strong enough premise to get you to strap on your favourite VR headset and blast away at a selection of attack crafts as they exit hyperspace all around you and start attacking.

With whichever headset you happen to have – Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, or HTC Vive – the controls are practically the same, leaving you targeting your enemies with head movement, and firing main weapons and special power-ups with your controller input. Main weapons need to be reloaded on occasion and managing your active ammo and when to reload requires some forethought. Meanwhile, the power-ups offer some neat abilities, such as restoring your gun emplacement’s health, clearing the immediate area of all threats in a massive explosion, or the particularly nifty slow motion bubble for dealing with your sprightlier foes.

This is a seated experience and you’ll be punished for standing in the first instance, as the opening cinematic flies you through the mining facility at a brisk pace that quickly wreaks your balance. Whether seated comfortably on a chair or as a crumpled mess (due to the aforementioned balance wreaking), the presence to make you feel like you’re really in a gun emplacement is striking. The one-to-one tracking when you move your head, the sound of your cannons firing or the creaking of the mechanical gimbal as the emplacement moves, the wonderfully detailed cockpit and beautifully ominous blackness of space, all do a splendid job of convincing you you’re there. Moreover, cracks in the glass as you take enemy fire as well as the red hue of alerts to damage and enemy craft incoming adds to the presence spectacularly. Indeed, Gunjack is a handsome devil.

Of course gunning down waves of attacking crafts, which come in a modest variety of shapes and sizes with equally varied attack and movement patterns, quickly gets repetitive. Fortunately online leaderboards adds a nice competitive objective rather than simply conquering all levels, although if you truly want to claim your Gunjack title you’ll need to three star each of them. This won’t take long, with the whole experience easily over with inside of a couple of hours. Yet despite this repetition and lack of content, there’s still some longevity in it. Gunjack is fun, plain and simple. Much like its physical arcade counterparts, such as light-gun shooter Time Crisis, or the better analogy of the cockpit-shooter where you sit within a massive prop like the Atari Star Wars Arcade, chasing high scores and enjoying the fast-paced casual arcade shooting, is enough to bring you back for short sessions time and time again.

VR certainly breathes new life into this kind of genre, and Gunjack is a terrific example of this. Here you have a massive cockpit enclosure with superb detailing and highly immersive visuals and sound, but condensed into a VR headset – oh, and the beefy computer required to run it – and that opens up huge possibilities for this kind of experience. Arcade was pretty much dead before, but this is absolutely the final nail in the coffin, and what an intense and fun nail it turned out to be.

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As a scientist working in an installation in Svalbard, Norway, you are tasked with exploring the aquatic environments of the Jurassic age in order to help find a cure for a recently unleashed virus that is killing millions of people around the world. They call it the Jurassic Virus, due to it originating from that time period, and only by studying aquatic life from that period can you discover how to treat it.

It’s an interesting and unique story for a time travelling adventure, one far more concerned with science than action, and that makes for a refreshingly different kind of game. Your objectives revolve around gathering data on aquatic life by scanning and tagging a small variety of creatures from the Jurassic period. This is done from the relative safety of your time travelling pod, which doubles as a submarine once you make the jump back in time. After a video briefing straight out of a Command & Conquer title, you fly your pod to the time travelling node outside the facility on the side of a cliff, and are whisked away back to a time where the whole area was under water.

It’s unfortunate that only the interludes between missions take place on land, leaving all your adventuring undersea, but it fits the story well. Unfortunately, with the head of the research facility as your only human interaction, you never feel any attachment to the modern world and the plight of the pandemic, which hurts the impact of the narrative significantly. It all feel rather relaxed, which is pleasant enough when you’re scanning monsters under the sea, but after returning from a mission there just isn’t enough urgency.

There isn’t much agency either. Your interaction is limited to engaging with the next mission or reading the data you’ve gathered about the dinosaur life you’ve encountered. And even in-mission you’re scope for exploration is severely limited. The whole experience is strictly linear; you’re given a specific task, such as scanning the digestive system of an Ichthyosaur, and until you complete that task the sea life will swim in fixed patterns. Some sea life are more aggressive and will chase and eat you if you get to close. These moments are delightfully exciting and frightening, thanks largely to your pod’s threat detection sound. If you do fall prey to these underwater beasts, though, you’re simply respawned nearby.

Using the Vive’s left wand you can control your pod in order to avoid becoming a meal and generally navigate the environment. Holding the trigger and moving the wand allows for 360 degree movement, but it’s not the most comfortable or responsive solution. The Rift’s Xbox One controller proves to be a more intuitive and less arm straining experience. When it comes to using tools, such as scanners or a tagging gun, using the Vive’s right wand is excellent as opposed to the Rift’s head tracking solution.

Scanning the sea life, occasionally getting eaten, and swimming around in your time travelling pod all feels very authentic. The environments are very samey but they’re detailed enough to immerse you, and the creatures look terrific; moving around naturally, unless you stand still and notice their disciplined, unwavering pathfinding. It create a brilliant atmosphere that makes a wonderful first impression. But it loses its awe fairly quickly due to a lack of variety in aquatic life, objectives, and of course, environments. Meanwhile, the narrative makes it feel like an educational title more than an adventure.

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A charmingly cartoon aesthetic greets you with a warm and bright colour palette, and although details are austere the Warcraft meets Skyrim (on low settings) style isn’t unattractive. Animations are less impressive, with stiff, unnatural moments, matched in tone by an extensive voice cast that lack any emotion at all. It struggles to completely immerse you. Waking on the back of cart pulled by horses, with the 3D sound doing a great job of portraying the environment, only to have your family speak to you with flat uninterested voices about the fate of the village you barely escaped from, manages to both impress and underwhelm you in a matter of minutes. The script isn’t bad, at least, and as flat as the emotion behind the voices are, they manage to match their characters splendidly.

Of course there’s a fair amount of cliché in the narrative. You are mute and suffering from amnesia due to a bargain you made in order to stave off death, but mechanically this works rather well. You can respond to questions by either nodding or shaking your head when prompted. It’s a neat form of input that does a great job of pulling you into the world and its characters, but you’ll have to find who’s talking to you first, which can prove a little problematic.

You’re offered two control options when you start: rotation snapping or free movement. With either option you’re still restricted to controller-based (or wand-based with the Vive) movement, but with free movement, turning whirls your camera around to gut wrenching effect. Snap rotation works slightly better, or at least slightly better at avoiding pools of vomit all over your floor, by shifting your view sharply, but it rarely lines up with precisely what you want to look at, resulting in a tedious shifting around the environment to finally look in the right direction. You’re sure to find one of the two options works better for you, and the fact Frima Studios included both is a testament to them trying to make it work, it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t, and it constantly takes you out of the experience, either because the movement is unnatural or because you’ve got to whip off the headset and run to the bathroom.

Once you’ve come to terms with moving around, the rest of the experience is over with inside of two hours. After a couple of rides on horse and cart, some hunting in the forest, and some light exploration and puzzle solving, it’s all over. It feels more like a demo than a full release, and although there’s some enjoyment to be had with a particular section through a mountain pass, and the hunting can raise a smile, the story is severely underdeveloped and tangential to your character.

There’s clearly a lot of potential here, though. The Norse mythology behind it is intriguing, and it’s pleasantly surprising just how attached you can get to your digital wife and daughter. The minimalistic locations don’t help sell the world but a wonderfully fast frame rate helps establish a strong feeling of presence within it. And this is supposedly episode one of a multi-episode series. If lessons are learnt from this outing, the next one could be a treat.

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