League of War: VR Arena Review – Command and Endure

<p>Finally&comma; the VR gods have listened to me and brought a real-time strategy game into view&period; Try as you may&comma; you cannot convince me that physically reaching out and grabbing a squad unit and plopping them on the field doesn&&num;8217&semi;t bring the greatest dopamine rush&period; With <em>League of War&colon; VR Arena<&sol;em>&comma; the game offers that simple&comma; satisfying feeling while offering a novel experience that wears out its welcome fairly quickly despite its quick combat scenarios&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That basic concept of being able to deploy your own army against an opponent is as satisfying as you&&num;8217&semi;d think it is&period; The downside with <em>League of War <&sol;em>is that it never really elevates itself beyond its central conceit&comma; despite offering plenty of single-player content&period; Players go through different campaigns&comma; each with its own central character that has his or her own ideologies about war&period; These primarily come from introductory monologues from the character as you progress through their respective campaigns&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll unlock new units to control as you progress&comma; which will slightly change your tactics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;132457" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-132457" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-132457 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;14122544&sol;LeagueofWarVRArena&lowbar;Screenshot2&lowbar;Gameplay&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-132457" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;League of War&colon; VR Arena&comma; MunkyFun Inc&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; the game&&num;8217&semi;s gameplay never really changes between campaigns or as they progress&period; There are new units&comma; but they behave the same with the exception of whether they are air-based or land-based&period; A helicopter will still shoot towards the ground&comma; but they spawn in the air&period; Most of the game just consists of pushing the enemy&&num;8217&semi;s forces back&comma; which I found most effective when timing the deployment of units&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re not using resources to unleash units on the battlefield&comma; but instead just waiting for a cooldown meter to finish&period; There doesn&&num;8217&semi;t seem to be a difference between the cooldown of a ground troop versus a tank&comma; which makes no sense to me and proves itself more infuriating than helpful&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also no real control of units after you&&num;8217&semi;ve assigned them a target&period; Just let them on their way and if they don&&num;8217&semi;t die before killing their target they&&num;8217&semi;ll move onto the next one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But <em>League of War&colon; VR Arena <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t about having complex systems or being revolutionary&period; It just applies something simple &&num;8211&semi; in this case&comma; physically reaching out and dropping units on a battlefield &&num;8211&semi; to showcase another novel way to utilize virtual reality&period; One of the other small flourishes the game employs is its spectator screen for those watching their friends play&period; In the VR headset everything is shown from the perspective of one side of the fight&period; On the TV however&comma; the game has an isometric top down camera&comma; which makes things look more like an RTS than it does inside virtual reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game only features two modes &&num;8211&semi; Campaign and Arcade &&num;8211&semi; and the Arcade mode allows for two players to play against each other&period; One uses the VR headset and another uses a controller and the TV&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s not fun&period; I mean&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s the obvious camaraderie between players&comma; but like the gameplay itself&comma; its appeal is surface-level&period; I liked it at first&comma; but the more you play&comma; the more you see there isn&&num;8217&semi;t much more to it and the gameplay itself can&&num;8217&semi;t sustain any experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;132458" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-132458" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-132458 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;14122636&sol;LeagueofWarVRArena&lowbar;Screenshot3&lowbar;Gameplay&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-132458" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;League of War&colon; VR Arena&comma; MunkyFun Inc&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>League of War<&sol;em> isn&&num;8217&semi;t groundbreaking but it feels so good&period; Had their been a bit more of a gameplay hook or just more substance to it than maybe I&&num;8217&semi;d have found a reason to love <em>League of War&colon; VR Arena<&sol;em>&period; Unfortunately&comma; that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really end up happening&period; Instead&comma; you get some different viewpoints on war &&num;8211&semi; none of which are that interesting &&num;8211&semi; and an arsenal of units to deploy that don&&num;8217&semi;t really differentiate in how they operate&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a good game&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s one that needed a bit more depth to it in order to stand above every other novel VR experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;