PlayStation VR Worlds Review – A World of Promise

London Heist

(PlayStation VR Worlds, London Studio)

<p>Containing five different experiences to help you get a grasp of what&&num;8217&semi;s possible from PlayStation VR&comma; <em>PlayStation VR Worlds <&sol;em>is a decent way to introduce the concept of virtual reality to those on the outside of the game industry&period; Those familiar with what games should be will find lots to desire from the four &&num;8220&semi;experiences&&num;8221&semi; offered&period; With one game that seems fully realized and another that is simple and fun&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a lot to want out of the other three offerings present in this compilation of what VR has to offer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>PlayStation VR Worlds <&sol;em>is merely that &&num;8211&semi; a compilation of experiences to give a taste of what VR can be&period; The unfortunate thing is that the experiences all feel like they&&num;8217&semi;re missing something&period; In this package you get a street luge game&comma; an action version of the Guy Ritchie film <em>Snatch<&sol;em>&comma; the VR equivalent of <em>Pong<&sol;em>&comma; a deep sea dive experience&comma; and an alien adventure&period; All of these are wrapped up in a pretty impressive hub menu which lets you interact with it and get your first feeling of immersion in another reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Let&&num;8217&semi;s begin with some of the best that <em>VR Worlds <&sol;em>offers&colon; <em>The <&sol;em><em>London Heist<&sol;em>&period; This is the most complete game as it includes both a story and mechanics&comma; presented in a cohesive manner with very few loose ends&period; It opens with you being tortured by a hulking beast of a man who wants information from you&period; The gameplay is ultimately presented in flashbacks as you slowly piece together what led you to being tortured&period; The two major setpieces are shooting gallery segments&comma; as is the case with most VR games at the moment&period; However&comma; there is a thrill to a car chase sequence that I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t resist enjoying&period; Motorcycles drive past you as you shoot outside your window&comma; the driver&&num;8217&semi;s window and the windshield&period; But what&&num;8217&semi;s better is the interactivity that can be found in the car as you open your door to lean out and shoot oncoming motorcyclists&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t just fun&colon; it&&num;8217&semi;s immersive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115138" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115138" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115138 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;10122716&sol;PSVRWorldsLH2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"London Heist" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115138" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>PlayStation VR Worlds<&sol;em>&comma; London Studio&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; the previous shooting gallery segment has you ducking and popping out of cover&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s your traditional shoot out but still feels slightly good&comma; even if the tracking for the Move controllers and VR headset tend to fight each other&period; This shows up more when doing tasks besides shooting though&comma; like trying to open a desk drawer&period; At one point&comma; the whole world just flew far away from me and then right back&period; I spent several minutes trying to open one drawer but my Move controller&&num;8217&semi;s tracking just kept dodging the action prompt&period; But hey&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s cool to light a cigar and listen to a phone without ever actually touching one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite its problems&comma; <em>The <&sol;em><em>London Heist <&sol;em>offers a proper game out of itself with an ending and a beginning&comma; complete with gameplay mechanics that you become familiar with and accustomed to&period; Then there&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Scavenger&&num;8217&semi;s Oddysey<&sol;em> which lacks the narrative closure that <em>London Heist <&sol;em>provides&period; Taking control of an alien race that is on a search for some forbidden relic&comma; players will maneuver in a spacecraft designed for walking on surfaces and shooting bad guys&period; This is actually one of the few games I&&num;8217&semi;ve played where you&&num;8217&semi;re allowed to move freely while in virtual reality&period; Using the analog sticks to move&comma; the VR headset becomes your aim and you can fire at enemies with ease while also jumping between platforms&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But while the combat feels good&comma; it does get boring after a while&period; Occasional powerups offer a chance to become stronger than before&comma; but you&&num;8217&semi;re still just moving in a linear path&period; As an experience it&&num;8217&semi;s probably got the most mechanics present&comma; but it also offers very little in terms of replayability&period; Whereas in <em>The <&sol;em><em>London Heist <&sol;em>I&&num;8217&semi;d feel like jumping back in&comma; even just for one scene&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I could handle another moment in <em>Scavenger&&num;8217&semi;s Odyssey<&sol;em>&period; The game is even broken up into two parts because it&&num;8217&semi;s a fairly long experience that benefits from being broken up&comma; only because it&&num;8217&semi;s so boring that you wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t like it at all if it just kept going&period; But there&&num;8217&semi;s no benefit of playing beyond the first part because the mechanics stay the same and the story ends with a cliffhanger&period; Which is not okay for something that will likely not get extended upon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115140" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115140" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115140 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;10122739&sol;PSVRWorldsOD1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ocean Descent" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115140" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>PlayStation VR Worlds<&sol;em>&comma; London Studio&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Loose ends in a story are not uncommon in <em>PlayStation VR Worlds<&sol;em>&comma; though&period; <em>Ocean Descent <&sol;em>keeps teasing all throughout its main experience that there are other people racing to find what you&&num;8217&semi;re discovering&comma; and even ends with another cliffhanger&period; But all you really get is that you&&num;8217&semi;re being dropped deep into the ocean and eventually a shark is going to attack you&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s cool and all&comma; but it is not interactive and I never once found myself terrified because I never once felt like I had any presence&period; Instead it just seemed like I was a camera locked in a cage&period; <em>Ocean Descent <&sol;em>teases so much more&comma; and it feels like a diversion mission in a bigger narrative&comma; but it offers nothing interesting&period; By far the worst piece of <em>VR Worlds<&sol;em>&comma; it isn&&num;8217&semi;t a game or a satisfactory experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The other low point is <em>VR Luge<&sol;em>&comma; which is a simple arcade experience that never really feels like it 100&percnt; works&period; Tracking is so finicky and it&&num;8217&semi;s easy for it to register a small movement as a big one&comma; forcing players to throw themselves from one side of the road to the other as they barrel down it at high speeds&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also just not a very fun game&period; Occasionally obstacles show up&comma; but nothing too difficult to dodge&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s more just handling your movement when the game wants you to just weave in between hazards&period; I also found it weird that we&&num;8217&semi;re in a virtual reality experience and the game lets you just move through cars with only a time penalty to incur&period; I should either be dead&comma; or have the opportunity to move below cars&period; I think that&&num;8217&semi;s a reasonable request from a game that is trying to make you want to go luging on the street&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115141" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115141" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115141 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;10122745&sol;PSVRWorldsSO1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Scavenger's Odyssey" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115141" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>PlayStation VR Worlds<&sol;em>&comma; London Studio&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But not all simple experiences are bad&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d say the most fun I had was with the simplest of all experiences &&num;8211&semi; <em>Danger Ball<&sol;em>&period; This <em>Pong<&sol;em>-clone isn&&num;8217&semi;t all that unique but it offers some fun in its simplicity&period; Controlling one paddle&comma; players can take part in tournaments or quick play and take on AI opponents by bashing a ball between the two of you until one of you misses&period; What adds a little bit of complexity to it is that curved hits damage the paddle of the player it hits&period; So the longer you play&comma; not only is the ball getting faster but the paddles are taking up less space&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s simple&comma; fun and addictive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are challenges that players can also complete through all five of the games available in <em>PlayStation VR Worlds<&sol;em>&comma; but they all act as minor achievements that don&&num;8217&semi;t ever feel too difficult or even out-of-the-way of the main progression&period; If nothing else&comma; <em>VR Worlds <&sol;em>offers food for thought&period; VR is still extremely early in its life&comma; and there are neat ideas that will be seen in many other experiences I&&num;8217&semi;m sure&period; But most things feel slightly incomplete or just not fun at all&period; And that&&num;8217&semi;s the worst thing you can offer an early adopter of any technology&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PS4 Review Code for <em>Playstation VR Worlds<&sol;em> was provided by London Studio for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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