My latest VR prey:
Battlezone Gold.
Many of us older guys recall it from the arcades of the late 80s. We recall the green-line vector graphics, the TRON-feeling, and the generla mood of that era and the sort of comptuer games that were common back then.
I wanted to get this since I got VR in late 2017, and always something got in the way. Concerns, worries about the controls, the higher costs back then. Other titles I choosed before this, waiting for a sale, and forgetting about it again.
Well, I now got it nevertheless. And I could spoank myself for not havign done so earlierl, forn tjsi game is perfectly adapted to VR, it is a flawless presentation, and very immersive world- and cockpit feel. The visuals have been upograded, but one stuzcki to the feel and looks of the old TRON movie, and I must say never have I felt so close to being on the TRON grid for real! The grapohcis obviosuly have been tremedously upgraded, and I like how the kepot the retro feel of TRON and combined it with a more modern neon-glow in colours and structure design.
The control, is via gamepad, and I struggled a bit at first since the gun'S elecation is controlled via the small right thumb stick, and that make sit tricky, it reacts quite fast, making precise movement tricky. The general tank movement is speed and direction with he left stick and turret/gun control with the right one,. The buttons are used to toggle between wepaons, lock on targets and some special functions. It can be played by 1,2,3 and 4 players.
Driving feels very smooth and futuroistic, you strn agely get a feelign for the masiosve wieght, still you think you skate on ise. The tank's movement I like, but I could imagine that people vulnerable to VR sickness may sooner or later get into troubles here - you move at one direction while looking at a completely different direction - in VR that is not for everybody.
Its a lot about dodging enemy shots and bullets, while own shots with the cannon are trickier than one might think, because the roudn does not travel linear to the centtre of the crosshair, but tzravels in a real ballistic arch, like a snowball in a snowball battle, and you must elevate the turret manually and by estimation. That is first frustrating, later a challenge, then becomes quite fun. Altenrtaivels, isntead of chnagig elevation you may choose to get the aim right by increaiosng or reducing diatanc eot the target. It all reminds me oretty much of "Völkerball", I think thats called Dodgeball in English? You also have MGs, and missiles.
The campaign map are hexfield, eahc poresenting oen arena, and this world gets randomly generated every time to you start a new campaign. You can encode a setting by keepign note of its "seed number". In each arena youi kight have objectives to achieve, destroying shild generatrs of the final level, gianing informaiton, hakcing systems, and so forth. The close oyu get to the heart arena on eahc map, a volcano setting, the stiffier esistenc ebecome suntil you are up against armies of killer robots on the gorund and in the air, even swarm-like drones.
The old classic game in green line-vector graphics and simplified controls is included as a gimmick, too. Retro-feeling pure!
Very old-fashioned, very old-school, very arcade, and this modernised with a good sense for stylishness and playability, while preserving the feelign of the original and adding TRON to it, polus adding the best of VR to it, melting it all into a flawless, immerisve presentation. Even the soundtrack is right on traget, matches the feeling of the game perfectly. Good!
There are times in a man's life when he just want to hit it all the time. However, get ready to also die a lot.
P.S. Could be played in 2D, too, needs some earlier beta activated in Steam, if I understood it correctly (I have not tried it).