GameCentral goes hands-on with the most exciting new PlayStation VR games, including the latest from the creators of Dark Souls and Rez.
Its PlayStation VRs second anniversary this month and Sony seem justifiably anxious to make sure everybody knows. VR may not have been the instant mainstream hit some predicted but Sony has done a much better job than any of the PC headsets, of ensuring a steady supply of high quality, interesting new games.
If anything the problem has been keeping track of them all, as many tend to be quite low profile indie titles. But Sony has a hand in many of the best ones too, and recently had a particularly successful run with online shooter Firewall Zero Hour and the superb Astro Bot (which is getting a free demo on October 16).
As part of the anniversary celebrations Sony also announced Borderlands 2 VR and hosted a preview event for many of their other upcoming games in London (including Ace Combat 7, which wed played before). Attending was a slightly daunting prospect given the potential for headaches and nausea. But we came away entirely unaffected and more excited than ever about the future of VR…
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Blood & Truth
Were gone be honest and admit wed completely forgotten that Blood & Truth had even been announced. The name is rather non-descript but its the latest from Sonys London studio, who are still best known for Cockney GTA wannabe The Getaway and its various spin-offs. The most recent of these was The London Heist, which was the best part of the PlayStation VR Worlds compendium.
If The London Heist was the equivalent of a short film then Blood & Truth seems to be the full length movie, although it was hard to tell exactly its scope as the demo was primarily just a Virtua Cop style shooting gallery. We say just rather unfairly though, as the game looks fantastic with an impressively realistic looking London tower block filled with cover that you can jump between like Time Crisis.
The games not on-the-rails though and you can also strafe left and right, as you play some sort of gangster trying to rescue his dear old mum from some heavily armed chavs who keep referring to you as blood. Its all good lightgun-esque fun though and when you do find your mum you realise just how convincing the character graphics are.
Having to physically reload your gun from a pocket on your chest adds not only to the immersion but also the sense of tactics, as you begin to literally count the bullets and decide the best moment to switch from pistol to machinegun.
We do hope the final game has more varied encounters though, like The London Heist, as despite its short length London Studio made simply listening to characters and taking in the surroundings almost as tense and compelling as the action.
Formats: PlayStation VR
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: London Studio
Release Date: TBA
Tetris Effect
Although arguably the most high profile of the upcoming games, Tetris Effect isnt a VR exclusive game. It can be played on a TV as normal and already has its own unique selling point, in that its by Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi. But playing the game in VR it immediately becomes obvious that it owes a lot to Rez Infinite, with similar particle effects to its glorious VR level Area X and, of course, the sort of interactive music which has become Mizuguchis signature feature.
Youre still playing a normal game of Tetris though, with the shapes falling down and lining up in the traditional manner. The better you do the more tracks, including vocals, are added to the soundtrack – as the background graphics also flower into life and colour. Its a beautiful effect, and a great reward for doing well, although the main mode is split up into separate areas that you can complete by getting a set number of lines.
Theres also a new bonus mechanic called Zone, where for a limited time you get extra points and can drop several blocks at once. This allows you to surpass previous Tetris limits on high scores, and… well, it looks cool when you do it.
Formats: PlayStation 4
Publisher: Enhance Games
Developer: Resonair
Release Date: 9th November 2018
Beat Saber
Thanks to the ominously-themed Thumper the PlayStation VR already has one top notch rhythm action game to its name but Beat Saber is a very welcome rival. Like most music games its an extremely easy concept to explain and has you wielding what is essentially a lightsabre in each hand – as controlled, in our demo at least, by two Move controllers.
Once a music track starts a series of small boxes fly towards you with arrows pointing in various different directions. These indicate the direction you have to slice them with the lightsabre and… thats more or less it. Some boxes change direction or can be hit at any angle but the main difficulty, other than keeping up with the music, is Tron style walls that also zoom towards you and have to either be dodged side-to-side or ducked under.
You have to move quite a bit to get out of the way of some of them and at one point we actually managed to step on the cable, pulling it out of the back of the headset – such was our eagerness not to miss a beat. The game has been on early access on PC since May and were not at all surprised to see the reviews are already overwhelmingly positive. Its a great idea and fun no matter what music is involved.
Formats: PlayStation VR and PC
Publisher: Beat Games
Developer: Beat Games
Release Date: TBA
Déraciné
This was easily the strangest game we played at the preview, which feels entirely proper considering its the first VR title from Dark Souls creators FromSoftware. Although the graphical style is fairly similar theres no obvious connection with any of their previous work in terms of story or gameplay. The staff at the preview had us believe that déraciné means daydream in French, but online dictionaries insist it means something that has been uprooted from its natural environment.
Both make sense to a degree though as the game takes place in a boarding school where you play as a fairy, which some of the children believe exists but none can see. This seems to be because the fairy exists outside of normal time, with human characters either frozen in place or appearing as shadowy memories where theyve previous been. Its all extremely odd and none of it is explained within the game, but a primary mechanic seems to be the magic rings you have on each hand which can transfer the essence of an object through two different time periods.
Or at least we think thats what was going on, as we tried to answer a girls wish for a flower to grow back to life by finding a living one and draining its life force. This was a part of a tutorial which were told may or may not be in the final game, while the first chapter of the actual story involved performing another favour – this time finding the special herb leaves that each child has in a vial round their neck and dropping them into a cooking pot.
Apparently the children are supposed to eat the herbs but often refuse to, although exactly why is never explained. Finding the children involves a series of simple clues and puzzles, as you read peoples thoughts like little audio logs and work out where each one is hiding. Quite why any of this needed to be in VR were not sure but we will admit that climbing up a tree and looking down was one of the few times weve got genuine vertigo from a game – probably because the tree was rendered to look as realistic as possible.
The annoucement of any new FromSoftware game is instantly grounds for excitement but Déraciné is so strange we really dont know what to think of it. But if any developer deserves the benefit of doubt its From and the melancholic atmosphere is so well crafted we assume the real purpose and meaning of the game will be revealed only by playing the whole thing.
Formats: PlayStation VR
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: FromSoftware
Release Date: 6th November 2018
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