After a short period where we were bombarded with VR releases for the new PSVR2 headset, the VR market’s gone back to normal again. We focus on four games for the Quest this time, with previews and reviews for Broken Spectre, Kill It With Fire VR, Call Of The Sea VR and Yupitergrad 2.
Broken Spectre preview (Quest)
We recently checked out a preview build for Broken Spectre, an upcoming cosmic horror narrative adventure game developed by Games by Stitch in collaboration with creators behind The Blair Witch Project. As such, it promises to be a terrifying and unique experience for horror game fans.
The game follows the protagonist, Casey, as she returns to the abandoned trails of Coldblood Mountain after receiving a cryptic message from her father. The wilderness has long been a source of terror for Casey’s family, and as she unravels its mysteries, she is forced to confront the dark secrets that lie hidden there.
One of the standout features of Broken Spectre is its immersive and macabre visual style. The dark and eerie atmosphere is sure to keep players on edge and fully immersed in the game’s terrifying world. Additionally, the game’s use of the Meta Quest 2’s hand-tracking controls allows for unparalleled realism in the game’s horror elements – with immersion-breaking tracking issues being quite rare in the preview build.
We also enjoyed the game’s narrative, and because you can make decisions to impact the story it’s engaging to follow – possibly even offering a bit of replay value. Players will also have to solve puzzles, so it’s nice to know this isn’t a VR horror game that just relies on jump scares. With its creepy visual style and a development team that’s right at home in the horror genre, this one should make for a potentially excellent but terrifying VR title when it launches out of its current AppLab phase.
Kill It With Fire VR review (Quest)
Kill It With Fire VR, the virtual reality version of the original game, is a fun and entertaining experience for anyone looking to annihilate arachnids in style. This game is available on the Quest platform, and is sure to give players an immersive and satisfying gameplay experience as its gameplay model is so well suited to VR and motion controls.
The game is a first-person action game, where players have to complete various objectives, such as finding and destroying hidden spiders or collecting upgrades to make the weapon more effective. The gameplay is fast-paced and satisfying, as players can use an array of weapons to kill the spiders, ranging from shotguns to frying pans.
One of the best parts of Kill It With Fire VR is its intuitive and responsive motion control scheme, which provides an immersive gameplay experience. They’ve been well-adapted to the VR platform, and players can easily interact with the environment to find and kill the spiders and wield their weapons. The game’s colorful graphics and sound design also deserve praise. The environments are well-designed, providing a sense of immersion and adding to the overall feel of the game despite the game’s cartoon-like visual style.
If you’re expecting a long narrative-driven game this one’s probably not for you, as this is a short game where the replay value comes from how much you enjoy killing vermin. It turns out that we do, and Kill It With Fire’s fast-paced gameplay is satisfying and fun in VR, with immersive controls and well-designed environments that make this one even more fun in VR that it is on a flat screen.
Call of the Sea VR review (Quest)
Call of the Sea VR is a first-person puzzle-adventure game set in a beautiful island paradise. This game has been well-received on the non-VR platforms, and now it’s available on the VR platform, offering players an immersive experience that takes full advantage of the medium. And while we’re really looking forward to developer Out of the Blue’s new game (American Arcadia), we couldn’t resist checking out the excellent Call of the Sea in its VR glory on a Quest 2 either.
One of the eye-catching elements about of the VR version of Call of the Sea are its gorgeous graphics. And although you shouldn’t expect the same kind of fidelity that you get on a PlayStation 4 or 5, the environments are rendered in impressive detail, with the VR headset adds a level of immersion that cannot be experienced on other platforms. The sound design also deserves a mention, as it helps to create an immersive atmosphere – an element that carries over well from the original version.
The game’s puzzles are well-designed and challenging, providing players with a sense of accomplishment as they progress through the game. The VR platform adds an extra layer of complexity to the puzzles, as players have to physically move and manipulate objects to solve them, which is a unique and enjoyable aspect of the game even though the puzzles can also be a bit frustrating.
On the downside, the game’s controls can take some getting used to and the narrative isn’t going to surprise if you played the old version before. Call of the Sea VR is a beautiful and immersive adventure game though, and well worth playing on the VR platform. The impressive graphics and sound design that they squeezed onto the Quest, along with the well-designed puzzles, provide players with an engaging and rewarding experience. This is a must-play adventure game and VR just gives players another option to do so.
Yupitergrad 2 preview (Quest)
Yupitergrad 2 is an upcoming VR game by Gamedust that promises to deliver a unique and thrilling grappling adventure. The game is the sequel to the original Yupitergrad, which we enjoyed for its innovative gameplay and immersive VR experience, and we recently went hands on with a preview build.
The game’s grappling mechanics that were introduced in the first game are the defining feature of Yupitergrad 2 as well. Players use a grappling hook to swing through various environments, ranging from space stations to asteroid fields. The physics-based gameplay makes for a thrilling and immersive experience that works incredibly well in VR because it lets you stay stationary while still giving a sense of freedom of movement.
The game’s graphics and sound design are still impressive, though the technical limitations of the Quest don’t allow for a massive upgrade over the first Yupitergrad game. The environments are well-designed though, with a richer retro-futuristic aesthetic than the first game had. This is partly due to the sound effects and music that add to an immersive atmosphere, though one of the most exciting aspects of Yupitergrad 2 is its improved replayability. With a variety of challenges and objectives and hidden secrets and collectibles, players have a lot more reasons to return to the game even after they’ve completed the main campaign.
And while swinging around in zero gravity isn’t the most casual VR experience out there, making this a game for those who’ve earned they VR stripes, Yupitergrad 2 looks like an exciting return to one of the most innovative VR concepts out there. The game’s grappling mechanics, graphics, and sound design are all suited really well to the Quest, and the replayability factor is a definite plus. Definitely one to watch as it gets closer to its release date.
Press Play Media 