Unearthing Mars Review

Generally, there are two types of VR titles; experiences where you are immersed in your surroundings with very little interaction, and games which can be almost anything; rarely do we see a title that is both. Unearthing Mars combines these two elements into an interesting story with some surprisingly fun gameplay.

When Unearthing Mars first starts, it doesn't do itself any favors. You are standing in front of a large holographic map of Mars listening to two people who sound robotic talk back and forth to each other. There are a few interactions like responding to two people and spinning around the Mars map, but then the chapter ends and you're left wondering "what did I get myself into?" These reservations are rightfully felt, but if you just give Unearthing Mars a little more time you'll discover an odd but interesting game.

The second chapter puts you in the seat as a copilot aboard a spaceship that is headed for Mars. You and your commander have to work together to ensure that you land safely. If you mess up along the way, you lose something similar to health and if you do too many wrong inputs, you ultimately fail. After you safely guide your ship to Mars, the game really starts to open up.

Once you're out of your spaceship you can move around by hopping around to different designated areas. It seems like the biggest hurdle for any VR game is how to move your character without making the user feel nauseous. While I didn't feel any discomfort with Unearthing Mars, I did find the way you move to be a little odd. To move you simply aim the PlayStation Move Wand and click on one of the designated areas. The issue with this is that for some reason there is an arch added to the movement rather than just a straight line. This means to move somewhere far away you need to point the Move wand up at an angle instead of just straight ahead. It's an odd design choice and it just doesn't feel natural.

Voice acting has to be one of the hardest things to nail because it seems that so many indie games have trouble with this. I mentioned earlier that the voices between the two characters sounded robotic, but fortunately the voice acting gets progressively better as it begins to sound more natural. This definitely helps the immersion because you are no longer focused on how bad the characters sound.

The objectives in the game are pretty easy to figure out which keeps the story going. The entire experience will take you about one and a half to two hours to complete. You may run into a few parts that take some thinking, but for the most part, you won't have any issue completing the game. The best part of the game comes towards the end when you get to battle against hordes of evil aliens using a shield and a gun. This part came totally out of the blue and I wish that there was more of it, but regardless, it was an absolute blast.

Overall, Unearthing Mars is rough around the edges, but it does have its charm. The world is developed nicely and there are some interesting gameplay elements. If you feel like you've exausted all the PSVR choices then you may want to give Unearthing Mars a chance, but don't expect to be blown away.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Winking Skywalker Entertainment for providing us with the code.

DYING: Reborn PSVR Review

Publisher Oasis Games has been consistently releasing games on the PSVR since launch and after playing all of their PSVR titles I can say that DYING: Reborn is their best game yet. The main character, Mathew went out to search for his sister only to find himself locked in a room full of cockroaches, metal bars, and puzzles.

There are a total of three rooms that you have to escape from in the PSVR version compared to the six in the PS4 and PS Vita version. Because you are buying an abridged version, the price comes down to $9.99 instead of $19.99 making DYING: Reborn one of the cheapest PSVR games and not a bad deal.

Usually, when I play puzzle games I find myself overthinking and getting stuck. With DYING: Reborn overthinking is your friend. You have to examine everything in the room because the solution is rarely obvious. The best approach would be to play the game like a point-and-click adventure game where you find an item and interact with every object to see if they work. I did find myself getting stuck one time because of the graphics quality of the game. There's a part when you have to play a melody on a piano and for the longest time I couldn't figure out the hint. There's also a puzzle in final room that I was stuck on for easily over an hour because of no other reason than it was hard to figure out. It's tough for me to criticize the game because the solution was available, I just wasn't prepared for there to be such a difficult objective.

One thing that felt odd was that the game ended abruptly. I'm not sure if it's because it's the abridged version, but you don't really get closure. This, unfortunately, does make the experience feel rather incomplete. The entire game took me about three and half hours to finish and I did enjoy my time with it despite the conclusion and getting stuck on one puzzle for over an hour.

Overall, if you're looking for a PSVR game to play and you want to be challenged, then $9.99 is a low risk. While trophies never determine how I feel about a game, it is nice to know that completing DYING: Reborn PSVR will get you 100% of the trophies in one playthrough.

3.75 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Oasis Games for providing us with the code

Mervils: A VR Adventure Review

As time goes on, PlayStation VR games are starting to become longer and more in-depth. Mervils: A VR Adventure is an action-adventure platformer with RPG elements. You take control of an adventurer who is sent out to find the pages and bind the Great Mervil Book so you can defeat the dark sorcerer "Balazar the Evil." 

The first thing you do is create your character. You might expect to have this option in a game that has RPG elements, but in fact, this is the first PS VR game that I've played that included it. Once you're done with your creation the fun really begins.

Each world is wildly different from each other. There's a fantasy kingdom, the wild west, an arctic level, a pirate level that includes an underwater portion and a final boss level. Within each level, you'll find a bunch of quests to complete, hidden areas, treasure chests, a final boss fight and of course, pages of the Great Mervil Book. The interesting thing is that you don't actually have to find all of the pages of the book to continue to the next level, however, if you don't find all of them, it makes upgrading your equipment incredibly difficult. 

One of the most difficult things for VR games appears to be addressing the camera/movement. Mervils uses a technique that keeps the camera in place as you run around the world until you reach a certain distance and then it resets. You can also press L2 to reset the camera and bring it closer to you. The majority of the time Mervils' camera works fine, but there are times when the camera positioning can cause you to die, because you are unable to see what's hitting you. This setting can be changed to always make the camera follow you, but this has it's own issues. I'd recommend playing around with the different settings so you can find out which is the best for you. 

Normally I don't get too hung up on voice acting, but this is probably the biggest flaw in Mervils. There are a ton of different voice actors, which isn't bad, but the accents are all over the place. You'll talk to one person who has an english accent, only to talk to someone who has a southern accent who is standing nearby.  If the accents were consistent to each level it wouldn't be nearly as bad. 

One of the my favorite aspects of Mervils is that almost each world includes a level that switches from platforming to something else. For example, the wild west world has a level that is just riding on a mine cart and collecting coins while jumping over broken pieces of track and avoiding objects. The arctic level includes a sleigh ride and the pirate level includes a pretty awesome ship battle scenario. Mervils could easily have been a pure platformer, but the fact they included different types of gameplay shows that the developers really wanted to make a memorable experience. 

Mervils also features a good amount of puzzles that you have to complete if you want to find all of the pages. Some of these puzzles took some serious time and trial and error for me to complete. For the most it's easy to understand the objective of the puzzles, but just because you understand what you have to do doesn't make it easy. I have to give the developers credit for creating tough puzzles, because it seems that lately puzzles are typically not that hard. 

Overall I really had a good time with Mervils: A VR Adventure. Sure, the camera and voice acting could be better, but ultimately this is a solid action-adventure, platforming, RPG that is definitely worth playing through. Finally, I want to say that the virtual reality comfort level was great. I spent about 10-12 hours in one day completing the game 100% and I never had any motion sickness. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

Thank you to VitruviusVR for providing the code. 

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin Review

The PlayStation VR was easily one of the more anticipated pieces of technology last year. There were plenty of reasons to get excited about it, but since the launch, there haven't been too many must-have games. Fortunately, Double Fine has stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun with Psychonauts In The Rhombus of Ruin. 

The story takes place after the events of the original Psychonauts where we find out that the Grand Head of the Psychonauts Truman Zanotto, has been kidnapped. The main character, Raz, and the rest of the crew discover that Truman is being held in underwater at the Rhombus of Ruin, a former Psychonauts lab. On their way, their ship crashes and the crew is separated. Raz has to use his psychic abilities to gather his powers and save Truman Zanotto.

Right from the beginning, you can tell that a lot of time and effort went into creating the world. There are an impressive amount of fine details that most other VR games seem to neglect. At one point I picked up a record and flipped it around to find an actual tracklisting for this fake album. These little inclusions make feel like you're a part of the world rather than a spectator. I feel that I have a lot of experience in VR and there were even times where I almost reached out to grab something that was in front of me. 

The gameplay is a lot different than the previous Psychonauts. Instead of being a 3D platformer you use Raz's clairvoyance ability to jump into and out of the minds of the surrounding people or creatures. In fact, you don't walk around at all, and to interact with objects or to jump in the mind of something you simply look at them press a button. The game essentially plays like a point-and-click adventure, where you have to solve puzzles moving objects or combining certain objects. None of the puzzles are overly difficult and with a little bit of trial and error you'll figure them out in no time. 

As I mentioned before, to interact with things you have to look at them and press a button on the controller. This generally works fine, but there were a few times where I really felt like I had to stretch my neck and turn my head quite a bit to discover where I had to go to next. This was really the only issue that I had over the three and a half hours that it took me to complete Rhombus of Ruin. 

Overall, if you're looking for a new PlayStation VR game, I couldn't recommend Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin enough. The world that Double Fine created is amazing and the characters are as lovable as they've always been. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up!

4.75 out of 5 stars

Thank you very much to Double Fine for providing us with the code.

Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live Review

Not every video game is made for every person. There are niche titles that are made for a very specific audience and sometimes you have to consider that when reviewing a game. Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live features the extremely famous VOCALOID, Hatsune Miku, performing her songs in front of the player as well as a massive digital audience. 

The gameplay of Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is minimal. You use your DualShock 4 to wave and pump a glow stick in rhythm with the crowd and an occasional mini-game and you also use the mic to call out "Miku" to help get the crowd excited. If you successfully do this well enough you are rewarded with an encore, which gives you a "private" concert with Hatsune Miku. Each "stage" (which is what they call each DLC) lets you choose three songs out of a possible six for Miku to perform. The game does keep track of the songs that you've heard, so it's easy to go back and listen to the tracks you haven't heard. 

The best part of the whole game are the songs. They are almost all upbeat J-pop songs that honestly make you smile. You may not know what she is saying, but it's really hard to not smile while listening to the songs. This will make people want to go back and listen to the songs that may have missed during their first playthrough. 

Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is much more of an experience than an actual game.  During the concert, you are able to sit in different seats around the arena which gives you a different perspective of the show. My biggest gripe is that at $15 per DLC the arena never changes. If there was an option to have some variety in the venues it would at least feel like Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live had more depth. 

Overall this is not a game that I would recommend to anyone who isn't already a fan of Hatsune Miku or VOCALOIDS - and that's okay. This game is intended for a Hatsune Miku fans, but just know that it is a bit shallow and you will probably want more from the experience. 

2.75 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Sega for providing us with the code.

The Brookhaven Experiment Review

If there is one genre that shines brighter than any other in virtual reality, it’s horror. Saying that you won’t jump or panic pretty much guarantees that you’re setting yourself up to be scared. The Brookhaven Experiment isn’t just a battle against virtual monsters, it’s a battle against fear itself. 

You start off every level directly in the middle of multiple corridors, walkways, and huge openings that give zombies, horrific mutations and huge insects a direct path to you. As the waves of enemies come, you have to think about more than just taking them out, you seriously have to assign priorities of which enemies you need to kill first. Oh yeah, and there’s no tutorial, so make sure you press all the buttons early to figure out what they do. Here’s a quick tip, the circle button on the left controller is a quick turn around. Without knowing this, I was using the Start button to completely readjust my screen, which is not an effective way to play the game. 

When you enter the level, you get to choose from a handful of weapons, attachments, and throwables. Early in the game, you fairly limited to what you can select but as you progress you have to start going into levels with certain game plans. It’s safe to assume once you reach the fourth level you’re probably going to a few times and you have to start really thinking about what worked and what didn’t work. This is where I feel a major issue starts to creep up its ugly head. 

To get more ammo and throwables such as proximity mines, chemical grenades, and flares you have to complete levels that you’ve already finished. About halfway through the game, there’s a level titled Storm Drain, which has one of the highest difficulty spikes I’ve ever experienced in any game. Up until this point I felt that I was being challenged, but there was never a time where I questioned the actual impossibility of the game. 

Now I understand that every gamer is different, but having played well over 500 games on my PlayStation consoles, being a person who likes difficult games I feel comfortable addressing the difficulty curve that The Brookhaven Experiment takes. 

One of the first issues lies 100% in the PlayStation Move tech and I won’t fault the game for that too much, but there is a time when you have to aim directly above your head at spider enemies that are crawling down the walls. These spiders shoot webbing at you that can either disable your gun or blind you temporarily which renders you ineffective against the enemies who are quickly bearing down on you. Because the Move Wands can’t be recognized above your head (and I am not that tall) you have to hold them against your chest and angle them outwards. This isn’t a natural feeling, but once you get the hang of it’s not too bad. 

The other issue is the lack of ammo and throwables that you have. Whenever you complete a wave you get to decide between health and an ammo supply that comes with a random throwable. These throwables are proximity mines, chemical grenades, hand grenades, stun grenades, and flares. When you go into a level and die whatever ammo that is used doesn’t get restored and whatever throwable you bring in completely disappears whether you used them or not. Now the simple answer is don’t die and don’t get hit, but as I mentioned before the difficulty spike is tremendous. The end result of dying and reattempting the same level is that you have to go back and grind for supplies. At one point I went into a level with 900 machine gun rounds that I was saving for the final two rounds. I made it through the first wave only using around 300 rounds leaving 600 for the final wave. I quickly ran through those 600 rounds and just had to stand there waiting patiently to die. They game will tell you that you can use the butt of your gun, your knife and you totally can when you’re reloading or if there is a single enemy, but you’re definitely not going to be able to make it through waves of enemies unless you’re a samurai. 

I will say that I did eventually finish the Storm Drain, but it took probably 15-20 attempts where I would die late into the 3rd or final wave and it required hours of grinding ammo and grenades just to have enough supplies to finish it.

Overall The Brookhaven Experiment is a terrifying experience that requires users to keep a level head to succeed. The intense difficulty spike will probably end up frustrating a lot of gamers. 

3.25 out of 5 Stars

Weeping Doll Review

It's been awhile since I've played a game where the narrative has really shocked me. I've been surprised and tricked, but actual shock in what I'm hearing and seeing. Weeping Doll from Oasis Games creates a wild story that is so dark and twisted that it's almost unbelievable. 

The story follows a housekeeper through a creepy mansion that looks like it's been ransacked. You know something has gone wrong and it's your job to put together the pieces. As you progress through the story you start to uncover layers of unnerving subjects such as child abuse and neglect. While other games may use metaphors to dance around sensitive subjects, Weeping Doll jumps right into them. 

Weeping Doll, at its core, is a puzzle game. You enter a room and have to either figure out a way to get out or find an essential item that will help you advance. The premise is awesome, but the execution falls flat because the puzzles don't require much thinking. At one point, the game gives you a tutorial on how to combine items to solve a puzzle, but you only use it that one time. There's no option of failing either, which means that there isn't really a challenge. 

I also ran into quite a few major bugs in Weeping Doll, which is always unfortunate. At one point I accidentally dropped a key and it went either through the floor or under a dresser, which forced me to reload the checkpoint. After reloading the checkpoint, I had to complete the first part of the room's puzzle again, which is fine, but the piece that I needed was nowhere to be found. This meant that I had to start a whole brand new game. Luckily, I was less than 10 minutes into the game so it wasn't too much of a pain to start over. 

Once I got through the beginning, I was making real progress. The atmosphere of Weeping Doll is pretty terrifying and you constantly feel like something is about to happen. Unfortunately, there are only about three real scares in the entire game. I will say this, as odd as it may sound, Weeping Doll succeeds as a great "psychological narrative." The game really got in my head and convinced me that at any moment something scary was about to happen. 

The entire game is only about an hour long so you can easily finish it in one sitting, however, there is something odd about the way the game ends. Once you finish the game, you'll hear the trophy chime, but the game keeps going. You are able to walk around the house and you may think that there is more to do, but there isn't. This is sort of a byproduct of the PSVR not showing you trophies when you have it on, but there aren't any credits to inform you either. I probably spent an additional 10 minutes walking around trying to figure out what to do next, only to find out that I had finished the game once I looked at my trophy list. 

Overall Weeping Doll is a short and strange game. It's currently only $9.99 on the PlayStation store so it's low-risk. An added bonus is that the trophies are incredibly easy so this may entice trophy hunters, but outside of that, there isn't much there. I do feel like it some real potential and I hope that the relatively new studio, Oasis Games continues to build and develop their games further because they definitely have a knack for crazy stories. 

2.25 out of 5 Stars

Thank you to Oasis Games for providing us with the code. 

Wayward Sky Review

When reviewing PlayStation VR titles it's easy to get overly impressed with games that would be average because the level of immersion is unlike anything gamers have experienced before. Your body actually responds physically and at times you get fooled into believing that you can interact with virtual objects. I've had the pleasure to play and review a handful of PlayStation VR games and can say that Wayward Sky is one of my favorite virtual reality games. 

The story follows Bess, a young girl who must save her father from a slightly mentally disturbed kid named Thaddeus who shot down their airplane. Thaddeus lives on a monstrous flying base that is maintained and populated by robots. Over the course of the game, you solve puzzles and meet friendly robots while ascending this floating fortress. 
 

The first and most noticeable aspect of the game is the gorgeous art style. For the majority of Wayward Sky, the camera is a fixed isometric perspective, which makes the presentation sort of look like a board game. There are a few times where the camera does switch into a first-person mode and you have to solve puzzles by controlling two separate hands. The game looks just as great while in first-person, so it was nice to see that the graphics didn't lose any quality, which can be an issue in VR games. I did find that I had some issues while trying to complete the puzzles in first-person. There were times where my hands wouldn't respond the way that I expected and it took extra maneuvering to complete objectives. 

The world itself is pretty fun to explore and there are a lot of hidden collectibles. I am usually not a person who enjoys hunting for collectibles because it just seems like a cheap way to add more time to a game, but I really didn't mind it in Wayward Sky. The reason is because there are only two different types of collectibles to find: windchimes and robot pieces. Once you collect all the pieces of a specific robot you can then use that robot in a mini-game that is sort of like a beat 'em up / 
horizontal shooter. It's a fun little game and it also gives the collectibles an actual point.

Wayward Sky will take around 2-2 1/2 hours to finish which isn't a bad length, but this is one game that I wouldn't mind another hour. The major issue of Wayward Sky is that the puzzles are incredibly easy. Just by using trial and error you'll be able to make it through any of the Wayward Sky's challenges. Without having to think about the solutions, the objectives just become something that slows you down rather than something that adds anything to the experience. 

Overall Wayward Sky is a quick, solid game that has a wonderful presentation. You can easily sit down with your PSVR, discover a nice story, and see a beautifully designed world all before you have to go to bed for the night. 

3.75 out of 5 Stars

Thank you very much to Uber Entertainment for providing the code. 

Loading Human: Chapter 1 Review

In Loading Human you play as Prometheus, an aspiring scientist who has been summoned by your dying father to retrieve the Quintessence, which reverses the aging process, ultimately saving your father. No pressure, right?  

The gameplay of Loading Human is very similar to Heavy Rain, except in VR. You'll find yourself interacting with plenty of items, some useful and some not. You can pick up pretty much anything you could imagine a normal person can pick up. I found myself picking up glasses, plates, bottles of wine, dropping them just to see them break. None of this is probably mind blowing, but what are usually mundane tasks are so immersive that the player finds themselves completely engaged in what's happening. This could be the very nature of VR, but to succeed at this, the world has to be developed and that's exactly what Loading Human achieves. 

Loading Human was the first full PlayStation VR game that I've played, so when I first started I felt that the pacing was a little slow. Your character only walks and there is no option to run. I feel that most people who are making their first full dive into VR with Loading Human will feel this way, but after playing a few other games I feel that the pacing is actually perfect. The reason being that motion sickness is very real and in fact, Loading Human handles movement better than the other games that I've played so far. Some other games, such as Batman Arkham VR make you teleport around instead of walking. 

There were a few hitches along the way with Loading Human. One issue that I found was with the hint system. There aren't any breadcrumbs or item tags that show you your next objective, which is totally fine, but the hint system that is in the game can be very vague or just flat out wrong. There was one time where I had to restart the game a few times to understand what I was missing. This can, of course, be very frustrating when you're trying to progress through a game which relies on its narrative to keep the user engaged. The other issue is that the base that you are in is fairly small and you'll find yourself exploring the same areas quite a bit. There are a few space simulations that are fun, but they are only "exercises" that you don't actually use. Then the final major problem without spoilers is that once you finally get to the point to where feel like the game is going to completely open up, it ends. If the developers would have just given the user 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay that used the space simulations again it would have broken up some of the mundane tasks. 

Even with all the issues that I felt, I have to say that I am definitely looking forward to Loading Human: Chapter 2. From what I've heard there are supposed to be four chapters total which is a hefty investment if they plan on making every game $40. What would be nice is that the first installment is $40 and the rest that follow can be downloaded for $20 each. 

If you like narrative driven games and are looking for something to play on your PlayStation VR, then I feel comfortable recommending Loading Human: Chapter 1, but if you are looking for something that has a lot more action then you may want to try something else. With that being said, I definitely think that as the story evolves that Loading Human should be a series you keep on your radar. 

3.5 stars out of 5. 

Thank you to Maximum Games for providing the code.