Battlezone (VR) Reviews
'Battlezone' feels like a serious missed opportunity. As the successor to what many consider the original virtual reality game, I expected Rebellion's revision to be an accessible arcade battler — the sort of game that would make a great introduction to home-ready VR. Instead, this new version takes its influence from more modern inspirations, including roguelike elements and procedurally generated maps.
There are showier VR games out there, for sure, but this is a nice thing to return to once you've had your fill of gimmicks.
I want to like the thing. I love games with roguelike elements and I enjoy the way the campaign is laid out with random encounters and occasional adventure game-style choices. Campaigns can be surprisingly flavorful, and it’s fun to find surprise rewards while navigating the hexagonal map between battles. These glimmers of entertainment, however, are not frequent enough to make up for the number of times I’m left shaking my head at another “Failure” screen, wondering exactly what the hell just happened.
For me, Battlezone is easily one of the best games on PlayStation VR, even with a high price point. It’s retro futuristic tank combat is fun and engaging, while the randomised campaign, four player co-op and the challenge it can throw your way keep me wanting to come back and try to beat it time and again.
A fun, if slightly limited, retro reboot, that proves that first person shooters can work on the PlayStation VR if the developer dares to think a little differently.
The arcade classic returns, bringing challenging, cooperative tank combat into modern virtual reality. The results are flawed but ultimately still fun.
Battlezone looks good and controls well, but offline there’s nothing to think about besides shoot, shoot, shoot, which in this case just doesn’t provide enough of a good time to be enjoyable for long.
Battlezone excels mostly in its four-player co-op mutliplayer offering where team-work, strategy and upgrading efficiently really matters. The mother of all tank games is back with a huge virtual reality bang.
Battlezone is basically what you dreamed an arcade game would be ten years ago, finally realised and in your living room. A dumb, no-frills tank blaster that is instantly playable and understandable by anyone, this is the sort of thing that will win over a lot of people who wouldn’t consider themselves interested in VR as a concept. Unlikely to be a defining title of the platform, but a strong start regardless.