Battlezone (VR) Reviews
The fast and hectic gameplay is fairly pleasant, but the presence of a single mode, monotonous and with some balancing problem, limits the appeal of the game.
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With endless replayability, Battlezone offers one of the more robust PSVR experiences available at launch. It is also exceedingly immersive, and its online co-op multiplayer makes for a unique experience in the VR gaming space. It's too bad that a lot of the underlying gameplay design decisions weren't better implemented. The extreme challenge is just one thing, and could be fixed in a future update for that matter. But players simply won't find themselves that drawn back into the game after the first couple of rounds, mostly due to frustration, or an overall sluggish feel.
Battlezone is one of PSVR’s bulkiest titles, but fails to drum up replayability in the long run.
'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.
In the end, Battlezone VR is a missed opportunity. With so many other PSVR launch titles ending up being little more than glorified tech demos, the balance and design gaffes that cripple the game make the experience that much more disappointing as Battlezone VR’s handling of the technology works really well. I’m convinced a good game could be salvaged from this with a few tweaks and some rebalancing, but for now it’s a brutally frustrating mess doesn’t live up to it’s promise.
It is unknown if the developers can patch Battlezone to reduce the nauseating feelings its perspective emits (reports indicate the game was even more discomforting during press previews before receiving some fine-tuning before launch), but that alone is a big enough reason to caution players from purchasing it.
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.
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.
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.