Now Playing: Pavlov (VR)

If Arizona Sunshine is best described as a ‘low budget Left 4 Dead’ then Pavlov VR is best described as a ‘low budget Counter-Strike’. Because that’s pretty much all it is – Counter-Strike VR.

Pavlov VR is a tricky game to review. It’s damn cheap – 6.99 at the time of writing, though I’ve read a price increase is on the horizon. It’s still in Early Access and the content, as it exists now, is very limited. But I guess the low price reflects that fact, so I can’t really complain.

You get three maps with a choice of four game modes – Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Gun Game and Search & Destroy. The game does support offline play with bots but be warned – the bots, even on the official maps, can sometimes bug out and be entirely unresponsive.

I say ‘official’ maps because that’s the interesting thing about Pavlov VR – on the base content alone, it’s still barely worth that low price. What elevates the game into being one of the most popular VR games on Steam – and the most popular multiplayer VR game – is the community created content.

Hundreds of new maps and even new modes are all available to download through the Steam Workshop. And yes, as you’d expect, that includes recreations of some of the most popular and iconic Counter-Strike maps. And that’s where I’ve spent most of my time – playing those CS maps in VR is pretty damn fun.

But like Arizona Sunshine and Left 4 Dead, I can’t help but wish we’d get a proper Counter-Strike VR developed by Valve to the same high production value they demonstrated with The Lab. That’s not to shit upon AS or Pavlov because I’ve enjoyed my time with both games, it’s just a fact that these games are, more or less, low budget / production versions of better non-VR games – and their continued popularity shows how the VR market is ready and waiting for a high quality alternative.

Okay, back to Pavlov VR. When you open the game you appear within a shooting range that gives you a chance to become familiar with the controls. The tutorials in the game are limited, to say the least, so I’d recommend checking out some videos on YouTube. The weapon models are great and the ‘realistic’ reload system is a lot of fun. The guns feel good to shoot and even playing with the somewhat stupid bots can still be very enjoyable.

There’s no teleportation motion, so you’d better get used to touchpad movement – it gets you a little dizzy at first, but with repeat play, you’ll soon get used to it. And if you can’t? Well, I guess you’re shit out of luck. But the movement feels smooth and isn’t too fast, slow or jerky – a problem I had with The Forest VR motion – so it’s a little more comfortable and easier to adapt to.

There’s a big update planned for early November, but I don’t know what it will include. It might massively expand and improve upon the base content. But right now, Pavlov VR is a limited, but cheap, Counter-Strike VR game that relies entirely upon community content to stay relevant. That does concern me to a degree – because if community maps aren’t updated alongside the game, then they can simply cease functioning.

Relying upon your community to keep building maps, modes and content is a risk, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the developers build upon the base game going forward. If you like Counter-Strike and like the idea of Counter-Strike in VR and don’t want to wait to see what Valve may be planning, then for 6.99, you really can’t go wrong with Pavlov VR.

And maybe in the future, with enough support and updates, it can become far more than just a ‘low budget Counter-Strike’ and evolve into its own unique and worthwhile experience.

6/10

Gallery: Astral Chain

Now Playing: Arizona Sunshine (VR)

Arizona Sunshine is a VR zombie survival shooter, originally released on PC and PS4 in 2016. It’s best described as a ‘low budget Left 4 Dead’ – but what it lacks in production quality it more than makes up for with charm and character. It remains one of the most popular and highly rated VR games on Steam so, when it went on sale recently, I decided to give it a spin.

You play as an unnamed guy who awakes in a cave in Arizona in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. It’s clear he’s been surviving on his own for some time and, after hearing a garbled radio message, is now determined to track down other survivors. The campaign can be played solo or in co-op with a length of around 4-5 hours depending upon your chosen difficulty.

The campaign, though short, does a decent job of mixing up the locations, so you’ll always be encountering something new. It also drops new weapons into your path to help spice things up. Visually, Arizona Sunshine may be a little dated – and it really needed more zombie models – but thanks to some clever level design and humorous VA, most players will likely be willing to overlook the low budget visual quality.

Every level follows a familiar, Left 4 Dead style gameplay loop in which you’ll traverse a zombie infested zone, dealing with the occasional surge, before eventually arriving at a trigger point in which some kind of alarm will sound and a mass zombie horde will arrive. It’s a repetitive but effective pattern and the game ends with a satisfying finale in which you must make a daring escape.

You can play Arizona Sunshine using both teleport and free movement controls, and I’d recommend the teleport option – not because of motion sickness concerns – but because I found myself frequently getting stuck on rocks and other objects on the ground when using free motion. You can dual wield the various weapons you’ll discover as you progress and there’s a decent selection to choose between – from basic pistols to a single shot grenade launcher.

Reloading is a little strange in the sense that you have to manually eject a clip or magazine and then move the weapon down to your ammo belt. It works – most of the time – but it can be a little fussy. Shooting zombies in VR is certainly fun – especially if you enable the ‘advanced CPU’ option which is really just increased gore and exploding heads.

Overall, the campaign of Arizona Sunshine was pretty fun and something I’ll certainly play again. In fact, I’ll probably pick up the DLC and play through that too, which gives you some idea of how much I enjoyed it. But like I said, this is a relatively low budget experience and it really makes me want to see a VR compatible Left 4 Dead 3 in the future.

In addition to the campaign, Arizona Sunshine also features a fun, if limited, Horde mode in which you can fights waves of ravenous zombies. It’s something I’ll probably play a little, but I imagine it’s more fun in co-op than solo.

I don’t really have any more to say about Arizona Sunshine. It’s a fun, if short, VR game that I’d certainly recommend on sale if you’re a fan of Left 4 Dead or other zombie survival games. If you’ve got a VR set, then it’s worth checking out.

6/10

HTC VIVE VR

Buying a Vive felt like something of a gamble. I’ve not had any opportunity to try a VR system so I had no idea if I’d like it or not. Even once I’d ordered the system I had my doubts. I wondered if it would prove to be an expensive mistake.

It arrived just 2 days after my order, so I can’t fault the service. Unpacking and setting up the Vive was pretty simple once I’d sorted through all of the various pieces. I’d already purchased some clamp mounts for the two sensor boxes so I wouldn’t have to worry about drilling any permanent fixtures.

I ordered the deluxe audio strap to go with my Vive and I’m glad I did – despite the extra cost. It really does make taking on and off the Vive easier and having the headphones attached is a very welcome quality of life improvement. If you’re thinking about getting a Vive I’d say the deluxe strap is a must.

The only problem I ran into setting up the Vive was the included VivePort software which got stuck on the install. But it turns out you don’t really need this software at all – all you need is SteamVR. With the hardware set up and the software ready to go, it was time to put on the headset for the first time and discover if I’d just made a very costly error.

As soon as I put it on, I was pretty blown away. It really is quite amazing. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I was so excited by a piece of hardware. It kind of reminds me of when we used to anticipate a new console release and the next leap forward it would offer in terms of visuals. But ever since the 360/PS3 era, we’ve only really seen incremental steps – nothing to get too excited about.

But the Vive – and I guess, VR in general – really does feel like another leap forward. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve tried it for yourself. You really do feel immersed in a virtual environment, so much that at times it’s easy to forget where you really are in reality.

The SteamVR ‘Home’ is kind of like your virtual portal into other VR software. And the Home environment isn’t some static construct – you can customise the environment with props you can unlock by completing VR ‘quests’. And if you don’t like or grow tired of the default home, it’s super easy to download an alternative from a selection of user created environments.

The Home environment is also the perfect place to become accustomed to VR controls and motion. You have a ‘play space’ virtual grid which appears when you move to its edge to warn you that you’re about to walk into something in reality. It takes a few hours to become accustomed to the VR experience, but it’s not long before you’re traversing this virtual world like a pro.

Although I own a few VR compatible titles I decided to begin with something a little more simple. I gave Bigscreen a spin which is a nice, easy to way utilise your desktop within VR, but also watch videos either online or from your PC. I also highly recommend The Lab, which serves as a wonderful demonstration of various VR applications.

I had the most fun though with Belko VR – a virtual escape room. Sure, it’s a short (15 minutes) movie promotional tool, but it’s also a very enjoyable VR experience. And it’s free, so there’s no reason not to give it a go.

I’ve also been playing some of The Forest in VR, which is my first experience of ‘smooth locomotion’ movement and – I’m not going to lie – it can make you a little dizzy at first, but it’s something you slowly get used to. You wouldn’t think a first person game would feel very different in VR, but that’s not the case at all. It really does feel like an entirely unique and separate experience to the regular non-VR version.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with my Vive and I can’t wait to get stuck into my next VR experience. It looks like I’ll be returning to No Man’s Sky even sooner than I expected. If you can cover the cost, meet the system requirements and have the necessary space then I’d say go for it. It’s easily the best piece of hardware I’ve bought in years.

Now Playing: Astral Chain

It took me some time to wrap my head around Astral Chain, but once I did, it became a serious contender for my GOTY. I wrote a blog post recently in which I talked about games ‘driving in the same direction’ – how so many AAA games are turning into generic, by the numbers, open world ‘live service’ clones. Stale, unoriginal and bland. Inoffensive.

And then a game like Astral Chain comes along. It’s fresh. New. Packed full of cool ideas and engaging mechanics. It’s not afraid to try new things, to mix up its formula and continually challenge the player to learn and experiment. It’s everything I think I needed from a game, at just the right moment. It reminded me just how much f**king fun and ridiculous games can be.

The core story of Astral Chain may be dark and serious, but the game knows how to lighten the mood. I won’t spoil the story, but it takes some expected and some unexpected twists as you progress. There are some aspects in which it isn’t entirely clear – I’m still not sure exactly what one character was hoping to achieve through their actions – but though the plot may be a little messy in terms of story, the game does get the character stuff right and delivers a satisfying conclusion in that regard.

 

The game is structured into chapters, each broken down into smaller sections which, when you complete the game, can be replayed as you please. And you’ll want to replay these chapters because so many of them have areas you weren’t able to access the first time through as you hadn’t yet unlocked the necessary skills.

Just playing through the game once will likely take between 25-30 hours, so it’s already a fairly substantial experience. And that play time only increases once you begin to revisit missions in order to discover all the cool little things you missed on your initial run. Adding yet more value is the post game combat missions. I don’t know exactly how many of these there are but there’s a lot – I saw someone online say there are 71, but I can’t be sure because I’ve not unlocked them all yet.

I already talked at length about the combat in Astral Chain in my First Impressions post so I won’t repeat myself here. But as I said in that post, the sheer amount of combat options you have is kind of ridiculous. When you factor in the five Legion types, the 3 weapon types, the various sync attacks based upon Legion and weapon type, the Legion special abilities, skills and command abilities . . . I’m still unlocking and experimenting with them.

 

Because as I said in my FI post, Astral Chain is a game which encourages and rewards creative play. It’s not just about finishing battles quickly or taking zero damage – it’s about winning with style. It’s about mixing up your play, switching Legion types and utilising special attacks to build a massive chain of bonus points.

Once you understand this is how the ranking system works, it’s pretty easy to figure out a regular pattern which will all but guarantee an S+ rank on every combat encounter, but that’s not really the point. The game just wants you to have fun and be as creative and as stylish as you can.

Combat isn’t the only part of Astral Chain though, as the game has a pretty substantial exploration and environmental puzzle element too. Between combat encounters you’ll get to explore the various environments of each chapter, seek out hidden items or bonus missions, or simply chat to local npcs who will help flesh out the world and story.

 

And whereas so many other AAA games are cramming in every cosmetic micro-transaction they can, Astral Chain just doesn’t care and gives you some pretty extensive cosmetic customisation for both character and Legion all as part of the package. You don’t have to purchase f**king colour schemes in this game. In fact, you unlock a lot of the cosmetic stuff by completing in game ‘orders’ – think achievements – as you play.

Graphically, Astral Chain looks fantastic. It’s bright, vibrant and it’s easily one of the best looking games on the Switch. And no, the 30FPS lock really isn’t an issue. Because I play primarily on PC, I’m normally more aware of that kind of thing, but – aside from a couple of ‘busy’ areas – Astral Chain felt smooth to play.

Oh, and the music. The music is great. The only thing I don’t like about the music is when it ramps up to a fast paced, urgent beat at the beginning of a chapter when you just want to wander about and explore your HQ. It feels a little silly.

Overall, Astral Chain is a fantastic and enjoyable experience. It’s got a substantial quantity of content and plenty of gameplay depth to keep exploring beyond your initial run. It’s a timely reminder of just how colourful, unique and crazy video games can be. It’s pure arcade, action packed fun and it’s a strong contender for my GOTY.

9/10

No Man’s Sky: Beyond

Another year, another No Man’s Sky update. It’s the game I keep going back to, but I just can’t seem to commit. Every year No Man’s Sky gets a major overhaul patch, this one being Beyond. And for 10-20 hours I do enjoy my return to this procedurally generated universe. But I never seem to stay.

I guess it’s because despite all of the new features, quality of life improvements and system overhauls, the core gameplay loop of No Man’s Sky has never really changed – it’s still a game about gathering resources in order to travel to another star system, in which you’ll gather more resources in order to travel to the next star system, in which you’ll gather . . . and so on.

And that loop is fun, for a time. But if that loop wants to sustain my interest – to keep me engaged – then No Man’s Sky needs to stop building more layers upon its original foundation, and instead return to that original foundation and improve upon it.

 

Don’t get me wrong, all the new features, mechanics and quests they’ve added have done a great job of providing some much needed direction for the player as they progress through the game. One of the key issues I identified with No Man’s Sky when I initially played it back in 2017 was that the player needed more direction and incentive to explore – a reason to push on.

And over the last couple of years with the Atlas Rising and NEXT updates, that’s exactly what the game began to deliver. Beyond continues this trend – not only overhauling and improving existing systems, but also building upon those structured systems to provide a more robust and engaging experience for the player.

 

But like I said, what No Man’s Sky really needs to do now is return to the original foundation, because it’s that foundation that hasn’t really changed since release. At its heart, No Man’s Sky is a game of exploration. It’s about travelling from one planet to the next. But in the last three years, despite these major updates, you’ve still seen pretty much everything No Man’s Sky has to offer in terms of planets, environments, plants and creatures once you’ve visited just a handful of systems.

Once you’ve travelled to several systems, you’ll have seen pretty much everything No Man’s Sky has to see. I said during my NEXT update that – ‘once again, I still think they need to massively expand the flora and fauna components, as repetition becomes a serious problem once you’ve visited several worlds.’ It was true at release, and it’s still true today. So if we are going to get another major update to No Man’s Sky, I seriously hope that’s what they focus upon.

The Beyond update also overhauled the multiplayer / co-op aspect of No Man’s Sky, but because I don’t have any friends, I can’t really comment on it. It also added VR integration into the game, but because I don’t (currently) own a VR system, I can’t comment on this either – but I do plan to pick up a VR set in the near future, and I’m sure I’ll give No Man’s Sky another spin when I do.

One thing I think it’s important to note about Atlas Rising, Next and Beyond is that these major updates of No Man’s Sky, have all been free. Some may argue that, given the state of the game at release, they couldn’t really charge for fixing and adding content that was originally promised.

But we’ve now moved far beyond (pun intended) those promises, and No Man’s Sky has evolved into a very substantial experience. I certainly won’t complain if they keep knocking out these major updates for free, but I also won’t blame the developers if they do decide that the time has finally come to start charging for them.

I said at the end of my original review of No Man’s Sky that – ‘It has its moments. It’s okay. I probably won’t play it again.’ How wrong was I? And I’m glad I was. I guess I’ll see you again, same time, next year.