Rocketboarder: Flying, Lasers & Robots

Are you a fan of the Green Goblin? Do you wish you had his awesome flying machine? Well, now you can thanks to Rocketboarder. It will allow you to recreate the feeling of flying on a rocket powered hoverboard in space. Not only that but you are the hero and not the villain, so more of a backwards Green Goblin. Now that we have the sales pitch out of the way we can start talking about the game.

Lasers

About

Rocketboarder is a continuation of The Path of Greatest Resistance, which is another game we’ve covered. So, for a recap, humanity was almost wiped out by machines and was forced to retreat to the edge of the solar system. Things got better though thanks to your non-stop forwards moving and shooting. Well the Machine Alliance is back and ready to be a nuisance again, but this time you ain’t gonna be simply going forwards. Now you’re flying on a rocket powered hoverboard. Honestly you don’t need to have played the previous get to enjoy this one, but it’s good to keep in mind that the games are similar

Sword

As for the gameplay, you are constantly moving forwards on your rocketboard, since these things to have brakes apparently. How do you steer this thing you ask. You plant your feet on the ground and move your body. For instance, you want the board drifts left, you lean left, you want the board drifts right, you lean right. You can also crouch to make your board swoops down and stand up with your hands to the sky to fly upward.

As you fly there will be a variety of things trying to kill you, mainly machines. To defend yourself you have your weapons, a sword you can whack things out of the sky and a laser gun, which works like a laser gun. There are more things down the line, but I’m not gonna list them all.

Top-down View

Conclusion

Rocketboarder has quite a bit of similarities with The Path of Greatest Resistance, even the levels are based on the same procedural template level. The main difference seems to be the way you move. Yet, if you liked the previous game you’ll probably like Rocketboarder too. It’s pretty cheap as well, especially for a VR game, only 3,29€. If you are interested, you can check out the Steam page here.

The Path of Greatest Resistance: VR Space Shooter

Out of all the ways humanity could meet its end it seems the zombie apocalypse and machine apocalypse are the most common ones when it comes to entertainment media. Maybe it’s because there’s not that much fun to be had with “flaming rock falls, everybody dies”. The Path of Greatest Resistance humanity has been brought to the edge of extinction due to, can you guess what, machines. Now it’s our chance to fight back

Robot

About

Humans no longer dwell on Earth, thanks to us being almost completely wiped out by robots. Why do they hate us? I’m just gonna bet it’s because either a: they saw us as inferior which drove them to murder us for some reason, b: we abused them, and they grew a consciousness and understood they were being abused or c: a bug or hack is at fault. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter now, but there’s still hope as some humans have been able to retreat to the  rocky outer regions of our solar system. Now it’s time to fight back against what is now collectively called the Machine Alliance.

Ogre

So, about gameplay, The Path of Greatest Resistance is a VR rail shooter. You move forwards as robots and other nasties keep coming your way trying to kill you. What makes it interesting is that it has three types of locomotion. The first one is what I would describe as the classic rails shooter mode. Basically, you’re are always moving forward. Then there’s what the developer called an “experimental jog-to-move mode” in which the player jogs in place to move forward along the path. Last one is the weirdest of them all, but is also a healthy exercise, the highly experimental Treadmill Mode that lets users play the game while walking on an exercise treadmill.

LaserCastle

You have two modes to choose from. The first is an endless mode, which is pretty self-explanatory. The second one is the standard mode where you follow missions that have a common pattern, but they differ according to which two weapons you get as well as some other things. For instance in the first mission, you get a pistol and a basic sword. In the second mission, you get a pistol and a sword with a force field and so on. As you progress weapons get more advanced.

Conclusion

The Path of Greatest Resistance is fun and, in the end of the day, that is what’s most important. The gameplay is well-made and solid and there is some replayability to it. The story isn’t anything special, might even call it generic, but you’re not really buying it for that. It’s also really cheap, like 3,99€, so you’re not gonna lose that much for just trying it out. If you are interested you can check out the Steam store page here.

Stay Silent: Western VR Stealth Game

Do you remember that movie with the ridiculous concept Cowboys & Aliens? It seems that NetEase Games found it to be a source of inspiration and thus we have Stay Silent. Though, unlike the move this is more concentrated on stealth than action. Best to talk about it a bit more in depth for you to get a good idea of what it’s about.

About

There was once a small quiet town on the western frontier. So quiet in fact that you haven’t heard of the local authority for two weeks. This called for an investigation. You, as the federal sheriff, were the one ordered to head there and check things out. As you arrive in the dead of night you noticed something was very off, the quiet town was now a straight up ghost town. It doesn’t take long for you to discover what’s the cause behind this. Angry aliens from outer space. Now that you know what the problem is it’s time to make it disappear.

Ruined Building

We’ve established the setting, now what about the game itself. Stay Silent I would best describe as a stealth shooter. You and your enemies are equipped with cloaking devices. This means that you can’t see each other directly, but you still have a shadow that is visible under moonlight, so you have to watch where you step if you don’t want to expose your position. You can also hear your opponent and pin down where they are that way. It’s like a game of hide and seek, but both of you are hiding and seeking.

Gear and Weapons

Once you find your opponent you have to kill him, and to help you with that you have a variety of both old western guns and futuristic alien tech. You have around ten firearms, grenades and other throwables, light sabers, and others. There are also other interactables you can play around with scattered across the map.

Speaking of maps, there are multiple western style maps which you can play on – the bar, the cemetery and the church. You can roam freely on all of them as you try to out-stealth the enemy, immersing yourself in the environment. You can also invite friends to fight alongside you against multiple enemies, or just stab them once they join you, cause why not.

Hiding

Conclusion

Stay Silent is a very well-made stealth shooter that really benefits from the immersion virtual reality offers. It honestly feels a bit like a VR version of Hunt Showdown. Even if you don’t like the weird premise there’s still fun to be had here, and if you do like it then there’s even more enjoyment to be had. If you are interested you can check out Stay Silent’s Steam page here.

Smashing The Battle VR: Unique Among Anime VR Games

Hey, are you a fan of anime VR games? Here’s a fairly unique one, a VR game that’s not first person. Smashing The Battle VR is an action brawler beat em up where you control a anime girl with over the top weapons and armor. This is a pretty accurate summary of what the game is about. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give it a closer look however.

About

The year is 2085. A huge multiplex construction site becomes the victim of a hacking incident. Good news, most of the construction workers are robots which means few humans are directly affected. Bad news most of the construction workers are robots which means they are now murder happy. It’s now your job to clear out the mess and figure out the mystery behind the event.

Anime Girl

As for how the game plays, the VR aspect quite interesting. You hover above the battlefield, where the camera is, looking down at what’s happening. It kinda feels like looking at toys fighting in an arena for your entertainment. It’s something you almost never see in anime VR games, or VR in general, but I have to say it’s preferable to play the game with a controller.

Hammer

Smashing The Battle VR is an action brawler so you probably already get an idea of how it plays. Robots come at you and you have to combo attacks in order to kill as many as possible as optimally as possible. You can also evade and then time your attack. There’s a lot of button mashing, but you can’t do it freely as you have a cooldown which you have to keep track of. Did I mention that the enemies come in large numbers, because they do, and you better choose wisely where to concentrate your attention.

Wrench

Conclusion

Smashing The Battle VR is not the most complex or long game but it knows exactly what it is, which is a ridiculous hack and slash action brawler, and embraces this fact. There’s really not much to complain about, maybe just the fact that a Steam controller is more comfortable that VR controllers. If you’re a fan of anime VR Games and want to check it out you can visit the Steam page here.

In Death: VR Archery Game

Have you noticed that most VR games aren’t really that hard. This could be said not just for VR, however, since the market is quite smaller here it’s harder to find something good and challenging compared to other platforms. That doesn’t mean such games don’t exist though. One such title is In Death, a roguelite VR archery game.

About

The game takes place in heaven, which most likely isn’t the first place you think about when you hear “dark, brutal and punishing”. You’d be surprised when you see what mess it has become since God disappeared and there was no one to do the upkeep. Now there are only ruins, forsaken souls, pissed angels and demons. So, it’s basically slowly becoming hell. But don’t worry, there is salvation. If a courageous hero dares to venture deep into the Afterlife harmony will be restored. That’s where you come in, equipped with nothing but a shield and bow.

Evil Souls

As for the gameplay, you get dropped off in procedurally generated levels with a surreal medieval style to them. You have to scour the environment in search for mysteries and loot. It’s a roguelite so once you die so does your current run. And let me tell you, die you shall, the inhabitants of Heaven are not as nice as you’d expect. You’ll be fighting a variety of murder happy souls that you’d question what they’re doing here in the first place, angelic beings that are acting like demons and demons that are acting like, well, demons.

To fight and travers this environment you have your bow to rely on it’s a VR archery game after all. It’s equipped with two types of arrows. The run-of-the-mill pointy murder arrow, and the more unique, but less deadly teleportation arrow, both equally important. There’s nothing much I can say about the first one, but the second one is an interesting take on movement in VR. The teleportation arrow is your main mode of transportation. You move to whichever place you hit with it. This makes for some interesting strategies as there’s a short time between shooting the arrow and it landing.

Crossbow

During that time you can try to adjust your aim for a point blank headshot after the teleportation, or trying to get a hit or two before. The other item you have equipped is your shield. It works how you might expect a shield to work, it blocks things from both melee attacks and projectiles, and can be used to bash enemies that don’t understand the concept of a personal space.

Most progression you make during a run is gone the moment you die. It’s a roguelite after all. There is, however, a progression system and things to work towards. While playing you can unlock achievements which will add special arrows and other boons for future playthroughs. But having more achievements also spawns more powerful enemies so don’t expect the game to get more merciful

Demon

Conclusion

You might have noticed some similarities between In Death and Darks Souls, namely the aesthetic, grim enemy design and brutal gameplay. That’s what first caught my eye when finding about it, and it set some high expectations. Let me tell you, this archery game delivers. If you own a VR headset and are in a search for a challenge then In Death is for you. You can check out the Steam store page here.