Recent reviews by Pyrocrastinator

I'll be frank: it broke the VR integration and was strangely unstable at times compared to the base game

But damn if it wasn't fun. Never did a trench run before now. Never actually learned to use my damn Joystick properly despite beating the game on Mercenary. Teach me to do that eh! It's new, fun, and at times beautiful. Made em go back and 0-100 the base game again. Thanks for this Christmas surprise guys.

I cry, knowing it will be years yet until I play a game of its caliber again. TLDR: buy, play, savor, regret you ran out, weep.

I would advise you play the remaster of Vertigo 1 first, I played the first chapter and got annoyed at all the self referential humor going on, so I went back and played my copy of the first game. Correct decision. Several visual gags rely on the foreknowledge of the last game.

Speaking of gags, the game has... a sense of humor? As the visual style and palette of voice actors may have clued you in, this game goes in for a cartoon-y art style (bright color, saturated, lots of good stuff like that) And honestly? It's feels good to look at. At times, especially in the wider open areas, the lack o small details are apparent, but fortunately in those areas you are usually distracted by the ass-wagon of enemies trying to murder you

Which brings me to combat. The combat is IMO the weakest part of this game. And that is not a criticism. I like the weapon designs they went with. They're wacky, variable, and give you capabilities you otherwise wouldn't have in the ways you least expected them. I love their enemy variety, it is wonderful and needs to be seen to be believed. Some of the weapons are pea-shooters, especially by endgame, but this is always compensated for by the ammo regen system. My railgun can 1 hit kill most enemies, but it has woeful regen times, so unless you hate that crab, you use the starter pistol. Certain enemies are also predisposed to weakness to certain weapon types, which rewards you for weapon switching. The combat style, with the teleporter bunnyhopping, is suited for fast pace combat with large groups of enemies in open areas with cover, slow methhodical corner hallway clearing ala Halflife, or big bosses with attack patterns. And the game has all three: well done. The shotgun is also OP as ♥♥♥♥ and I followed a friends advice to never upgrade to keep fair. Still used it time to time. It's a really nice shotgun too

My only criticisms are thus 1. The cartoonishness of the of the weapons makes them feel mediocre (Looking at you Hammer and Sickle). 2. Not all weapons get the attention that they deserve because some of the situations they're good for are too... situational. You will be mainlining the one gun that is good versus android, because that's a majority of the enemies. 3. The difficulty scaling is brutal and somewhat random. Between group battles, hallway battles, and boss battles, the first is by far the most difficult, and turning a corner to be met by hells whole Xenos and robot buggery squadron is a bit jarring when 10 minutes ago I was doing healing drugs to RP being a heroine addict. The Bosses are at least always fair. As in slack off and die (they can and will 2-hit combo murder you), pay attention and use your brain and you can avoid most damage with ease

Yes this review was disproportionately about the combat, it's the central gameplay loop! Gits

The exploration parts are divine BTW. The open areas, vehicle sections (word to the wise, play this game AFTER acquiring VR legs) and scale they employ many, many times feels like I'm playing in a museum to other realities. It's great. The lore is great. The plot is great. If you are the kind of person who cares about science fiction and thematic elements, you're smart enough that I needn't opine about the quality: you will enjoy it. Off with you!

In short: Weep. Because this game feels like what the world would be like if VR had AAA devs. I suppose they do. Good job Zach

I sometimes like to think that the true quality of a game can be measured not by looking at the reviews, but by how many hours the reviewers have on record when they make their reviews.

By this metric VTOL VR may be the best VR game ever released.

Another metric is the subjective one of how much the reviewer enjoyed the game.

Looking at my playtime and the fact I bought all of the DLC so far on launch and haven't regretted it...

Top 3 so far

Pithy section for humor and palatability complated, I will be more frank: VTOL VR is a flight simulator game focused on air combat, with all the technical details, radar simulations, and even multiplayer radio communications etiquette that requires. Everything is controlled by motion controls, at once very cool and fun, while also being functional after... extensive experience. It's a game that rewards you the more time you put in, while still being enjoyable at all skill levels. Admittedly brand new players are in for a slog until they master rudimentary "Fly and shoot" controls, but after that point it's entirely possible to play all campaigns start to end relying on quick save and load to brute force your way to moderate competence.

What generally differentiates people who stop at that point, satisfied, with the hard headed flyboys making memes about dancing with the angels in multiplayer is a shared experience where you get frustrated enough to just to read and watch the technical manuals and tutorials. After that point I'm afraid to tell you it's over. You now know what beaming, energy maneuver, and fox-2 mean. You are hooked and this is your new heroin. Line up for your G-suits and start trying to complete missions without the save function.

Greatly enjoyable. If learning how to fly a plane sounds fun and you have a VR headset, buy it. See you in space, cowboys

Wait I forgot to review this? Dangit, I finished it a week ago after an insane 2 day Marathon session. Uuuuuh speed review!

Halflife 2 was fantastic on a flatscreen. It got better in VR. Crossbow was a bit frustrating to use. It's free and amazingly done, shower the Devs in praise and free cake.

Perhaps the most conflicted I've ever felt about a game. I really wish they have an "Eeeeeeeeeeh" rating. I haven't played DW:Universe (the previous game) so my perspective is relatively fresh.

Pros:
*Tons of fun designing ships and determining fleet doctrine. There's so many weapon paths you could conceivably play 20 games and never use exactly the same trees.
*Excellent in game wiki that explains most concepts (although some are missing).
*Highly customizable automation interface. You can rule in absentia in this game, and that is hilarious.
*You really feel like you're managing a huge empire with dozens of science and construction ships, which the civilian economy and their ships really reinforce. I like to stress this point, because this is really where the game's advantages over, say, Stellaris lie. By the time I reached 1/10th of all galactic territory, I had more government ships than an entire galaxy in Stellaris, and my Civillians were legion.
*I like the pirates. No real reason, I just think they're funny. Giving them military refueling and putting them in contact with all my enemies, then watching their reputations drop as their ships raid the heck outa them will never cease to amuse me.

Cons:
*The automation AI can sometimes be remarkably stupid. Please stop loading temperate species colonists onto the ships bound for ice worlds. This nearly bankrupted my empire before I could fix it.
*The automation AI sometimes overrides you decisions and make bad decisions as a result. STOP BUILDING BARRACKS, I ONLY NEED 1 TYPE NOT EVERY SINGLE ONE.
*The game is laggy and prone to crashes. Really laggy. The research screen is somehow the laggiest thing of them all, and it's not even rendering 500 civilian ships! I've only crashed a couple times, but good grief.
*Diplomacy needs a real rework. I can be 400k score positive in a war with an empire and blockading all their planets, and they won't sign anything more valuable than "White peace and we give you some tech". Frankly, foolish reptile, if I weren't a democracy I'd be bombarding your planets into extinction. They really need an option of " Cede these systems and the stations therein to us". I'd have taken "You're my tributary now"!

If you love 4x games and have a PC designed to fistfight God, buy now and work through the bugs. If you're still interested, give it 3 months and come back. If you despise jank in all it's forms, yeah maybe don't.

The crack cocaine of VR flight simulations. See these 20 hours? I got them in the past 2 days. Weighty weapon impact, satisfying kills, a great audioscape and a sublime soundtrack combine to make the campaign a treat and a treasure.

Yes. That's all I've done so far. I haven't even tried conquest yet. The campaign alone sold me.

If you held a gun to my head and forced me to make a criticism, I'd say that, while most of the characters feel good an relatable, there arn't enough nemeses and external characters in the game, with Crimson squadron and their lunatic leader being the only "Enemy" squadrons who you get to see much of (Yes, I know about Goose squadron. I don't count them. Stop trying to make me cry). That, and the campaign feels a hair shorter than I'd like. But this is an indie game for 25$ that's currently punching higher than most AAA games for me, so those criticisms can bite it. If you're reading this Get. The. GAME.

Until you fall has it all in the name. Especially regarding what you'll feel like doing after your third consecutive run! It's a rhythm game where you have to use the tactical part of your brain to limit the tempo of the blows you have to hand out and block. Fair warning: your arms will fall off at any difficulty higher than normal after your third attempt at a run. Overall: good fun though!

Having recently come off a VR gaming streak, I feel I'm now ready to talk about Boneworks with useful hindsight.

As the blurb suggests, Boneworks is a Experimental Physics Game, where the developers set out to create an immersive VR title that incorporates physics to its full effect. And if that alone was Boneworks goal, it succeeded spectacularly. The Physics and immersion in this game are excellent. Even comparing it to my new king of VR, Half-Life:Alyx, Boneworks sports an arguably superior physics engine and feeling of in-universe presence. This alone trumps my counter-arguments and scores the game a recommendation. If you have a Headset, just play it. It's fairly prices and good fun.

Unfortunately for Boneworks, there are still associated negatives. Firstly, If you don't have the steady VR legs of a veteran (or like me, an 'I can play for 6 hours standing up' iron inner ear) You will not get far in Boneworks. This is not a good introductory game. Second, Boneworks story is at best Anemic, at worst... suffice it to say, it involved invectives about canine feces. I personally tend to the Anemic side of the debate, because I actually really like the atmosphere of some of the scarier levels and the overall gloom that seems to surround the VR world like fog, but there's just not enough of it, and what does exist sometimes feels completely disconnected form the plot. They pulled of Valve's signature set-piece bonanza perfectly, and MythOS does feel like a real place. It's just that it feels like a 'poured from a mold' cardboard and concrete soviet city. I felt no attachment or interest in the place, like it existed to serve the physics fighting rather than to be a city being built in VR like the story tries to convince us. Overall, after you get tied of the physics (with will take me atleast another 20-30 hours, mind, so still worth it) there won't be anything to lure me back, especially in the future when more games like this come out.

I feel the Gary's mod comparison fits Boneworks perfectly. A set of assets, proofs of concept and set pieces built together into an acceptable story that proves very well the potential of VR as a gaming medium, that if rearranged bit better could be an all-time classic like HalfLife 2 was. Maybe I shouldn't throw stones, when I first played this game I loved it to pieces. But then HalfLife: Alyx came out and let the story genie out of the bottle, so now Boneworks has to sit in the conciliatory second place of my favorite VR games.

Cheer up, Stress Level Zero, if you keep using this engine and focus on storytelling, I could see you becoming a giant of the emerging VR space. I'm rooting for you at least.

I've written reviews for other VR games before. Game I thought had a nice central gameplay loop, or had nice campaigns or just looked absolutely great. I remember fondly games like Boneworks or Arizona Sunshine that i thought were pretty good games and just the kind of game that VR needed to become a legitimate entertainment medium.

Then Valve walked and unveiled Half-Life: Alyx, blinding me like a man stepping out of a cave into the sun for the first time.

No, really.

Half-Life: Alyx, in Vale's grand tradition, is a font of excellent game design. With stunning graphics, natural combat mechanics and and actual STORY, Alyx doesn't only stand up "as a VR game", but as an actual video game. Alyx is what happens when a company, instead of treating VR as a novelty toy, treats it as a gaming system and takes advantage of its possibilities. If you are on the fence about VR legitimacy as a viable gaming alternative, borrow a fiend's headset and play the game. It should address your concerns.

There is only one caveat I can add to this review: Alyx is not worth buying a 1000 dollar headset for. It's amazing, and combined with the laundry list of other good VR titles it more than justifies to me my purchase of a Rift S gaming headset. If you're the type of person who's interested in VR, it is the perfect time to buy in, 'cause VR now has a killer app.

Ah Boiling Steel, Where to start.

Firstly, Boiling Steel is the first fully realized campaign game I have ever player using VR. I play using a Rift S, and I was surprised both by how pretty the game is and how well realized the campaign elements are. Features like the multiple different shells, the upgrade system and the standardized interfaces don't sound like much, but they can be a big deal when missing like they are with some other games on the VR space. There are plenty of small elements that I really like too, like how the randomized tools each shell has for each mission force to experiment and learn to use each tool. Overall, Boiling Steel is perhaps the first VR game I've ever played that really immersed me in a plot, not just an environment. Keep up the good work, MIROWIN!