‘Sairento VR’ Mashes Up SUPERHOT & Raw Data for Something Even Cooler

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Sairento VR is a new made-for-VR first person action game which manages to distil everything that was cool about SUPERHOT VR, Raw Data and adds its own locomotion system for something which promises to be even cooler than either of them.

Guns, swords and slow motion – three ingredients which have transfixed me as a movie-goer and gamer for as long as I can remember now. As such, throw some combination of the  above into a virtual reality experience and it’s pretty much guaranteed it’ll pique my interest. As motion controllers for consumer VR has now become a reality for both major VR platforms as 2016 comes to a close, we’ve already seen a handful of great games to exploit my weakness for these Matrix-inspired mechanics.

SUPERHOT VR debuted alongside the Oculus Touch launch with it’s brilliantly stark take on the genre and before that the excellent Raw Data on SteamVR provided a superbly slick package. Now comes Sairento VR, an in-development first person action title which shuffles all of the things that made these games so compelling and sprinkles some neat locomotion innovations into the mix for a package which looks to be pretty compelling.

sairento-vr-1Still in Early Access on Steam, the HTC Vive title (which, thanks to SteamVR also works on the Oculus and Touch) from developers Mixed Realms and is described as ” a mission-driven, VR action role-playing game set in a reimagined Japan in the near future.” So far so predictable then. Apparently you play a member of the ‘Silent Ones’ organisation, a covert operation who draw from samurai and ninja for their martial arts skills. Why? Who the hell cares?!

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Frankly it’s all a flimsy excuse to throw you the player into a futuristic world filled with swords and firearms with a roster of bad-ass skills to boot. Those skills are upgrades as you progress too, which is where the RPG-lite elements of the game are felt.

All of that aside, it’s Mixed Realms’ twist on locomotion that may elevate the package to must-play status. Throughout the game, the player amasses ‘focus’ which is illustrated via blue bar toward the bottom of your view. This focus allows you to move throughout the gameworld via a fairly standard looking point-and-click method.

sairento-vr-3I can already hear the anti-VR-locomotion brigade readying their pitchforks so let me add this: the point-and-click mechanic actually adds to the coolness of this title. If you’ve amassed enough focus, you can string together leaps in slow motion, such that you descend on your enemies to obliterate with sword and pistol. But get this, you can augment your abilities to string those leaps together mid-air, double-jump style. This opens up opportunities for the player to choreograph some extremely cool combat together as they fend off waves of enemies. On top of this, you can unleash powered up projectiles via your sword and dispatching enemies is accompanied by a satisfying splash of over the top gore.

On the negative side, the title is at present little more than a glorified wave shooter with some neat progression grafted on, and there are some crashing and interface issues which need to be handled, but it’s a promising early showing for the developers and one I’ll be keeping a close eye on. We’ve only had a small amount of time with the title thus far so can’t gauge whether the £18.99 (currently discounted to £15.19) asking price is justified, but if the stuff I’ve described above holds any interest we suspect it’s worth a punt. We’ll be back with a more in-depth look at the title later.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • hyperskyper

    It looks pretty awesome. Can’t wait!

    • DougP

      I’ve played it a bit already – it’s a lot of fun.
      Lots of potential!

      • hyperskyper

        What are the levels like? Are they as expansive as the later levels of Raw Data?

        • Sky Castle

          I heard it only has 3 levels atm. The game looks fun, but I’m not sure I want to cough up another $15+ when I already have Raw Data, Brookhaven, Arizona Sunshine, Serious Sam, and a ton of other wave shooters.

          • ummm…

            i have all those too. what do you think about the new serious sam vr offering. ive only played a couple of minutes but im thinking of returning it because it just doesn’t seem as polished as id hope (early access i know). does it get better further in?

          • Raphael

            ummm, do you mean the serious Sam wave shooter or serious Sam first encounter VR? if you mean their wave shooter I haven’t purchased because I’m tired of wave shooters and it’s not cheap. If you mean the serious Sam first encounter VR then it’s not new serious Sam but vintage serious Sam brought into VR. So it can’t disappoint unless you had no idea what you were buying.. I.e. an old game that people know and love.

          • Sky Castle

            If you mean Serious Sam First Encounter it is ok. The graphics are dated, but what turned me off about it is that you can’t snap turn using the controller. You have to physically turn using your head and body, which means my cords get tangled up very fast. Every few minutes I have to untangle it. I want to refund this one.

            For Serious Sam New Hope (the wave shooter) I like it a lot, but it’s a very short at the moment until they add more levels. The graphics are very polished and some of the best in VR right now. I don’t regret this purchase at all and looking forward to the new levels.

          • Mane Vr

            u can snap turn in serious sam first encounter using the thumbstick u can also smooth turn too ;-)

          • CMcD

            Unless they just added snap turn I think you’re wrong… if they DID add snap turn I’ll have to check that out, a week ago it didn’t have that feature

          • Mane Vr

            they did in the beta updated they added that and smooth turning

          • ummm…

            i have both. i like the wave shooter more. i have yet to train my body for the full movement offering. Having to keep turning around while strafing and running is a litle nauseating for me. gotta have that ginger tea and do micro sessions!

          • Raphael

            insane you can’t use VR without getting tangled up. I realise tethered is annoying but I manage to play room scale without using crappy snap turns.

          • Mane Vr

            it’s a lot of fun keep playing. they r refining the control setup and it keeps getting better and better. I think their option offering should be a standard in VR fps and if other devs takes notice they learn that any shooter can be ported over to vr. check me out playing and I do it seated it was amazing https://youtu.be/7bqcMp5iZZ8

          • ummm…

            ok thats an interesting solution. i do that with adrift etc but never tried with a “stand up” fps. I’ve though of it tho. Imma try it out. I’m NYCPCGAMER on steam if you ever wanna get down.

          • Mane Vr

            let me know what you think after u try it i’m Ma43ne on steam but I mostly use oculus home for my vr I find the oculus sdk gets better performance and i’m mane43 on there

  • Mane Vr

    meh skipping this one… sad when the argument become I know it teleport but it’s a cool new way to teleport smh “I can already hear the anti-VR-locomotion brigade readying their pitchforks so let me add this: the point-and-click mechanic actually adds to the coolness of this title” why not just give us the option to freely move around the world along with whatever new idea of teleport win win for everyone. #teleportonlynobuy

    • You seem to have effortlessly proved my point. #cutnoseofftospiteface

      • Mane Vr

        ur point is to say hey I find this cool so all the people who hates teleport/blink should go along with it, do I have that right?

    • towblerone

      Stick with your console and couch.

      • Mane Vr

        Thanks i will along with my gaming pc. So yea i plan to be picky with the games i buy for vr and yes locomotion is a big thing to me and i feel the fact that it brought it up in the article in a way that show bia in that a real reporter would say is “knowing that there a crowd who full locomotion has become a sticking point we reach out to the developer to ask has he thought about adding full locomotion and if not what about the game lend it swlf better to this form of locomotion and why full locomotion wouldn’t work.” U know question to the developer so we get information not”I can already hear the anti-VR-locomotion brigade” this article mostly cheerleads this game but ends glaring over the biggest problem with teleporting locomotion games and that is they mostly wave shooters because it limits your freedom

        • towblerone

          No one cares.

          • Mane Vr

            O so u guys here way of inviting people into vr is to say hey play this way and if u don’t like it shut up and go back to playing ur console as if u r more important than anyone else.. yep sound like a great plan for growth right there. Good thing u guys r not ahead of any company that hopes to see vr grow cause u would know ALL options in the start up stage is important

  • OgreTactics

    In this context of a ninja moving fast like strafing, I can see “teleportation” working. But I should probably get head movement inputed automatic turn drawn and posted somewhere.

  • Meh. A solid Meh. The graphics are ok, not bad but not innovative or amazing. They are serviceable. They certainly don’t bring to mind Super-Hot, neither it’s stark contrasts nor it’s innovative theme.

    The only thing unique they’ve done is take your typical teleporter arc and used it to move the player along the arc, if the arc is high enough to justify the jump. Any game could have done that, and none have, probably because they feared almost certain gamer nauseous.

    The slow-Mo isn’t new, not even for Super-Hot, but Super-Hot tied to to your motion, forcing you to be still if you wanted time to do the same. This doesn’t do that, it’s just a slow-mo button, which hasn’t been innovative since Max Payne. Max Payne also had a Noir crime drama story. This basic sci-fi filler.

    I’m struggling to see what is new or innovative about this. It doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look too good either. It’s basic game. It’s certainly not in the same league as Raw Data nor Super-Hot.

    Is the author friends with the producers of this game? This whole story seems like a hypey-fluff piece. This is certainly NOT a “mashup of Super-Hot and Raw Data”. It’s an OK wave shooter.

    • Raphael

      I was in two minds about this one. Alexandria my usually dominant personality wanted me to buy it but kevin my other personality made me stop and think about it. Kevin said he thought it looked a bit samey taking on one enemy at a time through the locations. Now I’ve resumed my medication and Alexandria and Kevin have both “disappeared” leaving me unsure which way to turn but much calmer overall.

  • Praxis

    I really enjoy Sairento. It’s my go-to game to get a VR fix just because of the awesome moves you can pull off. Doesn’t make me sick, sometimes makes me want to fall over landing precariously on a ledge.

    The Payday and Borderlands elements are a great foundation. Needs multiplayer duels, to flesh out a more complex moveset and just more content / reason to progress. It gets stale after an hour or so of playing making it not very much of an RPG at all and rather a level it up arcade slasher / shooter.

    A storyline that mashes up Akira with Rurouni Kenshin set in a BladeRunner style Neo Tokyo would be tremendous.

  • Zer0

    is this game gonna be on PSVR?

    • Aldric Chang

      Hello, thanks for your interest in Sairento VR. I am the CEO of the development company – Mixed Realms. We will be exploring porting over to PSVR in the future, but only after we deliver the full game between July-August later this year.