After the Fall is an upcoming co-op VR zombie shooter that promises to let groups of up to four players battle for survival within a zombie infested landscape. Revealed last week at E3 2019, the game’s first demo offered visual polish underscored by bland gameplay that isn’t playing to VR’s strengths.

Let’s say this up front: After the Fall was only just revealed last week, and the game isn’t due out until sometime in 2020, so it’s likely to see big changes between now and then. It’s also worth noting that in the demo I played at the Oculus booth last week I was only playing with one other player, and the demo didn’t show any of the “seamless multiplayer” that developer Vertigo Games says will be a cornerstone of the game. That said, based on my experience with the demo, I’m hoping to see some significant changes to the core game design that better plays to VR’s strengths.

Great VR experiences are all about immersion—a sense of being in the world, not just seeing it and hearing it. But that doesn’t happen just because a player is wearing a headset—it’s the means of interacting with the virtual world that creates the kind of immersion that only VR is capable of. In this regard, After the Fall is doing a lot wrong right out of the gate for immersion; it seems distracted with delivering high-level non-VR gameplay tropes of loot shooters like Borderlands and The Division.

Image courtesy Vertigo Games

For one, guns ‘stick’ to your hands as soon a you grab one. As far as I could tell, the demo offered me no way to drop or holster a gun; once I grabbed a pistol, it simply became an extra appendage. When I wanted to reach out to grab items in the environment, my gun was still attached to my hand even though I wanted to pick something up with that hand—even so, the game allowed me to grab the thing I was reaching for by simply making the gun appear in the opposite hand when I hit the ‘grab’ button; when I released the object, the gun re-appeared back in my other hand. This is not only not intuitive, it’s also immersion-breaking.

But that’s fine anyway, because 90% of the generic loot I picked up from the environment (which will be used later as crafting currency for upgrades, etc) just magically flies toward your body after you press the grab button, and when it reaches you it vanishes into an invisible and apparently infinite inventory void. So now we’ve got two different systems for ‘grabbing’ items, some are hands-on (if oddly designed), while the rest is more of a magnetic net where certain objects just disappear into you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, ‘force-grab’ (pulling objects to you from afar) can often be a smart design choice for a VR game so that players don’t need to reach down to pick up objects that fall to the ground. But in After the Fall, force-grab is used not just as a convenience, but as an essential element to not pulling your hair out from the heaps and heaps of loot you’re expected to hoover up into your invisible inventory space. Over the course of just the demo alone, I must have picked up at least 100 individual pieces of loot, and it seems that the game will expect players to pick up thousands more as they grind for gear and unlocks.

Image courtesy Vertigo Games

After the Fall treats items like icons or points instead of physical objects that manifest in a virtual world, and it lacks embodiment because of it. It would likely be much more immersive to make loot more valuable and less frequent; instead of picking up hundreds of loot items throughout a level, maybe instead you’d open a few chests or boxes (hopefully with satisfying, hands-on interactions, not point and click) which would contain big caches of the loot at once.

Weapons are similarly symbolic in After the Fall instead of feeling physical and interactive in the way that VR does so well. While many VR games offer an intuitive reloading mechanism where (at a minimum) the player puts a new magazine into the weapon, After the Fall’s weapons reload automatically after the bullets run out… by magic, I guess. This means that while you’re spamming your pistol at groups of incoming zombies, at some point you’ll wait a few seconds while your gun decides to automatically reload itself as your character shouts “reloading!” and then you can start shooting again—all the while your arm is outstretched in a shooting pose just waiting to resume the action.

SEE ALSO
Zombie Shooter 'Arizona Sunshine' Now Available on Oculus Quest, Trailer Here

This ‘automatic magic reload when the bullets run out’ is jarring and doesn’t encourage the player to manage the state of their weapon, which contributes to the blandness of the shooting gameplay (which I’ll talk more about shortly). It’s possible to manually reload with a button press, but again, just pressing a button and watching the gun do its thing by magic feels very anti-immersion, especially considering this is not explained away by context (ie: these are contemporary weapons with bullets & magazines, not sci-fi or anything like that where automatic reloading would make sense).

On the ‘painfully missed opportunity’ front, I was traversing through a decrepit building of the post-apocalyptic variety and came across a series of cables dangling from the ceiling right near my head. As I naturally went to see if I could push one of the cables out of my way with the barrel of my pistol, I watched as it clipped perfectly through the gun. A tiny little bit of physics here would have made a simple but delightfully embodying moment, but instead the reality of this world was revealed to be paper thin in an instant. The better choice—if not some physics for the cable—would be to simply not put things that look like they can be touched, pushed, or grabbed, within reach of the player.

Image courtesy Vertigo Games

So, interactions aside, this is a zombie shooter. The game’s basic zombies are of the medium speed variety and most go down with one shot to the head. The game throws reasonably large groups of zombies at you, maybe 20 or so at a time. But without even the baseline of VR weapon interactions (like manual reloading), it’s really just a point and click affair. By the time I killed my 20th zombie, I may as well have killed them all—with copious ammo and a gun in each hand, there’s just zero sense of threat or joy in taking down one zombie after another after another by putting one bullet in each head. Even after finding this odd miniature-hand-mounted-zombie-seeking-missile-launcher weapon—which could lock on to five or so zombies at once before launching a salvo of mini-explosives—I wasn’t having any more fun killing these bland enemies.

Beyond the basic zombies I was introduced to, there was one other zombie type in the demo which was the ‘vomit’ variety that could spray you from a distance. Again though, fighting these guys was uninteresting at best—just shuffle around a bit to dodge the vomit while you keep holding your arms in their direction and pulling your triggers until they go bye-bye. Again—and I’m just riffing here—how interesting might it be if instead they spat some sticky goop that would lock you in place and prevent you from moving such that you had to physically dodge their vomit with your real body until you can dispatch them? This would make them a much more interesting threat and present an opportunity for some gameplay that feels truly native to VR.

Image courtesy Vertigo Games

The boss at the end of the demo was a big snowy zombie monster which formed the basis of an encounter that seemed poorly directed. Lots of the basic zombies were shuffling in from all directions while the faster boss zombie could close distance quickly by leaping in my direction. When it got in close it did a ground-pound attack and got its hand stuck in the ground opening up an opportunity to shoot a weak spot for a few seconds, otherwise it was a bullet-sponge affair. Battling this boss was really just a matter of moving around with a stick while holding my arms out and constantly pulling the trigger, allowing my guns to reload automatically, and continuing to shoot. Keeping the basic zombies at bay throughout might have made this more interesting if the mini missile launcher didn’t make them so easy to dispatch.

After the Fall has a long way to go if the developers want to deliver gameplay that feels native to VR, and I hope they do. The only thing the game really seems to have going for it is some pretty darn good visuals (a big upgrade from the studio’s previous title, Arizona Sunshine). Right now it almost feels like Vertigo Games is designing After the Fall to work on flat screens too—maybe they have ambitions to release a non-VR version of the game? Being overtly distracted with high-level non-VR game design goals that evoke the non-VR loot shooters is a sure-fire way to end up with a VR game that feels like a port, and Borderlands 2 VR already has that covered.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • johann jensson

    Those cut-off hands look ridiculous. It really seems like they don’t understand immersion. I for sure don’t want to play that way.

    BTW, an excellent story would make up for all of that and more, but i’m not holding my breath. Meanwhile, i’m sticking to the Witcher Trilogy, Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc – even if not full VR, still way more immersive than this half baked native stuff… []-)

    • impurekind

      As above, 99.9% of the time the cut-off hands simply work MUCH better than showing full arms, which almost always end up popping out of place and showing weird positions a bunch of the time.

      That’s not more immersive; that’s just clunky crap to appease morons who don’t get what makes something more [better] immersive or not.

      I would rather have simple floating hands that match my own hand positions 100% of the time than full hands and arms (and bodies and less and other stuff) that only match my real hands and arms (and bodies and legs and other stuff) positions a fraction of the time.

      Your choice of what’s more “immersive” is actually far less immersive most of the time as far as I’m concerned.

      So, unless these VR developers can get the arms to match 100% of the time, which they simply cannot right now, I’m saying I fundamentally disagree with your view of what’s the better design choice here when it comes to showing just the hands or the full arms (and bodies and legs).

      • johann jensson

        Hmm, you sound like you never played Lone Echo. It had arms and that worked perfectly IMO.

        I think inverse kinematics is the future. At least Stormland devs are not too lazy to implement it. That makes me happy.

        • Jonathan Winters III

          True.

        • namekuseijin

          that’s a very limited and linear narrative game in zero-G

    • Jonathan Winters III

      I agree! The cut off hands were a bit of a shock – hope they either add arms or find another solution.

      • namekuseijin

        why shock? have you never played VR games before? no body is the norm. I know to flatties it looks weird guns or hands floating in the air, but not when we’re right there in VR: you don’t keep looking at them, they’re just visual references to where you’re real hands are positioned. It just feels right

  • i dig that you’re thinking about this in your review (though not sure i agree with all your ideas). It’s weird to hear this criticism that they don’t understand immersion when Arizona Sunshine was so good.

    Mostly i keep wondering if there’s a middle ground between exhausting reality (esp. reloading) and too done-for-you gloss.
    Like, maybe if you just shot (pointed at) the other hand to make it reload. or just sped up the auto reload. or go further into the grey middle ground: if you had to tilt your off-hand gun up and use “a doodad” on it’s butt/base to effect reloads or loot pickups.

    + wish one of these zombie games would let you get bit on the hand, and have to quickly cut that hand off to stay alive (thus having one less gun until you die).

    but, I’m all for collecting lots of loot. curious to try it out.

    • Xron

      When was Arizona Sunshine released?… Maybe creators had to make some upgrades not only visually but to make game more immersive in other aspects too?
      Its not a flat game.
      P.s hope that they will make changes and this game will be one of early Vr gems we all like to get.

      • MasterElwood

        2016 i think

        • melony

          I generally earn almost $5759 /monthly over the internet.I dropped my job after working for the same organisation for a long period, I wanted very reliable earnings. I was not thinking about packages that misguide you to make you millionnare within few days you notice online. The most exciting part of working via internet is that I am always home with the children and also enjoy time with family on different beaches of the world. The guidelines are extremely simple, you don’t have to be a computer whiz, but you should know how to use the net. It is as easy as being on Facebook. Here’s the means with which to get started —> eskinswarm.a-loch.de

  • SandmaN

    Great feedback, Ben. Keep in mind that the game is still in an alpha state so I’m sure there’s going to be quite a number of changes and improvements still to come.
    It’d be awesome if they added more actual physics like what you mentioned, but I’m not holding my breath due to the sheer horsepower needed to make the game look and run as smoothly as possible. And as awesome as adding physics in would be, on top of what they have already the frame rate hit would probably be pretty massive, an absolute death blow to any VR game, great or otherwise.

    Also, knowing what we know already about Arizona Sunshine I’m sure there will be different difficulty settings, but it’d be awesome if they could put in a ‘hardcore’ mode where you actually have to reload your guns manually ala Onward or Zero Caliber.

    All in all I can’t wait to try this one out in 2020!

  • kool

    Have you ever tried to manually reload two pistols it’s sounds cool but would kill the game if they did what they’re asking for. I’d also like to more about the game, not just what they don’t like about it.

    • aasd

      laura croft knows how to reload two pistols

      • kool

        I heard she uses the square button method too!

    • benz145

      Blood & Truth came up with a simple solution for reloading dual single-handed weapons that simple and more immersive than magical automatic reloading:

      https://gfycat.com/hollowforthrighthellbender

      • kool

        That’s cool but in a game with thousands of zombies do really we wanna do the macarena 50 times to get thru a level. I think they thought about adding reload mechanics, but realized how tedious it becomes after the 100th time in 30 mins. Reload mechanics work well in mil-sims but just get in the way in arcadey shootem ups.

        • Orogogus

          Eh, there’s a lot of dual-handed reloading in Arktika.1, and I found the mechanics pretty satisfying.

      • D-_-RAiL

        I don’t need the immersive reloads in every game. I do prefer it but sometimes its just fun to rapidly fire… they probably have reload mechanics built around their skill progression.

  • I think these things should be changeable in setting to match peoples play style. Such as going from the casual which setting would be as it is in the article and go to a hardcore which would have hold to grip, manual reload. the problem with this preview is it written assuming everyone enjoy playing vr how the writer enjoys vr. This is not an very inviting why to go about it. I know I would hate to play a game where I have to really reload my gun EVERYTIME. it cool the first gun I tried it in 2 yrs ago i’m over it now it’s just annoying but I understand some people love it. I am good with it being just like every fps I play now that what I wanted. I do see how it would not be for a lot of the people in here.

    I say this only to say the writer using what is the preview of a game to say the dev don’t understand “Immersion” because it doesn’t fit his version without taking into account it might fit what others want to play. I am not saying don’t be critical cause while things are still early I feel it’s our duty to be. I think a better argument would have been they are going for the casual crowd not the hardcore which is clearly what they are doing,

    • Caven

      But if they’re going for the casual crowd, why bother with the reloading cool-down then? Either do something like Doom, where weapons never need to be reloaded, or have a manual reload that’s instant. That instant reload could either be done via a simple button press, or by completing a simple action. For instance, an upgrade in Raw Data allows reloading by briefly moving a weapon to your waist. It’s quick and simple, yet still allows for a bit of skill-based improvement for faster/more attentive players.

      Forcing a reload cool-down without any interaction seems like a waste of motion controllers, as well as deliberately introducing needless frustration. It effectively disables controller interactivity temporarily with no way for the player to do anything about it except wait. If it’s not worth having the player perform the action themselves, why make the player wait while the game performs the action for them?

      • this is a very good point from a gameplay stand point but that wasn’t how the preview was written he wanted to manually reload. he did say it allow u to press a button to reload, some fps gives the option to turn off the auto reload I wouldn’t be shocked if this game does as well. the writer has some good point he just wrote them from a bias stand point and it does the readers who want to know about the game not just if the writer loved everything about it that should be saved for a review.

        • Caven

          It’s clear the author would have preferred manual reloading. But a substantial part of his complaints about reloading centered on the fact the player has to wait for a non-interactive reload sequence to complete before being able to start shooting again. Sure, a person can disagree with the author’s preferred solution, but that doesn’t invalidate the criticism of the reload system as implemented in the game. For people who are fine with automatic reloads, the system implemented in the game is just as broken as it is for someone who prefers a realistic reload.

          And yes, every reviewer is going to have bias, but that’s a feature, not a bug. A reviewer you don’t agree with can be just as valuable as one you do agree with, and I think this discussion about reloading proves it. If the author likes realistic reloading but you don’t, then any game where he praises the reload system is a game that you’re less likely to enjoy. As long as the author is providing an honest description of the game, any personal bias simply provides an indication of how well the author’s likes and dislikes align with your own.

          • it’s not a review it’s a preview. a preview is where u give info about a game and say whether he was looking forward to the game or not. but what this writer did was use how he likes to play to say the devs don’t know how to make a game just cause it doesn’t fit what he like. go read the preview of this game at uploadvr they made all the same points in away that didn’t have this I know better feel to it. when PREVIEWS are written in this way it lessen trust in this site’s review to come later.

    • impurekind

      “the problem with this preview is it written assuming everyone enjoy playing vr how the writer enjoys vr”

      This right here.

      And he is 100% wrong that everyone enjoys playing VR the way he does.

      I f’n hate clunky, clumsy, unreliable and forced “interaction” just for the sake of it. I’d choose simpler inputs that work 100% of the time over often really messy and clunky and unreliable “immersive” methods every single time.

      • sonia

        Web-based job opportunities are becoming a trend all over the over world now. Latest research proves more than 75% of the people are being part of internet jobs from home without the complications. Everyone hopes to spend time with his/her family by going to any beautiful place in the country or any other country. So online income allows you to do the work at any time you want and enjoy your life. However selecting the best direction furthermore setting up a proper objective is our strategy in the direction of financial success. Already plenty of people are earning such a nice profit of $14000 every week with the use of highly recommended and outstanding techniques for make money online. You can start to earn from the 1st day after you explore our web-site. START TODAY >>>>> kittyattention.city.tl

      • kathy

        The latest survey reveals that approximately 62% men and women are engaged into web browsing activities. The Internet is flourishing on a day-to-day basis so therefore everyone is currently having an ocean of money making opportunities via the internet to earn money. Every body wanted to devote more time his/her good buddies by traveling any attractive place in the world. However choosing the right technique furthermore setting a proper destination is our target in the direction of achieving success. Already a good number of folks are making such a great income of 24000 bucks weekly through the use of recommended as well as outstanding ways of bringing in huge earnings online. Start off to get paid from the first day as soon as you look at our web site >>>>> hicnicsphene.kann-helfen.de

    • Bob Smith

      “the problem with this preview is it written assuming everyone enjoy playing vr how the writer enjoys vr.”

      No, your problem as a reader is that you (and others) don’t understand how REVIEWS work.

      A reviewer’s job is to give his or her INDIVIDUAL IMPRESSIONS of a game. Of course some of that is going to be subjective–nothing wrong with that–but here the reviewer happens to be exactly right, in that the whole “hands on” approach that VR can bring IS a huge part of immersion, and immersion IS a huge part of VR! It’s what separates VR from 2D gaming–that sense that you are actually IN the game world!

      So when a VR game does things to constantly remind you that you aren’t really in this world, that it’s just a game like any 2D game, that IS a failure on the part of the developers to really maximize the strengths VR provides, instead of all this endless console-style hand holding, magically reloading guns and all.

      Do some people like the magic hand-holding? Sure, obviously some do. But this reviewer doesn’t, and I don’t blame him, and he’s supposed to review the game based on how it struck HIM. Not how it struck you, or someone else.

      • right I guess u have no clue what a Preview means cause this isn’t a review seeing as the game isn’t out. and the writer is upset cause the game isn’t following the rules of vr that the writer wish the game did. as if those are the only way to make an enjoyable game.. “but here the reviewer happens to be exactly right, in that the whole “hands on” approach that VR can bring IS a huge part of immersion,” for u and this writer the ideas said by this writer isn’t immersive to ME and i’m sure this dev is thinking about a lot of those gamers who are like me. every vr games can’t just be for those gamers who want to physically do things in games.

  • 3872Orcs

    I agree with Ben here. I’m also one of those people who did not like Arizona Sunshine. Too much of what is being described here felt wrong with that game too.

  • impurekind

    “For one, guns ‘stick’ to your hands as soon a you grab one. As far as I could tell, the demo offered me no way to drop or holster a gun”

    You need to stop forcing you’re subjective take on how this kind of thing should be done on your preview of these games.

    Personally, I think most interaction in VR is clumsy as hell right now so I would prefer not to have to constantly fight with the controller buttons and stuff to simply hold and fire a gun.

    It seems clear to me that you are the kind of person who just immediately drinks the Kool-Aid that something like the Index Controller’s multi-sensor finger tracking and stuff must automatically be superior because it does all that tracking, without stopping to actually consider if tracking that works say 70% of the time accurately is genuinely better than a simple button press that actually works 100% of the time.

    Well, I think clunky is not better, and what you seem to be criticizing is games that don’t offer more potentially clunky interaction, even if said games could be technically offering a much more polished level of simple interaction.

    Basically, I think there’s a strong change here you don’t really have a clue what you’re talking about and you’re just a bit of a geek/nerd who wants the shiny new thing every time without ever really understanding what that actually means in terms of the negatives as well as the positives as you perceive them.

    • benz145

      Almost all of your assumptions about my perspectives here are wrong, which is a shame because I think we’re probably largely on the same page.

      Immersion does not require complexity. VR games can be simple, intuitive, and immersive, but After the Fall is not hitting these points well.

      • I think I have to disagree with u. it seem u want to have to hold the grip button in order to hold the gun cause in ur mind this brings u into the game. but for me to hold down the grip button craps my hands. I also prefer pressing a button to reload or even an auto reload over manually doing it everytime. doing so gets old to me and then I just don’t want to play anymore. my point is this if u made ur point in a way that came across as u were hoping for the these u pointed to to be added in options that’s great but instead u come off as ur way is better and suck it if we don’t agree with u. the truth is it wasn’t the points the writer made but the tone in which he made it. comes off as an ass to those of us who like the feature he is complaining about

        • SandmaN

          Just fyi, benz145 is the writer of the article.

      • impurekind

        Maybe it’s just the way I read stuff in your piece.

        I mean, no joking, I think something like job Simulator still offers some of the best and most satisfying interaction in VR, and that certainly isn’t very simulationy or anything like that. There’s no real finger tracking, stuff just sticks to wherever your hand whenever you press grab, often in silly positions, and so on–but it just works and it’s fun.

        So right now I’d go for that over the usually more clunky/clumsy current “simulationy” type of VR interaction any day of week, especially when we start talking about even more complex finger interactions and stuff, where I just know it’s not actually going to work properly or truly satisfyingly like 50% of the time.

    • namekuseijin

      I agree that this is not the wii era anymore, but

      “It needs to be done nigh-on perfectly to be the better choice than simply pressing a button”

      pushing a button will always be easier, more effortless than, say, you actually swinging a sword, throwing a grenade, punching, etc. That is: flatgaming button-mashing IS inherently much easier than you actually doing those stuff rather than a character. If easy is what you want, you might well just go back flat.

      VR simply can’t just be flatgaming in 3D – we’re only human, not actual gods or ninjas… VR is its own thing, and still trying to find its sweet spot in gameplay/interactions…

  • Raphael

    I think game design mostly is an entirely random affair with people who have coding or artist skills coming together and trying to make a game using a variety of cliche elements.

    There ought to be a school for game design… not just teaching how to code or create artistic elements but actually look at what makes a game good or bad. Create a basic rule-set for VR game design.

    • flappy

      lol you think they dont talk about what makes a game good or bad at colleges related to game design? There are plenty game design and development courses at a lot of big name school as well as some that are mainly game dev.

      So basically exactly what you said does exist, just not that many people know about them.

      • Raphael

        They do exist but what percentage of devs would take such a course. Also books on the subject of game design but again… it’s all very haphazard since you can’t enforce good game design.

        Ultimately it’s the developer who fails to grasp successful game mechanics that loses out. Game development is a harsh industry where even successful big name developments can face harsh criticism when issues arise.

        P. S.

        Hello flappy guest.

        • flappy

          most devs have at least bachelors degree in a game design, game dev or something related. Not trying to argue, just saying.

          • Raphael

            Yes flappy but don’t forget the changing landscape where free game engines and the new territory of VR have brought a resurgence of 80’s style bedroom game developers. Hence the reason steam is flooded with 100’s of amateur game creation attempts.

          • flappy

            yeah, those are the ones that turn out like 80’s style bedroom games and nothing more. plus steam has been like that for 15 years now, so its nothing new and plenty of time for schools to adapt, which they have.

            I’d say 90% of devs have schooling related to the field and if they don’t they’ve clearly done a lot of research just to get that far. I say this cause i’ve been on both sides of the hiring process for a few game studios.

            Basically until you try game dev, and understand the obstacles it presents, you shouldn’t make suggestions, because you don’t know what its like. Every game dev would love to have AAA game mechanics in their games, but things like being a solo or indie developer just doesnt allow you the endless time and budget to bring them in. this is common sense.

    • pandle

      you literally came in here saying people should go to school for game dev. and game design….. are you fucking stupid?

    • Andrew Jakobs

      There are schools enough which pretend to give you the games education you’re referring to. BUT good gameplay is in the eye of the beholder, what makes a game good for you might make a game bad for me. And the same with VR, some swear by teleportation, others just SWEAR at it.. I certainly think that this demo they showed at E3 was more about showing the enviroment etc than showing the gameplay, but who knows..

      • Raphael

        Yup, but there are design choices that are bad to everyone. With regards to movement in VR… A game not offering multiple choices from smooth locomotion to teleport is one such example of bad game design. Yet it does still happen in some cases.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Not offering multiple choices for movement isn’t a bad game design IMHO, the movement itself is already part of the gameplay, and there you have it… Different opinions on what is/makes good/bad games.. You think a VR game needs different movement options, I don’t, IMHO it depends solely on the game itself and what I want as a developer (I’m a gamer too, that’s something others seem to forget, they think a lot of developers are just the ones making stuff but not able to decide what might be fun). It’s all in the eye of the beholder as with many things..

          • Raphael

            “the movement itself is already part of the gameplay” < ??

            "You think a VR game needs different movement options" << Yes. Based on user complaints for numerous VR games released over the years. Games that launched with teleport-only receive complaints from people wanting smooth locomotion.

            The fewer games that launch with smooth locomotion-only receive complaints from people wanting teleport and anti-nausea options.

            So yes… it's generally accepted that VR games offer multiple movement options and this is ACCEPTED as good game design practice.

            So let's have a link to a game you took part in the design of with no options movement options (flight games obviously don't count).

  • impurekind

    You are clearly the kind of guy that almost certainly thinks running around on some stupid treadmill thing where you slide your feet around awkwardly to move, in a way that is really just clunky as hell, is better than just using an analog stick in VR. You have literally no idea how much of a geek/nerd you are and basically how clueless you are. Stop trying to force your view on everyone else, that if it’s not more “immersive”, as you and like-minded geeks/nerds see it, it must be worse.

    God, you’re like someone from the Wii era who would have thought waggling a Wiimote to make Donkey Kong roll (that worked say 80% of the time and was a needlessly tiring action) is better than just pressing a button (that worked 100% of the time) because it was more “interactive” or whatever.

    The “interaction” in VR is only the better choice IF it works basically flawlessly 100% of them; until then a simply button press or whatever is often the much better choice in terms of actually making things genuinely polished and fun.

  • impurekind

    The only thing I agree with you on here is that the loot collection stuff can be just “a bunch of forced crap” (my words) most of the time.

    • Jonathan Winters III

      The loot criticism is valid. The devs have a lot of work to do.

  • Gonzax

    Not very promising, to be honest. And there is nothing duller in VR than autoreload or pressing a button. Too bad as it was pretty decent in AS. I hope they will change many of those flaws, otherwise it will be another boring shooting festival where the only thing you do is shoot, shoot, shoot.

  • Totally agree with the author. I’m frankly surprised that Vertigo could regress so much in their new game when AS got so much of this right. I’ve played plenty of indie VR titles that didn’t have any kind of realistic reload or physics or interactivity, and at that point I’d rather just go play halo or another fully fleshed out AAA console game.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    I sincerely hope the devs take your constructive criticism to heart – as this game looks great and if they make the improvements, they’ll have lots of sales out the gate because they are the Arizona Sunshine devs.

  • namekuseijin

    I agree with your points here. Indeed tons of stupid generic loot items that bear little to physical interaction don’t lend to cool VR embodiment. But then again, this game is more about shooting than interacting. Let them shooters come

  • CazCore

    i’m really against this “%100 immersion over everything else” mentality that infects the VR world.

    i want gameplay and game mechanics to be the best and smoothest possible,
    to be #1 priority. with a MINIMUM of real life physical busywork motions that effectively end up better off as a button press or such
    when the game mechanic is binary in nature, it should be mapped to binary controls.

    and having to take your eyes off the action to look at your guns and hands so that you can make an L-shaped bolt action reload, is utter stupidity. in real life you can feel all of that and keep your focus on the environment and THE IMPORTANT world interactions.

    so it should be in VR games. i can’t stand all the mundane physical activity in most VR games. should be reserved for things like sword play, where there is actual physical nuance to your motions. where each slight alteration of movement effects the actual gameplay. not some binary busywork crap like reloading a gun.

    • namekuseijin

      you, sir, are better off as a flatty button-masher. VR is not for you.

      srsly, what’s the point of being right there in the virtual world if instead of grabbing a gun and aiming with your own hands, you’d rather grab a gamepad and push buttons and push the whole world to center around a crosshair in the middle of your vision by pushing analog sticks?

      • CazCore

        thanks for revealing your extremely low IQ

  • katie

    On line work opportunities have become a trend all over the over world nowadays. A current study tells us higher than 73% of the people are doing work in on line jobs at their home without having issues. Every person desires to spend time every day with his/her best friends by going any wonderful place in the world. So internet based earning enables you to carry out the work at any time you want and enjoy your life. But selecting the proper direction moreover establishing a right target is our goal in direction of success. Already many people are earning such a solid paycheck of $42000 per week making use of suggested as well as outstanding techniques for generating income on line. You can begin to get paid from the first day as soon as you browse through our web-site. CHECK OUT >>>>> pancakesstapling.flirten.info

  • Bob Smith

    This game sounds like a huge step down from Arizona Sunshine, which was EXTREMELY immersive. I wonder if the same people really are involved, because I don’t know why they’d step so far away from that game’s strengths to give us something like this.

    I hate it that all games have to have the loot systems and the console-style handholding now. It would be a shame to see that stuff pollute the VR universe the way it has 2D gaming. What’s next? Micro-transactions?

  • wheeler

    This was a disheartening read. This is apparently missing the most very basic of interaction mechanics that make VR worthwhile (actually, these very basic interaction mechanics may not be enough anymore). And as I was progressing I came to the same concluding point: this game is probably being designed with flat in mind. Which is fine (obviously) but if you’re a dev that can no longer financially justify VR or that is just cooling off on VR, perhaps just make a flat game then.

    Because when developers create games like this–that don’t actually take advantage of VR beyond the visuals–it’s only going to leave people thinking that VR is a gimmick. Sure, as evidenced in these comments, there are some people out there for which the limitations/discomforts of current gen VR are not encumbering (and thus just the extra added immersion of VR is worth it) but this is clearly a minority and everyone else needs something more to justify strapping a brick to their head.

  • ImOnYourSide

    To be fair, the game reviewed in this article was still in development and a long way from shipping, as it is now May 2020 and it still isn’t out yet.

    As for most of the complaints raised in this article, I think that they are probably all attributable to it still being in development. Yes, the world might be thin, yes, you can’t reload, but those are the kinds of things I would have done had I written the software – get to full functionality for all the bedrock stuff, then add the bells and whistles.

    I enjoyed Arizona sunshine (up until the hordes were ridiculously large and the game would start you off with a pistol and 6 rounds of ammo) and I am hoping this game improves on that substantially.

  • Let me guess. Little to no verticality, no fun “stride vr” locomotion, zero physicality. Boring strategy for boss fights. NEVER LOW BALL THE PHYSICS!.