Recent reviews by xand

I almost didn't buy this game due to the mixed reviews on steam and elsewhere. I ended up doing so because I am a huge fan of the Alien movies and the mere chance of aliens being done right in VR was worth the shot.

Fortunately this game is absolutely brilliant. I've been playing VR games since 2016 starting with a Vive, I have hundreds of VR games and this is right up there in the top few, maybe only second to Into the Radius.

When I originally read reviews people were talking about the lag and physics of gun movements and the body, this concerned me but I needn't have been concerned as when I got in the game it become very obvious very quickly why the developers chose this path, it perfectly suits the combat and adds weight to every movement. The Pulse rifle feels fantastic, exactly as it should do, grip with two hands and fire in 'short controlled bursts', exactly how it is supposed to feel and absolutely perfect as far as I'm concerned (after turning off that forced ADS assist thing which wasn't my thing).

The atmosphere is brilliant, yes the questish graphics are a bit of a downer but the aliens look and move great, the general ambience is excellent. I only wish they had the licence to use some bits of the music from the movies.

Overall this game is excellent, well done to the developers, some really good design choices. As a massive fan of the aliens, this game really got things right.

Excellent things:

Pulse Rifle combat - Brilliantly done, weighty, have to be controlled, perfect.
Atmosphere in general - Excellent stuff
Game mechanics, pacing - Brilliant, everything really good
General story arc - Some nice little moments so far


However complaints, I have a few:

Protagonist - Initially I was quite keen on the story and protagonist, the initial scenes were all good but later on in various situations where the protagonist should have been literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ their pants they are making borderlands esque 'I'm a tough marine and I don't care about nutin' quips in the aliens nest and such. It's really cringe, I don't care who you are you are not walking around shouting at aliens corny lines like 'just you wait until I get the shotgun' or 'woohaa here i come' when you find a gun. You are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrified. Can you imagine Ripley, in Aliens, as she is going back into the nest to find newt reeling off corny one liners with no sense of fear or tension at all. The only time a quip of any kind is OK is when you don a massive robot suit and then due to the increase in confidence the massive robot suit provides you are able to then make your feelings clear. The protagonist is written like a character from Borderlands, not Aliens. However everything else good.

Loading for the shotgun is awkward, and the pistol to some extent - the grabbing from the left waist mainly - due to the full body IK adjusting itself (i know this is near impossible to get perfect). It's OK but would be nice if this was a bit more reliable, maybe expand the grab area when the ammo count is low on the shotgun or something.

Music announcements of fights - I'd like to be able to turn this off if I want to, I prefer the aliens approaching with just the noises of them and the base. The motion tracker element is fine but I've never been a fan of 'fight music' in games and in this game there's something special about just being alone with the sounds. That being said there's probably a balance to be struck.

Valve Index, 4080, 12900K here, performance is very good on Ultra, turning a couple things down and it seems perfect so far. Hence I can't complain.

First launch crashed, second launch black screen...third launch and in ran. Has run fine since then so far.

How am I supposed to import a save game with a 6 digit code? This isn't explained at all, had to check forums to work it out. Apparently you need to boot up the first game, export save and get the code there...which is awkward but OK. They should have explained this in game though, unless I'm missing something or prepared people to do it on launch via the discussion forums.

Anyway besides all of that the first game was and still is one of my favourite VR games of all time. This game so far seems potentially even better. What this game does well:

Looks fantastic
Nice weapons
Enjoyable Melee
Solid crafting and upgrade system
Good voice dialogue
Good atmosphere, solid story
Solid background ambience

I can't say much more so far but I'm putting this review up because there seems to be loads of negative reviews and honestly if this game is even on par with the first game (which it appears to be initially) it's going to be one of the best games you can get in VR. I wish more VR games had the kind of quality this one has, hence why I bought the more expensive version to support the developers.

I get that people are annoyed and they have every right to be if their controllers aren't working or it runs terribly on low settings. However if you have specs akin to mine it doesn't seem like you will have any problems and beyond those issues this really is a fantastically well made game.

Basically it feels like MW19 with no slide cancelling and louder footsteps. I do not mind the louder footsteps at all.

The good:

Maps are OK

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Quicker levelling up of guns (might just be beta)

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I like the louder footsteps, using your senses for determining where people are is better than using gimmicks like mini-map

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The main issues are:

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Can't see what I'm shooting clearly because everything (colours) blends in, muzzle flash, vibrations and VFX all makes this worse - This is a bigger problem for KBM users because they don't have aim assist to lock-on to players in the middle of their screen. KBM users need to be able to see what they are shooting but ultimately I'm sure controller players would like to be able to see too.

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The TTK is a little too quick even for a COD game - this means if you are caught off guard for any reason you die unless your opponent is absolutely terrible. OK all COD games are like this but it still is a bit short IMO and decreases the skill gap which is ultimately what the developers probably want to do. How about matching the warzone TTK with two plates?

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It's a COD game so obviously the aim assist is going to be through the roof but - ultimately for a game to be successful these days in a major way it needs to balance KBM v Controller well. They can't weaken aim assist because controller players will be upset and they can't give KBM users aim assist because both controller/KBM users will be upset so they need to find another way to balance things. Otherwise KBM users will realise fairly quickly they are at a massive disadvantage and this game will only be popular with controller users as with previous COD's.

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I still don't like killstreaks - in a match where one team is dominating and get a big killstreak, that killstreak simply enables that team to dominate more. They are no skill, dumb and deteriorate competitiveness.

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Absolutely no evolution of COD whatsoever -Times have changed, games have changed, COD continues to not develop and make any significant changes because they are afraid too. This is how a franchise dies. People want high skill, competitive games these days. Randomness, which helps weaker players feel good about themselves isn't necessary. That's what SBMM and ranked mode is for. COD still likes to maximise the randomness. It's a flawed approach these days

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This is an excellent game, good fun. However this review is for a MnK player for the multiplayer. If you are interested in being competitive then you are going to be going up against possibly the most OP controller aim assist in a crossplay game yet. Anything beyond Diamond is 95% controller players with aim assist locked in.

I get it, Halo is a controller game and of course controllers needs some aim assist and it's very difficult for the developers to weaken the OP aim assist controller players are used to. Still, it's a shame they couldn't find a way to balance MnK with the controller aim assist as it's a fun game, I don't even mind being at a disadvantage but controller AA is too strong in this one for me.

It's an exceptional half of a game

It's fantastic. Everything is done so well and everything feels so fantastic in VR.

Naturally you can't simulate a psychedelic experience. However I did enjoy this a great deal. It is easily the best attempt in VR to provide some sort of psychedelic experience I've come across. I found it entrancing certainly and definitely worth your time if this sort of things tickles your fancy.

Amazing, much much more than I expected. I've only played an hour or so and still in the tutorial area. There's already been several interesting moments e.g:

When I realised I could climb and then clamber up onto a surface by just putting my fists on it and then crouching and pulling myself up.

When I realised that climbing too quickly unbalances things as it might in real life and that when climbing unstable objects it's better to climb slowly and keep your body balance as is the case in real life. Very clever.

I want to carry on playing but alas I can't right now. The guns also feel really damn good, like the recoil and general feel of them is better than anything I've experienced in VR up to this point.

Very impressive. Can't wait for the new Half Life game if it is going to be using a lot of these mechanics.

On Jedi Master difficulty this game is a lot of fun, very much enjoying it. Enjoyable combat, good atmosphere and a solid story thus far.

Was interested in this game before it came out but put off by bad steam reviews. Decided to pick it up as 50% off as a punt. I'm quite astonished because this is a really well made VR game that in no way deserves a mixed review score. It's an excellent little game. Yes it is apparently quite short (I'm a couple hours in so far) and yes the character models for the human characters aren't amazing but so much is done well. The various VR mechanics all work very well and are a lot of fun. The combat is solid, the sword fighting is better than most and the atmosphere is very good. The story and dialogue are not great admittedly but they are passable.

I'm really impressed by this game and feel like its current review score is far below what it should be. Perhaps it is too short but as complaints go that's no the worst you could receive. I'd love to see a longer version of this game for sure but at the current 50% off it's more than worth it. Perhaps the developers would have gotten a better response if they'd priced it a little lower as people expect a longer game? Not sure but as it stands this game is horribly underrated in the reviews.