System: PSVR 1
Price at Time Of Review: £29.99
Comfort Rating: Red (Extreme Movement)
Genre: Arcade
Input: DualShock Controller
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: Yes
Age Rating: PG
Description: Strap into the cockpit of the Cobra – the most powerful tank ever built – and experience first-person VR combat across neon-scarred sci-fi landscapes in an explosive campaign for 1-4 players. Load your tank with a wide range of devastating weapons and power-ups, and blast your way to a colossal final showdown.
Review: June 1, 1980. This was the day Atari released the game Battlezone into the arcades all over the world and while it wasn’t very successful in terms of sales it was one of the very first video games to use vector graphics to produce 3D wireframe graphics. This style brought the game much respect and acclaim amongst video game players and makers. In the game, the player controls a tank from a first-person perspective, in the classic arcade cabinet, the controls were two joysticks to move and the tank and triggers to fire the weapons.
Fast forward 36 years (damn that made me feel old) and here we are with the same game only this time in VR. Once again you control the same tank, have the same objectives and even the graphics have an oddly similar style to them, like a polite nod towards the original Atari game. Apart from the odd nod to the original game (including the “Insert C.O.I.N” menu), things are vastly different. With both offline and online gameplay modes a choice of a light, medium or heavy tank and the same choice when it comes to the weapons. Then all you have to do is complete the mission, whatever that may be, from taking down a shield generator to shooting the enemy tanks, it all feels so much fun and more importantly, it feels like a classic game.
While I might say that moving around the maps is a little slow (but then again you are in a tank) but once the action kicks in you soon forget the speed you are moving at. The game itself is an enjoyable experience and much better than the original. There are times I really did start to believe I was sat in a tank, not in my office chair, it just felt so natural to control and in VR it feels amazing. While the basic, if not colourful graphics might put some people off it really shouldn’t. It might have been made originally for the arcade, but this version of the game feels like a VR classic.
