System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £9.99
Comfort Rating: Red
Genre: Adventure,
Input: Gamepad
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: 15+
Description: It’s 2118, space is big business, and it doesn’t get much bigger than FIRMA: the corporation that has a monopoly on space exploration – and almost every other industry too. According to some, it’s time to bring them down, but they’re going to need help. You’re a courier for Trans Luna Logistics with aspirations of leaving your life on the dust-ridden Moon for a promotion with FIRMA on Mars. Buckle up and sit tight because it’s going to be a bumpy ride – everything is not as it seems.
No space adventure is complete without an awesome spacecraft, yours is The Transit Lander – the fast and highly manoeuvrable craft that many can fly, but few can master. In order to fully exploit the VR gameplay, the core focus has been to perfect the controls. Handling your craft can be tricky at first, but with continued play and practice comes faster times and a pilot-pro status. FIRMA has been designed and built from the ground up for modern virtual reality systems. Look up as you clamber through obstacle-ridden dig sites, peer down as you make tricky deliveries and look all around whilst you seek and destroy enemy crafts. Whether you’re exploring the terrain in search of crashed spacecraft parts or racing through open expanse to deliver vital supplies to scientific bases, there are hours of flying fun to be had whilst discovering the dynamic and fully immersive world of FIRMA.
Review: Have you ever had a dream of going to the moon and working with other fellow astronauts on a space station? No, me neither. But if I had that dream Firma would make it a reality. Placing you inside a flying and highly manoeuvrable lander craft with its own breathable air, you must go about your daily duties, finishing missions and doing whatever you can do to help out on the moon base. Controlling the ship feels very natural and takes next to no time in getting used to.
Mission wise there is a little bit of everything in Firma. Racing, dropping off cargo and even rescue missions! This keeps the gameplay fresh throughout the game as you never really know what type of mission is next. As you do the missions, exploring the moon you will discover all sorts of amazing things to look at and investigate, it just feels so immersive that many times you will forget about the real world and really start believing that what you are seeing and doing is real. Mind you it does help that the graphics are spot on.
Firma is as close to actually being on the moon as I will ever get. Everything looks stunning and the light sourcing gives it a very believable style. From the dark shadows stretching across the surface to the light of your own spaceship, Ots just so easy to fall into believing this game. Sure, it can be a little nauseous, but only in a believable way, like shooting upwards too fast, or spinning around too fast. Take each mission, each move smooth and steady and you’ll soon get used to it. Truly a game to get lost in.
