System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £1.69
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: Sports
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers
Best Playing Position: Standing
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG
Description: Axel Rix, a young soccer player. Since being selected for the England National Football Team he was the centre of attention. Nowadays, things are not going well for him. In his last couple of games, he was the main reason behind the loss, especially with his inaccurate headers. The media and the supporters are started being so heavy on him. Increased pressure on his shoulders made him behave like a lunatic and lastly, he has been kicked out of the national team. His career has taken serious damage. He can’t bring himself to this situation. To get back to his once successful days he starts to train really hard. While he keeps on working, extraordinary things start to happen around him, which will eventually lead him to become the hero of another story.
Header Goal VR is a physics-based, action pumped virtual reality sports game with a simulation like interaction dynamics. Through its story-based levels you find yourself in the place of the character Axel Rix who is a young soccer player. Your main goal is to hit thrown balls by heading while targeting various objects in a soccer training field. Each stage has a unique level design. To achieve a better score, you should have a plan. Even hitting the targets in the right order makes a great difference. You will start to feel like Axel within the immersive atmosphere of the game. Being able to hit a virtual ball in the most natural and realistic way makes Header Goal VR the most entertaining way of heading a ball.
Review: I have a problem with this game even before I have started to play it. You see, like it or not virtual reality is still a niche of the total gaming audience making it quite nerdy. But being nerdy and sporty are not things that usually go together. At school, I never kicked a single football because I was too busy playing the latest SNES games and I would never in a million years think about doing a header on a muddy, leather football (soccer ball for everyone else). But yet…that is what this game is asking me to do, only in VR!
But here is the surprising part (for me anyway)…I enjoyed it! In fact, I dare say I had so much fun that I was playing it for hours. The story of the game goes that you play a fictional character who goes by the name of Axel Rix (maybe this is a play in Belgian starlet Axel Frix) and you literally have to header the ball into the back of the net and towards various targets to score points. Some targets move, some are big, some are small, but they are all possible to get. Playing the game standing up you really do have to header the ball in pretty much what I might imagine you have to do in real life. So whole body back, then rock forward, but just with the head and neck. Hit enough targets, score enough points and you get to move on to the next level.
I was so surprised at just how much fun this game is. It’s as close to heading a real football as I ever want to get. While I am not willing to test out if it will improve your heading skills in the real world, in VR it sure feels very real, almost to the point I could feel the ball impacting with my head! In terms of value for money, I would have to say it is worth every penny. There are enough challenges and party pass-around opportunities to make this a real showcase for how good VR can be. The only thing that really surprises me about this game is why it hasn’t been made a lot sooner!
