u/cusman78

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Hard Bullet on PSVR2, but keep reading to better decide for yourself.

It is a sandbox for violence that I am categorizing in Shooting Combat Games even though it provides ample opportunity to be played as Melee Combat Game as well with wide variety of weapons for both options. This is a game that is focused on providing a highly interactive sandbox for violence using ranged and melee weapons as well as environmental kills. It is not concerned with providing challenge or story, just a sandbox of play how you like including use of unlimited slow-motion.

The game includes 4 modes:

• Ride Mode (32:00)
• Arenas Mode (8:10 & 21:45)
• Sandbox Mode (not included in my gameplay upload)
• City Mode (51:00)

Ride Mode provides option of Quick Patrol, Regular Watch and Long Shift where Quick Patrol is series of 3 levels to complete. This mode has progression where you earn XP to increase in player level to have option to unlock additional weapons using the money earned. The expanded loadout options can then be used in future Ride Mode levels. There wasn't any difficulty option but it felt like Default options of Arenas Mode.

Arenas Mode gives you every weapon already unlocked but there are still cosmetics to unlock (somehow?) for the ranged weapons. You can choose to play Waves or Survival. Waves gives you Premade Enemies in Limited Waves based on difficulty selected where Easy is 10 Waves, Medium is 18 Waves and Hard is 30 Waves. I only played Easy where the enemies get tougher (more armor and better weapons) with each successive wave so presumably that will continue to escalate. This option also lets you choose how many bodies may remain littered with max of 3, but I've seen it leave more than 6 bodies and only disappear bodies when out of sight and it seems to prioritize disappearing the bodies furthest from you over order in which they were killed. It also provides options for how player health works including Default, Invincibility, One Hit Death, 50% and No Regeneration. Lastly, it has option on whether you can find Ammo on belt for any of the weapons you are using where if you disable this, you will need to take weapons from the enemies you are dispatching or return to starting room to grab more weapons from the weapon wall. The Survival option lets you choose what type of enemies will spawn with no limit.

Sandbox Mode is similar to Arenas Mode except in smaller space where you can modify what types of traps are available in the room for you to use against the spawning enemies. This also lets you use any weapons and choose between Waves and Survival just like Arenas Mode.

City Mode is marked Beta where it has the makings of what will eventually be a campaign structure where an NPC woman gives you missions with side quests and then you move from the hub area to different maps from the other modes in which to complete those objectives (like fetch a case). I think this mode is also intended to have progression where your loadout options (more limited than other modes) would be locked until you reach the required player level, but for now you can ignore the locked icon and grab any weapon available from the wall. There isn't any difficulty option to select and it felt higher difficulty than Default options of Arenas Mode in terms of player health / regeneration.

For gameplay, by default you can crouch (down on thumbstick), jump (up on thumbstick), kick (Tap X for low or Hold X for high) or enable / disable slow motion (Square). Use of either Triangle or Circle will eject your weapons magazine and then you can use either L1 / R1 to grab weapons or ammo (from belt / holsters) and use L2 / R2 to pull trigger. You have unlimited use of Slow Motion and it was interesting to me how throwing of weapons or enemies works better during slow-motion than it does normally. It's like your motion control inputs get more power behind them during slow motion than they do normally.

Graphically, it is crisp and clear with no reprojection if you switch from default of Quality to Performance. Worth noting that I had to go out of my way to spot reprojection in Quality mode but also I didn't really notice any downgrade in graphics when I switched to Performance. I am playing on PS5 Pro, so base PS5 results may be different. The game looks pretty good and I'm generally impressed by the quality of fluid animations, physical interactions and enemy destruction. The main complaint I have on graphics is how the gun fire (muzzle flash) looks so cartoonish while rest of game while also comical in nature has more realistic aesthetic. They do provide an option to turn off the muzzle flash.

Audio includes level specific soundtrack along with some ambient sounds with the rest being from gameplay of shooting or being shot at. The guns and explosions don't sound as punchy as they should. How enemies scream in anguish while you are being viciously violent to them is both comical and unsettling as I think it should be.

Haptics are present in both controllers and headset. The controller haptics are subtle but present for anything you are interacting / colliding with and headset haptics can be felt when you are close enough to any explosions even if you weren't close enough to take damage, but just close enough to be on the outer peripheral of the visual blast effect.

Settings (0:35) are extensive with menus for:

• Controls shows you button mappings with inaccurately drawn lines while giving option to switch Jump/Kick Inputs, Swap Controls or Adjust Hand Position.
• General let's you change language and adjust height.
• Player has extensive set of options including adjusting belt / holster positions, how L3 works for sprint, Snap vs Smooth (including speed), and more.
• Video allows switch between Quality and Performance and whether Slow Motion has Color Filter.
• Audio lets you adjust volume for Global, Enemies, Effects, Firearms, Player and Music.
• Interaction allows you to choose Reload style (Manual / Tactic vs Arcade), Hold vs Toggle for Grab, and more.
• Violence provides some presets like Full, but also let you customize aspects like Dismemberment, Deformation, Bruises, Bone Breaking, Blood, Various Blood Effects and Physical Shots.

Settings can be accessed anytime using the Options button but does not pause the game, so I recommend you play on Invincible or at least spend some time to Adjust Hand Position to your liking (20:29) before starting the violence. One caution on Settings is to not click on the ? icon next to some of the settings because currently that opens a panel that doesn't give you the explanation you are expecting and it can't be closed (I had to restart game to get rid of it).

The game is featuring Platinum trophy for anybody that plays enough of the Ride Mode and some of the Arenas / Sandbox Mode. Many of the trophies are tracking trophies and the ones for playing 10 of various maps only increment when you play those map levels as part of the Ride Mode. I think the different types of kill counters increment regardless of mode or may also favor the Ride Mode. A few days into release, most trophies are unlocked by someone, but a few remain at 0% because I think those maps have not been part of rotation available in Ride Mode and don't increment when selected using Arenas Mode.

This is a game that has potentially very high replay value where you just enjoy it as a creative John Wick-style violence simulator or one that you will play once and find kind of pointless and not return to. It simultaneously has a lot for you to do and nothing because of the lack of structure. I think the most positive part is that it clearly started smaller than it is today focusing on gameplay mechanics with just the Sandbox Mode and I assume expanded to include Arenas Mode with increasing number of maps and then the Ride Mode with progression to give some structure and where it is now going with the City Mode has the best potential for providing even better structure and maybe a simple narrative to serve as a story campaign, but it is also very early in that and it could take a long time for that to mature into a full baked campaign mode.

In the meantime, if you are happy with the core gameplay mechanics in a sandbox setting, that is already fully baked and ready to be enjoyed with an abundance of maps and weapons with lots of Options to customize your experience.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I do not recommend playing Detective VR on the PSVR2 because I think it needs a patch to improve the user controls experience for both the hand-tracking and VR2 Sense controllers option.

I think it is best categorized as a VR Experience game where you step into the role of a detective in their office who puts on AR glasses to step into a "VR room" tasked with investigating the disappearance of an artist (Richard) using "new" investigation techniques. What this means is that you get transported to different timelines in expanding storyline where you have a phase for collecting evidence followed by a phase back in your office investigating and analyzing the evidence.

As mentioned, the game can be played entirely using hand-tracking only or with your VR2 Sense controllers. To use hand-tracking, simply put your controllers away (within boundary while powered) and put hands in front of your headset to activate hand-tracking and to switch back to VR2 Sense controllers, pick them back up and start using them (after powering on as needed). The main difference in my experience trying both is how much easier it is to move around when using the VR2 Sense controllers where you can use your thumbstick on either controller to teleport around, while using hand-tracking you have to point at specific teleportation nodes (with either hand) and pinch your fingers to simulate a click to teleport to it which takes practice to figure out (5:19). I think part of the difficulty is while you are pointing at these nodes, is that your finger pinch can be obstructed from your headset cameras.

I can think of following ways to improve the hand-tracking based teleportation controls:

• Add laser pointer when single hand fingers are pinched which can then be pointed at teleportation location / node and released to teleport.
• Allow either hand to pinch fingers to simulate click while one hand is pointed at teleportation location / node.

While you are in evidence collection phase, even using VR2 Sense controllers, you are only allowed to teleport to specific teleportation nodes. I think the developers implemented this to avoid you walking into the motion captured animations that you can view from different angles with controls to forward, rewind and pause on your left hand. When you are back in your office investigating and analyzing the evidence, you can teleport where ever you see empty floor space.

The rest of controls involve putting hands together with fingers framed to take all photographs of evidence and once back in office, grabbing Polaroids off detective board to place on a pedestal and then using magnifying glass with one of 3 scanning options on pedestal (Fingerprint, Blood and Writing) to analyze 3D rendering of the object that spawns in your room while the Polaroid is on the pedestal. Each Polaroid shows empty circles for the number of clues you can find on it and once these are found, you can put it back on the detective board and drag the pin from Polaroid to one of the facts about each person / suspect on the detective board. It seems not all clues can be connected, but the ones that can will produce a green line if you have made a good connection and provides a video cassette that can be pulled and viewed through your pedestal of how the person / suspect on the detective board responded to question related to this clue during their interview.

Here is where rest of controls experience needs improvement where I'll list out issues I observed that developers should improve by patch:

• You may not realize game is spawning 3D objects for you to scan when placing Polaroids on pedestal because when pedestal is moved, spawned objects don't (11:30)
• You can reposition both detective board and pedestal, but the pedestal also moves by itself unnecessarily when you are moving the Polaroid back to board (14:03)
• You accidentally grab and move either detective board or pedestal when trying to grab / use the magnifying glass (18:00)
• It doesn't reliably click on the time control buttons potentially causing lot of time loss for player through no fault of theirs (28:12)

I think most of these issues can be solved by fixing the position of detective board, pedestal and the direction in which it spawns objects / animations relative to the position of the fixed position detective board & pedestal. If they would remove ability to move these, you wouldn't accidentally be moving them, they wouldn't be spawning objects / animations that are obstructed by the detective board or other parts of office because you didn't place them optimally, you wouldn't have hard time grabbing and using the magnifying glass which should probably look more technologically advanced and have the controls to switch scanning mode more obvious like on the pedestal (11:58).

Graphically, everything is clear but the game has softer look you get when it is using reprojection. I could see ghosting on the detective board icons when moving my head certain way looking for it. I didn't see any other signs of it including when I enabled subtitles that are crisp and clear including during rewinds and fast forwards of the animated scenes. I think the motion-captured performances including facial animations and eye movements are well done here.

Audio lacks any soundtrack or ambient noises. It is limited to lady talking in your head and the motion captured actors voicing their dialog scenes and some sound effects as you interact with things. I think the voice acting is fine, but I wish all audio was directional relative to your position.

There are no haptics of any kind in controllers or headset. I get the focus on making hand-tracking experience work, but for players that will opt to use controllers, they need to implement haptic feedback for interactions to make them feel more tactile and immersive.

Settings are bare minimum giving option to enable / configure subtitles or delete your save files. There are no other options. If playing with hand-tracking, you will need to turn in real-life and if playing with VR2 Sense controllers, you can turn in real-life or use snap turns.

The game is not featuring a Platinum trophy and I think it would be hard to miss any of the trophies on path to complete the game as long as you are being thorough to collect all the clues from each photo, making all the connections and then progressing. I also think you are able to revisit prior timelines to get anything you missed. All that being the case, I think it has two bugged trophies sitting at 0% (Paparazzi & And the Award Goes to...) which someone would have unlocked while unlocking subsequent trophies (Scrutinizer & Movie Collector).

You are not an in-the-moment detective, but rather someone coming in after-the-fact where someone else scanned / created the crime scene that you are able to virtually visit to collect the clues that you need. You are also not the person that interrogated the person / suspect in relation to the clues you found / connected but someone that has access to their testimonies. With how the game requires you to collect all photographs before progressing and informs you when you are making incorrect connections until you get them right to progress, you have less player agency in how your actions impact the outcomes to where I think there is one story and possible outcome and you just have to do your part to see it through.

I think if it had less user experience control issues, then it would be easier to accept this as a neat VR Experience story game and then whether it is worth playing or not becomes all about the quality of the writing and performances, but it needs a patch or two to improve the controls first so that a player can enjoy the interactivity as they go along for the story.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I hesitate to recommend playing The Long Survival on the PSVR2, but I'll cover why so you can decide better for yourself.

It is an up to 4P (or 5P?) co-op survival shooter where you must defend the movable Nexus against waves of insect hordes that get more numerous and deadly as the waves progress. You do this using one of 4 Hero characters (Tycho, Taishi, Malachi and Elena) that each specialize for different roles (Assault, Engineer, Tank and Medic) with their own progression and skill trees.

A key differentiator from other co-op survival shooters is that you also need to play strategically in how you move your Nexus, purchase and deploy defensive structures like Turrets, Barriers and Mines, as well as manage availability of Energy that powers the Nexus and any deployed defenses. This is where the solo play is probably much harder than co-op because you have limited time to make build / deploy decisions between waves and your bot squad only help with shooting / defending, not building / deploying.

Beyond the tutorial which can be skipped / repeated and otherwise takes 25-30 minutes (two parts), the three game modes included (not immediately / obviously available) are:

• Classic which is for solo or co-op for up to 4 (or 5?) players
• Conquest which is for solo or co-op for up to 4 (or 5?) players
• Civil War which is for PvP between up to 10 players in teams of 5 players each

Classic is the pure wave-based survival mode where you are challenged to survive 50 waves of linearly increasing difficulty while supporting checkpoint saves (to stop & resume) between waves and option to play on Easy, Normal or Hard across at least 3 maps (Satellite, Shelter and Bastion) and maybe 4th (including AV Atlas). You can also apply modifiers that are unlocked by playing before you start to further customize the challenge conditions of the mode. As mentioned before, you play this solo or co-op and fill out any remaining slots with option of using bots to have full team of 5 (which is why I think it supports up to 5P).

Conquest is expected to be mission based / campaign-style survival mode where you need to complete multiple objectives across a map as you capture and upgrade strategic points that you must continue to defend as you progress. The games tutorial dialog specifically said the checkpoint save system is only for Classic, so I am not sure how Conquest that goes for long sessions is preserved between play sessions.

For multiplayer (28:28), the way lobby system works is whenever you are in the Command Bridge, the game automatically opens a lobby for you and anybody in the Hall (where they see the multiplayer terminals) can join open lobbies. The game options indicate cross-play, but when we played (Sunday prime time), there were no other players to join, but we were able to figure out what we needed to play together pretty easily and it was working well until my wife got disconnected (42:06) and couldn't rejoin our lobby, so the game doesn't support re-connect or drop-in co-op.

Graphically, I didn't notice any signs of reprojection but there is a lot of shimmer / aliasing to make this rare case where game doesn't look good in headset as it does in video capture (on crispness / clarity). If I had only played the Tutorial, I would be pretty disappointed with it in graphics, but I did play further and as you get past 10 waves, the number of enemies, enemy diversity, number of players, etc start to explain why it isn't looking higher resolution or having such simple animations because it is more concerned with presenting a lot of enemies at the same time while supporting up to 4 (or 5?) defenders along with all their turrets and other defenses.

Audio is overall good with a fitting soundtrack, limited voiced dialog that feels text-to-speech but not terrible and most importantly punchy sound effects for your weapon shots and explosions. You get some visual notifications of things like Nexus being attacked or special enemies entering the fight or being defeated, but mostly your battlefield awareness is driven by the 3D directional audio from the creature & weapon sounds.

Haptics are absent for the controllers and to detriment of game which uses so many menus where you need to touch and interact with screens. You need to make do with some visual feedback informing when you are touching or need to hold because many of these interactions are also missing any audio feedback. It does however include headset haptics for when you take damage which is not subtle and may even be directional. I think the game is also using adaptive triggers to make Pistol feel different than the SMG which are only two out of many I got to try so far. I don't understand why they would implement both these PSVR2 specific features (headset haptics & adaptive triggers) but skip on controller haptics? Are they trying to save controller battery life because game expects long play sessions? If so, provide enabling controller vibrations and configuring intensity as an option and preferably separate for menu interactions (where it feels more critically missing for me) vs combat.

Speaking of settings, it provides guided setup of common preference choices right from tutorial (0:31) including option for Seated (L3 for crouch) or Standing (bend to crouch), between Locomotion or Teleport, movement direction based on Head or Hand, and Holster position presets (Low, Medium, High). You can access additional options such as choice between Snap or Smooth (including Speed / Angles) or preference for Toggle to Grip or Hold to Grip by visiting Settings using Options button. You can also refine settings for holder positions or even gun angles in the deeper settings menus.

The game is featuring a Platinum trophy, which will feel similar to After the Fall in how much and how thoroughly you would have to play to complete full progression expected, but it does not expect any multiplayer (PvP or PvE co-op) to complete all the requirements. You would just be playing a lot, using all 4 heroes and completing both Classic and Conquest including one of them on Hard at least once and winning a match on each of the 4 maps.

My small concern is that even after I unlocked skills (57:15), the interface for how you equip those wasn't immediately intuitive for me (58:00). I had other UI difficulties as well like retrieving the SMG I purchased during tutorial (9:24) or Energy Weapon (53:45) I purchased during mission. It can also be difficult to point and grab the building you want to move (using invisible pointer extending from your hand) and you have to realize you can't do any moving once the next wave has started. Finally, I don't know if the option to play Conquest or a different map hasn't opened for me or I just didn't figure out how to use the UI to make those changes from the default.

My big concern is that the game will feel grindy / repetitive before we manage to see everything we will be facing and complete. I think it will feel slow to replay the earlier waves to get to the more exciting waves (which currently start by wave 8 or so) on each new attempt and the session lengths it expects are too long (to get to 50) and if someone disconnects they can't re-join. If my wife hadn't disconnected, I would have one less concern and may feel more comfortable recommending.

On positive note, my wife did enjoy and wants to play more. My brother has also picked up the game because she talked positively about it (nothing scary since the creatures go after defenses more than player). I just hope it doesn't have any more disconnects whenever we do manage to align schedules to play it together.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I hesitate to recommend playing SUPERHYPERCUBE on the PSVR2, only because of how challenging I think it is and the potential to frustrate if it just doesn't work for your brain.

It is a spacial puzzle / arcade game that feels like a mix of Tetris Effect: Connected with OhShape Ultimatum where you start as a single cube that can pass through the wall ahead without taking any damage. Each wall you cross adds a random cube to your starting cube and the you have to rotate your new object on 3-axis (left-right, up-down or trigger) to be able to pass the next wall without breaking off any pieces that didn't pass through clean.

Anytime you think you have positioned correctly, you can press X to Boost through the wall. This is especially useful to go past any rotating walls (which seem to be how each level ends) while they are positioned to match. As you progress, you also each option to use HyperFocus on Square and Smash on O that can help you get past one of the walls. You start with 1 life, so are allowed one mistake before you will get game over. I assume you will earn additional lives as you progress through the earlier levels to help you make it a little bit further in the later harder levels, but it is challenging right from the start.

You can play the game using either VR2 Sense controllers which will track and show up in-game based on where you are holding them or the DualSense which doesn't track to move as you move it, but you can see it if you look down and it displays what the buttons do (Smash, HyperFocus, Boost) while the VR2 Sense controller only indicated how to turn the blocks. I think both options work well for the game, but DualSense will be easier choice because you can use either the D-Pad or Thumbstick for two of the rotations (left-right or up-down) and the D-Pad is better for it. If you have both controllers connected, I think whichever you use to press X to start next game is the one it uses for that run.

The most important control is actually using your head tracking because you need lean left-right (or however you like) with your head to see the wall behind your current object to make judgement on whether it is positioned in a way that if you press X to Boost, it will go through without colliding. How well (fast) your brain can figure out how the 3D object moving towards the wall will pass through the 2D opening and then how quickly you can assess which axis rotations are needed to make it pass through is the main gameplay challenge and while I could tell I am improving with each attempt, my rate of improvement was slow.

Graphically, it is crisp and clear with no signs of any reprojection. It is going for a very specific art style / vibe that feels 70's or 80's arcade / sci-fi movies and nails it. You have very good sense of depth perception but you can still be making mistakes because you are not evaluating the 3D shapes as 2D shapes that can fit (by moving head on/off center) correctly. The video capture does not do it any justice because in VR everything is perceived much bigger and much easier to see.

Audio is also minimalist like the graphical design featuring ambient sounds and driven by gameplay sound effects. While game as a whole has similar zen feel while playing as Tetris: Effect Connected, it doesn't have an excellent soundtrack to go with it so you may want to bring your own.

Haptics are present in both controllers and headset and feels on point for all to match the gameplay.

Settings are minimal allowing you to adjust Brightness and Bloom effects which could help you with perception issues and I think some deeper options to adjust HUD and Graphics elements as well. The game doesn't provide any VR comfort options because there is no thumbstick movement / turning to require it.

The game is featuring a Platinum trophy now (unlike the PS4 + PSVR1 version) and I think like the original release, it will be ultra rare set of players that can 100% the game and complete all trophies including some additional challenges to get Platinum. As of now, nobody has gotten past level 5 completed in the upgraded release and my runs were ending on level 2 of 10.

Aside completionist / trophy motivation, the game also includes online leaderboards where you can see your Personal best scores, Friends leaderboard, and World leaderboard where I could see myself at the very bottom of very short list for newly released game. The top spot was occupied by the account Bryan Paul at Without Parole uses for reviews. I think it will take someone that could 100% the original release 10 years ago to play the upgraded PSVR2 release and be first to complete it. For anyone new to the game (like me), it will take more time and practice (if ever).

I think this is a game design that only works in VR. It was made by a group of developers (kokoromi) intent on promoting video games as an art form. It seems like this polished PSVR2 upgrade is part of their 10-year anniversary celebration coming up of the original release that was part of the launch of PSVR1. We often call for more of the PSVR1 back-catalog of VR games to get upgraded ports for PSVR2. This isn't one that I was hoping to get that upgrade treatment, but I am glad I get to experience it on the newer system even if I don't get far in the game myself.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I highly recommend playing Bootstrap Island on the PSVR2, because there is nothing that I have not liked about it so far.

In terms of how I try to categorize games, it is somewhere between a Survival, Roguelite, VR Experience and Adventure game, but in what I've played so far, I feel it is best described as a Survival. It is the most casual friendly survival game I have played in terms of how simple it is to survive. Just crack open a coconut per day to eat / drink and collect enough wood to burn for the night where you wave a lighted stick to fend off the night creatures. You just need some tinder and stones to start fire. I also haven't gotten sick from eating anything incorrectly. For example, it just tells me I need to cook the crab before I can eat it instead of letting me eat and make me sick. You also don't have to sleep, ever.

It starts out with a tutorial that teaches you the basics of moving, grabbing / interacting, loading and firing your flintlock pistol and how to build a fire, light it and use a flaming stick to fend off an attacker while delivering a character backstory. From here, you are transitioned as lone shipwreck survivor on a tropical island with everything you need to survive each day and night for many nights while further exploring the large island with highly volatile volcanic activity.

You know there is a story because of the way it opens and presents things and there is a narrator that gives you some clues / context as you fumble around the island and learn to survive and thrive, but it doesn't lead you. In fact, it is pretty hands off to the point where other than being aware of sun going down and needing fire to survive the night and food / water to not starve, it doesn't make you do anything. I think part of the appeal is that it gave enough instruction through the intro / tutorial that you have enough foundational comfort to survive, but beyond that, it is left up to you to explore / discover including things like how will you store any of the useful things you are finding?

All gameplay follows what you as a survivor might try, so if you find a coconut, you might try smashing it against rock to open and it works, but if you try smashing it against a tree, you don't get the audio / visual feedback of it cracking / breaking so you can stop wasting time. If you find a locked chest, you can try breaking the lock with a rock and it will, but if you wack it with a stick, you are wasting time. The audio / visual feedback is what tells you when something you try is working or not and the narrator voice chimes in with some clues / information it couldn't communicate in other ways.

The game design is similar to roguelite where if you do perish, you will have to start over but depending on number of days you survived before you perished, your next survivor will be starting with some permanent unlocks that help your next survivor get through whatever goals you set for yourself easier. If you have advanced in the story to next Chapter, you may also resume after death at the start of current Chapter (?) instead of all the way at the start, but I won't know for sure until I go further into the game and then perish.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous right from the title screen with beautiful waters, high-resolution detailed textures for anything close to you, great sky box, and good draw distance clarity. It is definitely using Gaze-Tracked Foveated Rendering where everything is crisp and clear, but there is also clear presence of reprojection where even stuff you are holding in your hands can appear ghosted when moving. One of the most impressive things in the game is how the Day (Sun) and Night (Moon) cycles change the dynamic lighting of the island. The shadows are dynamic and with wind that blows all the foliage creates very immersive sense of presence. I haven't even got to experience some of the storms I've seen in trailers and this is already one of the most impressive looking games on the PSVR2. I should mention that while the game is not officially tagged PS5 Pro Enhanced, I am playing on PS5 Pro and I've heard it is using dynamic resolution scaling to make game look sharper on the Pro than it does on the base PS5. I've also heard that playing this in longer sessions can start having framerate issues, but it was stable in my close to 50 minutes.

Audio is fantastic, again setting very good first impression right from the title screen with amazing soundtrack and 3D directional audio. This holds up as you press Start just like the graphics did beyond the gorgeous title screen.

Haptics are present in both controllers and headset, but very rare and subtle in the controllers and much more frequent and strong in the headset. While the controller haptics are too subtle / minimal, it makes up for it by the excellent impactful use of headset haptics.

Settings are accessible from title screen or anytime you press upper-button of left controller to access them. You can choose between Snap and Smooth Turns with some configuration for speed (not as fast as I would like, but good enough). You can also enable / disable Vignette. You are always able to choose Teleport movement using R3 over smooth locomotion on the L-Stick. It allows you to enable Toggle Sprint on L3 instead of Hold L3 to Sprint. It also allows you to enable Toggle Grab on L1 / L2 & R1 / R2 (yes, all 4 work) instead of Hold Grab. There are also options for improving the positioning of your Equipment inventory slots, but you don't start with these available.

The game is featuring a Platinum where some early adopters have already unlocked all trophies so no known trophy bugs. I don't think it will be an easy Platinum, but I don't think it will be particularly hard either for people that are willing to put in enough time to complete all the trophy requirements (beyond just completing Story).

I checked and this is made by an indie-studio (Maru VR) out of Estonia that started with single developer that grew into a small team of around 15 people. They cut their teeth making location based virtual reality experiences and projects and eventually harnessed their growing talents to make this survival adventure game that feels like it was made by a much larger more experienced VR development studio. It feels very polished in what I've played so far where any minor imperfections / jank are completely overshadowed by everything that it is doing well.

PlayStation Store link: https://store.playstation.com/product/UB0480-PPSA28751_00-0217483877741542

Cost: $3.99 (US Region)

Contains:

• Kohta Yamamoto – “Attack on Titan” (from Attack on Titan)
• Hiroyuki Sawano – “Ashes on The Fire” (from Attack on Titan)

New Trophies: Yes

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Devidicon on the PSVR2.

It is a top-down twin stick shooter where you play an Elite Trooper designed for battle by the Teldar Corporation's Assault Division who is deployed to wipe out the band of space pirates that have taken over Space Station Ominious 19 and killed the entire staff and residents residing on the station so that the cleaning crew can follow and make the station operational again.

It is style of twin stick shooter that is more methodical like Hotline Miami and most reminiscent to me of Jydge (soon to be reborn as Jystice) and not arcade action like Nex Machina. It has the familiar room layouts you see in game like the former methodical category with enemies behind walls / doors but with much larger stages with lots of enemies you must take down to advance to the next stage. It is easy to get killed by enemies or hazards with limited supply of health restoration in each stage and you need to collect some required items to unlock and access more of the stage before you can complete it.

Each stage has a collectible in sealed room you can earn if you manage to collect enough credits to open the door to it, but this is optional to advance. Each stage also has a shop you can reach which will let you spend sufficient accumulation of available credits to change primary weapon or equip mods like armor, hack visor and couple of others. If you spend credits on the shop, it will help you survive / advance easier, but you will not be able to accumulate enough credits to unlock the collectible vault. These shop upgrades don't just help you in current stage, but may help you as you progress further and face tougher challenges like the 3 boss fights after stages 4, 8 and 10. On the other hand, the collectibles could also give you additional characters to play as (replay value?), an edge of some kind or just be nice menu unlocks like Soundtrack, Artwork, etc.

The progression system used here is similar to the one used in Dungeons of the Deep VR by same developer (Gray Mantis) where you must complete the full stage without dying and however you made it to the next stage, anytime you die, you will respawn as you entered. This includes preserving any carry forward items you got from prior stage by spending credits in the shop instead of opening collectible vault. For instance, the only way to have "extra lives" is to use shop to buy Hack Visor, then consume that to hack a station to take down shield and then collect Restore Node which will get consumed to instantly revive you and let you continue your attempt to complete stage instead of sending you back to start of stage.

Like the other Gray Mantis games supporting PSVR2, it can only be played using DualSense controller with no option to play using VR2 Sense controllers. Your controls are simply move with L-Stick, Aim with R-Stick, Shoot Primary with R2, Plant Mine with R1, Shoot Rocket with L1, Melee with Square, Jump with X, Dash with O and finally Interact with Triangle. I think I struggled with some of the floor hazards because I forgot about the Jump with X and I probably could have used Melee in some situations where I took longer shooting with Primary. One more tip I can share is that you need to stop firing your Primary in order to shoot your Rocket.

Graphically, it is crisp and clear with no signs of reprojection (even if it is) including a very pretty sky box, clean menus, built-in manual that is easy to read, fast loading, and stable framerates and everything you destroy / kill stays as fell until you move on to next stage or die / respawn. Playing in VR lets you see the whole stage just by looking anywhere you like, so it doesn't need a map to follow that the TV players must rely on and I think you can shoot at enemies from further away accurately to point they will be taking some shots while closing the gap before they can be in range to shoot you back, so I think playing in VR has some gameplay advantages and not just higher immersion from being in the game.

Audio provides an excellent soundtrack with punchy sound effects and minimal voice dialog. It does more of its story telling using environmental story telling as you progress through the stages and see the death and destruction that befell the station staff and residents.

Haptics are strong in the DualSense where you will feel when you are shooting your Primary or Rockets and you will also feel headset haptics if you are near explosions (even if you don't take damage) and if you take damage.

Settings allow you to adjust audio mix and disable subtitles.

The game is featuring a Platinum trophy that has eluded all players thus far because I think no one has found the Secret Area collectible or completed the Secret Area yet. The rest of trophies all show earn % above zero which are for completing the game and unlocking some of those optional collectibles you can along the way. I don't think the trophies are bugged and I think it is matter of time as more players get into this relatively new release (even before PSVR2 support got added) and figure out the Secret Area related trophies.

The game is simple and easy to play, but also quick to punish when you make mistakes. So you need to play methodically and along with how game design elements are layered, it stays engaging and I think clearly designed to be played more than once. For myself, I'll focus on seeing it through however I can manage and then try for the collectibles on second playthrough.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my limited time with it, I do recommend playing Omega Pilot Evolution on the PSVR2.

It is a futuristic high-speed racing game where you race using anti-gravity aircraft that stay close to ground and can't leave the track but within that operate like flying more than driving. It currently includes 24 courses across 9 biomes that can be played in multiple modes for single player or a multiplayer mode supporting in-game voice chat.

The game is hybrid allowing TV players on PS5 to play with VR players on PS5 + PSVR2. It is currently a PlayStation exclusive, but Quest release which will support cross platform play is scheduled for later this month (August 2026), and beyond that a Steam release is also planned with cross platform play like the developers prior game EXOcars supports.

TV players must use DualSense, but VR players have option to use VR2 Sense controllers (default) where you grab and use a virtual flight stick in your cockpit or they can visit Settings to enable DualSense (14:37) to flying using Left Thumbstick for their Steering. The rest of controls are as simple as R2 to Accelerate, L2 to Brake, Square for Weapons (in modes that include it) and X for Nitro. I think the DualSense will be easier and preferred by most of the players, but the VR2 Sense controller option feels more immersive. I was able to come first with both control options, but took a few tries getting better with VR2 Sense and first try on the DualSense.

Single player modes include:

• Career Mode (1:19) is a Time Trial mode with Bronze, Silver and Gold completion targets where you are put in race with ghosts of 4 other players based on your best time (or lack it). You cannot impact with the ghosts and beating them will give higher cash prize on completion which you can use to upgrade your aircraft (11:05) or buy cosmetic Customization (35:31), but the goal is to beat those Time Trial targets. Regardless of how you perform, you will unlock the next course.
• Series Mode (18:05) is collection of tournaments to unlock in order that are series of races with preset increasing difficulties to complete against bots where you can collide with their aircraft.
• Bots Mode (25:25) has all courses available from start where you can choose Number of Laps, Weapons On / Off, and Difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard, ?)

Multiplayer (27:42) mode supports up to 5 players in Public or Private lobbies where you can choose any course, Number of Laps, Collisions On / Off, and Weapons On / Off. You can also enable / disable whether your lobby is set to Private without having to break / re-create your room.

Graphically, it is crisp and clear with signs of reprojection only if you specifically look for it. The course designs are varied and I felt if you look at something in the background, it becomes higher resolution as you are looking (1:47), but not all courses backgrounds switch to this higher resolution background as you are looking (7:13). In some courses, with the long draw distances you can also see parts of the background or objects in sky come into / out of existence based on where you are looking (8:55). In some courses, you may also observe higher resolution in your vision center when you move with your head in some cases (12:11). I assume the game is using a form of Fixed Foveated Rendering instead of Gaze-Tracked Foveated Rendering where I wouldn't notice like I can in this game. These observations are not an issue while you are racing and I think just part of rendering optimization choices developer made to make game look / run well.

Audio starts out on the loud side, but you can visit Settings to adjust audio mix to your preference. Nothing problematic nor particularly standout about the music or sound effects.

Haptics are present in controllers (VR2 Sense or DualSense) based on whether you are using R2 to Accelerate or L2 to Brake which feels better on the VR2 Sense than DualSense. There is also headset haptics regardless of your controller choice whenever you collide with edge of course paths, other aircraft or get attacked by various weapons. Weapons that don't destroy you can have distinct headset haptics that feel different than when you get destroyed which is neat.

Settings are pretty extensive in well-organized menus that is relatively easy to use with either control preference and you can still see your VR2 Sense pointers active when you switch to DualSense which is a notable improvement over EXOcars. For VR comfort, you have option of enabling & configuring Vignette to something that works for you. Be warned that this game with Vignette on default of disabled was able to trigger my wife's VR motion sickness (prone to it in flight games) very quickly (31:15).

The game is featuring a Platinum trophy which looks pretty straight forward but includes a couple of annoying ones you will have to be aware of the earn condition on like playing 25 races in same session or 20 races in a row without returning to main menu but the rest will likely unlock for anybody that goes for single player completion (Gold in all Career Mode) and plays enough of the other single player modes with Bots to race / fight. Multiplayer is not required to Platinum.

If you liked EXOcars or VRacer Hoverbike, you will probably also like this. It is better in some ways and not as good in others, but it is different enough that it feels fresh and new and it has its own control / feel with the way your aircraft handles to learn and master.

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:

Based on my time completing it, I am neutral on recommending for or against playing Hit N Slash VR on PSVR2, but I think it is a particularly good fit for trophy hunters looking for an inexpensive bug free easy 1 hour Platinum.

It is best described as an Arcade game where you use two different weapons in either arm that you can swap between hands at any time by pressing Square. Your two weapons are the Slasher used to shoot discs to cut energy lines in your path or holding an indestructible barrier in your path or the Smasher used to break solid obstacles in your path as you constantly move forward in an endless procedural world.

As you progress, you come to locked gates where you must hit the two switches with each of your weapons projectiles to open before you collide and take damage. Each gate you pass leads to a different environment out of a finite set of 4-5 such environments before it loops you, but your forward movement speed and complexity of barriers to destroy steadily increase. You also have opportunity to pick up extra ammo (ammo not unlimited) or health if you can shoot them as you pass by (easiest with the Slasher). Your goal is to survive as long as you can to get new high score.

Speaking of which, there isn't any way to see your highest score and you only know what your score you achieved and whether it is a new high score or not when you get to the Game Over screen. There aren't any local or online leaderboards and the game doesn't display any points while you are playing. The only HUD element the game displays is your Score multiplier which fills up to max of 5x if you don't take any damage, and drops whenever you take any damage.

Graphically, it looks lower resolution and has aliasing even with the simple art style, but there is no sign of any reprojection. It also has low draw distances resulting in lot of pop-in including barriers you need to destroy and other environmental structures that are less important. The pop-in issue also extends to power-ups where you will see signs of a power-up coming into existence before it can be seen more stably. I checked and this is not on Quest, so it isn't a straight standalone port with no visual upgrade but it looks like it is. The quality of dynamic destruction on the barriers is good.

Audio has a soothing soundtrack that fits the game and I think all sound effects are adequate for the game.

Haptics are present in the controllers whenever you are firing them. You will also experience good level of headset haptics whenever you take damage, provided you enabled headset haptics in the Settings.

Settings can be accessed from title menu (no title displayed) or after using R3 during gameplay to get to Pause menu. This allows you to adjust master volume and audio mix where the game defaults to lower volumes, but you can increase. This is also where you can toggle haptics on/off for both controllers and headset. There are no VR comfort settings as the game doesn't really need it.

The game is featuring a Platinum trophy which took me 2 sessions lasting ~30 minutes where I passed 16 gates each before getting Game Over and then a 3rd session where I got the last health pickup needed shortly after passing 3rd gate, so it won't take much more than 1 hour as long as you are picking up all the power-ups and doing well enough to reach 15+ gates in your sessions.

On technical polish at launch, this is probably the best game yet by KOD-OBUR whose previous titles include overall better Rebeloid VR (challenging to Platinum) and really shallow Deadland games (very easy to Platinum), but it is still very much a budget game with target audience of trophy hunters more than anyone else.

How I think they could make the game better for more players, is they need to recognize what would make an Arcade game more engaging for higher replay than just unlocking trophies. For example, the game would be better if it displayed more information about scoring as you play, rewarding higher skill of play by giving more points for destroying barriers with your Smasher from further distances or slicing multiple energy beams with your Slasher in one shot. I think the game would also be better if you got to 5x multiplier faster and doing so would also speed it up (so earlier in your run) and getting hit would slow it down (to let you survive longer), while keeping complexity increase still tied to number of gates you have passed.

If they could improve the graphics to make it sharper and get rid of all pop-ins and make it a more engaging score chaser Arcade game (preferably with online leaderboards), the core gameplay with the two weapon types and different types of barriers that keep increasing in complexity would be a much better game.

In addition:

• Omega Pilot Evolution released today
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6 released to retail build today
• Pinball FX VR announced as coming to PSVR2

Wouldn't surprise me if there is even more that I haven't seen yet