Shane
Secrets are afoot as you and your team of contractors use a mix of espionage and tactical bullet defence in PlayStation’s newest, high adrenaline virtual shooter, Firewall Ultra VR.
Playing within a full 360 degrees environment Firewall Ultra gets the blood pumping and you head in to battle as a continuation, of sorts, from 2018’s PSVR Firewall: Zero Hour.
Firewall Ultra is multiplayer and you start out as a contractor with a team of Node, Skip, Nala, Meiko and Fang.
Each have specialised skills and you’ll need these to get yourself through the game.
There’s PVP or PVE modes and you load up and aim to survive.
Graphically Firewall Ultra is astounding. Gritty, moody and totally immersive.
However what can break the immersion for some, including me, is the use of the PSVR2’s tactile controller buttons to initiate, well, everything. From movements, load-outs, shooting and more, each is aligned with a button on the controller.
Perhaps a better way to have done this would have been the use of gestures (although I am aware that gesture controls can have an interesting rate of failure – see our review of Hellsweeper VR).
None the less, weapons and tech on offer surpassed my expectations and when you’re in the heat of a fight and almost feel bullets whizzing past or the heat of explosions full zoning in is assured.
Maps are derived from the first Firewall title, yet different enough to keep those that may have played Firewall: Zero Hour in-game and mostly satisfied.
In all Firewall Ultra is a worthy first person shooter in VR, and best played with a headset. This said Firewall Ultra isn’t exactly the ‘Ultra’ PSVR2 game to own, but it is worthy of a play, and play more than once.
Released: August 2023
Rating: M15+
Platforms reviewed: PlayStation VR2
Genre: Virtual Reality / FPS
Developer: First Contact Entertainment
Publisher: Sony Interactive