Déraciné is a tricky one. In one hand it’s a very deliberately paced puzzle adventure oozing with ethereal atmosphere, but on the other hand it’s an insufferable exercise of boredom and painfully pedestrian gameplay.

Developed mostly by FROMSoftware in collaboration with Japan Studios, one would be forgiven in assuming Déraciné is a VR successor to their accomplished non-VR titles like Bloodborne and Dark Souls. However, digging through their  back catalogue, FROMSoftware actually have somewhat of a curiously eclectic past, with a number of translucent experimental titles dotted among them.

Déraciné seems to harken back to those days, and it makes sense – this being their first foray into VR. Why push the boat out too far right away…

You play as a disembodied “faerie” who, according to European folk lore, is a young and pure spirit removed from the confines of its spiritual realm and placed as a presence among the living.

It’s set inside the grounds of a stately period-style boarding school where you uncovering a variety of mysteries contained within its 4 hour or so story.

The gameplay basically involves interacting with, or running errands for a number of children, initially to convince of your presence, and then set to complete a variety of mostly insultingly basic (put this object in this location) or unintuitive (whatever I’m thinking, do that) puzzles or tasks. Thus moving the story forward, and onto the next melancholy vignette.

The conceit here is that the entire world is frozen in time, only coming alive at specific contextual trigger points and mostly consisting of serviceable animations and flat, sonnet-like dialogue. Though in fairness, the dreary blandness of its storytelling may actually appeal to those who don’t want to wrestle with the sensory overload of many other VR titles.

The game requires dual move controller support and is bereft of full locomotion and smooth turning, providing only set teleportation positions to warp towards and incremental turning. This means that those with already well-developed VR legs will probably find it disorienting at times.

As a faerie, you have the ability to transfuse the spiritual energy out of a living object into a dead one, and while this sounds like a fascinating mechanic – is routinely used for perfunctory tasks like reviving a dead flowers…

Graphically though, Déraciné is pretty. With fairly realistic textures and well lit environments, the world is among PSVRs best realised visually. Though hardly an argument since its viewed from very specific viewpoints, it’s still nice to look around and breathe in the atmosphere.

There are also a number of collectable keys to find, which could possibly warrant replay for the most hardy and possibly self-deprecating of players. Once through is almost certainly enough though.

If it’s meant to feel somewhat poetic and dreamlike, it goes some way to achieving that – but getting through it was an effort of tenacity rather than genuine intrigue.

All in all, personal taste is the key here. The point and click adventure style in VR doesn’t appeal greatly to me but mileage will almost certainly vary. But on my personal opinion alone, and based on the wealth of other great VR titles out there, I can’t easily recommend Déraciné.

The post Déraciné (PlayStation 4 / PSVR) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

It seems PSVR is really starting find its footing and releasing games with fantastic production value extended well beyond rote novelty, or single-serving “experiences”.

Astro Bot Rescue Mission is one of Sony’s first fully fledged campaign titles built from the ground up for Sony’s VR platform by Japan Studios (of The Last Guardian fame). And it’s just great.

Astro Bot’s genesis was from the Playroom VR “mingame” collection – developed and provided as a free download from the PS Store. Proving to be a neat showpiece for VR, there was apparently a huge appeal from fans to have a full game developed from this 15 minute sampler, of which Japan Studios took heed. 2 Years later – here we are.

On paper, the game sounds like a nostalgic retread of point to point linear platformers that permeated the 90’s gaming landscape. And on paper, that’s essentially what it is. But what VR brings to the table here breathes life back into an otherwise trite and innocuous genre, and then injects it with pure dopamine.

The story is, well, who cares. You control Astro, a diminutive robot on a quest to vanquish the cutesy robot scum of the Universe, to rescue his buds from captivity, and to repair his ship. It’s a thread designed purely to keep the game bouncing gleefully from one vibrant location to another. It’s a constant assault of charm!

There are 5 worlds, each with 4 Levels and one enormous end of world Boss. The worlds are incredibly beautiful and varied, often including simple, but unique gameplay mechanics to keep the platforming interesting and fresh. These worlds include construction sites, lush forests, dimly lit caves, underwater areas – to name a few

Your perspective is through the eyes of another robot character, that hovers at a fixed height tracking Astro through the world as he makes his way forward. You can look around nooks, crannies and corners, peer down at hidden locations, and peer up at bridges and girder pathways for Astro to explore. It feels like you are always in the center of an elaborate Meccano construction as you try and determine how to best puppet Astro around.

As a satisfying genre trope, Astro collects spinning coins, while defeating enemies and breaking objects also gives you coins. These can be used for purchasing unlockables (achieved through a “claw machine” chance minigame). It’s not much of a motivator, nor particularly exciting compared to the main game, but offers some more variety and it’s definitely more interesting than a items catalogue.  

Astro Bot screams high production value. Not only is everything impeccably polished and pretty, but the animations, sound, physics, water and particle effects are all very accomplished in a game that wouldn’t necessarily have drawn that level of scrutiny from its players. Japan Studios have really teased things right into the corners, which has become a running theme for Sony’s first party studios in recent history. They have an obvious mastery of the technology and are able to glean from it a level of fidelity that’s rare elsewhere on the platform.

All this level of detail and care only adds to the immersion in VR.

Astro Bot is a dualshock only game. But the dualshock is used in ever clever ways, enabling players to interact with the world not just through their control of Astro, but with the world itself. Certain Levels require gadget attachments which augment the digitally rendered in-game version of the controller. These include a grappling hook for creating tightropes and pulling down barriers, a water cannon for growing plants and dowsing flames, and even shuriken for firing into walls to aid in Astros platforming. These actions are performed by the often neglected “touch” pad on the controller and are all very fun to perform, adding some required dexterity to the controls.

The player must also interact directly with objects at certain points, such as “headbutting” obstructions as the camera tracks forward, or headbutting projectiles back at enemies. A couple of instances will have the player using the headset microphone in interesting ways – however gimmicky, it’s a neat touch.

The music contains fun, plucky riffs you would expect from a modern Sonic or Mario title, and although they do repeat, perfectly compliment the charm of the aesthetics throughout. 360 audio is also put perfectly to use, with the “help me” chirps of your fellow bots awaiting rescue indicating their location from all around, and other diegetic sounds filling out the environments with enormous personality.    

Combat in the game is barely that, with 3 attack types relegated to specific enemies that are mostly variants of the same basic skin. But that’s perfect for this type of game, where combat is more an extension of the platforming mechanic, requiring timing and precision rather than brute force. Most enemies can be killed with one hit. It’s cute, it’s charming and at times, kinda funny.

Then there are the Bosses. On a flat screen, these would seem pedestrian but unassumingly fun. In VR, they are enormous and epic in scale, dwarfing both the player an Astro himself. This sense of scale gives the pattern-based attacks a tense anticipation. They are some of the game’s highlights for sure.

Astro Bot’s campaign clocks in at around 8-10 hours if you’re not just zipping through the Levels, but if you manage to find a hidden chameleon camouflaged into the environment of each Level, an independent challenge Level is unlocked afterwards for you to attempt.

If Firewall Zero Hour is PSVR’s answer to multiplayer – Astro Bot Rescue Mission is its answer to single player. This game is so fun and accessible it will likely sell PSVR units, it’s just that good.

Also – Astro does “The Carlton” as a victory dance. Get it, play it, and you can thank me later.  

The post Astro Bot Rescue Mission (PlayStation 4 / PSVR) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.