Developer: First Contact Entertainment
Platform: PS VR2
Genre: Shooter
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Firewall Ultra VR2 is a squad-based tactical shooter with two main game modes: 4v4 PvP matches in Contracts Mode and 4v4 cooperative PvE mode Exfil.
The game places you in a tutorial to go through the basic mechanics of the game and the weapons you will use when you find a match. The training missions could have been more straightforward to understand what was happening in some instances. It is due to poor game mechanics and odd weapon handling mechanics. The basics of shooting should be intuitive and straightforward, and this isn’t this game. It’s clunky and tricky, but the eye-tracking is good in the game, but other shooting mechanics hamper it. It shouldn’t be, and it is. Anyway, you will navigate through the training missions and look for matches. This is also troublesome. The game and menu layouts and HUD need to be clarified and more intuitive.
The graphics and visual of the games are outstanding, the character and general fidelity of play is good, and it looks slick, which is enhanced by lighting and levels having great detail. The sound and effects are good. The game has a sense of tension and would be fun if fully polished.
VR Experience is generally good but with some issues. The experience is immersive until you get to weapon handling, and in particular, shooting weapons and aiming is not as smooth as I expected. It needs some refinement to feel truly immersive. I enjoyed the graphical landscapes of the VR world, but I needed help with navigation in the tutorial; more signposts are required. The sound and voice acting add to the VR experience. It’s a case of some refinement to have that fantastic VR experience, but the gameplay and bugs need to be fixed.
Matchmaking could be faster, and it is hard to find players to have an entire squad; the game also takes many minutes to prepare for a match. It’s all slooooooooooooow, too slow. It was so slow and tiresome I didn’t want to come back and wait. It’s dull and slow.
The game isn’t fully there in many ways, and the game lacks fluidity and basic intuitive game design from the training levels to finding games online. The game just seemed dead. I found it difficult to find matches, and when I did, I rarely got four players on my team. Many improvements and tweaks are required to get this to a standard that would make it a worthwhile purchase. It’s just a clunky mess with very little going for it. The presentation, menus, and gameplay are cumbersome and overcomplicated by a lack of intuitive design. It’s a good concept but could have been better executed. It needs some major upgrades before I would revisit it.
Overall: 4/10
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
