I suppose it doesn’t say much about the state of the Gear VR selection that I often choose whether or not to look at a game based almost entirely on whether or not it appears to have full locomotion, but that is frequently the case. Today I was perusing the store to see if there was anything that looked interesting and holy smokes they are releasing a lot of stuff every Wednesday/Thursday lately. But one title struck me as looking particularly interesting. A 3rd person shooter called City Avenger. It looked like it had shooting, full movement and controller support and that was enough to get me to bite. I’m so glad that I did.
I should say right at the outset (or here rather, since the outset has passed already) that on the store review page there is one person saying that the game doesn’t recognize his Moga controller. He suggests that it only supports Samsung controllers, but I have the Nyko Playpad Pro and it works perfectly so it does work on other controllers. Just buyer beware on that issue until the developer releases a patch. If you have a Moga controller and want to throw caution to the wind and try it anyway and find that it works it would be lovely if you said so on the store page and even contacted me ([email protected]) so that I can update the review here.
Anyway, now that that nasty business is out of the way, let’s talk about why I’m so happy to see this game. I used to play the crap out of it on my DK2. I have no idea where I got it from, it may have been on Oculus share or perhaps Wearvr, but no matter I got it somewhere and I loved it. I believe this version has been stripped down some since the DK2 version. I remember finding my way to the top of a parking garage in that version and running all over a fairly large (by comparison), if barren city. I have not yet encountered a parking garage in this version and the city is smaller and a bit nonsensical as roads just end in walls, but this is a game where when you shoot someone they spurt blood as they fly about fifty feet in the air so realism is not really what they are going for anyway.
Each level has an objective which you can check at anytime with the press of one of the face buttons. Usually the objective is kill this many people of this type, or blow up this many vehicles of that type. The first level is swarming with dudes in black suits, possibly FBI, but I don’t recall being told and sorry for them but they are at the wrong end of my gun. I don’t know why I’m doing it, but I murder them all with my pistol, at least until I find something better, like a shotgun, rifle or rocket launcher. The pistol has infinite ammo and the rest do not, but that’s alright. If you get bored mowing down these people you can always hop in a car and blast through them that way or throw a grenade into a group of them and watch them get blasted every which way when it detonates.
This game isn’t a masterpiece by any means. What it is though is some silly fun that to my mind is more than worth the $3.49 CA they are asking for it (I believe that would be $2.99USD.) It’s really easy and gets a little bit repetitive, but at the same time it’s over the top action and everyone you shoot drops money, pills, or guns. You can blow up any car you see and it flies up into the air before crashing back down again and at one point an entire building fell down. The graphics are perhaps PS2 era if I’m being generous, maybe closer to PS1 though nowhere near as jaggy, but it doesn’t matter here. The style reminds me of Virtua Cop, though that may have more to do with me forgetting what Virtua Cop actually looked like than it does that the game resembles it in any way. The point is, it’s cartoony, it’s fun, it’s furious most of the time and it’s cheap.
There are some gameplay elements that could be changed to improve the experience. There is no jump button at the moment. I really feel like there should be. In fact, there is a level where you are running down a subway tunnel on the tracks and you shoot folks up on the platforms and they are dropping all this loot that you can’t pick up because you’re stuck on the ground like some kind of chump. Not only do I think that there should be a jump button, I think that it should be ridiculous, or at least that there is a powerup that makes it so. That sort of thing would fit the game very well and would be awesome fun.
It wouldn’t hurt if the game were more difficult either. At the moment you might as well be invincible. I like my games easy, but there is no tension at all as it is. At least not in the early levels. Full disclosure, I’ve not beaten the game yet. I will I just wanted to get this out while I was still pumped about it.
That’s about all I have to say on the matter at the moment. If you’ve been humming and hawing over whether or not to pick this up I would say do it. Without hesitation. Unless you own a Moga controller because as mentioned above, those apparently don’t work. But it’s around the cost of a good cup of Joe and I can guarantee you spent the same or more on worse since you got the Gear VR unless you literally just got it now and are reading this to find out what to buy first. If that’s you, maybe not this. Come back to this later. Definitely keep it on the radar but there are other things you should try first. Go to my old website VRGiant.com and check the top five list. They may not actually be the top five anymore, but you won’t go wrong starting there.
- Comfort Level 30%
- Graphics 50%
- Sound 65%
- Difficulty 30%
- Fun Factor 75%
- Overall 75%
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