Supermassive Games are throwing out the releases in the last few months, we have had the moderately delightful Hidden Agenda via the Play link games on the PS4 and before that was their Until Dawn Spin-off Until Dawn: Rush of Blood as a PSVR launch title. It was a blast to play and really showed the promise of a great future for Supermassive, but then came The Inpatient on PSVR (reviewed here) it was not the best step forward from the developer that brought us the brilliant Rush of Blood, but every now and then we get a bit of a dud and all is forgiven and now comes Bravo Team VR, let us hope that the third times a charm right? Wrong.
Bravo Team is a complete step backwards, not only for VR, but for video games in general. After such amazingly tight controls in Rush of Blood and some fantastic voice controls in the sub-par The Inpatient, these two things had everyone frothing to try out this new title that uses the awesome VR Aim controller, which was previously well incorporated in Farpoint (PSVR) released last year. After all, doesn’t a cover based shooter like Time Crisis, using a full sized gun controller in a virtual reality game to shoot terrorists and give commands to your A.I. partner sound absolutely brilliant on paper?
Bravo Team follows the aptly titled duo Bravo Team as they protect the President of a foreign country that is on the brink of war, after she is supposedly kidnapped and assassinated, you are left in hostile territory with no escape. This is about the only story that pops up through its barely serviceable rail shooter. Moving to one wall cover at a time, in a completely straight line and shooting indiscriminately at what could only be described as moving cardboard A.I. to the end of each area and completing the entire campaign in just over an hour and a half is what you have in store for yourselves with Bravo Team.
Just for a sneak peek, check out some of Gameplay Here:
Length may not even have been a factor here if it was exciting, immersive and replayable (it does boast a score attack mode which I was not keen to try). As soon as you load up Bravo Team you are given an option of a Male or Female character and 3 different faces for each (all with masks covering their entire features except the eyes?), all of which are almost identical and all of which are only Caucasian appearance? In other words, there is absolutely no reason for this feature to exist, we never see their faces!
Once you have made your selection you are given single player (Co-op or A.I. Partner) campaign, or Score Attack mode, you arrive in the game and lift your Aim controller in the air and watch how smooth the look and feel of seeing your motions with the gun in VR are to begin with, you can bring the Aim controller up close to your eyes (headset) and aim down the sight which is a pretty neat design feature, it’s all downhill from there, once the movement gets under way and you move from wall to wall, your in-game weapon moves slowly to the side of the screen as the tracking becomes broken. At one point I was trying to aim for the guy in front of me but needing to physically aim my controller all the way to my left, just to keep up with the games broken mechanics and with no in game options screen to re-adjust the tracking. The only way I could fix it was to quit the game entirely back to the main menu, with no checkpoints, I would then have to restart the entire chapter again.
Check out just some of the amazing broken gameplay right here:
Graphics along with sound design and music is something that makes or breaks a VR game (any game really) and with Bravo Team I could only compare the graphics to an old, but excellent Wii title Dead Space Extraction and that’s being kind because this title is now over 10-years old! Nothing in the environment moves with any fluidity or any movement at all, trees are stagnant, foliage is not effected even when a helicopter flies low, clouds don’t move in the sky, it looks and feels like a pre development demo kit for a cheap Steam title, one that would barely pass the time inbetween Skyrim loading screens, not the massive release its been marketed for by PlayStation.
I feel for anyone that goes out of their way to purchase the fairly high priced bundle with the Aim Controller, I just hope if they do, it’s not the only title they try before throwing it in the bin (try the incredible Farpoint). This, is by far the worst game I have played with my time on the PSVR! Which sucks, because I love Supermassive and I’m still willing to give them another chance, just not on this.
Score: 2.0 out of 10
Highlights: The AIM Controller, you can shoot stuff.
Lowlights: 1 ½ Hour length is a lowlight and a highlight, broken tracking and no way to adjust or align while in-game! Little to no music, or story!
Developer: Supermassive Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment.
Available: Now
Platforms: PlayStation VR
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 Pro VR with retail code provided by the publisher.
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