Skyfront VR Preview
What’s arguably been one of the biggest divides in VR gaming so far? For me, it’s been movement. The difference between teleportation and more fluid movement schemes has separated VR users into two camps: those who get nauseous easily and those who don’t. No one wants to play a game that makes them physically ill, developers know that, and it seems we’re finally getting some quality solutions. At first glance, Levity Play’s Skyfront VR may seem a nightmare to the queasy with its zero-g FPS game play. Yet, Skyfront VR is being touted as the first nausea free, zero-g multiplayer experience. So is it?
Rather impressively, it is actually nausea free. That’s no small feat, and while there have been others recently that have gotten close, this is the first title I’ve played that has been 100% wobble free. That may not sound like a big deal to some, but coming from someone who still occasionally gets sick from the odd desktop title, it means being able to enjoy titles that previously were a no go. It’s a bit amazing actually how rock solid movement is in a space that offers independent 6 DOF movement between one’s body and head. If nausea was a problem for you in the past and kept you from FPS titles in VR, this could very well be your entry point.
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“This is one arena shooter in VR that anyone can enjoy without getting sick in the process.”
The game itself is a good VR take on classic arena shooters. Maps available at the moment are limited but are very well constructed, with more on the way. It is still in Early Access, but there has been a steady stream of updates, so more content and fixes are coming all the time. That’s good though, as at least there always seems to be progress towards the end goal. Even at its current state, though, it shows real potential to be a fun and engaging time.
The real issue at the moment isn’t available content (not that it couldn’t use more) but rather others to play against. To try and help out with finding others to play with, the developers have consistently run contests during the weekends to bolster some more multiplayer action. Unfortunately, my availability didn’t quite line up with these times, so I spent my time against the game’s bots. It is a nice feature to have, but not as exciting as playing against others. They are, however, good enough to get an idea of what to expect and to test out the guns and abilities.
There seems to be a good mix in the weapon department. Control-wise they felt decent, although some seemed to be a little too dead-eye accurate at range. Depending on your aiming skills, you might not notice it as much, but the bots will be sure to make full use of it. The abilities add a bit of flair to the combat. The recipe for success is all there, but ultimately it’s going to hinge on whether or not there are enough other players. There is a mention of additional single-player content planned for the full release, so that may keep players busier than just fighting bots in times of low player counts.
Skyfront VR absolutely has the potential to be a great experience. The biggest question for any game that relies on multiplayer is going to be the player count. Early Access makes that hard to judge where things will end up, but the developers are certainly on the right track by trying to keep the community that is already there engaged in different contests. This is one arena shooter in VR that anyone can enjoy without getting sick in the process; hopefully, that equates to a large enough consistent population down the road. It’s worthy of a look for its nausea-free movement system on its own.
*** Early Access code provided by the publisher ***
