A VR game just hit the top spot in the UK physical game sales charts for the first time. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Blood & Truth was at number 1 for the week ending June 1st.
The game beat out FIFA 19, Team Sonic Racing, and Days Gone. It’s important to note however that these charts are for physical sales only. It does not include games downloaded from the PlayStation Store.
Blood & Truth is a big budget PlayStation VR exclusive released last week. It was developed by Sony’s own London studio, the same team behind the London Heist experience, which was the flagship demo for Sony’s VR system all the way back when it was still under development as ‘Project Morpheus’.
Despite the sometimes frustrating movement system and occasional pacing issues, Blood & Truth is a tour de force for PSVR. Sony’s London Studio should be proud of what they’ve accomplished here by turning the brief London Heist demo from PlayStation VR Worlds into a fully-fledged narrative that features some of the best performances we’ve seen in VR yet. The action is pulse-pounding and so bombastic it rivals even the biggest summer blockbusters. This one is easily recommended to any PSVR owner that likes to shoot bad guys and watch stuff blow up.
In March, Sony announced that it had now sold 4.2 million PlayStation VR headsets worldwide. This makes it the most popular 6DoF VR platform by far. Sales milestones like Blood & Truth show that Sony is slowly bringing VR into the mainstream gaming scene.
Generally, when it comes to virtual reality (VR) titles featuring on normal videogame charts, the occurrences are few and far between. When it does happen it tends to be thanks to PlayStation VR, with Farpoint doing extremely well back in 2017 with a number two spot in the UK listings. Today, that has now been beaten, with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) London Studio taking the number one spot on the UK charts with Blood & Truth.
The charts showcase the best selling videogames up to 1st June at UK retail locations, so only physical copies are counted. Only two new titles made it into the top ten, the other being Cricket 19: Offical Game of the Ashes achieving the No.6.
Blood & Truth managed to outperform multiplatform videogames like FIFA 19 (only by 400 copies reports GameIndustry.biz), Team Sonic Racing and Days Gone. Overall it was a tight race for chart supremacy this week, with No.40 and No.1 only separated by a little over 6,000 copies.
While it is surprising the title has done so well given the niche nature of VR in comparison to the other videogame platforms, Blood & Truth has proven itself to be a highly commendable experience, mixing high action gameplay with a tightly interwoven storyline and cinematic cutscenes. VRFocus gave it a full five-star review, saying: “From start to finish Blood & Truth is one hell of a ride, a finely choreographed John Woo movie that’s all about sheer entertainment.”
Hopefully, with achievements such as this, it’ll not only show that VR is financially viable when done correctly but also attract more gamers to the technology as well as developers interested in exploring new markets and creative potential.
Blood & Truth isn’t the only PlayStation VR title to arrive recently, with Squanch Games’ Trover Saves the Universe, Steel Wool Games’ rather scary Five Night’s at Freddy’s VR: Help Wantedand Everybody’s Golf VR all now available.
There are going to be plenty more on the way in 2019, with the likes of fairy tale puzzler Luna scheduled for this month, No Man’s Sky: Beyond arriving this summer and of course, Iron Man VR. VRFocus will continue its coverage of PlayStation VR, reporting back with the latest updates.
Two really big new PSVR games released today with Blood & Truth and Trover Saves the Universe. One is Guy Ritchie-style action thriller full of guns, explosions, and epic set piece moments, while Trover on the other hand is ridiculously hilarious and bizarre action platformer from the mind of Justin Roiland. These games could not be more different but both are very good in their own ways.
For the stream I will be playing both games on PSVR (Blood & Truth with two PS Move controllers and Trover with a DualShock 4) on a standard PS4.
The stream is planned to start around 2:30 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for about an hour or two. We’ll be livestreaming to the UploadVR YouTube directly. You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:
You can see our most recent past archived streams over in our YouTube playlist. There’s lots of good stuff there so make sure and subscribe! You can also now Join our YouTube Community as a member to get special perks like in-video shout outs, custom emojis and badges in chat, and the ability to vote on future video content.
And please let us know which games or discussions you want us to livestream next! We have lots of VR games in the queue that we would love to show off more completely.
Sony’s next big PSVR exclusive, Blood & Truth is finally here. This action adventure aims to make players feel like the lead character in an action movie, and brings strong gunplay and big set pieces to the table. But its biggest contribution might just be the performances and visuals of the game’s virtual characters which are the best we’ve ever seen in VR.
Developer: SIE London Studio Available On: PSVR [Exclusive] (digital, physical) Reviewed On: PS4 Pro Release Date: May 28th, 2019 Price: $40
Gameplay
Though Blood & Truth features plenty of shooting, I’d classify it as an ‘action adventure’ more than a pure ‘shooter’ because of the way it guides you through a purposeful narrative. The gameplay is largely defined by its locomotion, which (for Sony’s first-party studios) is relatively ambitions. It uses node-based smooth locomotion, meaning there are predefined places you can go, but instead of teleporting, you slide smoothly from one node to the next. It isn’t entirely on-rails, but it feels pretty close because there isn’t that much variety in where you can go (even though it opens up slightly later in the game).
And while some might assume that this movement system was a necessary concession due to the lack of thumbstick on the Move controllers, I would argue that even if the controllers had thumbsticks, it’s an effective and smart design choice for the kind of game that London Studio set out to build. Not needing to worry so much about controlling your large-scale movement frees you up to focus on shooting and doing other things when moving between points, as well as focusing on your small-scale movements (leaning around corners and boxes). In the end, it works in service of a game that’s all about setting up action and set piece moments.
Gunplay and handling is also suitably refined. Instead of a complex inventory system, Blood & Truth gives you two handgun holsters at your hips and two heavy weapon holsters over your shoulders. Ammo is drawn from a satchel at your chest; a fresh magazine for whichever gun your holding is always there ready and waiting to be pulled out and stuck into your weapon. It’s an effective system, which—like the game’s locomotion—cuts out complexity in favor of focus.
Shooting feels good pretty much across the board thanks to a combination of good effects and sounds, though which weapon you choose doesn’t often significantly change your playstyle. You can aim down sights for precision, but ammo is plentiful enough, that unless you’re going for stealth headshots or long-range kills, you’re usually fine just roughly eyeing things up and spraying down range. There’s not a huge array of weapons, and even though you get access to some bigger guns later in the game, all of the weapons continue to feel valid throughout.
The game also includes some light weapon customization; you’ll be able to visit a safehouse where you can decide which weapons you want to carry into the next level. You can add a few attachments to each gun, and apply different paint jobs, all of which are unlocked with ‘star’ points collected across the levels by shooting hidden targets or finding other collectibles. The attachments—like scopes and silencers—don’t feel very consequential to the gameplay, but configuring your loadout and weapons is a smart bit of interactive downtime between all of the shooting.
Unfortunately enemies aren’t particularly varied, and rarely require prioritization or unique tactics. Most enemies are taken down most effectively the same way: just put plenty of bullets into them, preferably in the head region. The only exception is the relatively rare ‘heavy’ enemies that have riot shields; they can be most easily dispatched by activating the game’s slow-motion function (by pressing both Move buttons) that then shows little white targets on the enemy, which can be hit in succession for a quick takedown.
It feels like the VR equivalent of a quick-time event, and is generally pretty fun to do, but it also feels somewhat out of place with the rest of the gunplay. You can activate slow motion at any time actually, and while it can lead to some cool visual moments (as bullets, particles, and bodies go flying in slow-mo), it’s ultimately ancillary to the overall gameplay.
Luckily, Blood & Truth’s gunplay doesn’t overstay its welcome, thanks to it being spaced out by more intricate activities (like lock picking and climbing), action set pieces, and narrative sequences.
The action set pieces are fun, and essential to preventing Blood & Truth from inching toward wave shooter land, although few of them felt particularly memorable, which is probably because most are highly scripted, and don’t leave much room for the player to influence the outcome.
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
Actually, one of the more memorable set pieces in the game wasn’t driven by action (and, indeed, gave the player more agency)—part of the game sees the player sneaking into a modern art museum, which London Studio used as a genius way to pepper the game with some quite cool VR moments that otherwise wouldn’t have made much sense in the context of Blood & Truth.
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
But beyond the set pieces are the game’s truly unmatched virtual characters which deliver the game’s narrative and provide some reason behind the action. With photogrammetry, motion capture, and smart design, London Studio has raised the bar for virtual characters at a scale not seen in any VR game to date. The work they’ve done in this area is very likely to become a staple of future AAA VR games. Let’s talk about that (and more) in the Immersion section below.
And a quick note on game time: it took me about 4 hours and 20 minutes to complete the Blood & Truth campaign. And while that might seem on paper like a relatively short experience, I have to say that it felt quite a bit longer, probably because the game was very engaging didn’t feel like any of its mechanics overstayed their welcome. I applaud London Studio for not padding game time with more shooting segments, and instead making sure that each hour of gameplay has meaningful fun for the player.
Sony says the game includes some ‘time attack’ challenges, but this mode wasn’t available at the time of our review. In future updates, London Studio plans to add leaderboards (which will rank you based on a score given for each level), a New Game+ option (which will let you play the campaign with all of your unlocked weapons and attachments), Hard Mode (a higher difficulty level), as well as “additional challenge modes […] plus much more.”
Immersion
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
So let’s talk about Blood & Truth’s story and virtual characters. The characters are the primary drivers of the story, which starts out very personal, but wanes later in the game as it eventually relies on a nebulous secret organization as the reason why everything is happening. I found the monolithic ‘evil cabal’ trope a distraction from the much more personal story of two warring crime families.
Still, the characters themselves are really something to behold. Driven by a cast of talented actors (mediated by an excellent technical pipeline for representing faces and motions in VR at high fidelity), they look at sound great. In many of the game’s sequences, characters are acting right in front of the player, often speaking to you directly. They make correct eye contact, and the fidelity of their performance and visuals is just so good that it’s hard to not be interested in what they’re saying. In addition to excellent performance capture, the attention to detail on their varied outfits is top-notch, with convincing textures, folds, and lighting (especially the leather jackets).
Though hampered by a story that isn’t terribly memorable, the characters are used to mostly strong effect, especially in a sequence later in the game where one character doesn’t mind getting in your face. The writing and dialogue are mostly good, though your chummy rapport with most other male characters can be overbearing (par for the ‘action movie’ vibe, I suppose), but at least occasionally feels authentic.
Blood & Truth’s release is a bar setting moment for virtual characters and narrative exposition in a VR game, at least at this scope and scale.
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
London Studio’s efforts here really drive home how (when it comes to immersion) great content is the single most important factor. Even though PSVR’s visuals are quite lagging behind newer PC headsets, and even though PS4 Pro doesn’t have the power of a high-end gaming PC, Blood & Truth’s virtual character’s are so well rendered that it’s easy to forget about all of that and become feel totally engrossed with what’s in front of you.
However, there were a few missed opportunities, mostly involving interactivity with the characters. There’s only one moment I recall where you have an opportunity to make interactive contact with another character (a handshake), but several moments which felt like interactivity was missing. With character performances heavily driven by motion capture, I can certainly appreciate the technical challenge of building real interactivity into narrative sequences, but I hope London Studio can tackle that challenge in future titles.
Immersion levels generally for Blood & Truth are pretty high throughout. Although the narrative moments lack interactivity, there’s a good bit of it peppered elsewhere in the game. The game’s node-based movement system is smart not only for the reasons discussed in the Gameplay section (above) but also because it means that London Studio can put interactive items within arms reach at various nodes without the impossible challenge of making every object and item in the game interactive.
There’s a good range of items to find and grab throughout, from objectives and optional collectibles, to pointless (but still appreciated) objects like beer bottles which can be broken, cookies which can be eaten, and sunglasses which can be worn. It’s usually obvious what can and can’t be grabbed, which helps avoid those immersion-breaking moments where you reach for something and your hand inexplicably slips through it.
There’s also interactive moments and mechanics that are necessary to keep moving forward. For instance, players will often have to pick locks, climb ladders, complete small electric hacking puzzles, or climb through vents.
All are suitably interesting, and smart way to pace combat moments, but not as seamlessly integrated into the broader gameplay as I would have hoped. Lockpicking for instance is just a roadblock. There was never a moment in the game where I had to pick a lock under pressure (like to escape a dangerous situation).
In the gun-handling department, there’s a number of nice immersive touches. Every gun in the game can be two-handed. Even with pistols, if you bring your non-dominant hand close to your main hand, the hands will animate into a two-handed pistol grip, and I often found myself doing this naturally. Larger weapons are gripped by the foregrip, and for some of the larger weapons this seems to decrease recoil. There’s also some fun extras in the handling department: if you hold ‘triangle’ with a pistol, you can spin your gun around your finger like a badass gunslinger; if you’re using the revolver, you can put your off-hand up to the hammer, which lets you shoot faster (as if you’re fanning). Maybe there’s some others I haven’t found?
Comfort
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
I found Blood & Truth to be very comfortable throughout. The node-based smooth movement system seems to work very well, and is much more immersive than if it relied on teleportation instead. An optional Comfort Mode reduces some effects and adds peripheral blinders during movement.
Though it’s comfortable and generally works well, the node-based system does prevent you from backtracking at all (even if you turn completely around, previous nodes will no longer be active), which can be a little annoying. While during most of the time you’ll be looking at the node you want to go to and clicking the Move button, there’s also dedicated staffing buttons which will move you to any nodes that are adjacent. I didn’t find it uncomfortable (from a vestibular standpoint) to move sideways like this, but it did feel a bit awkward at times.
The game’s holster and reload system is generally pretty good, and at the start of the game you can calibrate where your hip holsters and ammo pouch should be, which is a nice touch. Still, it can be fiddly at times. The game is designed to be played seated, and I would sometimes find that my holsters were ‘in’ my couch, causing me to shoot when I tried to holster my weapon with the trigger (because I couldn’t get close enough to the holster). I would have raised them up to abdominal height rather than hip height to avoid this, but calibration only allows a horizontal adjustment. Sitting upright and at the edge of my couch help prevent this, though sitting in an armless chair would likely be the ideal.
You can easily pass guns from one hand to another (by reaching your non-dominant hand to the weapon grip and pulling the trigger) which is really practical, but if you do this accidentally in the heat of the moment (because shooting and swapping guns both use the trigger) it can be a little confusing. This also lends itself to some confusion when it comes to swapping weapons in the middle of missions.
You’ll frequently come across different guns in the midst of a mission, but they instantly replace the weapon that corresponds to whichever hand you pick the weapon up with. For instance, if I pick up a pistol with my left hand, it will automatically become associated with the left pistol holster. Occasionally though, if I want a weapon in my left holster that’s sitting to my right, it can be awkward (if not simply too far away) to try to reach over and grab the gun with my left hand. It might be possible to actually grab the nearby weapon with the most convenient hand and then pass it to your other hand and then holster it that way, but I’m actually not sure—which is the crux of the issue; the way weapons are assigned to hands and holsters isn’t spelled out very clearly, so I was just figuring it out as I went.
A few weapons in the game have scopes that zoom, but they are very small and generally hard to look through; arguably they are more effective without the scope attachment. London Studio could have looked to games like Farpoint for better ideas for how scopes should work in VR. While the non-zoom scopes on weapons like pistols and the SMG were less of a hassle, they too could have been made easier to use (first by making them larger). Furthermore, two-handed weapons (especially the pump shotgun) could be really awkward to use when enemies were far to your off-side because you can’t rotate your torso when seated to face them properly with a two-handed weapon grip. I also found that the pump on the foregrip on the pump shotgun would occasionally pop out of my hand; the game seemed to want me to reach much further forward for the ideal foregrip position than was comfortable for me.
With every PlayStation VR sale, no matter what else is included you’ll always get a copy of PlayStation VR Worlds; a collection of mini-games of sorts, one of which is The London Heist. Created by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) own London Studio, this was a gritty, story-based shooter with plenty of action. If you’ve been wanting more of the same – and got your headset at launch – then the long wait is finally over, as PlayStation VR returns to London’s dangerous criminal underworld in Blood & Truth.
Blood & Truth isn’t a sequel to The London Heist merely taking inspiration from the title, offering players a chance to dive into a Hollywood action movie that sits somewhere between Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Bad Boys 2. Right from the word go London Studio skirts the line between videogame and the growing virtual reality (VR) genre of interactive experience, endeavouring to immerse you into the role of hero, as you become more and more invested in the plot (no matter how outrageous) to protect and save the lives of those around you.
The storyline is just as important as the gameplay in Blood & Truth as there are significant moments spent inside of cut scenes – whether you like them or not. You’re cast as Ryan Marks, an ex-soldier who has come back home, and like any good gangster related script, family is revered and most sacred above all else. So when a ruthless criminal overlord decides to take what Marks’ family has built, it’s up to him to put things right.
Once the story foundations have been set it’s time to have some fun. Blood & Truth is all about intense set pieces, with lots of guns and nifty little nods to the action movies we all know and love. Get the calibration set right for the PlayStation Move controllers and you should have very little issue dual wielding weapons or holding some of the larger guns two-handed. At either hip are your trusty pistols which can be customised and upgraded with attachments such as iron sights and a suppressor. There’s a gun range to test out mods should you need it. These can also be swapped on the fly mid-level, with revolvers and other pistols becoming available. The same goes for the bigger guns (assault rifles/shotguns) which appear across certain areas and attach to your back.
There never really seemed to be an issue when grabbing for any weapon, and accuracy even at long range was always spot on. The same goes for reloading. All ammo is kept on your chest, so all you need to do is grab it and bring the clip/shells near the gun the rest is automatic; allowing for quick reloads when under fire.
Because of the linear nature of the gameplay, London Studio has managed to employ a super comfortable system of movement which should suit most players. Actual level exploration is fairly limited, with Blood & Truth employing a sort of point-to-point teleportation system. Locations are highlighted by a white arrow and there can on occasion be two or three points to choose from, giving the illusion of multiple routes. Locomotion between these points is very smooth and steady – no blink teleportation – plus there’s also the option to strafe left or right if a point is available nearby (imagine being behind a desk and moving to either corner). Actual movement options beyond the standard configuration is fairly limited, with a ‘Comfort Mode’ available which adds a vignette should you need to.
Rather than fall into the trap of making a pure first-person shooter (FPS), London Studio has done a decent job of mixing up the gameplay as often as possible, adding in little puzzle elements like picking locks and breaking through security devices, to more high-octane moments like car chases or escaping crumbling buildings. Thankfully, gunplay was always quick and fluid, with explosive barrels always setting off a nice little slow-mo moment if an enemy is caught in the blast.
There are a decent number of chapters to play through offering several hours of gameplay on the easier modes. As Blood & Truth is a single-player experience to keep you coming back once the story has been completed, a hard mode will really test those skills, while challenge modes will unlock with online leaderboards to compete against friends. Also included is a Game+ mode so you can go through the story again with everything you’ve unlocked, plus there are plenty of little hidden extras to find if you love gaining 100% on a title.
Blood & Truth has some great voice acting and the motion capture is some of the best seen in a VR experience. If VRFocus is to be really picky then some of the scenes do feel like they drag on a bit too long, when you just want to get stuck back in, and there were a couple of glitch moments that were both funny – a gun was still in hand during a cut scene which meant a handshake couldn’t be interacted with – and game stuttering – an overhead rail section just didn’t want to work. Nothing too OTT.
While you don’t have the freedom of Borderlands 2 VR for example, with Blood & Truth you have a far more focused videogame that knows what it wants to achieve, and that’s put a smile on your face. From start to finish Blood & Truth is one hell of a ride, a finely choreographed John Woo movie that’s all about sheer entertainment.
I could tell Blood & Truth was special when I realized I had been playing for a solid half hour and hadn’t shot a gun or killed a thug that entire time but remained entirely invested. This is the kind of game that you’ll pick up out of interest for its big set piece actions scenes, satisfying gunplay, and knack for making you feel like the star of your own action movie, but you’ll end up staying for the charming characters.
Blood & Truth is the latest big-budget PSVR exclusive and this time it’s coming directly from Sony’s own London Studio. They’re pouring a serious amount of work and money into this title, adding up to what might be the most sizable investment into a single new IP we’ve seen in VR yet. Luckily, it pays off.
In Blood & Truth you play as Ryan Marks, the ex-military son of a massive international family business full of shady deals, backroom politics, and dangerous messes. You’re called back home after the death of your father and have to fend off a rival businessman from trying to overtake what your family has built.
The drama between the Marks family and the rival business venture didn’t do a whole lot for me truth be told, but the characters themselves were fantastic. Everything from the facial animations and voice acting felt incredibly genuine and earnest. One of my biggest pet peeves with cinematic VR games such as this is when the characters go out of their way to look you in the eyes constantly to try and make you feel present — which incidentally does the opposite — but in Blood & Truth everyone responds just as much to one another as they do you.
Every now and then I’d catch my sister stealing a quick sly look at me to make a face in response to your vulgar brother, or I’d notice my mother’s worried gaze as we discussed the dangerous details of our upcoming heist. It felt more genuine than most relationships I’ve had with digital characters and I was hungry for more.
Most of the first half of the narrative is told through a series of flashbacks in an interrogation room, but eventually events start to catch up to the present day. London Studio have done a remarkable job of packing this with every type of set piece you’d expect to see in a Hollywood-caliber summer blockbuster, but this time you get to act it out in VR.
Gunplay feels really, really good — at least as long as the PS Move controllers are cooperating. You spend a large chunk of Blood & Truth holding your arms up in the air to point at digital enemies in VR, so after a while the classic PSVR drifting issues eventually arise. Aiming requires lots of precision, so it’s frustrating to say the least when you miss headshots because of inferior light-based motion controllers.
You’ve got two hip holster slots and two back shoulder slots so you never feel restricted with your arsenal at all. Every weapon is reloaded the same way too — just grab a clip from your chest and stick it in the gun. Once you get into a rhythm with the later missions you’ll be swapping guns and reloading quickly with ease; it’s really got a fast-paced John Wick vibe when you’re in the groove.
There are car chases across freeways, foot chases through winding passageways, you’ll jump out of several windows in slow motion, dual wield weapons as bodies fly through the air, and even smooth talk your way past security a time or two. Rather than plop you into the middle of a large open space and ask you to find your way with clunky PS Move controllers, the game does most of the heavy lifting for you.
Simply put, there is no traditional free movement in Blood & Truth at all. Instead, there are hovering arrows sprinkled throughout every level that you can look at and press a button to move towards. Once behind cover you can strafe from one point to the next, but once you’ve picked where to go there’s no way to control your movement again until you’ve reached that destination. It feels a bit like you’re on rails, because you technically are, but you at least have some control over where you go and when.
To be honest the movement system feels restrictive at first. For example, the opening level of the game takes place in a pretty large base that’s found in a desert environment. Rather than explore the base like I wanted to do initially I was forced to head down underground through a bunker entrance.
And while playing if you realize you missed a weapon cache or collectible of some kind then tough luck — this movement system literally does not allow backtracking. Even if you turn your body and head all the way around to look at the spot you were just in there is no way to move backwards.
For the vast majority of the game the movement system is honestly not a problem at all. It’s designed around this system specifically and there is a lot of variety between fighting off enemies, taking cover, picking lots, searching the environment for items, sneaking around, etc. You don’t have a chance to get bored. But during a few firefights only being able to strafe from side-to-side instead of actually flanking enemies or finding better cover was extremely annoying. During one scene in a large elevator shaft a few hours into the game you get surrounded and overwhelmed quickly. I hadn’t died once all game and I died six times in a row at this part because of the movement system.
But that being said, since the game is always happening in front of you, the upside to this is that Blood & Truth is expertly paced almost always. There is never a dull moment and it’s basically impossible to get stuck. Rather than giving you a world to explore or setting you off on an adventure to define yourself as the next action hero, instead you’re here to specifically play Ryan Marks’ story. The plot points are written and the set pieces are ready to be triggered no matter what you do so it feels more like you’re roleplaying an existing character than it does you have been invited into the world wholesale.
Blood & Truth took me about five hours to complete on Normal difficulty, but I missed a lot of stuff. Every mission has collectible items scattered around that you can find as well as targets that reward you with stars when shot. Back at base before each mission you can browse and tinker with collectibles on a trophy shelf and spend stars to unlock new weapon mods.
There’s also a shooting range there with a few targets and a ton of glass bottles and challenge missions to offer a bit of replayability through time attack focused missions. A lesser Cinematic difficulty exists as well if you’re not interested in much of a challenge and don’t mind missing some trophies.
If you’re playing on a PS4 Pro it does look better by way of some specific enhancements. Nothing too dramatic, but the resolution looked crisper and lighting specifically seemed improved across the board. It still looks fine on a standard PS4, but obviously a Pro will have the best experience.
And while not available in time for review Sony has said that
Final Score:8.5/10 – Great
Despite the sometimes frustrating movement system and occasional pacing issues, Blood & Truth is a tour de force for PSVR. Sony’s London Studio should be proud of what they’ve accomplished here by turning the brief London Heist demo from PlayStation VR Worlds into a fully-fledged narrative that features some of the best performances we’ve seen in VR yet. The action is pulse-pounding and so bombastic it rivals even the biggest summer blockbusters. This one is easily recommended to any PSVR owner that likes to shoot bad guys and watch stuff blow up.
Blood & Truth is set to launch tomorrow, May 28th. As Sony’s next big title after the hit platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018), the company is putting its best foot forward by featuring the action game in its own PSVR hardware bundle.
At $350, the bundle includes everything you need (minus PS4 or PS4 Pro) to get fully into VR. In the box you’ll find the PSVR headset, PS Camera, two PS Move controllers, Demo Disc 3.0 Disc, and both Blood & Truth Disc and Everybody’s Golf VR game voucher.
We’ve seen quite a bit of Blood & Truth over the past two years. Getting our first taste of the game in late 2017, it was immediately apparent Sony was throwing a good amount of time and money at the project in effort to approach AAA territory. As an outgrowth of the successful demo The London Heist, Blood & Truth is aiming to essentially bring the player into an action movie, replete with guns, explosives, and high octane chase sequences. We have our full review of Blood & Truth coming tomorrow, but it’s safe to say (based on our time with previous demos) that Sony’s London Studio has put a lot of love and polish into the game.
If you’re not fully sold on Blood & Truth (or the strangely positioned Everybody’s Golf VR), there is a cheaper PSVR+ Trover Saves the Universe & Five Nights at Freddy’s VR bundle launching on May 31st, although it doesn’t include PS Move controllers—something that costs around $100 if you buy them separately.
There are still a few older hardware bundles out there if you’re looking for a PSVR on the cheap, although make sure to check whether they include PS Move or not so you’re not stuck having to grab a pair after the fact.
Ahead of Tuesday’s launch of Blood & Truth, PlayStation has shared 13 minutes of new gameplay showing one of the early levels of the game.
Developed by Sony’s London Studio (the studio behind the excellent Playstation VR Worlds), Blood & Truth is a PSVR exclusive that aims to make the player feel like the lead character in an action movie.
To that end, one of the game’s early levels establishes the player’s backstory as an ex-military badass—which will probably help explain why they know how to use guns and explosives later in the game. New gameplay footage shows the level in its entirety:
The level is also used as an interactive tutorial without feeling too overt about it. Players will learn how to shoot, reload, climb ladders, and pick locks. The player will also get familiar with the holster system which allows you to stash weapons at your hips and shoulders, with fresh magazines able to be pulled from a pouch on the chest for reloading. At the conclusion of the level we see a car chase where the player rides shotgun (which will be quite familiar to those who have played ‘The London Heist’, the PlayStation VR Worlds mini-game which inspired Blood & Truth.
Blood & Truth launches on Tuesday, May 28th alongside a new PSVR bundle [Amazon] which includes the game. Keep an eye out for our full review on launch day.
Sony is no stranger to bundling hardware with software. They’ve always promoted bundles for game consoles, including the PS4, and the PSVR has gotten bundles for many of its biggest and most praised games. Later this month, they’ll be adding two more bundles to that list.
Announced today on the PlayStation Blog, Sony is introducing two brand new PSVR bundles: one includes both Blood & Truth and Everybody’s Golf VR ($349.99) and is available on May 28 while the other includes both Trover Saves the Universe and Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted ($299.99) and is available on May 31.
Both bundles include the latest model of the PSVR headset and breakout box (which now includes HDR passthrough for PS4 Pro and 4K TVs) as well as the PlayStation Camera, latest Demo Disc which includes demos for Beat Saber and Astro Bot. Other than the game differences the Blood & Truth/Everybody’s Golf VR bundle also includes two PS Move controllers, whereas the Trover Saves the Universe/Five Nights at Freddy’s VR bundle does not. There’s a $50 price difference, so you’re really getting a great value going for the pricier one and picking up the other two games separately if you want all four.
Luckily for you, we’ve played all four of these games already and have strong impressions of each. Blood & Truth is shaping up to be a real PSVR blockbuster, Everybody’s Golf VR really takes good advantage of the PS Move controllers, Trover Saves the Universe might be one of the funniest games we’ve ever seen, and Five Nights at Freddy’s VR is pretty much exactly what you’d expect in a good way.
We’ll have reviews of all four games this month, so keep an eye on UploadVR for more.
If you were wondering what Sony’s next big hardware bundles were going to be, wonder no more. Sony today announced two PSVR bundles, one of which features the cinematic shooter Blood & Truth and beloved golfing franchise game Everybody’s Golf VR, and another packing in Justin Roiland’s comedic platformer Trover Saves the Universe and the cult classic-turned VR horror game Five Night at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted.
Latest PSVR Demo Disc (demos include Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Moss, and Thumper)
PlayStation Move Motion controllers (two)
Blood & Truth Blu-Ray Disc and Everybody’s Golf VR digital game voucher
Blood & Truth
Description: Star in your own explosive action movie blockbuster with this PS VR exclusive shooter. Battle through the crime-ridden London underworld as elite soldier Ryan Marks in your deadliest mission yet… to save your family from a ruthless criminal empire. Take out your targets with breathless, over-the-top epic gun play as you drive, parachute and rappel across the city amid exciting set pieces.
Description: Step on to the course like never before in the most immersive Everybody’s Golf experience yet!
Developer: Japan Studio / Clap Hanz
Publisher: SIEA
You may better recognize the Everybody’s Golf series by its North American name, Hot Shots. The franchise has dropped the Hot Shots branding since the release of Everybody’s Golf (2017) on PS4. We haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with Everybody’s Golf VR just yet, although we can say it will be a single-player game that uses either Dualshock 4 controller or PS Move.
Trover Saves the Universe, Five Nights at Freddy’s VR
Latest PSVR Demo Disc (demos include Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Moss, and Thumper)
Trover Saves the Universe and Five Night at Freddy’s digital game vouchers
Trover Saves the Universe
Description: From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe. Your pups are missing. The cosmos is at stake. Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure!
Description: Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted is a collection of classic and original mini-games set in the five nights universe. Survive terrifying encounters with your favorite killer animatronics in a collection of new and classic FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S experiences. “Where fantasy and fun come to life!”
experiences. “Where fantasy and fun come to life!”