Crisis VRigade 2 now supports co-op multiplayer on all platforms, after the PSVR version of the game finally received the multiplayer update this week.
However, as is often the case, the developers flagged that the update might take a bit longer on PlayStation due to QA approval times. As of today, the update is finally available for PSVR, meaning that co-op multiplayer is now available across all platforms for Crisis VRigade 2.
When we reviewed the sequel on release sans multiplayer, we said that “Crisis VRigade 2 still needs time to grow into a better, more feature-rich game, but if you’ve got the space and composure for an hour of street shootouts, it won’t disappoint.” Since then, four new difficulty levels were added late last year, as well as dual wielding and a riot shield two months after release. Now, with the added addition of co-op multiplayer, the game has taken significant steps towards a more feature-rich offering than it had a year ago on release.
The game is listed as in Early Access on Steam, with the developers noting that they wanted to add more features, incorporate feedback and add multiplayer co-op before a full release. With the latter of those fulfilled, it remains to be seen when or if Crisis VRigade 2 might leave Early Access.
How does this VR arcade shooter stack up in its second round? Find out in our Crisis VRigade 2 review.
Note: This review strictly applies to the PSVR version of Crisis VRigade 2, as the PC version is still officially labeled as Early Access.
By all accounts, Crisis VRigade 2 shouldn’t work. Sumalabs’ gallery shooter is so set on the straight and narrow you’d think an AI designed it for a Twitter meme. You might even mistake it for a 2016-era VR wave shooter; take out scores of enemies from a fixed position, reload and move on. Grab a power-up and you can dual-wield two pistols. Not exactly a breath of fresh air, is it?
Anyone that’s worn through their knees taking cover in the original game will know, though, that’s only half the story here.
Crisis VRigade 2 is tough, tougher than almost anything else you’ll find inside a headset. Its handful of levels — each one like a mash up of Time Crisis with direct nods 80’s action movies Scarface — last between 10 to 20 minutes each, but getting to the end of them requires either herculean feats of gun-fu or enough accumulated points to buy some helpful upgrades. That’s not to mention the space to play and only the most optimized PlayStation VR setup (which is absolutely necessary to play the game on Sony’s headset).
Crisis VRigade Review –Comfort
Crisis has no form of smooth locomotion; every shootout in the game is played from a fixed position with faded teleporting moving you on to the next point. You’ll be moving around a lot physically, though, and the game can take its toll after an hour or more of dropping to your knees and getting back up again.
Is this unforgiving brand of difficulty a means of covering up that fairly primitive structure? Most certainly. Does it work? Absolutely.
Bones are tossed your way sparingly in Crisis VRigade 2. On the Normal difficulty, which has to be played first before unlocking the truly masochistic Hell Mode, you’ll have three lives to see through a level. One hit means one life gone, lose all three and it’s Game Over, unless you have enough coins for a hasty continue.
Taking cover is all on you, too, and you’re not often given much to play with. Crisis is a game of shimmying up to a slim bit of wall and daring to momentarily poke your head out, or hugging a pair of garbage bins and trying to negotiate a few cowardly shots from between the two. As if that weren’t enough, a strict and perhaps too short time limit ensures you can’t get comfy for long. It’s that combination of unforgiving physicality and palpable risk that makes this collection of pedestrian set dressings an addictive treat. Hunkered down behind a banister, taking a breath and popping out with an eye squarely trained down your weapon’s iron sights really reminds you exactly what VR can do for shooters when they’re not too concerned with aping their flat-screen siblings (especially, I should add, if you’re playing with the PSVR Aim Controller).
On occasion it revels in its macho mentality a little too much; one moment deep in the second level can send you all the way back to the start with no continues unless you notice a power-up out of the corner of your eye. Plus the power-ups range in usefulness, leaving an unnecessary touch of luck to it. But suffer through the first few rounds of pain and you’ll soon gather enough cash to buy some stress-destroying upgrades, like extra lives and a laser-sight which, conversely, might be a bit too much of a life-saver. Some will no doubt reject these handouts, but their inclusion makes Crisis VRigade 2 a fairer, more rounded game.
Crisis VRigade Review –Getting The Right PSVR Setup
More than most PSVR titles, it’s absolutely essential to get the right camera setup when playing Crisis VRigade 2. The game’s need for physical movement means you’ll be testing the limits of your camera boundaries, especially if you don’t have your device high up and angled down at the floor. Without it, you’ll find hands vanishing as you go for reloads, or arms not extending far out of cover enough to make shots. The brilliant PSVR Aim Controller alleviates some of those issues, but you should only buy this game if you can make the right space for it.
Not much has changed, then; much of what you can say about VRigade 2 could be directly applied to the original game too, right down to your sassy radio guide verbally butchering you as you fumble clips and miss shots. In that sense, it’s a bit of a shame this isn’t an addition to the similarly-short first game, instead of forming two titles with half as much content as you’d expect. That said the bump in visuals here is significant; Crisis is one of the better-looking VR games of the year which is a surprise given the original’s blocky-graphics.
Crisis VRigade 2 Review Final Impressions
Just like its predecessor, Crisis VRigade 2 is as simple as VR shooters get. And yets its back-to-basics philosophy, paired with devilish difficulty that demands attention and rewards risk makes a compelling case for VR shooters to rediscover those roots. One session spent ducked behind a desk, scoring lucky headshots from beneath a barrage of fire can be enough to make you forget the call for the complexities of upgrade trees and open worlds. Crisis VRigade 2 still needs time to grow into a better, more feature-rich game, but if you’ve got the space and composure for an hour of street shootouts, it won’t disappoint.
Welcome to another Friday roundup of the best virtual reality (VR) titles due for release over the next seven days. There’s quite an assortment in store across most VR headsets so there should be something for everyone here this week.
Crisis VRigade 2 – Sumalab
Only released into Early Access for PC VR headsets in June, developer Sumalab is bringing its action-packed first-person shooter (FPS) Crisis VRigade 2 to PlayStation VR in a few days. Currently a single-player experience, you play a SWAT officer fighting your way through hordes of enemies.
Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Release date: 14th July
vrkshop – scopatgames
For those wanting less action and something a little more practical then there’s woodworking videogame vrkshop. In this Early Access experience you’re challenged to build projects with various hand tools without the ease of snap-to-guides.
Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted – Steel Wool Studios
If you love your horror games and the recent Layers of Fear VRwasn’t enough then Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted by Steel Wool Studios could be the answer. Try and survive these deadly animatronics across various mini-games from the franchise.
Fancy a game of pool with a twist? Then how about Golf Pool VR, which is exactly as it sounds. Offering solo and PvP modes, use a golf club to play 8-Ball Pool across a range of detailed and immersive environments.
Single-player first-person shooter Crisis VRigade 2 launched as a Steam Early Access title last month, maturing the franchise from the 2018 original. Developer Sumalab announced this week that Crisis VRigade 2 will be coming to PlayStation VR next week as well as mentioning an Oculus Quest version in the works.
Sumalab co-founder Diego Martin took to Twitter this week to confirm Crisis VRigade 2‘s launch on Tuesday 14th July for PlayStation VR. He also noted that the videogame will support the PlayStation Aim controller to enhance the gameplay experience.
Responding to a tweet, Martin also confirmed development is underway on an Oculus Quest version, although there’s still a way to go: “It’s early for rejoicing, but we’ve made some promising advances with Quest version.” It’s not surprising that Sumalab has its eyes on the standalone headset due to its continued popularity and the sales revenue figures Facebook keeps releasing. For the time being Oculus Quest owners can still play Crisis VRigade by sideloading it through SideQuest.
Crisis VRigade 2 is expected to be in Early Access for PC VR headsets including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index for the next six months. The sequel has moved away from the original’s low-poly style, creating a more realistic shooter in the process. In its current state, the entire campaign is playable, designed around physical gameplay, plenty of weapons and boss fights. It still retains the difficulty for those looking for a challenge.
As development continues Sumalab plans on making the whole experience ‘more dynamic’ as well as adding a multiplayer co-op feature. In its most recent update Crisis VRigade 2 has seen the AI improved, the difficulty curve smoothed out and support for bHaptics’ TactSuit range added.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Crisis VRigade 2 as Sumalab releases further updates for the tactical FPS and continues its platform expansion support.
The PSVR version of Crisis VRigade 2 will be arriving next week.
The VR shooter, which first launched on PC VR headsets in June, will touch down on Sony’s console on July 14th. Not only that, but it will include support for Sony’s rifle-shaped Aim Controller. That’s bound to drum up some interest with PSVR shooter fans. The PC version of Crisis 2 marked a huge improvement for the series on a visual front, so we’ll be interested to see if that remains true on PSVR.
The game’s in Early Access on PC, and is expected to remain there until the end of the year, so expect to see the PSVR version get plenty of updates, even if Sony doesn’t officially label PlayStation games as ‘Early Access’. This will be a worldwide release, too.
But what of Oculus Quest? The original game has proved hugely popular on the sideloading platform, SideQuest, but the bump in visuals may prove tricky for a port. “It’s early for rejoicing,” developer Sumalab’s Diego Martin said in response to a question about the port on Twitter, “but we’ve made some promising advances with Quest version.” Hopefully that means we could see it soon, even if we don’t know if the game will end up on the official Oculus Store or SideQuest once more.
Over the course of Early Access, Sumalab is looking to add more content to the game, including a cooperative multiplayer mode.
Will you be picking up Crisis VRigade 2 on PSVR? Let us know in the comments below!
Crisis VRigade 2 doesn’t have a release date yet, but the latest teaser trailer shared on Twitter by Sumalab co-founder Diego Martin. Check it out right here:
We don’t know a lot about Crisis VRigade 2, but taking even a cursory glance at the footage and screenshots compares to the original shows a dramatic difference. The entire art style has been transformed from a low-poly bright and colorful design, a la Job Simulator, to something much darker, gritty, and realistic. At first glance, I thought it was footage for new content in Blood & Truth or something along those lines. Kudos to the team at Sumalab, it looks very impressive.
From what we’ve seen this will still be a cover-based shooter more than likely, so the gameplay will likely expand and evolve from that, rather than dramatically shifting tones like the art style did.
According to the Steam page:
Crisis VRigade 2 is a virtual reality action filled first person shooter that lets players take on the role of a SWAT trooper. Duty calls again! Crisis VRigade 2 take up the baton of the first chapter and take it to the next level: more action, more shootouts, more weapons, more difficulty, more blood, more everything!
Judging by the hashtags in Martin’s tweet above, this one will likely come to the same platforms once again, including Steam, Oculus, and PSVR. There is no date but the tweet does say “soon enough to entertain your isolation” implying it will release during the international lockdown periods in effect as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is a Steam page with more details as well. It’ll be in Early Access initially “for up to 6 months” before a full launch.
Crisis VRigade was a modestly popular VR cop game. Well, I say ‘cop game’, I mean the kind of game where a lone SWAT soldier blows up helicopters with RPGs. Anyway, it’s getting a sequel in the near future.
Developer Sumalab’s Diego Martín confirmed the news on Saturday. He posted a brief teaser for Crisis VRigade 2. It doesn’t reveal much other than that the game is coming this fall to PSVR, Rift and Vive. Martín also confirmed that the game probably isn’t coming to Oculus Quest as the original was rejected for the headset.
Still, we probably know what to expect from this one. The original Crisis was all about setpiece shootouts, from preventing bank heists to taking down minions at the docks. It’s a brainless brawl and a tribute to high-octane action movies. Think less L.A. Noire and more Rambo with a badge. It won’t win any awards but it’s pretty well-liked amongst shooter fans.
The original game is still in Early Access, but Martín assured fans it wasn’t being abandoned. Another update adding a new mission is on the way. The same update may also add an online co-op mode. No word on when the update will arrive just yet. The game’s had a pretty steady stream of updates as is, with the last one coming in just last week.
