It’s nearly time for Keighley – The Game Awards returns on December 9 and nominations have just been revealed, including for Best VR/AR titles.
Well, it’s not really the best AR titles because there aren’t any listed, but you get the point. There are five nominees this year, including the PSVR-exclusive support for Hitman 3, Oculus Rift exclusive swansong Lone Echo 2, the recent port of Resident Evil 4 VR and then Schell Games’ excellent I Expect You To Die 2 alongside the equally-enjoyable Sniper Elite VR.
It’s not a bad list of titles and we’re definitely relieved not to see Beat Saber somehow sneaking its way into the nominations for another year. We gave each of these titles UploadVR’s coveted ‘Great’ label save for Lone Echo 2, which we enjoyed but ultimately thought was too slow-paced and gave a ‘Good’.
As with any awards show, there are some omissions we can’t help but bring up. Demeo is the only new VR game to earn an ‘Essential’ label from us in 2021 so it’s a shame not to see it listed here, and the recent launch of 17-Bit’s Song In The Smoke feels like it deserves a mention, too. But these things are subjective and, even though we’re right, we’ll allow others to speak their opinions.
Still, this isn’t the only show to recognize VR achievements coming up soon. AIXR’s own VR Awards returns on November 18, too. Expect to see more VR awards prop up as we move into the new year, too.
The biggest event in the videogame calendar, The Game Awards, has announced all of its nominees across 30 categories. Of course, the Best VR/AR category returns with entrants from across the year and multiple platforms, the one omission being no augmented reality (AR) content has made the cut.
Each category is made up of five nominees with Sniper Elite VR, Resident Evil 4, Lone Echo II, Hitman 3 and I Expect You to Die 2 all making the cut. It’s great to see I Expect You to Die 2 getting a nomination as it’s the most niche of the lot, a comedic escape room title rather than big AAA adventures like the rest.
The rest aren’t too surprising as they do offer up some of the best VR gaming around. Oculus owners may also notice that the platform dominates with two exclusives, Resident Evil 4 and Lone Echo II. Only Hitman 3 doesn’t support an Oculus headset as its PlayStation VR exclusive.
Resident Evil 4 (Armature Studio/Capcom/Oculus Studios) arrived only a month ago for Oculus Quest 2, while Lone Echo II (Ready at Dawn/Oculus Studios) also dropped in October for Oculus Rift after several delays. Sniper Elite VR (Coatsink/Just Add Water/Rebellion Developments) and I Expect You To Die 2 (Schell Games) were both well-received summer releases, whilst Hitman 3 (IO Interactive) dropped in January.
As for the other categories, no other dedicated VR title has appeared elsewhere, unfortunately. Only Microsoft Flight Simulator with its optional VR support appears in the Best Sim/Strategy segment.
The Game Awards 2021 will be taking place on 9th December 2021 with a live stream usually filled with big announcements of what’s to come in the following year. Free public voting is now open. For continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.
A new update is available for Sniper Elite VR on all platforms, adding custom difficulty options and many quality of life improvements based off feedback from the community.
Sniper Elite VR released two months ago for PC VR, Quest and PSVR and while this latest patch doesn’t bring any specific new content, it does offer a bunch of new options across the board on all platforms.
The biggest new option is the custom difficulty feature, which developers Rebellion say is “just like Sniper Elite 4” in a video detailing the changes. This option will allow you to adjust the overall difficulty and then go further and adjust the aim assist, bullet drop and bullet wind options individually. Playing on a custom difficulty setting will give you more play options, but it also will prevent you from earning leaderboard ranks online, so keep that in mind.
There’s also new vignette options, allowing the effect to be completely or individually turned off for sprinting, kill cams and explosions. You can also now physically crouch to activate stealth mode, in addition to the existing button press option. There’s new settings to help with adjusting tracking and aim smoothing as well, along with other small options for things like vibration, movement and weapon alignment.
PC VR players now have access to extra graphics options added specifically for the platform, allowing players to adjust settings such as FXAA, MSAA, SSAA and lens flare. Rebellion warns these options are intended for higher-end PCs only and adjusting them will have an impact on FPS.
Rebellion also added support for the bHaptics Tacsuit on PC VR in this update, as well as support for gunstocks by ProTubeVR.
One of the big AAA virtual reality (VR) titles to arrive this year for major headsets was Rebellion’s Sniper Elite VR. It’s now a couple of months since launch and the development teams – which includes Coatsink and Just Add Water – have released the first major update for the shooter adding new features and plenty of refinements.
The new patch has arrived today for Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR and PC VR headsets, rolling out quality-of-life improvements that players have been requesting. Some of the standout additions include custom difficulties allowing snipers to select options to turn on and off aim assist, bullet drop and bullet wind.
New vignette options provide refined tweaking whilst the ability to adjust weapon alignment means that players should find a setup that suits their particular play style. On the subject of guns Sniper Elite VR now has official support for ProTubeVR gunstocks plus if you want to make the gameplay even more immersive bHaptics’ Tactsuit X40, Tactosy for arms and Tactal for head all work.
PC players also get a range of visual improvements with extra graphics options added for FXAA, MSAA, SSAA and Lens Flares. These will all affect performance so you’ll need a high-end PC to use them. To see all the improvements the changelog can be found over on Steam.
Reviewing Sniper Elite VRback in July, VRFocus said: “So was Sniper Elite VR worth the anticipation and wait? Most definitely. It’s not without issues trying to find that balance between being a fun experience for all whilst giving VR veterans a videogame they can really get stuck into. When you do get into it though, Sniper Elite VR becomes a thoroughly engrossing VR shooter.”
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Sniper Elite VR, reporting back with further updates.
Rebellion’s Sniper Elite VR (2021) has offered up some satisfying sniping with a bevy of comfort and gameplay options to boot. Now the studio is dialing in even further with a new update for Quest, PSVR, PC VR that promises more customization to the sniping experience.
Outside of four difficulty levels, you also be able to toggle settings in a new custom difficulty mode which lets you mix and match things like aim assist, bullet drop, and wind effects.
Vignette effects have also gotten a facelift, with multiple new vignette options added to things like teleportation, sprinting, and kill cams. You can turn them off entirely, or selectively turn up or down the intensity of the sprinting vignette depending on your comfort level with artificial locomotion.
If you have shaky hands, or want a weightier feel to weapons, Rebellion is also bringing variable motion smoothing to hand movements in the new update. Check out those features and more in the video below:
The PC version of the game is getting extra graphics options including MSAA, SSAA, FXAA, and lens flares. Also, the game now has official support for bHaptics Tactsuit X40, Tactosy for arms and Tactal for head. Official support for ProTubeVR gunstocks including haptic feedback when using the ForceTube gunstock is also now live.
Here’s some of the other highlights affecting all supported platforms:
Players can physically crouch in order to activate stealth mode as well as the button press.
Players can now select from a variety of weapon alignment options.
Players will have the option to turn bullet trails off.
Players can now adjust the strength of the vibration – We now have a user setting for Low and High Strength and can also be turned off completely
Players can now interact with the bolt with the trigger button
Players are now able to practice using explosives in the Resistance Base
Players can use hand direction for forward movement – Added option to choose between head, left hand or right hand for forward movement source
Enemies now react to minor explosions in front of them during sound cover
Improved flick grab system: Flick grab beam will now cancel if the hand hits another grab collider before the flick action is activated – Reduced time & velocity thresholds to activate flick grab
Sniper Elite VR developers issued an update with a long list of improvements for PC VR and PlayStation VR.
Among the changes is official support for the HP Reverb G2 and the support of gun stocks in “Beta standard” which you can enable in the options screen.
We reviewed the stealthy title as “great” with “perfectly streamlined authenticity” but it carries mixed reviews on Steam at the time of this writing with a range of negative feedback, including refunds requested due to issues with Reverb G2 compatibility. The patch notes say players with Reverb G2 “will need to ensure they have Windows 10: version 1903/1909 (KB4577062 or later) or 2004 (KB4577063 or later) installed.”
You can check out our video review above and a graphics comparison of Sniper Elite VR played on PSVR, PC VR and Quest 2 in the video below.
We’ve pasted the full patch notes below which includes changes affecting Valve Index players, PS VR Players and more generally SteamVR changes:
Windows language selection will now look at the system language rather than the users region setting.
Booting game with controllers off would cause them to become unresponsive when turned on.
Gun stocks are now supported to Beta standard. Please enable ‘Controller Stock Grip’ from the options screen.
The HP Reverb G2 VR headset is now officially supported.
When using the HP Reverb G2 VR headset the controller vibration would be too strong when interacting with objects/prompts.
The HP Reverb G2 VR controllers are now displayed correctly in game.
When using the HP Reverb G2 VR headset the weapon alignment is now correctly positioned to the player hand.
G2 support players will need to ensure they have Windows 10: version 1903/1909 (KB4577062 or later) or 2004 (KB4577063 or later) installed.
Players will now be able to move against objects and look directly down without triggering the out of bounds functionality.
Players will no longer enter out of bounds on holding the option button to re-center tracking while standing close to the wall of small room present in front of SMG range.
‘Out of bounds’ error will no longer flash on the screen when the player rotates to its fixed position at the initial spawn point.
The ‘Seed of ones own destruction’ achievement will now unlock correctly.
We have now revised the tutorial for usage of Aim Focus and have added tutorial pages for pistols, SMGs and non-gun items.
Pistol reload tutorial prompt failed to disappear on continuously pressing the ‘B’ button on the controller.
The ‘Squeeze trigger to fire’ text failed to appear in the scope if the player holds the rifle in the left hand during tutorial.
The Rotation Analog stick and the pause button will no longer fail to function when the movement mode is changed to free movement. This occurred after the game was paused, while the player was about to move using the teleport mode.
After putting the headset back on, the results screen score counter sound effect no longer continues to play after pressing continue.
The Scrapbook buttons failed to highlight or function when the standing position is reset via Steam VR menu while loading into the Farmhouse.
On Index, the default binding for the pause button on the Knuckle controllers is now correctly mapped.
On PlayStation VR, the one-handed controls now supports the teleport rewind function.
On Steam VR, the teleport Rewind button is now mapped to the controllers.
The Teleport rewind feature will no longer trap players forcing them to reset the stage.
Hand will not prioritise the magazine when swapping hands with the pistol.
Virtual Left hand no longer disappears when player holds a loaded M30 Drilling in right hand and picks up ammo from pouch using left hand.
Virtual hand no longer remains invisible until user releases the ‘Hold’ button or moves away while interacting with the lever of the control panel.
A gap on the Springfield scope lens has now been fixed
Scope lens is no longer removed when the grab point is placed in front of it.
Scope no longer cut-off while reloading the ‘Lee-Enfield No. 4’ and ‘M1903 Springfield’ rifles during gameplay
Active areas on the belt have now been expanded and separated. Changes to the belt positioning and stow colliders have also now improved the user’s interactions with the belt.
Active areas on the weapons have now been expanded and separated. Adjusted grab points have been applied to the De Lisle, Gewehr, Drilling & Fnab weapons. Fixed break action hand offset now correctly calculates position.
Chest area stow point should now be clearer to the player.
On occasion, the belt would sometimes get twisted. A new system has now been implemented for estimating belt position based on head transform.
Weapon UI no longer gets stuck in mid-air after tilting the gun using one hand and holding the weapon bolt with the other.
The Colour blind options now have correct names.
Significant improvements have been applied to the visual quality by addressing multiple art issues relating to texture & LOD popping, collision and environment occlusion.
General AI and gameplay improvements.
Enemy detection is fast, cool down is slow; AI adjustments have been made most to help with stealth situations.
Player failed to climb the ladders by the left movement stick after setting the Primary hand to ‘Left’
Playing the game in stealth was reported as being too difficult for some new players. AI adjustments, Welrod adjustments and stealth tutorial pages have now been added to rectify this.
Enemies on The Last Drop would sometimes not leave the areas they spawn, resulting in a progression blocker.
Mission failed screen would appear instantly after loading the save created immediately when a grenade explodes.
General audio improvements.
Improvements to the quality of the localisation.
General bug fixing and quality of life improvements.
Yup, 2021 is already halfway over. It’s been a busy six months for the VR industry with plenty of new releases. So let’s round up the best VR games of 2021… so far.
This list is comprised of every game we rated four stars or higher in the first six months of the year. And it’s only counting genuinely new games, not ports of older titles. So that’s why you won’t see the likes of A Township Tale and Carly and the Reaperman on here just yet.
As we move into the second half of the year, we’ll be interested to see which of these titles makes it onto our Game of the Year nominations come December.
The Best VR Games Of 2021 (So Far)
Mare – Quest
Mare emulates the rustic wonder of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian with ease. The game casts you as a mechanical bird that glides from perch to perch, guarding a young girl as she makes her way through a crumbling set of ruins. What the gameplay lacks in depth, Mare makes up for in atmosphere, with biting winds and stunning vistas that demand to be seen inside VR. An oddball treat.
We were skeptical that IO Interactive could make VR support for Hitman 3 really work given it all relied on the PS4’s DualShock 4. And you definitely do miss out on some of the fun not having two-handed motion controls, but this is still a brilliant, expansive VR playground with plenty on offer, including the last two games in the trilogy too. Here’s hoping PC VR and PSVR 2 ports are in the game’s future.
The long-awaited follow-up to The Climb didn’t disappoint, giving us yet more heights to scale in imaginative and thrilling new ways. Visually the game left a little to be desired, which is why we’re still hoping we might see a PC VR version of the title release later down the line, too.
Hyper Dash is a great indie success story, fostering its own community for its fast-paced multiplayer VR matches. This is a nimble FPS that trusts players with a range of locomotion styles and a steep learning curve. If you’re looking for an alternative to VR’s abundance of military shooters, Hyper Dash is definitely worth a look.
Cosmodread might as well be called Dreadhalls 2, as it’s essentially a sequel to one of the earliest VR horror games. But, whereas Dreadhalls was all about escaping the unknown horrors that lie in wait, Cosmodread does give you the tools to fight back, making for an evolved experience. Rest assured, though, that it’s still every bit as scary as its predecessor, with terrifying monsters making sounds in the dark.
A wonderfully inventive bit of VR puzzling – Floor Plan 2 feels like a trip to Sesame Street. You travel between different floors in a building, each of which is essentially its own reality, and solve impossible challenges. Truthfully the puzzling can be a little too cryptic for its own good as the experience carries on, but the game is never short of funny, intriguing ideas that will put a smile on your face. If you missed out on Floor Plan 2 earlier this year, make sure to right that wrong.
Fast Travel Games took an unexpected turn for its fourth release, trading in the vibrant worlds of Apex Construct and The Curious Tale Of The Stolen Pets for the horrors of the World of Darkness universe. Wraith is a moody survival horror experience steeped in dread and offers an interesting story that explores the tabletop universe like never before.
Within your first few minutes of playing Demeo with friends it feels obvious that it’s on to something special. The tabletop game itself is a lot of fun, but it’s the social VR element that really enhances the experience. Demeo is one of the few apps that genuinely feels like it leaps the distance between friends and offers a true one to one (or one to three) social experience, and that’s hugely significant.
Snowboarding shouldn’t really work in VR. And Carve certainly doesn’t compare to actually hitting the slopes in real life, but it is about as close as you can currently get with a headset. The game’s smart controls essentially see your hands fill in for your feet, making jumps and tricks easy to pick up but difficult to master. Carve Snowboarding is proof you can do great extreme sports games in VR.
The narrative around Larcenauts is a little messed up. Some launch issues lead a lot of people to conclude that the game was really an early access release and shouldn’t be a full priced title. In truth, the game already offers a lot of content, strategic multiplayer VR battles and developer Impulse Gear has already set about fixing some of those early issues. If you were put off by the conversation around the launch of Larcenauts I implore you to give it another look – it’s a gem of a multiplayer VR game.
Yup, it’s chess in VR. But, crucially, Chess Club does enough to ensure it’s the only take on the classic board game you’ll ever actually need in VR – it’s got robust options for AI opponents and even a suite of online features including tackling friends and strangers that the game thinks will be a good fit for you. Plus with both classic and animated boards the game takes full advantage of VR whilst paying respect to the staple experience, too.
Rebellion’s new VR shooter seemed like it might never actually come out, but Sniper Elite not only made its way onto all three major VR platforms, it pulled off pretty great versions on each, too. If you’re on PC and Quest then this offers just the right balance of authenticity and accessibility across a really enjoyable campaign. PSVR owners, meanwhile, get the added bonus of the excellent PSVR Aim Controller. Wherever you play Sniper Elite VR, though, you’re in for a treat.
When it comes to a lot of virtual reality (VR) shooters the tendency is to go big or go home, making you feel like you’re Rambo running around a jungle with a massive 50 calibre machinegun on your hip – and that’s even with realistic physics. That can be plenty of fun, yet if you’re looking for something a bit more intense where you’ve had to dive for cover because you’ve missed a shot, alerting the enemy and are now fumbling a reload on your bolt action rifle, then Sniper Elite VR is where it’s at.
Rebellion’s Sniper Elite series is well known for its action-focused gameplay with a dabble of realism thanks to its WWII setting. And Sniper Elite VR is no different, this time dropping you into Sicily as an Italian resistance fighter trying to free his home from the scourge of the Nazi’s. So the entire single-player campaign is one long tale being reminisced by this unnamed sniper as if he were reading a story to his grandchild.
Of course, this means you’re going to be doing a fair amount of sniping, taking your time to line up shots and whittle down the enemy forces whilst trying to remain a ghost. Developed by Just Add Water, it’s easy to tell the studio has put significant effort into the sniping mechanics, from the ballistic physics to the manual reloading the sniper rifles are certainly the star of the show. They all have the same blot action to them which can be finicky at first but you do get into a rhythm after a while. Even so, this does mandate a particular tempo to the gameplay because you’re not running in guns blazing, picking your spot and carefully selecting each target, really immersing into the experience.
All the other weapons felt very much secondary, whether that’s the SMG’s, the shotguns or pistols. They all maintain those realistic reload mechanics and when particular levels get a bit enclosed and narrow can come in use, but even then the temptation to use the rifle remains. Unfortunately, whilst there are a number of sniper rifles to play with they all feel virtually the same. The only one which stood out was a silenced version available later on, taking all the challenge out of being as sneaky as possible.
Immersion is key to all VR titles, especially if you’re WWII with realistic weapons and physics. Sniper Elite VR, however, toys with this aspect in such a way that at times you can become truly engrossed then jolted back to reality mostly by the settings you select. There are a wealth of options available and it can take a little while to settle on a nice balance, setting up Sniper Elite VR to be as realistic as possible or a complete arcade-style experience.
For instance, right out the box, the HUD settings can get real annoying, completely distracting you from the gameplay. During missions you’ll get objective markers pop up, a noise indicator to muffle your gunshots or the save location. They are useful if you really need them but having white icons constantly appearing does feel quite antiquated. Thankfully they can all be switched off. Another feature you can increase or decrease is the iconic X-Ray Kill-Cam the series is known for. Utterly brutal and visceral in the standard flat game, the VR version ups that by a factor of ten, as you can lean in and briefly look around during the few seconds it runs. When you’re nestled in a tower picking off enemies it can get a bit much on the higher settings, constantly pulling you in and out. It is completely comfortable though.
There were some other aspects that didn’t always sit right for VR. The manual save points were great yet they’d always swap to a separate saving screen which became quite disjointing. And the body holster became way too busy once fully loaded with two weapons over each shoulder, two on the chest and then an assortment of grenades and other explosives, occasionally grabbing the wrong one during a firefight as they are fairly close. With all the physical gameplay built into the guns and holster system, the environment itself didn’t provide much in the way of interaction. Apart from ammo to pick up and explosive boxes, all the bunkers, offices and bases had lots of items to set the scene without having that all-important presence.
Sniper Elite takes place across 18 missions which offer the usual selection of protection and infiltration style objectives. Most of the maps tend to be of a decent size with some of the larger ones allowing you to be a bit more creative. For the most part, their linear structure means that most have key positions to move between so don’t have complete flexibility when it comes to hunkering down. There’s also some notable repetition and padding to the gameplay structure, as earlier levels are used later on, just from a different perspective. You also need to unlock later missions by collecting enough stars, forcing you to replay previous levels rather than being able to run through the entire campaign in one shot.
Another nod to its arcade-focused gameplay, each level can award you three stars. These are gained by completing mission-specific parameters or simply scoring enough points. So you’re not just killing and then moving on, as you’ll gain bonuses for headshots, distance, remaining unseen and killstreaks. In addition to the stars, there are also numerous collectables hidden within each stage, increasing that replay factor for those that like to uncover everything.
A quick note when it comes to the PlayStation VR version. While most of the review was on PC, testing the PlayStation VR edition of Sniper Elite VR did bring up some interesting variances. These were all due to the controller input. Suffice it to say the DualShock 4 controller was less than adequate, just don’t even bother as it ruins the experience. PlayStation Move is supported so you can manually reload. However, movement is via the face buttons which aren’t great for stealthy wandering through Nazi fortifications. If you’re picking up Sniper Elite VR for PlayStation VR you need the Aim controller. On the downside it automates the reload process making rapid killing very easy, whilst the upside is a far more dependable control method.
So was Sniper Elite VR worth the anticipation and wait? Most definitely. It’s not without issues trying to find that balance between being a fun experience for all whilst giving VR veterans a videogame they can really get stuck into. When you do get into it though, Sniper Elite VR becomes a thoroughly engrossing VR shooter as you read the environment, study enemy movements and take that vital long-range shot. Doing that continually over the 7+ hour campaign seems very repetitive but lining up that perfect shot never is.
Sniper Elite VR brings Rebellion’s dependable design to headsets with refreshed energy and a few new tricks. More in our Sniper Elite VR review.
The Gewehr 43 is Sniper Elite VR’s worst-best weapon. On PC and Quest at least, most of the game’s arsenal of long-range skull shatterers require routine: load the clip, pull the bolt, line the sights and squeeze the trigger. Then –unless you’ve got the gestures down to a tee — bring the rifle back down to load once more. This isn’t an animation, this isn’t a button press, it’s your physical actions.
But the Gewehr’s ability to unload multiple rounds without interruption makes it an attractive alternative to all of that exhausting manual labor. It also makes you sloppy, tempting you to pull the trigger safe in the knowledge you can course-correct any mistakes with the next round a moment later. And so a game of lethal precision turns more into a round of bowling at a drunken birthday party; sometimes you’ll shoot straight, most of the time it’s going in the gutter, but you’ll get to the end all the same. It’s a dangerous reminder that, without Sniper Elite VR’s invigorating physicality, without the dependency on player skill and consistent performance, the game wouldn’t be all that memorable.
Thank god the thing only puts in an appearance in a handful of levels, then, because Rebellion’s long-running series — here co-developed by Just Add Water — feels wholly refreshed with any other rifle (or other firearm) in your hand.
Sniper Elite VR plays very much like a mid-tier console shooter: modest length (5+ hours depending on difficulty and skill), pleasing production and the usual gamut of mission types that you’d expect any campaign to cycle through. Throw in the WW2 backdrop and it’s essentially an exercise in nostalgia for a bygone era of console shooters. But, whereas alternating between sniper and infiltration missions (peppered in with a few action setpieces) might feel familiar with a gamepad, in VR it’s both a welcome step up from a lot of other shooter campaigns and even enhanced to some degree.
Sniper Elite VR Review – The Facts
What is it?: Rebellion’s WW2 shooter series, which mixes sniping, stealth and action, comes to VR. Platforms: Quest, PC VR, PSVR Release Date: Out now Price: $29.99
It’s the weapons that really shine. The game’s far from a simulation, automating some of the busy work behind reloading and aiming, but strikes a great balance between accessibility and maintaining some sense of authenticity. Along with bolt-action rifles, most guns in the game require some combination of removing and replacing a clip then pulling a charging handle or something to similar effect.
What first feels cumbersome soon becomes a process, one that instills a sense of urgency for each and every bullet you fire. Miss the mark in a sniper’s nest and you’re not only giving the game away, you’ll also have to fumble a reload under fire before getting your bearings through the scope once more. Charge into a Nazi bunker with guns blazing and, if you haven’t killed everyone by the end of your clip, they’ll likely tag you before you’ve fully restocked.
This, and the need for a steady hand for a straight shot, makes Sniper Elite VR a shooter that demands effort and attention, even if its guns don’t carry quite the same weight as, say, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Playing on the medium difficulty, I often found myself pinned down behind desks and rubble, swearing as I hurriedly tried to switch out clips and then training my eye to my sights as I risked leaning out for quick, controlled potshots. Machine guns convincingly rattle if you hold the trigger down for too long and a shotguns’ wide spray makes it great for instant return fire but a death sentence if you get caught needing to reload every individual shell in the middle of combat. It really helps underscore that you’re fighting in a different, more archaic era of weapons technology to a lot of other VR shooters.
Moreover, there’s an almost incidental degree of added realism that really works when it comes to the sniping. I was always aware, for example, of the minuscule movement my hand would make as I squeezed the Oculus Touch trigger and how that would impact my aim. Sniper Elite VR also doesn’t need that feature where you click in the stick to hold your breath because, guess what, you just hold your breath. In some senses, it genuinely does feel like the series has found a natural new home inside VR.
Not everything works. The melee combat is an obvious afterthought that sees enemies fall down with so much as a tap on the head. Its feather-light implementation stands in huge contrast to the otherwise weighty combat, but Rebellion and JAW still got a lot more right than they did wrong.
Sniper Elite VR Review – Pros And Cons With Using PSVR’s Aim Controller
If you’re thinking of picking up Sniper Elite VR on PSVR, you’re probably very interested in playing with the PSVR Aim controller. That is, after all, how the game was first shown off in 2019, and the rifle-shaped device makes perfect sense for a sniping game.
And it is indeed a lot of fun to play the game this way. Even though the Aim is smaller than an actual sniper rifle it still feels convincing in your hand, and machine guns and shotguns are brilliantly immersive with this option.
It’s not all good, though. If you’re using the Aim controller then the game has no way to track your hands, and thus automates basically all of the reload animations and other elements. So all of the excellent mechanations behind the game’s pacing are completely gone and the experience is actually far, far easier than if you’re using motion controls. The trade-off is that incredible feeling of holding a rifle, and you might well feel that’s worth it. Either way, you can also try playing with Move controllers too and finding the right fit for you.
And, yes, the campaign’s pacing is pretty routine by traditional gaming standards; you’ll sneak a bit and snipe a bit, maybe provide cover fire for an ally in one mission then defend a certain zone with them in the next. Sometimes you’re setting explosive charges, sometimes you’re clearing an area of all enemies.
But, here’s the thing, we could actually use a bit of routine in VR shooters right now. Sniper Elite VR might not have the impressive realism of a Boneworks, for example, and it won’t go down as a groundbreaking experience, but it is a game made with undeniable expertise. It knows how to pace a campaign, when to open up environments and how to make its enemies behave in combat. Its laundry list of FPS objectives might be unoriginal by flatsceen standards but, in VR, it also offers rare variety. It’s exactly what so many VR gamers repeatedly ask for; a fresh, story-driven campaign that isn’t just a disguised arena shooter or padded out with roguelite mechanics. You can, it seems, teach an old dog new tricks.
Stealth, for example, works really well here. That might be because there’s no real incentive to leave enemies untouched, so they usually end up dead before they can do anything too silly. But the lack of that clumsiness helps keep the experience grounded, and poking your head out from behind cover, scoring a headshot with a silenced pistol and then slowly weaving between desks to move on undetected works better here than in a lot of other stealth games. That said, objective markers and stealth indicators aren’t exactly complementary to an immersive VR experience and, to that end, you can entirely strip the UI should you so desire.
Less forgivable, though, is the campaign padding which is unashamedly cheap. There are a decent number of levels in the game and a decent chunk of them are even on impressively large maps, sometimes even with multiple routes to objectives (though there are some shorter, less dimensional missions too). But there’s also a handful of times you somewhat conveniently revisit past locations in missions that are more remixes than they are genuinely new. And in what feels like a knowing attempt to pad the experience out even further, campaign missions require you to gather a certain number of stars before unlocking them, which means you’ll almost certainly need to replay older missions over again once you’ve unlocked better starting weapons. My final playtime for the campaign was definitely over seven or so hours, but I’d estimate at least two hours of that was spent grinding those stars.
Sniper Elite VR Review – Final Impressions
Sniper Elite has always been a bit of a b-movie treat by normal gaming standards and, while that’s still true of Sniper Elite VR, some of the series’ staple elements are really enhanced by the platform. Aiming down the scope, steadying your sights and pulling the trigger before readying the next round is a calculated and convincing process with perfectly streamlined authenticity. Throw in a variety of other objective types across a decent-length campaign, including comprehensive stealth segments and brilliantly rustic street shootouts and you’ve got a VR FPS that will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of headset owners. It’s not the platform’s most groundbreaking shooter, but Sniper Elite VR is proof you can teach an old dog new tricks, and that’s more than enough.
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Sniper Elite VR is the first made-for-VR game in the long running franchise. True to its name, the game delivers satisfying sniper gameplay, including its signature x-ray kill cam. But beyond that, the war stories aren’t worth writing home about.
Sniper Elite VR Details:
Available On: Oculus Quest & Rift, Steam, PSVR
Price: $30
Developer: Rebellion, Just Add Water and Coatsink Publisher: Rebellion Release Date: July 8th, 2021 Reviewed On: Quest 2
Gameplay
Image courtesy Rebellion
Note: Because Quest video capture uses the right-eye view, my (left-eye) clips don’t show what it looks like to look through the scope.
Sniper Elite VR is the second major single-player WWII VR game to come to VR, not long after Respawn’s Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond (our review). The game centers around an Italian resistance fighter who is recounting his war stories.
First and foremost, Sniper Elite VR is, of course, about sniping. And to that end, the developers did a fine job of translating the feeling of the franchise’s signature sniping action into VR. Specifically, the game features perhaps the best looking and most usable sniper scopes that I’ve seen in any VR game to date. Combined with an essential ‘focus’ slow-motion feature which allows you to zoom in further for precise shots, the sniper rifles generally satisfy with just enough challenge to remain engaging.
The cherry on top for the game’s sniping is the franchise’s signature x-ray kill cam that occasionally gives you an up-close and inside look at exactly what parts of the enemy you just obliterated. Seeing bone and teeth flying after hitting an annoying enemy is gruesomely satisfying.
That being said, within the first level I had to turn down the frequency of the kill cam one or two notches to prevent it from happening too frequently that it became annoying. Props to the developers for making this an option.
Image courtesy Rebellion
So, the core sniping mechanics are pretty solid, but Sniper Elite VR unfortunately doesn’t create a particularly rich sandbox for you to play within. The game’s levels are immensely unforgettable due to the game’s inability to offer up more than a handful scenarios, leaving the game feeling like shooting gallery after shooting gallery. There’s some close-quarters combat sprinkled throughout, but the close-range weapons weren’t paid quite as much attention as the sniper rifles and end up lacking punch.
When it comes down to it, Sniper Elite VR shares a surprising number of flaws with its other WWII VR brethren, Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond. Specifically, the game lacks meaningful differentiation between weapons and enemies.
There’s four classes of weapon within the game, Sniper, Pistol, SMG, and Shotgun. Shotgun can basically be written off because they’re sluggish and get you too close to the game’s enemies (which kill you frustratingly fast at shotgun range). Pistols are largely useless as well, save a single silenced pistol that you get about 25% into the game, which makes it possible to kill enemies without alerting anyone nearby.
Image courtesy Rebellion
Then there are snipers and SMGs. Both are useful as a class of weapon, but I couldn’t find any meaningful difference from one sniper to another or one SMG to another. Among snipers, the only difference I could really see was that one of them had a six-bullet magazine while the others had five. With no discernable reason to pick one over the other, the six-bullet sniper was the obvious choice for the entire game… right up until I found the seven-bullet silenced sniper (which almost felt like a cheat because you can always shoot it without alerting anyone else).
Enemies have the same issue as the weapons… there’s practically no difference between them, no reason to prioritize one over the other, and no reason to change the weapons used against them. Once you’ve shot one guy in the head, you’ve basically seen it all.
The game tries to mix things up with the occasional armored vehicle, but they turn out to me more of a nuisance than an interesting challenge, as they are all taken out by shooting at the same weak points.
With solid sniping not backed up by unique weapons, enemies, or combat scenarios, Sniper Elite VR ultimately feels unmemorable, especially given its dull story. At just under six hours to complete the game, the gameplay felt like it had overstayed its welcome by the end.
Immersion
Sniper Elite VR does a few things well for immersion but a lot of things poorly. Ultimately it doesn’t create a deep sense of presence, but I was at least impressed with the graphical presentation on Quest 2, which struck me as surprisingly good and relatively uncompromising, while maintaining seemingly perfect performance.
Gun handling is reasonably detailed. All guns are manually reloaded (this can be optionally disabled in the options), which involves placing a magazine into the gun and racking the charging handle. Things can feel a bit wonky at times with hand and grip poses on many guns that don’t seem to line up to the controller’s handle very well.
The game uses a holster system that has six weapon slots: two over-shoulder, two chest, and two hip. There’s also an ammo pouch and two grenade slots around the waist. From my time playing the game, I felt the holster system had too many slots, making it easy to misplace an item because it got put in the wrong slot, or accidentally replace one item for another, causing the first to drop to the ground. At a minimum, the over-shoulder slots felt very reliable, which is good because that’s where your primary weapons are.
While gun handling is decent, world interaction feels like a complete afterthought in Sniper Elite VR. The game’s idea of interacting with most objects is to reach your hand near them and pull the grip while watching a circle fill up and then something happens.
Beyond that, you’ll quickly learn that almost none of the objects scattered around the environment are interactive in any way, save for ammo boxes and explosive barrels.
Sniper Elite VR makes an attempt at a Half-Life: Alyx ‘select and pull’ method of force-grabbing objects, though it comes off as being far less polished. Object selection is hit-or-miss, with the system sporadically leaping between objects as a result of minor hand movements.
On top of that, the game almost seems to prefer force grab over directly reaching out toward objects, as it doesn’t make it particularly easy to do without gripping the precise interaction points.
I appreciate the game’s attempt at an immersive menu. Unfortunately it comes off a bit half-baked, with too much reliance on blatant HUD elements, and a mixture of immersive and non-immersive interactions (ie: page turning vs. ‘hold grip to start level’).
On its default settings, the game’s HUD is a serious detractor from immersion. Expect to see white rings around anything that’s interactive, a kill log popping up after every single kill, floating score counters popping out of dispatched enemies, text-based ammo counters, and a big red icon to show when a grenade is armed. Fortunately there’s a HUD option which lets you tone this down a few levels, or turn it off entirely. While I would have liked to turn it off entirely, it quickly becomes clear that the obnoxious HUD is there for usability reasons—reasons which have immersive solutions, but not in this game.
Also harkening back to Medal of Honor: Above & Beyond, a major flaw is Sniper Elite VR’s pace-destroying level structure. There you are, a soldier going through harrowing war scenarios, only to reach the end of a segment and see a ‘Mission Complete!’ screen pop up to give you a bunch of stats and a score before ejecting you back to a menu. This destroys any sense of tension or mood that the game’s story was attempting to build.
Speaking of the story… it’s an entirely forgettable affair—I honestly don’t know the main character’s name (maybe they never told me what it was?). It presents itself as a serious war story, but the game ultimately feels like a series of ‘go there, do that’ prompts, in which you’d have no idea what you were doing on a given level if you weren’t guided step by step.
Comfort
Image courtesy Rebellion
I found Sniper Elite VR to be entirely comfortable throughout, and was easily able to play for more than an hour continuously while using free movement with no blinders. I don’t recall a single point in the game that made my stomach lurch.
While the game offers a wide range of comfort options, the teleport implementation is so painfully slow that I simply couldn’t recommend the game to a player who can only play with teleport.
In my review copy of the game there seems to be a bug with height calibration which would constantly make me too tall, by an order of feet. I had to make regular use of the height recalibration which, oddly enough, seemed to make me taller when I crouched down low and strangely shorter when I stood up high.
The game’s holster belt could be a little annoying to reach at times when it didn’t want to track correctly, often rotating away from you when you wanted to look down to find a grenade to grab or to check the ammo counters on the ammo pouch.
