Apex Construct

Very early impressions here: Pros: -It's a game, not Early Access, not an "experience, etc. It feels like a full VR game. Want VR to survive? Support these! -Looks beautiful, and so far, the voiceovers are professional quality. -A nice balance of light puzzles, and action (I'm early yet, though so this could change, and I'm personally hoping the action ramps up). It is NOT a wave shooter. It's a fully realized world to explore with branching paths and lots of secrets. - Teleport is the usual "leaping" spell we all know, and works beautifully, bound to the left thumbpads up section. The world has 3 dimensions, sometimes requiring you to "leap" up, or down to advance. Cons: -There is only limited "full locomotion." You push down on the left thumbpad and CRAWL towards wherever the wand is pointing. That's it. No strafing, no head directed option, no speed option. For those of us with our VR legs firmly on, titles are still forcing us to take baby steps. -For a bow based game, no bow mechanic customization. QuiVR had me tinkering for 45 minutes till I was satisfied with the "feel" of my weapon. This game has a great shield mechanic attached to the offhand trigger, but the actual draw length, and offsets (which both QuiVR, and Sairento let you tinker with) seem to be take it or leave it. There are upgrades you can buy but they seem to be a standard skill tree of powers. -Opening is a slow burn, not necessarily bad, but you'll need patience to get going. Overall: I'm pleased with my purchase, and recommend it. Updates may follow.

[h1] Experienced on Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers [/h1] One of the best things about Apex Construct is all the options available so you can choose how you want to experience the game. You can choose to teleport or you can choose joystick locomotion (free locomotion). You can choose to play seated or standing. You can choose snap turning or smooth turning. You can even decide if you want a vignette or not during turning. You can choose what graphics settings you want. I played the entire game seated (with a front 2 sensor setup). I probably would choose to play standing if I had to do it all over again and set my sensors for roomscale setup. I did experience some added frustration and difficulty by not having a roomscale setup. You need to quickly aim & move in all directions while on the move. I thought the graphics & art style looked great. The game ran smoothly for me on my i7, 1060 GTX, 16 GB RAM setup. There are loading screens at the beginning of each level And if you use free locomotion, you can easily get behind objects and make your HMD go black, you simply need to go back to the intended play area. I did notice some pathing issues when using free locomotion and had to use teleportation at various times. In fact, for several fights you will need to teleport to make the fight easier. Now there is a checkpoint system so that you don't have to start all the way at the beginning, but you will start at the beginning of the fight encounter. And you will lose your RP (point system to level up) if you die. I did enjoy the combat, even if some of the encounters felt drawn out. The bow & arrow felt good and you can easily fire off several arrows in a row. However, at times you will need to be precise with your aim. By the end of the game, I was picking off moving targets easily. However, there is this game mechanic that makes combat cumbersome / frustrating at times. You have to quickly change types of arrow while dodging, then aim quickly, then change back to the original type of arrow. I was never able to find a way to do this quite fast enough without making myself vulnerable, especially when cover wasn't readily available. It added a layer of difficulty. And I died several times. And it was frustrating to have to play the encounter over again and with the penalty of losing my RP. I enjoyed the exploration and some of puzzle elements. The map is a decent size and had enough variety. There were lots of little details included to make this feel like a fully realized world. However, my main problem with the game is that you're soon retreading over areas you've previously explored. This does take a lot of fun out of the game. Especially since it happens so soon in the game. And most of the puzzles are simply finding codes to open doors or finding the key or the object needed to progress. Those kind of puzzles are just not fun for me. Not all puzzles were like that. There were a few that I enjoyed. But the vast majority of them was just opening enough lockers or looking through enough notepads strewn about the world to find what you need. I really liked that there were electric arrows and exploding arrows. And the way you could use them outside of combat as well. However, that was pretty much all the variety there was. Even the grenades weren't really that useful because of the small inventory. The game really needed at least one more variety of arrow (fire or ice perhaps). The story was okay. It ends abruptly with more questions than answers. You're mostly listening to Father tell you what to do and giving you his side of what's going on. The rest of the story is told by the notes left behind or by the text programs in the computer terminals. I spent almost 8 hours to finish the game. However, I think the game is only 5 hours long. I had some tracking issues which prolonged my playthrough, unfortunately (2 sensor setup). There were 2 boss fights. However, the boss fights were the same boss. The good news is that the boss fights were different enough. The real difficulty is the countless waves that come at you at certain points in the game. They almost feel like endless waves. You just have to avoid damage. You can get upgrades. I upgraded several things including the number of special arrows you can use, your damage, and your health, etc. However, you don't get any special skills. You can purchase health drinks and grenades/sticky bombs. I had fun. However, the game didn't feel epic and there really is no replay value. I definitely don't agree with 5 out 5 stars by VRFocus. This is not one of the better VR games out there. The puzzles, combat, and story all could have been better. It's still good though. I do recommend as it has enough fun elements for the listed price. Just don't expect GOYT VR. Rate 7/10.

Absolutely beautiful world, so far interesting enough story (not that picky), tons of bugs and almost good mechanisms. After several hours, I'm still unsure if I can use the shield before firing a currently loaded arrow as it seems totally inconsistent at best. Having to put down my shield to OPEN A MENU to change arrow types is ridiculous. The teleporting movement is incredibly picky, often taking multiple tries to move to a location. I had to google basic things like "how to use health can." Turns out I was doing it right... when the game was restarted this magically started working. Within the first few missions, I've encountered inifinite loading screens requiring a hard shut off of the game. Changing various settings around locomotion seem to have no affect at all, while rotation is frustratingly slow. While I definitely want to play/love this game (was on my radar well before I had a VR headset), I would refund it if I weren't already over 2 hrs of gameplay, as poorly implemented/tested mechanics should not be rewarded. It's not as though this game is in early access - it's just poorly made in terms of gameplay (why would I want to hunt and peck type with VR hands and no tactile feedback??? Seriously, would be a better game without the terminals.) Artwork: 11/10. Gameplay: wtf/10, did you even play it before releasing it (coming from a guy who loves the free longbow game from The Lab, which I'm literally going to play instead of this right now.)

I was really looking forward to this as I love Vr archery and puzzles, however drawing the arrow to my cheek places the fletchings in my eye. My aim is totally screwed up from other titles. Not pleased there are no options to change this or fix it, I have to draw my right hand to my right shoulder and twist my wrist to fully draw the bow and anything less is like tossing a bad paper airplane as far as arc and arrow speed. Additionally holding any clipboard is unnatural as I have to bend my wrist to it's limit to angle it so i can read the words. This leads me to believe that the game is not optimized for the vive controller angles or positions. I can't reccomend a game with problems like this when it is almost COMPLETELY based on this mechanic.

[h1]Apex Construct[/h1] Jogo ótimo em realidade virtual, com uma gameplay de arco e flecha, mas o diferencial desse em relação a outros jogos que usamos arco, é que esse vem com uma história até que bastante interessante, que pelo menos no meu caso me manteve bastante interessado na lore através não só de diálogos, mas também de alguns textos que você encontra enquanto avança. Infelizmente a parte negativa foi justamente na história que pecou bastante no final, não sei se eu tava com expectativa alta, mas eu achava que iria caminhar pra algum plot twist ou algo do tipo, mas me enganei completamente, mas apesar disso claro gostei da história, só teve esse final sem graça que não gostei.

Pros: • 6 hour single player story campaign • Excellent bow mechanics • satisfying combat • great sense of exploration • ability to upgrade weapons • VR specific interactions- drawers, levers, etc • bonus shooting gallery Cons: • cringy voice work • only 1 boss • only 1 enemy type (for 95% of the game) • too much back tracking • confusing story progression • bugs; keycards can disappear into geometry leaving you unable to progress • worst ending ever Definitely worth picking up on a deep sale

This game has a lot going for it, if you overlook the movement issues. Story seemed solid even though it really didn't affect my choices or strategies. The bow mechanics are solid and fun, even though switching arrows was difficult when in a large battle, but just takes practice. PROS: *Works well with Index. *Great battle experiences to keep you on your toes. *Would like to see more games like this in future. CONS: *Walking sometimes proves difficult. I prefer the free walking type but I would find myself getting stuck at corners and especially the stair up and down. Makes for a frustrating time when you really need to get away from enemies, *Sometimes you will get stuck in the floor and need to use the jump to mechanic to move. *The ending is really dumb. You just end with a little dialog. No big climax and explanation. Feels like they had a great ending but couldn't quite get it in the final product. *Gripping and holding items can be tough. Especially when you have something that needs to be carried far away and it disables your turning. But you can always store items in inventory (if you have room) to help in traversing the levels. *When replaying an area, which they make you do often, I don't like that you have to remember all the door codes and enter them again. They should just leave open any door that you have already opened. *At one point in the game, you will know the area when you get there, they introduce a process you need to get to a certain area, but it is not explained well and is never something you had to do before. Had to check a guide for it.