ASTRONEST VR

Completion of Game Review Note: All comments listed in original review still apply, but am updating because I finally got past Mission 4. - I think Mission 4 finally got conquered because I chose the right combo of guns,missiles, and ship. This 'right combo' was stumbled upon by chance, and not through any objective process I could relate. - Missions 5 through 15 are pretty much like the comments I made for Missions 1-3; dying was rarely a concern, and any missile turrets were great to look at as they rushed touwards me, but rarely hit me. - What i do have to say about the overall missions is that they have a potentially enormous scope (kind of like mini-snipettes of some great space battles), but are noticeably hampered by various factors like: graphics, lack of fine ship controls (compared to Eve Valkyrie, for example), non-too-bright enemy intelligence, and lack of game optimization (e.g., having Microsoft Edge up and running during this game hampered my frame rate; when I closed Edge, the frame rate got smoother). I desperately want to give this a thumbs up because of its potential, but feel I would be misleading those gamers reading this review, if I did. As stated before, this game needs more time in the oven, but I feel there is something here, that if nutured, could become something much greater. ==================================================================== An Interesting Premise, But Needs More Time in the Oven (through Mission 4) Playing on a Rift with Touch Controls. PC is a i7-8700, 16GB RAM, GTX 1070Ti. User Interface: - Very Basic. - Options are for turning the music on/off only. Nothing else. - Default music level is too high, but no option to turn it down. - Default controllers shown seem to be for WMR only, but translates decently to Touch controls. Need to make it more clear that pressing on the right stick advances you through the game control screens before launching the level. Controls: - You aim by looking with the HMD. - Left joystick only gives you up/down and a general left/right movement with some slight banking capability. There is no option to invert the up/down direction (one is desperately needed). - Right joystick does nothing; no speed control; no roll capability; nothing. - The flight control is almost criminally basic, and would benefit greatly (in my opinion) from having yaw, roll, and manual speed adjustment. - The Boost feature is tied to the left grip trigger, and last for approximately 5 seconds before it is depleted. Cockpit: - Way off scale. Beautiiful looking cockpit, but scaled to a point where I literally felt an 8-year old trying to drive an 18-wheeler. Frequently immersion breaking. Graphics: - A mixture of basic textures with some more detailed renderings elsewhere. For example, some of the bigger ships have textures similiar to the Nintendo 64, but other ships could be rendered quite decently with some nice detail. - On one level in particular (Mission 3), there was such a level of pop-in in the background that I literally waited until it finished loading before doing anything. - For Mission 4, you are pretty much on rails, so the level of graphic detail was much nicer. Gameplay: - Basic shoot and destroy. Destroy enough and the mission is over, but there is a time limit as well. - Difficulty for the 1st 3 levels was minimal. You would have had to gone out of your way to die. Mission 4 is another story. - Crashing into anything gives you a type of 'red smear' across your cockpit windows, no explosion or damage I was aware of. There are apparently limits to how far you can fly away in a level, because then you explode. - Enemy ships have red exhaust trails , and friendly have blue. Nice touch. - All friendly and enemy ships seems to stay in one section of the level. Fly outside of that zone, and nothing will happen to you. Level Design: - Missions 1 & 2 reminded me so much of the planetside mission from Eve Valkryie , I nearly did a double take. There are differences, but the overall feel and layout was like a blast form the past. Mission 1 is a basic shoot-up in a snow-moutntain surrounded city, surrounded by some huge ships that seem to sit there. Mission 2 is almost the same, but instead you get to attack a defenseless ship. Mission 3 has a Death-Star surface attack feel to it, but is also a 'shoot X enemies in y seconds'. Mission 4 is interesting as it is like Mission 3, but with flying inside the Death Star. However, you take the role of a tail gunner in this level (so you are shooting from the rear), hence my 'on rails' comparison. Here I seem to be getting consistently killed once inside the Death Star-like structure; at some point my shots don't seem to be causing any damage to the enemy ships (I just might stink at aiming on this level, but Missions 1-3 seemed so easy). Mission 4, despite the issues I am having with it, has been the most fun. For the game in its current state, the $10 tag seems steep. With some better flight controls, tougher enemies, and more threatening fleet ships (the kind that can fire at you and cause damage), this game could be better. As it is, I cannot give the game a 'thumbs up' recommendation, but I do see potential in it becoming a better game (based on what I would like to see changed).