AUDICA: Rhythm Shooter

Purchased in 2020, sat in my backlog until finally trying it in 2024... I've been such a fool! Great game! Nice graphics, fun gameplay that really picks up as you increase the difficulty (Beginner is good for learning, but a bit slow and boring between targets) ... This game is well deserving of a spot in my rotation next to other VR rhythm giants. Bonus: There's not a ton of fast arm extensions, so I can put my wrist weights on and get yoked while blasting away.

I love this game. I wish there was a coop mode and that there were more songs available.

este juego me encanta esta muy divertido

Definitely worth grabbing, this one! This game is so much fun. Any bad reviews I've seen are because the player doesn't want to take the time to learn the game's visual language and is unwilling to admit that they're not naturally good at it. This takes practice like anything else. I started out really bad, having never played anything quite like a rhythm shooter game before, but now I'm getting decent scores on Expert with most songs. Yeah, some songs are especially wild but like, I find the majority of the game is approachable and fun, and some maps make you feel especially badass the way they make you move and shoot. It's just such a good time. Maybe grab this one on sale, especially if you need a fun cooldown game for your longer Beat Saber and Synth Riders sessions ;) Honestly the only downside is that to my knowledge this one isn't getting updates really :( I'd love to give them more of my money for more songs!

It's almost like a more advanced version of beat saber. It's really fun!

A fun little VR game with guns. The overall concept gets bland after awhile though.

Criminally underrated VR rhythm shooter. I like a lot of the OST. The mechanics flow together well and take advantage of VR well. If you're a rhythm game fan I think you'll find the higher difficulty levels very enjoyable, but be aware they are definitely notable jumps in difficulty (I believe Beginner and Standard difficulties don't even use all of the mechanics). It just feels awesome being able to accurately shoot the targets that appear everywhere and do it to the beat. I think the higher difficulty levels in this game are a bit more interesting/engaging than Beat Saber, and it even reminds me of drumming a little bit in the sense that you will have to develop a level of independence between your hands. One other thing I like about this one over Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, two games I would consider the best VR rhythm games, is that I can play it for an extended period without drenching myself in sweat (although there's certainly nothing wrong with a little sweat!) Now, a big huge disclaimer is that the devs have abandoned this game and online leaderboards do not work anymore. If these are important factors to you then I cannot recommend you purchase this game. However, if these are not that important to you, definitely give it a try. The only other downsides I can see in the game are that the environments are not as dynamic as they are in most other VR rhythm games, although one could say that may be distracting, and that the song selection UI is a little too lacking in information in my opinion. Other than that, there are a few mods, including one that lets you download songs in game, a nice modding discord, and a nice amount of custom songs by the community. If you like rhythm games, you'll definitely have a good time with this one.

Recently got a Quest 3, which had me returning to hits from my old VR library. AUDICA is one of those old hits, and still tragically underrated. When this originally released, Beat Saber was already soaking up all the spotlight for VR rhythm gaming. And this I guess flew under the radar. It's sad to see support for Audica has dropped off... The funny thing is though, I've never really bothered looking into mods or custom songs for this. The base game is solid as-is, with songs I actually like. Meanwhile, I find custom songs basically essential to enjoy Beat Saber, with more misses than hits in the base game soundtrack. Not so with AUDICA. As for the game itself, you have two guns which you use to shoot at flying targets to the beat. Sounds pretty simple. The game has a lot of tricks up its sleeve to make that simple concept progressively more challenging, though, without just throwing more targets at you. Aside from the base music I enjoy more, it's this part in particular that I think Audica beats Beat Saber best. Just like most VR titles, the price is maybe a bit steep for what it is, but I still recommend it.

Good stuff

This is a good game, pretty much the beat sword game, but with guns. However, their limited song list is a downer (even with the DLC songs). I'd like to see a bunch more songs and genres of music. Wasn't going to pick it back up because of the few songs I liked, but decided to search for a third-party community. There is one! It's limited, because it's not as popular as the beat sword game, but players have uploaded custom maps/songs. That was the saving grace for me. There's also a tool I found online to create custom maps for Audica- not that I'll be putting in the work, but it's nice to know it exists.