[b]Feel free to continue reading, or check out my video review[/b]
https://youtu.be/FzYufwE4dDo
[b]The Good Stuff[/b]
I'm going to be honest.. in Crystal Raiders, there aren't many good things, but we will do our best to talk about them.
You can play solo, or group with up to 4 players in co-op, but if you want to play with others, make sure to have people already available to play with, because I haven't found a single person in matchmaking during my time playing. This game might have been more fun if I had someone else to play with, but I was left playing solo, so keep that in mind during this review.
The objective in Crystal Raiders VR is to make your way through each raid by solving puzzles, navigating obstacles, and fighting enemies, while collecting coins and crystals along the way. These currencies which you collect are used for purchasing weapon upgrades and cosmetics, and leveling up your character will allow you to unlock more purchasable items.
The controls are pretty straightforward, and laid out as you'd expect with this style of game. You use the thumbsticks to move and turn, grip functions to pick up and hold weapons and objects, and triggers to shoot.
You can fight enemies with a gun, bow and arrow, or hammer - and there's also grenades as well. Each weapon-type can be upgraded with runes that will alter the way they deal damage. There's everything from explosive runes that explode on impact, to frost runes which will slow enemies down.
You can also upgrade your character itself with things like increased health, increased run speed, or increasing the damage of your weapons.
These upgrades can be done at the end of each raid, or outside of the raid in the town.
There are some variations to enemy types, and there are bosses on some levels which are pretty cool^, with their own unique mechanics.
The artstyle is great, and I really like the aesthetics. Modified weapons will keep things interesting as you progress in levels, but the weapons themselves feel lackluster, and this brings me to the bad stuff.
[b]The Bad Stuff[/b]
Simply put, the game feels incomplete and should be listed as an early access title. There's female characters to play as, but there aren't any feminine hair options to start with - you can purchase more hair styles via upgrades, but this doesn't make much sense when the only initial hair style for a female character is a boyish haircut which is the same one used for male characters. You have a bow and arrows, but you cannot shoot through gates, which doesn't add anything to keep things immersive. Enemies are extremely dull, and don't add any excitement to the raids when fighting them because their movement is predictable, and to be honest, quite annoying if anything - there just isn't enough variety here.
The sound effects are overly simplified, and not immersive to say the least. I tried using smooth turning, but even at max turning speeds it was way too slow. In a game where there are multiple enemies rushing towards you, you need to have the ability to turn quickly. This forced me to use snap turning since it was quicker. However, with snap turning, the devs thought it was a good idea to add a sound effect to it, which means you hear an annoying sound each time you turn.
I will never understand these decisions which were made during the games development... I don't expect much from indie devs, because I understand they are on a limited budget, but some of the design choices made in Crystal Raiders VR are questionable.
Shooting the bow with the Index Controllers didn't feel good because the arrow doesn't go where I point it. I understand this can be a challenge to calibrate for everyone, but games like Elven Assassin and even The Lab's archery chamber felt much better. Adding a calibration tool would solve this issue.
Melee weapons felt silly, with zero weight and not enough of a punch to make it feel impactful to convince me I was hitting something. It felt like I was swinging around one of those balloon hammers you can get at the fair. That being said, shooting the guns felt good, but it wasn't a groundbreaking experience... they just felt ok. You also never have to reload the guns, and this isn't bad, but I think it's worth mentioning that there are not any reload mechanics in this game.
Weapons and objects you carry in your hand are a challenge to let go of with Index Controllers, and incredibly inconsistent. I've watched other reviewers who had the same issue when reviewing this game half a year ago, so improvements have yet to be made here.
This leaves me with the fact that there are zero comfort options for anyone who gets motion sickness from smooth locomotion. This means there are not any teleport options or even vignetting settings for movement.
Not only is Crystal Raiders VR limiting itself to PCVR players only, but it's further limiting its audience by forcing smooth locomotion, without any comfort options. I'd understand if they were going for a groundbreaking experience where teleport movement doesn't make sense, like Boneworks, but Crystal Raiders VR is a co-op arcade-style shooter, and they definitely missed the mark, which left the game dead in the water.
[b]Is It Worth It?[/b]
To put it simply, no... If you have money to throw away on VR games, then go for it. Otherwise, your money will be better spent on more polished VR titles, which have more substance.
While Crystal Raiders VR has a great game philosophy, it's clear that the devs lost focus during development, only to release an incomplete and quite disappointing VR title with some of the worst audio design I've heard in a game.
The devs were kind enough to send me a copy to review, but I have to question why they reached out to anyone to review their game in its current state. It's obviously incomplete, that anyone reviewing it who says it's a great game is not to be trusted. There are far better VR games to spend your hard earned money on, so until they make some serious changes, I don't think Crystal Raiders VR is worth it.
